Book Review: Toric’s Dagger (The Weapon Takers Saga Book 1) by Jamie Edmundson

 
 
When the religious relic Toric's Dagger is stolen, Belwynn, her twin brother, and eight others are sent to track down the thieves and return it, but they soon find themselves embroiled in something much bigger than mere theft. Elana insists the dagger will be essential in saving their nation, and everyone seems to want it. Meanwhile things are changing on the political front, and leaders throughout the nation will have to work together if they want any chance of defeating their common enemy.

Book Review: Toric's Dagger (The Weapon Takers Saga Book 1) by Jamie Edmundson | reading, books, book reviews, fantasy, epic fantasy, mages
Title: Toric's Dagger
Author:
Book Number: Book 1
Pages: 324
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
More Info: Goodreads, Amazon
 

Review:

*I received an ecopy of this book from the author. This has not influenced my review.*

I’ve read some high fantasy, enough to have gotten used to the concept of entirely different lands and countries and all that, but those were mostly about romance or focused tightly on one or two characters. This was the first book I’ve read that I would call epic fantasy, one with a quest (or maybe a journey?), a lot of characters, and a more all-encompassing story. But when you want to branch out to new genres, you gotta start somewhere, right? And it was the twins mentioned in the blurb that caught my interest because I’ve been wanting books about close or interesting family relationships. I was also in the mood for something without romance. Plus I needed a break from urban fantasy. So this book fit all those requirements nicely.

I think though that epic fantasy may not be quite for me. I couldn’t keep up with, and honestly wasn’t that interested in, all the lands and relations among them and politics and rebellions and wars and leaders and trading and geography and history and descriptions of places. However, I do respect that the author clearly put A LOT of thought and detail into this world and how it all works.

I also prefer a closer third person POV. It wasn’t omniscient, but it wasn’t super deep in the characters’ minds either. So I felt like I never really got much emotion from Belwynn (there were lots of POVs, but hers was used most often), and I didn’t get as much from the twin relationship as I had wanted.

What I did enjoy though was the motley crew of characters who went on the quest to get Toric’s Dagger back. Each character had a unique personality, and they felt believable. My favorites were Herin, Clarin, and Soren. Herin was not the most likeable per se since he was hot-headed and impatient, but he got things done and was kind of entertaining to me, and he was still not a bad person. (Well, good and bad are very relative terms here since I’m not sure anyone in the group, except maybe one or two of them, were “good” considering most of them were thieves or mercenaries or murderers. But my point is, Herin seemed no worse a person than the others in the group.) Clarin, on the other hand, was generally good-natured and unflappable—nothing ever seemed to worry or bother him—but he was this massive guy who everyone [who didn’t know him] was afraid of (albeit rightly so since he used to a mercenary and could fight). And Soren was just… interesting. Skilled with magic, intelligent, ambitious, able to think quickly, and, it turns out, maybe a little obsessive, as well as ruthless when he wanted to be. And each character in the group had their own motives, desires, inner demons, etc.

The fact that Clarin never seemed to experience anxiety of any kind annoyed Belwynn, who often found herself worrying twice as hard about things in order to make up for it.

There was even a bit of humor included in a way that flowed naturally from the characters and their actions, dialogue, and thoughts. There were also some intense and disturbing and gritty moments though. And there was a mix of both fast-paced action scenes and slower-paced sections of travel and politics.

So overall, I don’t think epic fantasy is ever going to be my favorite genre since I wasn’t very into the politics, geography, etc., but I’m tempted to continue this series because I liked the developed, flawed, interesting characters!

 

Book Tags:

Basic Info

Book Author:
Publisher:
Series:
Genre: ,
My Rating:
Series/Standalone:

More Info (Possible Spoilers)

Non-Human Type:
Relationships/Sex: ,

 
 
 
 

Talk to me!

Have you read Toric's Dagger by Jamie Edmundson?
Do you like epic fantasy?

 
 
[shared_counts]
 
 
 

Your Thoughts

 

16 thoughts on “Book Review: Toric’s Dagger (The Weapon Takers Saga Book 1) by Jamie Edmundson

I'd love if you'd share your thoughts, too!

 

Reading your comments makes me a very happy blogger!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 
  1. Ioana

    I absolutely looooove epic fantasy. There is just always a bigger posibility that there might be a dragon in it. And books with an intereseting cast of characters are especially precious.

    1. Kristen Burns

      I don’t recall any dragons in this one, but I guess you never know what the rest of the series holds 😉 But I did really enjoy the cast of characters!

  2. chucklesthescot

    I don’t really read fantasy. Other than Lord of the Rings I don’t really go in for the elves and goblins kind of thing. I might be interested in something very like Game of Thrones as I’m loving the tv series and the books.

  3. Dina

    Oh, what! An epic fantasy novel with cool names. Sounds promising. I am glad you enjoyed this book, and I am also glad that you get to try out new genres. I am new to epic fantasy, too, and I am starting with Sanderson’s Mistborn series. (I finished the first one earlier this year). Very curious to see what you’ll read next!

  4. Greg

    I do kinda like motley crews, especially if they’re all fighting lol. The twins and their telepathic connection is a nice touch. It does sound like this one has a nice mix of characters- a lot of times you get the tropes (big guy, wizard, woodsman type, you know) so hopefully they were a little more varied here. The fact that they’re all mercs and shady types sounds fun! Love the quote.

    Epic fantasy is funny, sometimes I like the worldbuilding (like w/ Martin) and other times it’s the characters and their dynamics in the group. I mean ideally it’s both lol, but yeah… anyway glad you mostly liked it.

    I like how the blurb says for fans of Tolkien, Williams and Martin. I’ve read all three of those guys and that’s definitely an epic fantasy callout. 🙂

    1. Kristen Burns

      It’s so much more fun to read about when characters *don’t* get along, right? Lol.

      I’m not familiar enough with epic fantasy to know what the tropes are, but I felt like these characters seemed interesting and developed. And the shady types are always fun lol.

      I did recognize the other authors names, so I knew it would be epic fantasy, but I figured it still sounded good and wanted to give it a try 🙂

  5. Becky @ A Fool's Ingenuity

    I love epic fantasy but I get it’s not a genre for everyone. Glad to see you enjoyed this despite this not necessarily being your favourite genre. It does sound like an interesting read and the characters sound awesome. I am one for the worldbuilding and political intrigue but I guess that’s not for all. I’d be interested to know if you do continue the series because that is always a sign of a good book, one which convinces you to continue reading.

    1. Kristen Burns

      If you like the world building and politics, you might like this even more than I did. But I did like the character is, so I will probably decide whether to continue once the next one comes out.

  6. verushka

    IA, I too do like the idea of twins and the family relationships in this. But, once upon a time, I loved epic fantasy, way before I started my blog, but I found urban fantasy and never looked back. Every so often I try to get back into the genre, but never quite make it.

    1. Kristen Burns

      Lol I guess I’m kind of the opposite since I pretty much started with urban fantasy and eventually got more into high fantasy. But urban is still my go-to!

  7. Olivia Roach

    I don’t think I have read enough epic fantasy to know whether it was the one book that I enjoyed or actually the whole genre. But kudos to you for trying something new! It seemed like you enjoyed it well enough? It’s a shame about the point of view not having enough depth though – I’m like you, wanting it to be closer, on that account.