Absolutely LOVED it!!

Very disappointing, an excellent premise that was ruined by wooden writing and barely two-dimensional characters. This felt like YA without the charm.

If one wanted to make a brief summary of this book, one could speak of the history of the Roman Empire with the addition of magic. Apart from this skeleton, the story encompasses a bit of all human feelings, from friendship to filial piety, from ambition to betrayal, from pride to a sense of duty. The protagonists are Bordan, a general of the empire, and his nephew Kyron, a magician's apprentice, united by what can only be called extreme trust in their fellow man, something that will ultimately lose them both, although Kyron will somehow find salvation by distancing himself from everything he knows.
All in all, a good book, with some long-windedness, and the particularly irritating detail of passages of past history at the beginning of each chapter.

“the moment we no longer seek new knowledge, we stop living”

seven deaths is written from two perspectives - the forever loyal general bordan, and young apprentice magician kyron. the narrative in itself was not particularly poetic like the fantasy i tend to read, as the book leans into sci-fi and grimdark fantasy, but i felt as though that aided the general setting of the book and the imposing image of the empire. despite my lack of love for militia based writing, the short and fast-paced chapters allowed me to look forward to returning to the magician's perspective, whilst simultaneously enjoying the general’s view. i also felt as though the dual narrative helped to maintain the focus of the story, as well as building the tension, as i constantly wanted to know what was happening on the other side of the empire. as well as this, at the start of each chapter matthews includes a piece of text from the past, going from 10 years ago to 2 years ago, and the plot twist that this was relevant to only clicked for me about a chapter before said twist occurred.

general bordan is beginning to feel his years after decades of dedication to the empire when his friend, the emperor, dies. it falls upon bordan to hold together the capital until the heir, prince alhard, can be crowned, but alas the prince makes hasty and violent decisions that reinforce the reader’s recognition of bordan’s patience. on the other side of the empire, kyron and his haster are tasked with accompanying the emperor’s body through enemy territory and tribes until he can be returned to the capital, and provide the heir with the ‘flame’ (soul and memories). what i loved about both perspectives is the fact that actions do have consequences, this is not fantasy in the sense that people can merely be revived following their death. from the title alone it is clear that mortality and human suffering is an explicit theme, and this is explored from the very first pages. despite this, there is always a sense of hope lightly threaded throughout the narrative that builds the tension and encourages you to keep reading. in terms of the militia and battles i mentioned before, the narrative follows the scenes so clearly that it kept me engaged and allowed me to truly understand each detail of what was happening, something that i find usually lacks in scenes of conflict.

one of the strongest aspects of this story for me was kyron’s journey. at the start of the book his beliefs are that of the empire, mirroring bordan’s perspective, however throughout his tale he is forced to face his prejudices and realise that everything he has been taught has been conditioned into him from the empire for their success. this does not occur immediately, he is depicted as naive until the very end and his vulnerability is still explored throughout, but he gains agency and a sense of individuality. his character development builds alongside his growing relationship with the guide emlyn, who does not fear talking of propaganda against the empire and making her opinion evident to anybody who would listen. as emlyn and kyron are forced together throughout their physical journey they become closer emotionally, and complement each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and i cannot wait to see how this is explored in sequels !

actual rating: 3.5/5

Well, this one was quite fun. While it wasn't anything groundbreaking, it does have an enjoyable plot and a familiar ancient roman setting.

I love how interesting the characters are, but I just can't seem to get attached to any of them. It's like in theory, they are interesting and they *should* be some of my favorite characters, but they aren't. And this is also how I felt for pretty much every aspect of the book. The worldbuilding is solid, the plot is enjoyable, but they never go beyond that to really set this book apart.

And while the politics and power play kept things interesting, the ending just fell flat to me and honestly felt out of place. I do feel like this book could be more but I still had an enjoyable time reading this and I think this book would be a nice choice for beginners to fantasy.