We Break Immortals

We Break Immortals is one of those books that I have had on my radar many months prior to it being released, and when a tour was being organised to showcase this book, I was compelled to join to discuss this book???s awesomeness.
Let???s get this out of the way in the first instance. This book is a chonker! Not only in page size, but the amount of material that is in there. Thomas H. Riley simply does not hold anything back and at first the book is an assault on your senses as you are plunged into the narrative.
In all honesty, I don???t think I was quite prepared for how much stuff is there! How intricately detailed every part of the book is!
The only way to approach this book, is to regard it as a plunge pool because as an author, Thomas Riley does not take the gentle and soft approach of leading you up to the water, dipping your toe in to test the temperature, have a little paddle and then immerse yourself in the relaxing waters of the story. No, he prefers the much more direct approach of sneaking up behind you whilst you are carefully contemplating if this is going to sting, placing a foot on your arse and shoving you in!
The story is set around three primary protagonists Aren, Keluwen and Corrin as they try to stop a deranged wizard in his quest to become a god. However, the main characters are quite a flawed bunch that have their own problems. Aren, a magical sniffer dog called a Glasseye, is addicted to a substance called Malagayne (which I likened to some kind of opioid). Keluwen, a magick user who is only concerned with her own vengeance and has very few personal limitations (such as instigating a ruse in which she appeals to the less than savoury predilections of the person they are trying to catch at one point) in how she gets that vengeance. And finally, Corrin, whose way of coping with the world is to soak it thoroughly in a steady stream of alcohol (I mean his theme song would be Streams of Whiskey by the Pogues).
Riley does a masterful job of letting each of his characters shine in their own ways. In all honesty, I found that I did not ally myself with a particular character, which normally tends to happen in multi POV stories, but was equally fascinated to see each of the protagonists and how they interplayed with the story.
The book itself is layered with intricate and complex detail, which I have to be quite honest, can be a little overwhelming at times. Especially at the beginning. I did spend a bit of time contemplating what the heck was going on and how this impacted the story. And in addition to that, it took me a little while to attach myself to the characters. There is an almost anthropological amount of detail in the first portion of the book in which Thomas Riley gives to the world building, and I think that those used to such tomes as Malazan would find this on a level. However, for me what Thomas Riley excels at is his ability to write tension fuelled plot, which becomes more apparent when you have trod on the sands of initial world building and character introduction.
Like I said earlier, it did take a while to get orientated to the story and this challenged my investment initially. Not that I wanted to pack it in or anything like that, it???s just when you are a little bit challenged, it seems a little like hard work at first (and me and hard work like to nod at each other in recognition but stay the hell away from each other if I can help it!). However, on this occasion I decided to at least shake hands and was thoroughly rewarded, especially later in the book where I surprisingly found myself galloping through the book with the wind ruffling my prized hair follicle.
One of the things that I forgot to mention is that there is a sense of wry wit throughout the story, and it is peppered with sly bits of humour that had me smirking throughout.
I think one of the things that shines through the story is how much Thomas Riley loves the fantasy genre as a whole, you can see the influence that various authors have had on him and how he has translated this love of the genre to his own interpretation to create something quite unique.
Now before you go! And I am sure that you have far more urgent things to do than listen to me rabbiting on about stuff, there is one final point I want to make ??? That Cover!
Do I need to say anymore?
Good! I think we are on the same page then