Descent of Ravens

Bel's War, Book 1

By: A.C. Andrews

Narrated by: Isaac Grisham

An LGBTQ+ epic fantasy

The old covenant of the gods is broken. Will the world break, too?

When an army of vampires invades the island of Trosika, Rio and Turi must fight for their future. Rio is a healer and a priest of Astara who suffers severe self-doubt and a growing crisis of faith; even his goddess cannot stop the forces arrayed against them. Turi has long buried a secret about himself that he fears could upend everything.

When Rio unseals a centuries-old tomb, releasing the immortal and cursed prince Philip, he discovers that he has a bond with Philip that stretches across lifetimes. As Turi grapples with his secrets, he is recruited by the terrifying goddess Mormo and gifted with necromancy for reasons he does not understand.

Rio and Turi must contend with bloodthirsty mages, battle an endless army of vampires, and confront the truth of who Turi truly is; most of all, they must rely on their unshakable friendship to survive. As they struggle to protect each other, their religion, and their island home, the fate of an empire hangs in the balance.

Descent of Ravens is an exciting new fantasy with gay, trans, and nonbinary protagonists, rich world-building, and dark adventure!

Content Warnings: This is a work of fantasy with LGBTQ+ characters, violence (including epic battle scenes), adult language, and adult situations including mildly explicit scenes of sensuality and consensual sex suitable for older YA listeners and adult listeners. There are sadistic villains whose sadism involves cutting and blood and feral vampires who are, ahem, messy eaters.

©2021 A.C. Andrews (P)2022 A.C. Andrews

I can’t wait for the next book.

I really liked the storyline and overall plot. I found the use of the gods to be great.

Different for Me

I really enjoyed this book. I am not usually a fantasy reader/ listener, but there was so much to love here! I am shocked that the world building was so thorough, and the author might have reached a bit. But, overall it is a strong start to what looks to be a great new series!

Epic!!!

The story was seriously epic! I didn’t want to hit pause at all. I was swept away with the magic from the moment it started. The plot kept me engaged the entire time and I loved the complexity of it. I also loved all the different paranormal creatures included in the book. I can’t wait to see where this series is going to go! I want way more of these characters and this world.

I enjoyed the story

I really enjoyed this book when I read it last year. For some reason it didn’t translate as well to audio for me. I still liked the story but I am not sure what the issue was. Maybe it was the new to me narrator. His voice was good but I just couldn’t get into it. Rio and Phillip are still my favorite characters and the world building is very good. It is a great story overall.

A fantastic beginning to a new series!

Fantastic! !! The story has really complex, multi-layered characters. The world building is great! Rio and Turi must fight for their lives. The story was packed with magic, vampires, monsters, gods and goddesses and reincarnations. We are left for a HFN. I cannot wait for the next!! Isaac Grisham is a new to me narrator. I felt he did a good job. Overall, a fantastic listen! Highly recommend!

Epic

This was a good start! This world was well laid out. This story was really interesting. Vampire stories are always good and this one isn't any different. I found the new way they have these vampires interact was great. Each of the main characters provide great points of view. With this being just the first part of battle, I can't wait to see how our crew continues to build their army to take back their island.

I Loved it, Great Start to New Series

I loved this story, I was captivated rom first chapters by magical adventures and beautiful world building. Main characters were interesting and unique in their own way, I enjoyed their interactions and dynamic. Narrator has a pleasant voice and I think he did a good job, but I would like to hear differences in voices for Rio, Turi and others. Overall this was a very good start to the series, I am excited for the next book in Bel's War saga.

Fantastic!!

Loved this audio from both a new author for me and a new narrator! This was one heck of a ride! Fabulous world building, fantastic storyline and amazing main characters, this one blew me away! Really enjoyed the narration as well.

Great listen!

Love this story even more with hearing it! Grisham does a fantastic job with bringing these epic characters to life. Tone and flow work with each personality and you get lost in the story. Can't wait for the next.

Good world building - bad everything else

This review contains spoilers!

I’m really mad that I paid for this book. It was … not great.

Though the world building had potential, it was completely usurped by rotten pacing, extraneous detail, flat characters, inconsistent language, and general disorganization. I’ll also admit that the narrator was monotonous; a talented reader could have done this book so many favors, but even with the best voice actor in the world this would have been rough.

The entire book felt like a first draft. The plot points were there - again, interesting world building! - but there were so many elements that distracted from all the ways the novel could have succeeded:

- the romance felt trite and unbelievable. A long-undead prince and the reincarnation of his lover? Could have been super interesting, exploring insecurities and identity and building something deep based on who two people can be together … or, it can be glazed over and used as a cheap way to go zero to sixty romantically in under two chapters.

- a trans person as a main character, with societal pressures and acceptances. I just read several fantasy books in a row that included trans characters, a few of which had their own language to describe the trans identity - the main difference between the trans people in this book versus other fantasy novels was that this felt like it was being shoved into the story to win points versus being a rich part of the world building and culture. Characters were outing one another; the concept of being kinji was at once very significant and then glossed over in the next moment; and the family dynamics that orphaned the trans character were tied up in a happy little bow in one chapter of “woke grandma saves the day” without having any meaningful conversations about the bigotry that severely impacted the trans person’s childhood.

- literal deus ex machinas. Left right and center. Lazy writing.

- the language swapped from formal, fantasy language to awkwardly modern.

- the dialogue was almost always awkward and stilted.

All in all, the only reason I’m giving this book any stars at all is because the plot had the potential to be compelling. It was imaginative, and used the vampire trope in a cool way. Unfortunately, no one went over this with a good red pen before it got published.