A Warrior's Path

I picked the audio book up in the recent Audible sale for $2, because why not? I'd heard a little bit about this book online and did not really know much going into it.

The book starts out with the main character taking part in his first Trial, guarding a caravan across the deadly wasteland between the few remaining cities. We then get a flashback scene and some pretty heavy exposition to set the scene and give the reader a background understanding of the world. Normally, this puts me off of a book, but the worldbuilding was just so INTERESTING.

Humanity has divided itself into a rigid caste system, with each caste playing a unique role in society and having access to its own, unique system of magic. This is the state of the world 2000 years after a demonic goddess rose to power and destroyed most of humanity overnight with her army of chimeras. This alone was enough to grab my attention, but after the initial info-dump, Ashura slowly doles out more tidbits about the world in a way that kept me hungry for more, as well as providing a few twists along the way.

The magic is epic, flashy, and completely over-the-top for some of the castes (in the most fun kind of way). There was no gradual introduction to it, either. We go from a quiet scene where members of the warrior caste are conversing with each other and immediately cut to a scene with 20 ft. leaps and enormous fireballs being thrown. Awesome. I particularly like how Ashura makes this all make sense, with common ties between each magic system and limitations set in place to prevent deus ex machina scenes further in the book.

There's political intrigue, murder mystery, epic fight scenes, a demonic goddess, and a definitely non-European setting. All in all, this book was impossible to put down. The fantastic narration by Nick Podehl was a plus, as well.