BLURB
Isyr. Stronger, brighter, more beautiful than other metals. Once the most desirable thing in Ellasia, now it is priceless, the pure Isyrium needed to produce it mined to exhaustion. What’s left is controlled by the powerful mining syndicates, and such is the demand for their Isyrium that even kings do their bidding. Yet just as the beauty of Isyr hides a deadly secret, so too do the syndicates.
A terrifying enemy is spreading a plague across the land, a sickness that kills or transforms everything it touches. Unable to contain the outbreaks, the King of Lankara begs the aid of the disgraced former Duke of Agrathon, Alyas-Raine Sera, a man who has spent years fighting syndicate expansion and whose resentment over his exile makes him an unpredictable, dangerous ally in the power struggle between the rulers of Ellasia and the mining companies.
Attached to the envoy to recall the duke, the apprentice surgeon Brivar finds his skills and loyalty tested as his service to his new patron uncovers secrets about Isyr and the plague that link it to the mining of Isyrium – and threaten the life of the man it is his duty to safeguard.
In their own separate ways, Alyas and Brivar must take on the might of the syndicates and confront the greed, murder, betrayal and impossible choices of a crisis that has been decades in the making – and the price of their failure could be everyone and everything.
REVIEW
The Many Shades of Midnight is a stand-alone fantasy, which by itself makes it unique. With rich world-building, characters full of depth and rising tension from the first page, C.M. Debell doesn’t waste a word telling this magnificent story
Told primarily through the POVs of Brivar, an apprentice to become a healer, and Esar Cantell, the right hand man and foster brother of exiled Alyas, neither of them are who I would consider the main character of the story. These characters, and many more, revolve around Alyas and his journey. Called back by his brother, the King of Lankara, to help defend the kingdom from a mysterious and dangerous illness spreading, we watch through their eyes as Alyas reconciles with his betrayal as well the truth of a rising threat.
Using a secondary world to tell a story that reflects real world problems isn’t uncommon in the fantasy genre. TMSoM is very much an allegory of humans building a society on something that is precious and dangerous, not understanding the consequences. Very much a reflection of the dangers of nuclear waste, and an over reliance on fossil fuels that destroy the planet we live. Even with these very real themes, Debell never writes the story in a preachy way, as she allows the characters to be front and center.
Every character has a very distinct personality and believable motivations. I felt connected to all of them quickly and found myself rooting for them the entire story. Light on action, Debell writes the scenes of dialogue with an edge that makes the most heated arguments feel like a duel. When the dialogue isn’t enough and tensions boil over to violence, it is gripping and terrifying, written in a way that puts the reader in the battle with the characters every bloody step of the way.
The Many Shades of Midnight asks hard questions and offers even harder answers. No punches are pulled as the story comes to a bittersweet and satisfying ending. Full of tension, political intrigue, and characters you will hate to love and love to hate, C.M. Debell has written a fantastic stand-alone fantasy novel that left me with both closure and a want for more. This is a novel I will not soon forget and will think about for quite a while.
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