Shadow of the Wicked is a high fantasy world published as a novella. While it is potentially the start of a fantasy world, it is the first published, which honestly left me a bit confused. As a reader, you are thrown right into the world where there are two twin brothers. One that wields a sword and is out to rid the world of magic. The other is a magic user. As a novella, there is only so much world-building that could be done. At times I thought I was missing out on a whole book of backstory that was summarized really quickly. This made sense to me, but alas, no such book exists. Hopefully, one will at some point because there is so much to this world yet to be discovered. 

 

This book is full of torture - the internal self-reflection type as well as the gory bodily type. It was really reminiscent of Mark Lawrence’s early work. If you enjoyed that, then I think you will really enjoy this novella. The writing is solid - although by nature of being a novella, some parts were not as flushed out as they could be. Also, I wish some concepts were not repeated as much as they were. 

 

I was not a huge fan of the female representation in the book. There were only two women - both wives of the men. Actually, there was one woman and a memory of a second woman. The representation was not problematic, but it also wasn’t great and conformed to stereotypes. Loose lips and all that. There was no other diversity in the book. 

 

I am not sure I would continue on with this world specifically, but when Smith writes a series with a bit more diverse, I will be all in to read it. I do think that many people will enjoy this story, though. If hyper-masculine fantasy is your thing - then absolutely check this out.