Strap on your Shields

Indie Book Gush - The Shieldbreaker Book Two: Holiest of Cities by Tom Schecter

Letting them kill you would be a waste. From now on, you answer to me.

-The Shieldbreaker Book Two: The Holiest of Cities by Thomas Clark Schecter

Red book, blue book, Tom’s books, fucking epic books! To say I was gagging for this one is an understatement. When Mr. Schecter asked if I would ARC this, I squealed and did a little dance with excitement.

I wanted to time it just right, so that I could be fresh reviewing it right before it launched here on Substack, and today is the day! You are so not ready for this.

He’d made it. Maybe they had all made it this time.

-The Shieldbreaker Book Two: The Holiest of Cities by Thomas Clark Schecter

If you’re new to the world of The Shieldbreaker (where the hell have you been?) Book One: The Last of the Etela introduces a bloody battlefield entrenched with history from both sides of a war. Kareva is the leader of the underdogs (the Hodrir), and scrapes together an army to stand up against the invading Pohyor. The story begins with the epilogue, which is a ballsy but effective move, then you’re just sent hurtling through the intense tale.

Book Two felt like coming home being in this world again, in the tentative aftermath of the events of Book One. The first half digs a lot deeper into the politics of how everything works, and the tensions amongst the people left behind. I absolutely ate this up, on the edge of my seat waiting for someone to snap. War is never pretty, and there is a lot of negative emotions rippling through these characters.

(It’s not all doom and gloom, though—there is a delightful steamy scene in which Tom manages to make the entire on-the-page smut ONE big-ass sentence. Divine stream-of-consciousness, gorgeous.)

“I think you could make just about anything work.”

-The Shieldbreaker Book Two: The Holiest of Cities by Thomas Clark Schecter
(Alakuz is such a BAMF I love him)

While I was definitely emotionally invested in the characters in the first book, this one hit even harder. Maybe it’s because as a sequel I’ve already gotten to know them beforehand, but I found that Holiest of Cities spends a lot more time inside of the agony. The first two-thirds is such a slow burn buildup of tension, rage, guilt, shame.

There’s a focus on Kareva’s descent into madness, which was introduced in the first one, but it’s so intensely human that it’s heartbreaking being along for his journey. There are so many things that are powerful about Tom’s writing, but the fact that he’s created this gritty dark fantasy world and made it so relatable at the same time is amazing. Kareva’s trauma and PTSD grounds his experience so much and makes him feel so damn real even in a setting so alien to contemporary me.

It fucking hurts. So many of these characters have been through the wringer, have had to make impossible decisions during times of grief. I found tears in my eyes multiple times in the second half. Noir doesn’t quite cover this. Pitch black. Ebony. Dark night of the soul. I felt suffocated in the weight of what the Hodrir had to face, punching the air and screaming for blood right alongside them.

He sees your face. He can tell you’re cursed. He can tell you’re completely out of your fucking mind.

-The Shieldbreaker Book Two: The Holiest of Cities by Thomas Clark Schecter

Tom is a master at gripping me by the lungs and dragging my quivering body through this world, fully immersing me in every scene, every character, every emotion. I felt like I’d been through the wringer by the time I was done.

You can start this epic tale today, serializing on Tom Schecter’s Substack. Go forth and make the gods proud.

He really was fucking mad, wasn’t he?

-The Shieldbreaker Book Two: The Holiest of Cities by Thomas Clark Schecter

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Also, if you want to come see the event of the season, we’re livestreaming on Saturday, January 10th at 8pm EST! A table read of Tom’s The Daughters of Vei, a prequel to the Shieldbreaker saga. I will be on camera, just this once, and gifting one of Emil Ottoman’s New Years Letters, so don’t fucking miss it!

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, click the button below. Even if you can’t contribute financially, sharing this as much as you can helps the cause.

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