Book Review - A Ritual of Flesh (Lee C Conley)

A very enjoyable ARC, damn fine ebook and a cracker of an audiobook.

Book two takes up the story of book one, rams it down your throat and throws more fuel on the fire in the shape of new characters like Nym and Seth. Their storyarc fleshes out life for the common folk and makes for an interesting spread to the social structure beyond Lords, warriors and scholars as they all enter the mincer as the dead rise.

There's little not to like, in fact the worse thing for me is the cover as I think it undersells the story and I much preferred the cover to book 1 (sorry). The characters are plausible, events downright terrifying, or brutal and whatever the apprentice is morphing into begins as creepy, becomes eerie and is terrifying by the end. That and Seth's predicament is pretty grim.

The politics and squabbles all have their moments, as friction, infighting and the slow grasping of the doom of Arnar is pretty chilling before you get to the inevitable betrayals and fight for survival. Well written, damn well narrated and worth reading for the Dunkirk scene on the beach. That scene stole it for me with the Arc and carries through in print and audiobook.

Vikings, Zombies and dark magic are arguably the blackest stew and I suspect the banquet is just beginning, which I'm hugely looking forward too, when the dead are brought forward again.

Apologies on the belated review.