The Sword of Salt and Smoke
No one escapes their past.
Kyrah, the daughter of a disgraced Royal Guard, was raised to fight and kill. It's all she knows how to do, and she's damn good at it. She knows how to tie a knot in a man's intestines before he bleeds out. What someone sounds like when they've had their throat cut out, but just won't die. She's also a wukodlak, a man-eating werewolf.
She's hired to kill a man named Gunerein, but the hunter becomes the hunted. The Order of the Golden Sword come after her, who just happen to hunt creatures like her. And they're damn good at it, too.
-Goodreads
Title: The Sword of Salt and Smoke
Series: Swords of Dominion
Author: N.C. Koussis
Page Count: 95
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Date Read: December 27th, 2024
Opening
I had the pleasure of reading The Sword of Mercy and Wrath by N.C. Koussis in the Spring of 2024 and loved it. I gave it a 4.5/5.0 rating and was itching for more from this author. I found out he had a novella available and wanted to get to it before book two. Unfortunately, it took me a bit of work and communication to get my hands on a copy of The Sword of Salt and Smoke but it was worth it.
Pacing
The pacing of this one worked well for me. It's really no surprise at this point. I used to be cautious yet optimistic with novellas but either I've been very lucky of the last couple of years or they are just being created well overall. As with other recent novella reads this one does an excellent job in giving us a good flow with a start, middle and ending to this story. That used to be my biggest concern whether authors had enough pages to tell a fully fleshed out story or not.
World Building
The world building was simply a great addition to what I've already read in book one. It just added that next layer of details to reinforce this world before I dive into book two. I couldn't ask for much more from a novella to be honest. This is still a very dark and gritty world presented to us and just the right amount of detail.
Character Development
The character development was nicely done. We certainly see growth or change for our protagonist Kyrah in this novella. This helps this story stand on its own even if you aren't familiar with the rest of the series. I have heard that this isn't the last we will hear of her as I move onto book two soon hopefully.
Closing
Even though I read this after reading book one, I don't think it would be too difficult for a reader to use The Sword of Salt and Smoke as a sample of the authors work even before diving into the rest of the series.
If you like your fantasy heavy on the dark side and includes some rather famous mythological creatures or magic, this book and series might be something you should check out.
Scoring
Pacing 4.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.0 / 5.0
Character Development 4.0 / 5.0
