The Silverblood Promise by James Logan – Review

Published: May 7, 2024

Publisher: Tor Books

Series: The Last Legacy #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 528 (Kindle)

My Rating: 4 Stars

Synopsis:
Set in a city of traders and thieves, monsters and murderers, this page-turning epic fantasy debut is a must-read for fans of Nicholas Eames and Joe Abercrombie.

Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away.

When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death.

His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow.

For in Saphrona, everything has a price—and the price of truth is the deadliest of all.

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I’ve been looking for a book that scratches the nostalgic Lies of Locke Lamora itch. The Silverblood Promise hits many of those same notes while playing a unique song of its own. It has a deadly criminal underworld, a mysterious old ‘blind’ man that provides advice, and it’s set in a city built on the bones of a dead civilization.

The Silverblood Promise follows Lukan Gardova, a disgraced noble’s son who is trying to find out who killed his father and why his father wrote a note in his own blood containing three words:

Lukan. Saphrona. Zandrusa.

The first step in his journey is getting to the city of Saphrona. The next is finding out who or what Zandrusa is, which leads him into the company of a street rat named Flea. Flea leads him to an old blind man named Obassa who tells Lukan of Zandrusa and the new name she uses as one of the merchant princes of Saphrona. Unfortunately for Lukan, Zandrusa is imprisoned for the murder of another merchant prince – a man she was allied with and would have never murdered. This leads Lukan on a series of ill-planned and dangerous quests that drag him into Saphrona’s underworld and the circles of the nobility. Sometimes these are one in the same. 

Lukan is a likable character and what he lacks in cleverness he makes up for with determination and a good heart. He’s not the traditional hero character, but he’s clearly a good person despite past mistakes. Flea is a delight. She is a classic sneakthief character and even at probably half his age, is cleverer than Lukan but just as stubborn. She’s the entire reason why he survives in Saphrona because he knows nothing. These are our two primary characters for most of the book, though toward the end we are introduced to Lady Midnight, a renowned thief who has her own reasons for assisting Lukan and Flea in their quest to free Zandrusa and stop events that could lead to a war.

The Silverblood Promise is a wonderful fast-paced tale with plenty of sneaking, conning, and heist activities to keep anyone entertained. It introduces readers to what will likely be a much larger scale story that takes place in numerous locations, as at the end our characters are headed to another distant city to discover more about what Lukan’s father was working on. This series has a ton of potential, particularly because this is a debut novel. The writing is polished and the dialogue is on point, two things that many debuts struggle with, but not this one! I can’t wait to see what adventures James Logan takes readers on next.