Weapons of Disharmony by Chad Retterath – A Review

I think it’s about time I start putting reviews on this blog. From now on, if I read a book that has less than a hundred reviews, I’ll say my piece about it. I might hit my backlog, too. Plenty of books I’ve read that deserve more reviews.

Here we go:

Weapons of Disharmony by Chad Retterath is a story I found both wide and small. It has it all: amazing swords and frightening magic, epic battles, tense politics, and a world full of titans, powers, and mystery. The unique elements of this story make it shine… without spoilers, I can say that the Bone Knight is awesome, and certain travelers and characters and Titans are unique and well-thought out. The pieces are there for an epic tale. Does Weapons of Disharmony succeed?

More or less.

The epic battle that concludes this twisted tale is worthy of the end of a trilogy, or a series years in the making. But that’s just the problem, in a way. This isn’t a series six years in the making, or a tale about a war that wages for years. It is an intimate story about a secret plot and long-held grudges formed in the shell of a war that doesn’t start for most of the book.

I struggled to relate to this book in the way the characters were presented. Chapter One spanned nearly a fifth of the book, followed nearly a dozen characters who had sometimes no relation to each other, and almost nothing happened. Just introductions. I nearly put the book down there. I had no idea what the story was about, beyond the cover blurb, at that point.

The book gets better about connecting things as it goes, but not about getting intimate with the characters. By the end of the tale the narrative hops from head to head every two paragraphs, or even two sentences! It’s hard not to get lost in it. Only about half a dozen of those characters really mattered to the main plot, and the book might have benefited from paring it down to focus on them.

That said, if the reader can handle the way the book is presented, and the many twists and turns of the meandering tale, there are some ideas and confrontations and battles here that will bring sweat to the palms and fire to the gut. If the above doesn’t sound like a dealbreaker, give it a go!

-Kyle Adams