The Armored Saint

Executive Summary: I've been a fan of Myke Cole for awhile, but this is the first book of his I've really enjoyed. I prefer a single novel to a trilogy of novellas, but I'm enjoying things so far.Full ReviewMyke Cole came on my radar a few years back thanks to Sword & Laser. Eventually I picked up his first book [b:Control Point 11783484 Control Point (Shadow Ops, #1) Myke Cole https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309460843s/11783484.jpg 15964749]. I liked it enough to finish that trilogy and read the first book [b:Gemini Cell 22708697 Gemini Cell (Shadow Ops, #4) Myke Cole https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415580327s/22708697.jpg 45914201] of his prequel series. Eventually I stalled out though.The military aspects of those books seemed very realistic. Maybe a bit too realistic. I found many of the characters unlikeable and the events of the books hard to read at times.When this book was announced I was excited because it sounded more my speed. I'm not a huge fan of dark fantasy these days, but it's still more in my wheelhouse than military/urban fantasy. I didn't realize this was going to be a novella at the time I pre-ordered it. So when it arrived I was a bit surprised at how short it was. As a big fan of epic fantasy which are often characterized by overly long door-stopping tomes, I was a bit underwhelmed. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the recent trend of novella trilogies.All that said, I enjoyed this book a lot. Apparently it's been influenced by Warhammer 40k. A friend told me its influence is VERY heavy. I've never read any of those books or played the tabletop game, so I had no idea. As such I found the world building pretty interesting.Most importantly however I really liked Heloise as a protagonist. She could be a bit juvenile for a teenager, but she also seems to live in a bleak world where I probably wouldn't be in a hurry to grow up quickly either.As always, I love a good magic system. We get some hints of it here. From the very start the idea of magic is evil. The premise of the series revolves around it. I found myself wondering is magic really like the law and rumors say, or is that all a lie? For me that was the most interesting thing to find out. I still have a lot more questions about it however (and many theories) so I hope we get more answers in the next 2 novellas.Despite its short length, I thought Mr. Cole does a good job in setting up the world and building (an albeit very obvious) conflict that will likely carry the rest of the series forward. There are some pretty good supporting characters in the book along with Heloise that I thought rounded the story out well. In particular I liked her friend Basina and Basina's father. One of my major issues with his previous books was I didn't really like most of his characters, and I'm happy to see that wasn't the case here.Overall, I think this may be Mr. Cole's best offering so far, especially if you're not a fan of military fantasy. It's a dark story, but well written and I'm looking forward to seeing where he takes things next.