Synopsis – You have heard the story before – of a young boy, orphaned through tragic circumstances, raised by a wise old man, who comes to a fuller knowledge of his magic and uses it to fight the great evil that threatens his world.

But what if the boy hero and the malevolent, threatening taint were one and the same?

What if the boy slowly came to realize he was the reincarnation of an evil god? Would he save the world . . . or destroy it?

Among the Academy’s warrior-thieves, Annev de Breth is an outlier. Unlike his classmates who were stolen as infants from the capital city, Annev was born in the small village of Chaenbalu, was believed to be executed, and then unknowingly raised by his parents’ killers.

Seventeen years later, Annev struggles with the burdens of a forbidden magic, a forgotten heritage, and a secret deformity. When he is subsequently caught between the warring ideologies of his priestly mentor and the Academy’s masters, he must choose between forfeiting his promising future at the Academy or betraying his closest friends. Each decision leads to a deeper dilemma, until Annev finds himself pressed into a quest he does not wish to fulfil.

Will he finally embrace the doctrine of his tutors, murder a stranger, and abandon his mentor? Or will he accept the more difficult truth of who he is . . . and the darker truth of what he may become . . .

What to say about a book that takes some of the most used fantasy tropes and mixes it with a dash of classic fantasy, normally I would say could be good if done right… that was before I came across Master of Sorrows. Gone is the pure, orphaned boy who is destined for greatness and legacy tells will some day save the land. Justin T. Call throws these to the fire and from the ashes creates an astounding dark fantasy that will make you completely rethink these fantasy tropes.

Before you pick up this book I would advise you to clear you schedule, from the outset of this book I was instantly drawn towards the world and characters that have been created and found it very hard to put this down.

As I progressed through the book I gradually noticed that the portrayal of the world was primarily character focused as everything you learn about the world came from how the characters interacted with it, their emotions and how they act. Seeing a world developed this way was beautiful as it allows you to be completely immersed in how a character acts and when they are emotionally charged you empathise with them. We see this with many different characters, even the gods and the moments with the gods are some of the most important as you start to understand how this is reflected in the worlds humanity and how it has impacted them.

For me that alone would make me really enjoy a book however this story also holds a mystery and as you progress you are teased with small snippets of information that truly start to unfold what is really going on. It was during these moment that I was truly griped as I wanted to know more about what was going on and how this would effect the overall story. One minor mystery I really loved learning more about was the weapons and armour that exist in the world, I won’t delve anymore into that as I could possibly spoil a moment of joy.

Master of Sorrows doesn’t have a great deal of fighting scenes but when you come across them they are an utter joy to read. Justin T. Call has crafted and paced them brilliantly as during these scenes he goes through many important parts of a fight, a persons movement, stance and positioning. Due to this they flowed very well and made it very easy to imagine them taking place.

There are no words to describe how much I loved reading Master of Sorrows and there was not a single aspect of it that I didn’t enjoy. Master of Sorrows is a phoenix born a new from the ashes of fantasy tropes and a fantastic book to read.

I am one of the many blogs taking part in a blog tour for the release of this book and I hope they all enjoyed the book as much as I did. Below shows a list of other blogs taking part.