For a Godless like Azreal the Wretched, peace might be a more profitable time, but it’s no less bloody…

A decade into the armistice with Inath, the North, once united against invasion, finds itself a divided kingdom. Azreal – an infamous mage of the Northern military – operates in his native land as a contract killer, employed to hunt traitors by a king who is squabbling against his would-be usurpers.

But when the completion of his latest bounty unveils a foreign plot to dethrone the North altogether, Azreal is the only one who can cross the border and respond in kind…

Or he would have been, until betrayal at the final moment resulted in his killing of the wrong man and capture by those that he’s spent half his life fighting.

Now, imprisoned and awaiting his execution for the murder of an Inathian crown prince, Azreal finds himself across the interrogation table from Anamira Lestrade. A career criminal investigator, Ana is tasked with extracting the truth behind the assassination or dying in failure – linking the two through one last story that could stave off both their gruesome ends.

Possessed of few friends, countless enemies, magic blades that feast on his emotions, and the haunting rumors of how he won his name, Azreal the Wretched’s narrative pits him against traitorous conspiracy, brutal magical feuds, and broken promises of love. And if there is any hope of making it out alive at its end, he’ll need to conquer the price it cost him to paint the tale

Fear.

Stumbled upon news of this book online with a link to ARC sign-up form. Liked what I saw (that blurb and book cover are like mm-mm-mmm level of come to mama) and figured, feck it, I’ll just throw my name in the hat, and what do you know?! An ARC landed in my inbox soon after. Score!

Oh. My. Gosh. People. This grimdark fantasy hits all the spots. It is likened to Empire of the Vampire meets Deadpool… and yeah, Azreal the Wretched has Deadpool-ish sass, but I wouldn’t know about EotV, because I found the latter so dull to start with I DNFd. THAT little fact tells me that The Price of Fear is better than EotV, because a book may be good, but it’s better when it’s hits the ground running from the first page, not halfway through after suffering a snoozefest. You know it’s true! It’s not just me. Many readers say EotV suffers at the start. Aaaanyway. My point is: The Price of Fear? The book not to miss in 2026 if you like your fantasy gritty and your action scenes epic. It is full of dark and bloody, as well as tensions, revelations, character insight and reflections, and a (non-vampire) MC so firmly in the grey in between moral and immoral that you don’t know which way to run, look or sit.

As the story starts with Azreal the Wretched sitting in an interrogation room in Inath, we learn that the peace in between Inath and North is about to fall apart like a house of cards. The crown prince of Inath has been murdered and Azreal, as the Northener, has been detained. Azreal… a Godless with a set of magical knives that feed on emotion. And let me mention this here and now, he is not the only Godless. There are others in the story of varying magical skills and weapons. I tell you, a fantasy fiend will find plenty to drool over in this story.

Anyway, we, the readers, get the whole story of what happened and how it all went down through Azreal’s masterful storytelling just hours before he is to be executed. He tells in surprising detail of every step he took along the road. The people he fought, killed, fucked and shot the shit with, made deals with, and we also get some side-glances to some background of what once was… all very mysterious… All very worth it to read about yourself. I mean, yes… Me? I did at some points think – man alive, do you have to be QUITE SO detailed? But, this is a personal preference, the words and sights and descriptions were not boring. Not at all. It was more like: stop telling me about the sights and putting me into INTO the scene, tell me, god damn it, what happened next!!!! Miles Lyon is a bloody tease! Talk about suspense!

And so it is, that as Azreal describes the political shenanigans, the betrayals, and magical catastrophes that preceded his arrest, it might just be a bigger plot is about to revealed. And as a reader you just wonder… you bloody wonder: my god, how is this all going to play out… Truly, Lyon will surprise you until the very end. The very end, I tell you. And the thing is, Azreal’s character is so confident and witty that you really do not know if he welcomes death, and all the wisdoms he parts for our benefit are like a last lesson before he bleeds out on the town square? Or if there is some other ploy about to be played out. The thing about a man knowing he is about to die is the clever bit… You will never truly know if the emotions and nonchalance is all about shit you don’t see coming, or is it acceptance of fate. It’s all very magnificently done.

That all is to say, Lyon is an excellent writer. Every chapter started with something profound and punchy, or witty. Every chapter ended with something tantalizing, to make you yearn to get back to it. There was not a single lull in the story, not a single “hmm, where should we go from here”, it was full on and unrelenting. It was also somewhat surprising, in the best of ways, to truly feel so much emotion off the page, but when all was said and done, it made sense. Lyon knows pain and despair, and he dissected that beastly darkness onto paper, made it yield. I am simply glad that there is also the lighthearted banter. That there is never a truly bad time to crack a witty one-liner to break the tension. Hell, if one has to introduce a box of dildos then it shall be done! Life is shitty enough, fictional and real alike, so it’s a good idea and a real power move to keep the humor alive to defeat the crushing weight of reality.

I want the story to toy with my emotions, I want to feel that punch in the gut, I want to laugh, and feel excited. I want to feel moved not simply entertained. Hell, the best of stories make me stop in my tracks and pull that thread of reflection in between a thought in the book and what has been mulling in my own head, likely unsaid. The Price of Fear does all that. Enough said.