A Gamble of Gods (The Order of the Dragon #1), by Mitriel Faywood
The Book
Synopsis:
"Life used to be good. I had money. I had fame. I had respect. The same thrill during work every day. A different woman in my bed every night. Best fighter to hire for dangerous jobs. Most famous thief in the Nineteen Kingdoms. Half the world sought my services when they needed the impossible done. The other half wanted to sleep with me.
Then one day this strange guy showed up with his even stranger pet, the latter a bit of a gift horse by all accounts, and turned it all upside down. They claimed to have come to save my life, and while they were at it, I got them to help out with the most important quest of my existence: finding the Supreme Key of the Dragon. Needless to say, none of it turned out quite how I expected. But we had fun, even if it was hell sometimes. In the end, what we found was worth it all.
My name is Conor Drew, the Gods destined me for great things.
But I turned them down."
My Review (4.5 out of 5 )
Pitched as Mission Impossible for fantasy readers, A Gamble of Gods is an ambitious debut novel, which blends science fiction, fantasy, and adventure, marking the start of The Order of the Dragon series, by Mitriel Faywood, one of the SPFBO9 entrants. A character-driven story, told from the perspective of our three MCs, which makes a fun adventure with high stakes, and some romance.
The first of our POVs is Kristian, a professor from a futuristic university, who gets forced to be on the run after an assassin starts targetting him. And Faywood, when introducing this character, sets perfectly the adventurous tone we can expect from the novel, with a character whose idea of life was the exact opposite of what he's going to live.
The second one is Connor Drew, a thief-for-hire, who spends most of his time stealing valuable artifacts for dukes and kings of his world; a sort of Casanova living in a land where magic is the norm, instead of the exception.
And our final POV is Selena Soto, a woman from the Earth in the year 2037. She's feeling unwell, but doctors can't really diagnose her; she cannot imagine that all will end leading her to the adventure of her life.
The three characters are somehow related to a mysterious order, the Order of the Dragon, which will throw them into a mission that will put them in danger, but at the same time, will shake down all their beliefs.
With this premise, we have a really entertaining plot, full of action, which takes us to explore the different worlds that are part of this shared universe, having the opportunity to see how these characters behave in situations that are unfamiliar to them. As there are several worlds we explore, different between them, it's difficult to ascribe this book to a concrete genre, because some of them have elements that are clearly fantasy, while others (for example Kristian's) are clearly in the territory of science fiction.
The pacing lands in an excellent spot, not being excessively fast despite the several action scenes that are packed into this book. Building those characters take time, so sometimes we are given a breath in between more tense scenes.
Probably, the only aspect that I didn't really like was how romance was established among some of our characters. It was frustrating at some points, but overall, it's a minor gripe for me.
A Gamble of Gods is an excellent debut novel, which sets pretty much a world that I hope we continue exploring in subsequent adventures with this group of characters. Faywood has proven her skill as a competent novelist, and I can't wait to see her next books!
The Author/s
Mitriel Faywood
Mitriel Faywood was taught to read by her great-grandmother, using fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hungarian folklore, turning her into an avid reader by the age of five. Some of her early favourites included J. R. R. Tolkien, Alexandre Dumas, Arthur Conan Doyle and Stephen King.
Despite showing a considerable talent for writing as a teenager and being tipped to become an author by some of her teachers, she gave up on the craft early on and thought she’d never write again. That was until a twist of fate led her to become the beta-reader of her favourite author, Mark Lawrence, in 2014, who re-ignited her love of stories and her interest in telling them.
Mitriel Faywood lives in London, where she works in the music industry. A Gamble Of Gods is her first book.