Master Artificer by Justin T. Call

The Blurb (warning,contains book 1 spoilers):

Annev has avoided one fate. But a darker path may still claim him . . .

After surviving the destruction of Chaenbalu, new mysteries and greater threats await Annev and his friends in the capital city of Luqura. As they navigate the city’s perilous streets, Annev searches for a way to control his nascent magic and remove the cursed artifact now fused to his body.

But what might removing it cost him?

As Annev grapples with his magic, Fyn joins forces with old enemies and new allies, waging a secret war against Luqura’s corrupt guilds in the hopes of forging his own criminal empire. Deep in the Brakewood, Myjun is learning new skills of her own as apprentice to Oyru, the shadow assassin who attacked the village of Chaenbalu – but the power of revenge comes at a daunting price. And back in Chaenbalu itself, left for dead in the Academy’s ruins, Kenton seeks salvation in the only place he can: the power hoarded in the Vault of Damnation . . .

The Review (vague spoilers):

Master Artificer is the sequel to Justin Call’s 2019 coming-of-age fantasy, Master of Sorrows, a novel that I found to be a wonderfully relaxing mix of the old and the new when I first read it. I had my complaints (see the linked review for details), but for the most part it was the kind of escapist epic fantasy that I love to read. It embraced some tropes, put its own twist on others, and constantly tried to seek new ground.

And speaking of new ground, Master Artificer is left with a lot of work to do following the ending of the first book. And the result is something which I wouldn’t really describe as “relaxing”.

Where Master of Sorrows has that “coming of age” feeling to it, Master Artificer takes a turn to the grimdark. The world beyond Chaenbalu is something that’s a bit darker than our characters were prepared for, and they are forced to make some pretty brutal decisions to survive. This tone shift left me with mixed feelings. On one hand, it feels like a natural evolution from where the series was to where it is going, but on the other… I kind of missed that naive, optimistic feeling from the first book. Though I’d assume that the absence of this is a deliberate decision on Call’s part.

On the subject of the world expanding beyond Chaenbalu, this ties into one of my biggest complaints about Master Artificer. With the way the wider series has been structured, this read more like the first book in a series than the second. As a consequence of the isolated, cult-like town in book one… we know almost nothing about the wider world (and neither do the characters). And as Justin Call isn’t satisfied with relying on a generic world to move the story along, he puts in the work to build a world that is entirely his.

But for me, this is a bit of a double-edged sword. While there is now more lore, more characters, more storylines for readers to sink their teeth into… the foundations still have to be built for all of those. So there’s a lot of very opaque exposition, and a lot of our main characters acting out the “Watson” trope — asking questions on behalf of the audience so that answers can be provided directly to the readers. I know that a lot of readers love this kind of stuff, but for me, it was a bit of a frustrating experience.

By the second book of a series, I expect the story to kick into gear pretty quickly. But here, I felt like it was a little stop-start. I wanted to get on with things and lose myself in the story, but right up until the 50% mark (a significant length in an 800 page novel) I was still being educated on more lore, more characters, more quirks of the magic system. From a personal taste standpoint, I would have preferred to experience those things rather than be told about them.

Having said all that… once those foundations were built, I did enjoy myself. With the wider POV character cast, there were several aspects that I found interesting (after some growing pains). There’s a team of thieves. There’s a magic school. There’s an apprentice to an evil assassin. The whole idea of a predestined dark lord really comes to the forefront. There’s more women characters playing important roles. Admittedly, there were a few scenes that I thought passed the threshold for what I’d call “edgy”, but those come with the territory in dark fantasy.

With a chunky sequel like this, the questions will always be:
1) Will I enjoy it if I liked the first?
2) Does it feel “too long”?

My answers to those are:
1) I think so
and
2) a little bit.

The dark fantasy aspects, the POV creep, and the abundance of lore are things that you will either love or hate. And how you enjoy those will form the basis for what you feel about the length. For someone like me (who was a little burnt out on exposition), It did feel a couple hundred pages too long. I really felt the length in the first third in particular.

It feels like this review has been a bit of a downer, but I should say that I am still really excited to continue this series. Now that the foundations have been well and truly built, I’m looking forward to seeing Justin Call kick his world and characters into high gear. And hey, there are readers out there who have read this review and thought to themselves, “Dark fantasy? An abundance of lore? A dark lord as a main character? A whole bunch of my favourite tropes, and a whole bunch of pages to sink my teeth into? Yes. Give it to me.”

This book is for you guys.

I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review. Thank you to Justin for the review copy!

Master Artificer releases on the 6th of May 2021.