Book Review: The Price of Power by Michael Michel
The Price of Power is a powerhouse of a grimdark debut full of questionable morals, histories rich in dangerous magics and characters you don’t know if you should be rooting for.
Political tension rises throughout a land on the precipice of war. To save the world each must pay a price. Failure is not an option, to fail, is to bring annihilation.
The “Mad Prince” Barodane Ironlight is the descendant of a well-loved King. For fourteen years he has lived his life in secret as the drug dealing addict by the name of Kord. Residing in a place for the scum of the earth, Digtown serves his purposes well. He has a roof, one person he can trust and a constant supply of Godsthorne. But hunting the high night after night comes to a bloody end when Kord finds himself pushed out of his dealings and death follows his footsteps. His past will call, but will he answer? To become the great Barodane, once more.
Princess Ishoa stands in line for the throne as the Ice Queens only living heir. She must learn the ways of the court, even the harsh ones. She must undergo the trials to take her place among the court if she is to make any sort of change. Her innocence will be tested to unleash the anger within. She has a choice. Betray her country, or sacrifice the one she loves.
Locastrtrii is a God. One who can manipulate time. A commodity she is running out of at rapid speed. She knows what she must do. The other Gods inside of her head tell her constantly. Get close to the boy, train the boy but know that he must die. If only that boy was not her grandson.
Too weak to take his life, Thephos ventures to Unturrus. A place where the hopeful go to ascend. For him, it is a means to an end. He is there to die, but he is surrounded by 9 others hoping for power. For those that reach the hall of heroes become an awakened, a God, with powers unimaginable to the human world. There is something else not many people know about the ascent. Where there is good, there is evil, and the chance of falling into the madness of the ruptured is also on the cards. Demons wait him at every turn, and he has chosen the wrong time, to decide he wants to live.
The Price of Power is a ballsey debut and I loved it. Highly entertaining, this grimdark is not afraid to take risks. The first thing I will mention is the sheer scope of the book. Each POV showcases a different walk of live within the world with some small link to the others. We get to see the nitty, gritty of what this world has to offer, from the court intrigue to the trenches of war. This 700-page chonker feels as big as you would expect it to.
I was also really impressed with the pacing. Blown away actually. Sometimes when you get a long book like this, the middle can drag as the author finds ways to connect the dots between beginning and end. Utilising a different tense for one of the characters gave every few chapters a fresh feel and the POV’s were split up well. Every time I found myself thinking about a different character to the one I was reading, their chapter would come up in the next 10-15 pages, like the author could read my mind. For a bigger book, this was very easy to read in a couple of sittings, I didn’t want to put it down.
I have to mention the characters, there were many and they were awesome. There is not one character in this story I didn’t enjoy, which is so rare for a book with a multi POV. Each character had their own lives which were vastly different to the others. Within their lives they had their own friends, enemies and problems going on that all felt real and authentic to those stories being told. Each character had a clear set of motivations that shifted along with the story and as the reader I felt like I was progressing with them as they learnt the lessons taught. It was a very cool experience.
Lastly, I loved the magic. To become a magic user, you had to be an awakened. To become an awakened, you had to ascent Unturrus and make it out alive. A feat which has proved near impossible for many before. The powers granted to you are not guaranteed, you could be blessed with a number of abilities, or you could be cursed and driven to madness. We got to see some of the awakened in action through all of our characters eyes. I loved that this was a soft magic system with hard rules, it was a lot of fun to uncover through the pages. Gods behaving badly? I am a SUCKER for it.
The Price of Power is going to be for fans of a multi POV that does not shy away from the harsher elements of life. This book takes risks, it will have you on the edge of your seat and maybe cursing the author one or two times for certain events. In a good way, I promise.
Having been on the BETA team for this book, I am honestly so impressed with the amount of work that has been put into this to make it such an entertaining read.
