Fall of the Argosi

Sebastien de Castell's great gift to writing is that he somehow crafts those heroic moments, those “Avengers Assemble” moments that raise the hair on the back of your neck and make tears prick at the corners of your eyes because you know the hero is likely standing up to a fate they cannot possibly beat.

And then he somehow figures out a way to let the hero win that you did not see coming.

He did it repeatedly through his Greatcoats series. He did it with his Spellslinger series. And now, with the inscrutable Ferius Parfax, we get to see one of her great hero moments where she stands up to the world as it crumbles around her and says, “What else you got?”

de Castell writes the books I wish I could write. He crafts the heroes I want to read. His work lies hard in the same veins as Dumas, Thorndike, and Sabatini, and he understands the brazen hero who laughs at the oncoming storm. For that, I will always enjoy his books.