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The Armored Saint by Myke Cole


HokieStone

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I read this last week, and was curious on other's opinions.  It's a short book...almost a novella, really.  This is the first book I've read by Cole, in fact I was unaware of him until somehow I started following him on Twitter - I think because he was going back and forth with some other authors there.  From some brief research, I take it that his previous efforts - his "Shadow Ops" series - was relatively well received.

In any case, I found "The Armored Saint" to be a pleasant enough read - although it seemed to follow standard tropes.  The heroine - Eloise - is a teen girl from a village where she lives with her parents - the mother is barely "on-screen", but it is hinted that her father has a military past.  He now acts as a sort of...I dunno, lawyer-ish or scribe type, traveling between local villages. They live in part of the "Empire" which seemed to be founded after the long-dead Emperor (who is referred to as almost a deity) drove away so-called "demons" - which they believe are brought into the world by wizardry.  This led to the foundation of "The Order" - religious zealots that patrol the countryside looking for any sign of wizardry. 

Ok, so with that background (minor spoilers ahead),

Spoiler

we sort of get the usual story, where her family and eventually village run afoul of "The Order", and she starts to believe that wizardry is not the evil that it's been made out to be.

And then something interesting happens...

Spoiler

In the last chapters, the kindly wizard that she met earlier helps her and her village drive off the evil religious zealots of the order.  And then because he used stronger wizardry than he ever had before...a demon bursts out of him ala "Alien" (well not exactly...but close enough).  So...the nasty evil priests from "The Order" were actually right - wizardry does lead to demons entering the world!  Now, of course, being the heroine, she kills the demon - and the villagers now she things she's a saint...the titular "Armored Saint", as a matter of fact.  So...in a book that I thought was kind of ho-hum, I'll be interested to see where the author takes this twist.  Can wizards be redeemed...or is she going to have to come to grips that the brutish "Order" is actually keeping their world safe from a larger threat?

Perhaps I should have made the whole thread have spoilers...but I figured I'd be safe.  For those that haven't read the book...I found it fairly by-the-numbers, with a twist at the end that will likely have me buy the 2nd book. 

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17 hours ago, HokieStone said:

The heroine - Eloise - is a teen girl from a village where she lives with her parents - the mother is barely "on-screen", but it is hinted that her father has a military past.

That'll be his armour she's wearing on the cover then. 

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4 minutes ago, Blank said:

Seeing as you chose to broadcast it in a public forum, I disagree. And your responses have made me value your opinions about as much as I value an infowars rant.

Excellent. May I recommend the Ignore User function.

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I'm a big fan of Myke Cole and I thoroughly enjoyed the Shadow Ops books.

Sadly, The Armored Saint was Cole's weakest work to date. Too YA, too black and white. The usual depth, substance, and shades of gray that characterize Cole's previous novels were all absent and that's a shame.

Still interested in reading the second installment, but I'm hoping he'll up his game for that one.

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I read an excerpt of this and the characterization threw me, I could not help rolling my eyes when the heroine was basically trying to get killed by random cardboard cutout fanatic bad guys, despite knowing about their evilness, despite being told through tedious warnings by her father of their evilness, and despite seeing them dragging a woman's corpse behind their horses.


The book still seemed to generate some enthusiam, so I wondered if it got better, but judging from this thread I will probably give it a pass.

 

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