4.5 out of 5 stars
Malum is an Ashes of Eternity Novella (though at nearly 9 hours – I would call this a normal novel, but that’s semantics). I’ve read other books from Jeremy Spires but I’m always excited to check out a collaboration to see what other authors bring to the table. Knowing that I excitedly dove into this one.
I think one of the things that I like about this series is that it’s just absolutely no-holds-barred. Spires and Koneci do not hold any punches and just go for the jugular throughout. This is definitely one of the books (and series) that I can tell that authors use as an escape from real life and just write some of the darkest and most gritty things they can think of. Malum was a really well-thought-out novella that flowed from action scene to action scene.
The main point of the book (mentioned in the opening of the description so no spoilers) is a religious war, especially the war between the people of the world. The cover gives that away a little with the cross on the shoulder of the soldier. While normally a book about religion would be a turn-off for me – this one was well thought out. And since it was set in the future it didn’t feel like either author was trying to sway me or sell me on anything. Thankfully, this made the action scenes make more sense and honestly made the book even better. It could have gotten bogged down in the details but it didn’t.
Overall, Malum (and the entire Ashes series so far) have been gritty, war-torn blasts that I fly through in a few sittings. I thought that Maxwell Zener did a great job bringing the characters to life and really made this book even better.
If you’re looking for a futuristic book that isn’t afraid of violence but also has an interesting plot-line and great characters – definitely check this one out.