David Estes’s Fatemarked (The Fatemarked Epic #1)
Description
Four kingdoms remain locked in the Hundred Years War, and the Fatemarks are only beginning to come into play.
Fatemarks, tattooyas, skinmarks, sinmarks – everyone has a name for them, but very few people are born with the mysterious marks on their skin. Marks that show a person has unique powers beyond human ability.
As the first dominoes begin to fall from a forgotten prophecy about the Fatemarks, and the four warring kingdoms itch for another battle, the tangled dance of history and prophecy begins to show.
Disclosure
I personally bought this book. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.
Review – Spoiler Free
I had seen David Estes’s The Fatemarked Epic series recommended a few times as having a similar style to Michael J. Sullivan’s epic fantasy work (read my review of one of his books, Age of Myth, here). While I can see the reasoning – some types of characters, some styles of interactions, and an increasingly complex medieval-style fantasy world – the overall feel of Fatemarked is already darker than much of Sullivan’s writing in his fantasy world, Elan. I would compare Fatemarked’s darker feel more to A. C. Cobble’s gritty Conspiracy (read my review of Conspiracy, the first book in the Wahrheit series, here), than to Sullivan’s work.
Fatemarked has a lot of death and on-page violence, plenty of dark characters with less than good intentions, and some morally grey situations at the heart of the story. And it’s all probably only going to increase as the series continues. So, if you enjoy reading Sullivan for the levity and hope, and are considering Fatemarked as a comparable read, I’d suggest steering clear.
There are quite a few fun characters and interesting storylines, but those don’t do much to lighten the feel of the book as a whole. Most of the characters I liked, but there was one main character I didn’t care for, and found myself wanting to skip past the chapters written from their point of view (POV).
Written third person with the chapters bouncing from one main character’s POV to another, chapter headers included both the POV character’s name as well as their location in the world. This was helpful at the start, and I found that as I got familiar with the story, Estes’s writing easily led me to understand which character each chapter was following. One of the last few chapters, set in the middle of the main conflict, has multiple sections that bounce between three of the main characters and, despite the breaks and jumps, it reads very smoothly.
There is a lot of plot development and character introduction in Fatemarked, as I would expect in any fantasy series. The story progresses along slowly for much of the book, the plot building to the fast paced main conflict at the end that is very obviously the beginning of bigger things and setting a strong base to start book 2, Truthmarked.
While I love a fast paced read, I know the benefit of slower scenes, and Fatemarked has one written particularly well. When a side character of importance dies, the reader knows very little of them, yet grieves their death more than any of the other deaths in Fatemarked. It reminded me of a similar scene in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising, and is a great example of Estes’s writing leading you to care and feel for the characters.
In contrast, there are multiple scenes between a specific main character and a side character, where the side character is repeatedly described as being cold to them and yet instead repeatedly acts in ways that support and befriend them. The side character isn’t meant to seem flighty or indecisive, so it comes across as Estes trying to build up something that just doesn’t fit. A few other side characters’ interactions also seemed to swing in a similar way with the same main character. And it’s the main character I didn’t care for – maybe it’s not that I didn’t care for them so much as I didn’t care for the writing in the scenes they were in.
Overall, I liked David Estes’s Fatemarked, it’s got a lot of potential that can be teased out in the rest of the series, but it also hasn’t quite hooked me yet. I like the story in Fatemarked, but can feel it’s dark vibe building. I’ll be continuing the series with book two, Truthmarked, but will be taking the series one book at a time, since I’m not a fan of darker writing or of the grittiness that usually accompanies it. I would recommend Fatemarked to people who like epic fantasy and tangled storylines, and who would enjoy the dark, gritty road that this series seems destined for.
Quote
Two quotes for this book, because I didn’t want to choose one over the other. The first gives a great idea of the book’s dark feel, while the second is just a good quote applicable to everyday life.
All he knew was that the current status quo hadn’t worked for hundreds of ears, the Four kingdoms locked in a war that killed thousands each year, leaving the land filled with orphans and widows and sadness.
Fatemarked, David Estes
But heroes are not born, they are grown. Each choice is a drop of water, each experience a ray of sunlight. They grow, day by day, until they are the tallest tree in the forest, willing to protect all who live under their shadow.
Gwendolyn Storm (Fatemarked, David Estes)
Ratings
- Quality of Writing – 4
- Plot – 3
- World Building – 4
- Characters – 3
- Ease of Reading – 4
- Overall Enjoyment – 3
- Final Rating – 3.5 (Actual: #3.5) – Liked It / Really Liked It
Want to learn more about the numbers I use for rating, and the qualities I’m thinking about when writing a book review? Check out my post How I Rate and Review.