Five years before the opening of BROKEN MOON—SCORNED LANDS, the gods murdered each other. Now humans, orks, dwarves, and other such races live on what remains, with a shattered moon hanging above them and every race doing what they can to protect themselves. Addas Dashag is a half-breed, half-ork guide whose mentor Chalk passed away not long ago but still advises (and mocks) Addas in his mind. But even as he navigates the apocalypse with a ghostly voice judging his every move, Addas has more to worry about. He’s been brought on to guide an expedition across this land, led by dwarven princes. They claim to be all business—but Addas and his new acquaintance Snat discover that their true mission may be more the stuff of legends.
Patrick Todoroff builds a fascinating world in BROKEN MOON—SCORNED LANDS. And while Addas and his party get plenty of character development (as Addas confronts both gentle memories of his mother and the orkish bloodlust of battle), it would be fair to say that the setting is the real protagonist. The story lays out history that everyone claims to know but no one truly understands, offering glimpses of that world at each stop. Here, the reader learns about an ancient, treasured map; there, the party meets a settlement of seemingly benign halflings and, through them, discovers how truly dog-eat-dog this fantasy apocalypse has become. But just as a reader might be feeling confident that they’ve put all the pieces together, everyone discovers a series of terrifying truths that lead into the next novel.
While the worldbuilding and characterization are both solid, what’s especially intriguing is the seeding of tiny, surprisingly familiar touchstones. The words of real-world film and literature creep in when the reader least expects it, as one character beckons characters “further up and further in,” recites Sam’s famous “potatoes” line from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and casually recites a passage in R’lyehian. Most fantasy readers would be content to count any and all of these as cheeky references, but there is a looming implication that these words do indeed come from another place. Whether it’s a sign that there is some universe-hopping to come, or just a way to indicate how broken this world is, it’s an intriguing bit of business.
BROKEN MOON—SCORNED LANDS is as rough and dirty and dark as its setting, and that’s a good thing. More than anything, Todoroff’s characters feel like real, normal people broken by something bigger and meaner than them. Orks and dwarves they may be, but they’re all people abandoned by the gods they trusted. The book is surprisingly immersive, pulling the reader along with a flood of images that all settle themselves as the story progresses.
A promising beginning to an epic series, Patrick Todoroff’s BROKEN MOON—SCORNED LANDS builds a shattered world seeded with hints of something both greater and more familiar.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader