Mitriel Faywood

I’m incredibly grateful to Karrah and Shawn for creating such a wonder for my book. Karrah graciously took the time to read a large portion of the manuscript to gain a good understanding of the characters before starting to show me her ideas. The end result is both fitting and captivating.

Shawn also put a lot of effort into trying to understand what vibe I was after and come up with something that went well with the artwork, too. What he eventually created blew my mind. He’s one of the very best designers out there, a master of his craft, whose creativity and skill shines through his work.

I’m very lucky to have such a talented and dedicated team supporting me and hope readers will share my delight in this cover.

The first review is already up on Goodreads. Mark Lawrence rated the book 5 stars and wrote:

“A Gamble of Gods is a difficult book to describe succinctly, since I don’t know of a similar novel. It moves very definitely through fantasy and science fiction, mixing the two before your eyes. It’s an exuberant story that invites film analogies rather than book ones. There are definitely shades of Mission Impossible and Star Wars, along with maybe Tomb Raider and The Mummy. It also has a strong romance thread. So: an unusual beast with something for everyone.

I watched this book grow from chapter 1. The author has been my beta reader for the great majority of my books, proving to have great insights and advice. I’ve done my best to encourage her own endeavours in the field. So, I’ve beta read this book from page 1, long before it had a title. I’ve witnessed Faywood grow as a writer, and go back to apply those newly acquired skills to improve the earlier chapters even as she wrote the latter ones. All this in a language she wasn’t born to. A very impressive feat!

Let’s move on to the meat of the book:

There are three main point of view characters, all in the first person, which is again an unusual approach but one I’ve seen work well before and that works well here. It forms a close bond between the reader and each character in turn.

The three leads are from three very different worlds, one far future on a colonised planet, one on Earth (London to be more precise) just a decade or two from now, and one on yet another world, but this one pre-industrial. We have a university scholar, a stressed office worker, and a renowned explorer/thief of magical artefacts.

Our three threads start separately and begin to entangle, being woven into the tapestry of a much larger story and an older conflict.

Faywood brings these disparate scenes to life very well, with excellent descriptions of high-tech paradises, parties in near future London, and the bustle of near-medieval city streets. The developing relations between scholar, clerk, and thief are complicated and well-drawn.

Expect an exciting ride, whether it’s vicious murderers being chased down by killer robots, sword fights atop carriages rattling along at full gallop, or unholy monsters being battled in the dungeon depths. It’s not all thrills and spills, and when the book is not charging along at 100 mph, there’s plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, even to become emotionally involved with the characters and to feel for their plight when the story takes darker turns.

The story draws you into a complex plot that is nicely resolved whilst leaving plenty of potential for more tales to come.

It’s an exciting, imaginative, and well-written debut that feels different to the kinds of story I’ve read before. If my description interests you, then I strongly encourage you to give it a go.”