The Darkness Before Them

• Author: Matthew Ward
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: November 7, 2023
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: The Soulfire Saga #1

Thank you to Orbit and Angela Man for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: violence, off-page domestic violence, death, grief, blood, reference to off-page sexual assault, murder, gore

From one of the most exciting new storytellers in epic fantasy comes a spectacular tale of magic, mortality, and a kingdom facing the ultimate enemy—from outside and within.

These are dark times for the kingdom of Khalad. As the magical mists of the Veil devour the land, the populace struggles beneath the rule of ruthless noble houses and their uncaring immortal king.

Kat doesn’t care about any of that. A talented thief, she’s pursuing one big score that will settle the debt that destroyed her family. No easy feat in a realm where indentured spirits hold vigil over every vault and treasure room. However, Kat has a unique gift: She can speak to those spirits, even command them. She’ll need every advantage she can get.

Kat’s not a hero. She just wants to be free. To have her old life back. But as rebellion rekindles and the war for Khalid’s future begins, everyone—Kat included—will have to pick a side.

Matthew Ward is another new-to-me author, but lately Orbit has been on fire with introducing me to some top-notch fantasy authors who I haven’t read before. So while I didn’t know anything about this book going into it, I was still excited to start.

I tend to like books that have a lot of action and are faster-paced, and I knew right from the jump that I’d love this book. Readers are dropped right into a scene full of action, but it manages to avoid confusing the reader by offering too much or too little background information. We have just enough info to understand what is going on, and then more is presented as we get further into the story. The pace remains fast and full of action throughout the story, and I appreciated the consistency of the pace.

Kat is the main POV character, and the first one that we meet. She’s a young woman who has been orphaned, and she works as a thief to repay her father’s substantial debts, which have been passed on to her. But when a huge score that should pay off her debt goes wrong, forces outside her control take over her life and she’s pushed to reevaluate her life choices. 

Castellan Damant is the other POV character, and he’s also really interesting, but in a completely different way. He’s older than Kat, and has been working for Countess Bascari for decades. As such, he’s involved in working with law enforcement, the Voice that represents the king, and now “handling” the Countess, who is afflicted with a terminal illness that has an impact on her behavior. 

Both Kat and Damant are morally gray characters, but both undergo some serious character development throughout the story. For Kat, it’s about how she lives her life, what she wants her life to be like, and how she chooses to live it. For Damant, he engages in a period of reflection over the years of his life, and he evaluates what he wants his life to mean and what he wants to stand for. 

The side characters definitely made this even more of an enjoyable read. It would have been a boring story without Rima, Yali, Vallant, Yennika, and even Tatterlain to add some flair to the story, just to name a few of the characters that intrigued me the most. They were all well-developed characters, and I especially appreciated the disability representation that was present in the story: Yali is deaf, and Kat has vertigo. In Khalad, there is a system of sign language that most people do know that makes it possible to communicate, and this is well-represented in the story. Not all characters know sign language, and some can’t communicate with her, and while Yali can read lips, there are times where characters speak or shout to her when she isn’t looking at them, and it’s acknowledged that it’s pointless because she can’t hear it. Kat’s vertigo is dealt with a little differently, since it doesn’t affect her all the time, and isn’t something she shares with anyone. But it does have an impact on her functioning at times.

In this book, the world-building is fantastic. I’m a sucker for a fantasy book where there’s an element within the setting that is dangerous, in this case the mists of the Veil, which are deadly to people. There’s a magic system that involves various items that are powered by trapped souls, and Kat has a unique magical power that allows her to speak to and even control these souls. 

Overall, this was a really good read. I enjoyed much of it, including the characters, the plot and many twists (as you can tell by the gasp factor), the world-building and magic system, and the development of a found family bond, which is one of my favorite fantasy tropes. However, unlike most fantasy books I’ve read, this one seems to be missing an overarching plot or theme that gives the reader something to look forward to in the next book. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to read the next one because I adore the characters, but I was hoping for just a teeny bit more.

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 24