No longer a revered Gold Warrior, Maen is a disgraced soldier, held in suspicion despite his role in winning the Queenship of Aza City for his Mistress, Seleste. Returned alive from his captivity by the rebel Exiles, his reward was to be cast out from his position, his brave loyalty dismissed. He remains an unwilling thrall to the new Queen while his heart mourns the memory of Dax, the young Bronzeman he helped escape from a sentence of death.

When Maen is put under the guard of the arrogant Gold Warrior Zander and given the thankless task of preparing a Royal History, they both join up with the lively scribe Kiel. The youngster's bold curiosity initiates a chain of events that will change their world and that of the City forever. Maen's own discoveries will cast a new and shocking light on the Royal history and stir revolution in both citizens and rebels. And he will finally return to the Exile camp to face the one thing that can make him choose desire over duty.

After reading The Gold Warrior, the prequel to Twisted Brand, I was anxious to read this book. I don't see The Gold Warrior and Twisted Brand as two books in a series, but as two parts of one big book. And it's a book of near epic dimensions. London really is an expert in building an extraordinary world in which her richly detailed characters take us with them on a deeply emotional journey.

The superb characters of Maen and Dax, and also the secondary characters, play a big role in this story. The characters and their angst and confusion throughout the story are described in a beautiful way and despite their flaws they are very easy to like. Even while they struggle, you can always sympathize with them and their motivations are always understandable, even if you may not agree with their course of action.

The world the author has created in her two books is beyond extraordinary. The characters have their own richly detailed culture and history and thus this story even feels a little bit tolkienesque. But for some readers this may also be the only flaw of these books. The Gold Warrior, for a big part, is a necessary introduction into the culture of this foreign society and the ending of it was in my opinion pretty unsatisfying. And the pace of Twisted Brand in some parts is just short of breakneck. But I think that's because The Gold Warrior, just like Twisted Brand, was never meant to be a standalone book and thus I would never recommend reading only The Gold Warrior or only Twisted Brand.

Together these books are a very recommended read. It's such a compelling story that I wouldn't have minded if it was a few hundred pages longer.

Review first posted at Rainbow Reviews.
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
PURCHASE LINK: E-BOOK and PRINT ( )