Guns of the Dawn

This man is quickly climbing up my list of favorite authors. Not the way most of my favorite authors do, by releasing a book I devour and make part of my personality, but by the workman's approach: Adrian Tchaikovsky just writes a lot of things, and they're all different and they're all really good (we will forget about Shards of Earth for now- that could have been my fault haha)

Now, Guns of the Dawn. Guns is a standalone Flintlock fantasy about one of my new favorite heroines, Emily Marshwic. Guns is commonly pitched as “Sharpe meets Jane Austen”, and that seems very apt. The first third of this book seems very Jane Austen-esque, and reads like a period drama. But when a king is assassinated, and war goes poorly, noblewoman Emily is conscripted to join the army and must learn how to fight. I really enjoyed Emily, and the second half of this book continuously gets better and better. The ending was fantastic. While I've known many veteran fantasy fans that love this book, I also think it would be a great intro to adult fantasy. I will say though to those that are unaware, this is very low magic. You could almost remove the magic entirely and have the same story.


9/10