The Last Blade Priest (Angry Robot, July 2022). Cover design by Alice Claire Coleman

I’m a little late out of the gate with this one. The Last Blade Priest came out last summer and I ignored it, despite the warm reviews from most of the usual sources (GrimDark Magazine called it “a brilliant epic… one of my favorite new releases of this year,” and Publishers Weekly said it’s “gripping… demonstrates the value of thoughtful, well-planned worldbuilding.”)

But it wasn’t until I stumbled across Ian Mond’s review at Locus Online last fall (“The Last Blade Priest… unashamedly embraces the tropes of epic fan­tasy – the political shenanigans, complex magic systems, and ancient, enigmatic Gods – that make the genre so much fun to read”) that my interest was finally piqued, and I bought a copy.

Here’s a longer snippet from Mond’s review.

W.P. Wiles, who, when writing as Will Wiles, is known for his dark, edgy, literary books… In complete contrast, his latest novel, The Last Blade Priest, the first book in a planned series, unashamedly embraces the tropes of epic fan­tasy – the political shenanigans, complex magic systems, and ancient, enigmatic Gods – that make the genre so much fun to read.

The Last Blade Priest centres on two protago­nists, Inar and Anton. Inar is a Master Builder whose father – the Chief Builder – betrayed the Kingdom of Mishig-Tenh to the League of Free Nations, supplying intel on the weakest points in the capital city’s defences…. our second protagonist Anton [is] a ver-tzan, one of two blade priests chosen at the age of eight to tear out the hearts of sacrificial victims and feed the bloody organs to the Custodians…

As the plot heats up, as the death toll mounts, and as Anton and Inar’s paths cross, the originality of the world Wiles’s has created, a world he hoped would pay homage to the adventures he read as a child, shines through… the fact that magic-users are considered abominations (they’re called scourges), coupled with the revelation that Duna, Anzola’s young, prickly ward, is a ruin scourge, adds a level of tension and drama that’s as much about the characters (especially Inar’s reaction to Duna’s identity) as it is about how the magic functions. I also loved Wiles’s delicious twist on the traditional Elf, the novel’s antagonists… The revelation of their true nature – which I wouldn’t dare spoil – is both brilliant and something I’ve never seen done before…

While Wiles doesn’t end the first volume on a cliff-hanger, the climax, which opens up several tantalising pos­sibilities, promises a sequel that’s likely to be as clev­erly structured and stylish as The Last Blade Priest.

Read the whole thing here.

The Last Blade Priest was published by Angry Robot on July 12, 2022. It is 509 pages, priced at $15.99 in trade paperback and $6.99 in digital formats. The cover was designed by Alice Claire Coleman. Get all the details at the Angry Robot website.

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