I received a free copy of this book from Pan Macmillan in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a spin-off to The Faithful and the Fallen series by Joh Gwynne which is set in the Banished Lands and follows the armies of Elyon and Asroth, forces of good and evil, battle for power. I strongly suggest people read TF&TF before reading The Time of Dread as otherwise you may be confused by story history and character history.

I absolutely loved this book which was no surprise to me as TF&TF is one of my all time favourite fantasy series, and John Gwynne’s writing works really well for me. Straight away, I was sucked into this story despite things feeling the same but being disconcerting with new characters. I quickly bonded with many of the characters, my favourite being Drem and his dad Olin.

I loved Drem’s anxiety tic and how it was portrayed. It’s not often we see strong, male characters portray anxiety like that in high fantasy and i love that it was included. Drem’s relationship with Olin was also just lovely, and I adored the bond they shared and how much they loved each other.

I found the Ben Elim and the way they had taken control and rewriten some history really interesting but not surprising because it was obvious they were capable of it in TF&TF. It did make me mad that everything Corban and his company did was so downplayed by the Ben Elim but we know, we know.

I also never knew i’d be SO HAPPY to see a talking crow in a book. I love that the crows are in it again, they just give the story a comical air that it needs and some things can get a bit dark and ominous but having a crow just speak their mind makes things a bit more relaxing!

I did see the thing with Riv coming for a while but I think it’s a very intriguing turn and I can’t wait to see what comes next. I’m presuming we will follow all of these characters for several years as they get older, like we did with Corban, and I’m so eager to watch their character development and where they go. I also loved seeing characters related to Cywen, Corban, Carolen and Veradis - it made me so happy. And i actually almost cried when the same giants reappeared! It was basically like meeting old friends again, and it’s nice that even though Corban and co are long gone, something remains of the crowd we loved in TF&TF. Also, so here for seeing Storm and Buddai’s descendants.

Overall this was everything i wanted and more. And I need the next book now, but until then I will just reread TF&TF and this book again and again and again.