An Indie Review - The Way of Edan - Philip Chase

I want to start this by explaining that I feel like I'm one of the few people reading this book who wasn't aware of Philip Chase or his online presence prior to hearing about is book, and that I picked this book up on the strength of recommendations alone.

On doing my research and understanding Chase's prominence in the fantasy community I will admit I was dubious about wether the book would be worth the hype, and almost expected to be let down by the book. Was I let down by the book? Strap in for some more of my incoherent nonsense where I tell you all (a little bit) about it.

Two things immediately stood out for me in this book, those being strong characters and a carefully developed world. Each member of the main party has a distinct voice and interesting story, at no point did I find myself disliking a characters ARC or finding bits of story that I thought were filler. The world is vast, well developed and portrayed in a very cinematic way through Chase's writing. At multiple points in this book I found the writing had actually prompted me to think visually as opposed to with an internal monologue, I really felt as though I could see the towns, particularly Adanon, Caergilion and Kinsford.

Chase also spends a great deal of care to layer the lore of Eormandlond into the story, building his world with a depth, history and competence that is rare in modern fantasy.

The story is interesting and engaging. It is tropey, there's no denying that, but tropes done well are no bad thing and one thing that can certainly be said is that this book is done well. The pacing is a little slower than I prefer, and action scenes are few and far between until the latter stages of the book but please don't let that dissuade you from giving this a try as when Chase does finally get into his battle scenes they feel far more effective having not had endless amounts of token violence thrown at you in the build up.

My only criticisms, and they're minor and very personal to my own experience are that in the early stages of the book I found certain bits of writing that didn't quite pass the eye test and I found myself doubling back to re-read which did disrupt my flow ever so slightly. Also there were a couple of bits of the story that I wanted to see more of and felt had been a bit overlooked such as The Battle of Balnor Pass.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. The first book doesn't give too much away, its very much the early stages of something bigger, if Chase was a Burlesque Dancer then the Way of Edan is just a lone leg appearing from behind a large feathered fan to pique the interest, but it's obvious that Chase wrote this with intent and purpose and has set the stage beautifully for an epic trilogy.

To summarise, Chase has managed to achieve Tolkein-esque classic fantasy, with a modern voice and a brutal edge. I look forward to continuing in Eormenlond later this year.