Book Review: Faithless by Graham Austin King
FAITHLESS by Graham Austin King is a dark and disturbing tale of a man sold into slavery by his father to the Temple of the Forgemaster. Life is miserable and horrific there as the majority of the temple's inhabitants labor in the dark mines until they die of exhaustion. There is a way out of the doom, though, but that requires playing the games of the temple and catering to the corruption within.
Wynn is the more naive of the two protagonists as he just wants to get out of his horrific situation. Kharios, by contrast, is far more cynical and manipulative. He'll do anything to get ahead and thinks that Wynn is a gullible fool that can be used to win favor with the more cruel as well as lustful clergymen. By the end, both of them will be influenced by another with Wynn becoming more willing to do horrible things to protect himself.
The worldbuilding for the setting is well done. The Nine Kingdoms once were dominated by temples to the Forgemaster faith. Unfortunately, for them, the church's relentless corruption and abuse of power has resulted in it becoming blackened to the point that only the grand temple remains. Even then, it is clearing out the ruins around older temples buried deeper in the mines to provide itself the wealth to continue functioning.
There's such a strong sense of claustrophobia in the temple of the Forgemaster. The book is smart enough to keep all of the action located in either the temple above or the mines below. There's no monsters, Balrogs, or other creatures present but the human evil is enough. There's fantasy elements other than the secondary world setting but I would be spoiling to talk too much about them.
A warning for those who are worried about sexual violence, though. The character of Ossan is a Forgemaster priest who abuses the youths of the church while also attempting to explore the lost texts of the religion. He's a villain and it's handled off camera with a focus on the victims but this is something I suspect that readers should be warned about.
In conclusion, Faithless is an excellent novel and a good standalone for those who are hesitant to beginning a new series. It is a story about the fall of a grandiose ediface due to the infighting within as well as how that place can carry on based purely on inertia as well as the wealth it has prolferated. It is not an anti-religion screed, though, but very much the people who have betrayed its principles.
