Name: Swarm and Steel
ISBN: 9781473231832

Michael R. Fletcher

Swarm and Steel

To escape the hell she created, a woman must team up with a novice warrior and return to her homeland in this gritty epic fantasy where delusions are literally made real. Zerfall awakens in an alley, wounded and unable to remember her past. Chased by an assassin out into the endless wastes of the desert, she is caught, disfigured, and left for dead. Her scabbard is empty, but the need for answers—and the pull of her sword—will draw her back to the city-states. When Jateko, a naïve youth, accidentally kills a member of his own tribe, he finds himself outcast and pursued across the desert for his crimes. Crazed from dehydration, dying of thirst and hunger, he stumbles across Zerfall. Hunted by assassins and bound by mutual need, both Zerfall and Jeteko will confront the Täuschung, an ancient and deranged religion ruled by a broken fragment of Zerfall’s mind. Swarm, the Täuschung hell, seethes with imprisoned souls, but where gods—real or imagined—meddle in the affairs of man, the cost is high. In Swarm and Steel, the power of belief can manifest and shape reality, and for political and religious leaders, faith becomes a powerful tool. But the insane are capable of twisting reality with their delusions as well, turning increasingly dangerous as their sanity crumbles. It is here that a long prophesied evil will be born, an endless hunger. The All Consuming will rise.

Jenna Kathleen

I'm really not sure what loving this book so much says about me. Swarm and Steel is by far the weirdest book I've read since...well...The Mirror's Truth.

We saw a different side of the world and more details of the magic system, but Fletcher also included a lot of frankly disgusting things in this one. I mean, the main characters are a live corpse whose body parts are decaying and falling off in the middle of the night, and a cannibal who hears the thoughts of the people he kills after he consumes their brains. And that's just to get started.

I did find myself missing the characters from the main series, but I absolutely loved this book, snot dolls in pockets and all. If you like grimdark fantasy, check out Beyond Redemption first and then make your way over to Swarm and Steel after all the adventures in the main series.

Swarm and Steel

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