Thorns of War
One breath. One jump. One death.
The Known World is in peril once again. Old grudges are made anew and settled only on the battlefield, with threads of smoke flowing in the air.
Gimlore saved her town and her family, and she has even learned that trusting people may not always be a bad thing. But with ancient powers stirring, her whole world is shaken again, and the pains of the past come back stronger than ever.
Rednow's retirement plan was successful but didn't last long. He is both in the eye of the storm, and the storm itself. Blessed or cursed by powers he wants to reject, he questions whether the faith everyone seems to deposit in him is even warranted. After all, he's still just an old man with bad lungs.
Orberesis blossoms under the tutelage of a new master and awakens ancient, forgotten arts. He rose from thief to the impersonator of a god, and now true divinity might just be well within his grasp.
-Goodreads
Title: Thorns of War
Series: The Smokesmiths #2
Author: João F. Silva
Page Count: 469
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Date Read: January 14th, 2025
Opening
I had the pleasure of reading the first book in this series Seeds of War by Joao Silva when it was an entry in the SPFBO competition. I loved it and have been wanting to get back to the series but Mt. TBR has been a struggle to climb. As the end of 2024 approached I was hearing some chatter about Seeds of War in the discussion for best read (rightfully so.) This lit a fire under me and I ended up knocking out both the short story and novella prequel as the year came to an end.
Thorns of War was placed on my January TBR and I'm so glad I got to it when I did. As much as I enjoyed book one, I think I liked book two even more. I would highly recommend reading at least the prequel Ruins of Smoke before diving into this. Understanding that history as it relates to the current story I felt really added to the connection I had here.
Pacing
The pacing within Thorns of War was nicely done. I felt this book read very smoothly as it didn't take me but a few days reading off and on to get through it. This could be party due to the fact of how much I enjoyed it and picked it up as often as I could. The version I read on my Kindle seemed very well polished without many editing errors that I noticed. There are a lot of characters which means a lot of character names which I had no troubles with either.
The last thing I'll mention as it relates to pacing is the reading environment or theme. Almost this entire read had me hanging onto just that tiniest bit of hope that the author continued to provide. There is a sense of dread from one moment to the next but we just barely seem to get through each moment. Again, this type of suspense made this quite the page turner for me.
World Building
The world development took another leap in book two. The world that was introduced to us in the first book continued to expand to new regions, atmosphere, races, cultures, religions and powers. On top of that Joao continues to paint pictures of this fantastic world in a way that I easily lose my self in.
Character Development
The character development of book two is simply insane. Without trying to give to much away in the form of spoilers we have some really good twists as it relates to some characters in Thorns of War and the growth of Gimlore, Keryone, Rednow, Solvi and so many other characters was quite impressive to me. I'm usually happy if we see this kind of growth from a single character let alone a cast of them. We had some really good new characters introduced in the second book as well.
Closing
In the end, if you like your fantasy on the darker side of things and haven't checked out this series yet, you really need to. If you already read book one, get your hands on Ruins of Smoke, get amped up and get Thorns of War added to your must read in 2025.
Scoring
Pacing 5.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 5.0 / 5.0
Character Development 5.0 / 5.0
