The Sentinel by Troy Denning

The Sentinel by Troy DenningAnother exceptional book in The Sundering series, The Sentinel begins with a simple guardsman with a chip on his shoulder trying to do the best for his city and help the evacuation before it is overrun by the Shade. He stands out not because of anything magical or god related at first but simply because he is not corrupt in a city, and organization, founded on bribery. In that first moment, he’s torn between two objectives and the only way out is to bend enough to accept a bribe, not for himself but to use on his men. It’s desperate times and they most definitely call for desperate measures with the evacuation stalled by doomsday priests and Kleef having seen what he’s pretty sure is the first Shade operative in the city.

That’s just a taste of this book, which reads as a nonstop race impeded on all sides much like the best of the action film genre. If you’ve been reading my reviews, though, you’d know that’s not really the quality I look for in books: the non-stop action. However, check my first paragraph again and you’ll see what had me snagged.

First character, first event, and already he’s faced with a moral dilemma between principles which have gotten him in nothing but trouble his whole life, and his duty to the city and its people, the foundation of those same principles.

Despite the action, or in some ways because of it, this is a character story.

And what a cast of characters it is.

Beyond Kleef, whether I look to Arietta, a spoiled noblewoman who has taken on responsibility for her city when she sees all others of her class, her family especially, failing that duty, or Malik and Joelle, the two who drew the Shades into the city in the first place, I’m given interesting, complicated folks. They have the attention of gods, not always a good thing, and so a higher purpose that they believe in with all their hearts…though sometimes it’s fear rather than devotion that drives them.

Each has a different agenda that walks alongside the rest, but those agendas don’t always equate to good intentions toward the others. It’s a complicated tale where the definition of “bad guy” is fluid and questions of sacrifice become twisted around the greater need and willingness. The characters learn as much about themselves as the others, a pattern that offers a compelling read where the reader is asked to judge where to stand on these questions as well, giving the reader an ever shifting collection of heroes and villains all in the same four people.

P.S. I received this title from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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