Noping out at page 28, due to style issues with which I cannot be having. I am quite liking the extremely feudal-Japanese setting (though it is laying on a bit thick), but the author's style is profligate with details, often to no apparent purpose whether narrative or rhythmic. There was a female character introduced that I liked the look of in general terms, but her introduction was half a dozen pages of nothing-happening and woffle.

Mostly, though, it's those style issues that are making me put the book down before I throw it down. The page that made me flip my lid includes:
- an info-dump about yet another element of the world (there had been a few of these already). It was about an order of warrior-mages who were "obliterated centuries ago", though a few sentences later the narrator noted that "Normal folk getting caught up in the machinations [of this bunch] rarely fared well". Does that happen often, when they were obliterated centuries ago?
- the sentence: "Like the rest of the city, everything Narin knew of the Astaren came through rumour and myth." Which I had to read twice because the first time my brain was trying to ascribe that everything to the like the rest of the city. You know, like grammar works.
- random moment of head-hopping
- and again, the sentence: "His curled greying eyebrows twitched as he thought, absent-mindedly twisting the bone fetish around his neck through his fingers." Those are some alarmingly interventionist eyebrows, dude, you should get that under control.

At this point, because I was ranting out loud about it, my weary husband (trying to read his own book) said, "Why are you reading this, then?"

Good point, Mr Dee. Good point.

(Am I overly pedantic about points of grammar? On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, these were genuinely impeding the flow of my reading, because every time I encountered a sentence that messed around like that, I had to read it twice because the first time through, my brain attached the grammatically-right though authorially-wrong object to the subordinate clause. Anything that impedes the reader's effortless flow through your story is wrong bad naughty. Grammar is there to help the reader get your meaning without even remembering there are rules about this. Grammar is the churning swan legs beneath the gliding elegance of your prose. Love it. Learn it. Fucking use it.)

Hard-boiled detective story meets a different fantasy world where caste is rigid, you can ascend to become a god and demons haunt the world. When Narin, an investigator, renders a man unconscious by accident, this starts a sequence that will embroil him in a lot of politics and a lot of complex messy world-changing stuff.

And I loved the complex world and the complex politics and the hints of crumbly foundations to the world's messy traditions and I really want more of this. ( )

I guess cops are the next big thing in fantasy ;) Here we got Narin who is a Lawbringer so when he "accidentally" knocks down a guy he sets out to investigate what on earth is going on. There are baddies, demons, poison and something that would rock the empire to it's core.

Narin was a good guy, sure he did not make the best of choices (one in particular), but that just made him human. And he really did love working as a Lawbringer and protecting the innocent. It was a true cat and mouse game. Luckily he had some help, very mysterious Enchei who was a tattoo artist. Kesh, a young woman on the run. Rhe, Narin's mentor, whom I really liked. And of course a strange assassin without any memories.

I think that what I liked most was that it was a world where some humans had found a way to ascend and become Gods. I would have loved to learn more. If they were really good at what they did, then they might just become the god of that, like the God Lawbringer. It was also a world that had known it's fair share of war and there empire was made up of powerful Houses who ruled.

And of course I must mention that it's gun powder fantasy. But yes some of the powerful are allowed to have guns. A world caught between the old and the new is always fascinating.

What I liked most was the end, do not get me wrong. There was a conclusion so I was all yay! But at the same time I now want more, so that was bad in a good way ;)

An interesting world ( )

Full Review: http://tenaciousreader.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/moons-artifice-by-tom-lloyd/

In short, I think this book is under-hyped. I am really surprised I have not seen more recommendations or reviews for it. A well written fantasy with mystery, intrigue, conspiracy, and all the rest of that good stuff. Oh yeah, and assassins. ( )

This is another great book from Tom! Slightly more contained in events and characters than the epic "Twilight Reign" series, I quite enjoyed the world in which is set.
The characters are very well drawn, and I love reading fantasy with key/important/not-merely-supporting-the-teen main older people - for me, both Enchei and Rhe stole the show, for different reasons, and I'd love to read more about them. Kesh also turned out to be a great surprise, and I loved the ending :)
Bring on the next! ( )