The Unbroken

Fantasy with a foreign legion type setting is something that I have started to see a few more examples of, and I honestly really love. Gunpowder fantasy is a niche area, but it provides a welcome break from the medieval and modern urban fantasy that dominates the market and has a very cool look and feel. The Unbroken follows an officer in ‘auxiliary' style unit brought back to their original home city. Historically, auxiliaries like this have been kept well away from their homes as they represent troops raised in areas that are not fully under control of the occupying forces. This idea is played with very effectively in this story - the loyalty towards comrades in arms versus the loyalty to home.

CL Clark builds an impressively layered and nuanced story of occupation with both profiteers trying to squeeze every last drop from the occupied country to well meaning if ineffective governments trying to integrate the population into the larger empire. The conflicts this drives increase the scope of the question of loyalty examined in the main story.

I really enjoyed this. The ideas were well constructed and explored, an intriguing world was built with hints of more to come and the characters were well rounded. I did find the constant flip flopping on loyalty a bit extreme in places, but I get that that was one of the driving themes even if it did reduce the likeability of the lead character a bit. Overall a solid start to a series