Seven Forges by James A. Moore

Captain Merros Dulver is the first in many lifetimes to find a path beyond the great mountains known as the Seven Forges and encounter, at last, the half-forgotten race who live there. And it would appear that they were expecting him. As he returns home, bringing an entourage of strangers with him, he starts to wonder whether his discovery has been such a good thing. For the gods of this lost race are the gods of war, and their memories of that far-off cataclysm have not faded.

The people of Fellein have live with legends for many centuries. To their far north, the Blasted Lands, a legacy of an ancient time of cataclysm, are vast, desolate and impassable, but that doesn't stop the occasional expedition into their fringes in search of any trace of the ancients who had once lived there... and oft-rumored riches. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

First off let me just go ahead and put my big ole spoiler banner up!



Now let me get this out of the way; I freaking love Drask Silver Hand and he does have a metal hand that feels like a regular hand. He's one of my new book boyfriends and he's bad to the bone! 




He can soothe my itch any day - okay so you get the point!



Captain Merros Dulver (loved this character too) is sent on a mission to try to find what is beyond the Seven Forges. Turns out he finds more than he was thinking he would. Most people don't even come back from this journey through he Blasted Lands, it's just too harsh. Oh and there are these big ole monster things called the pra-moresh that will kill and eat you and your army.

On this little journey Merros and his people are attacked by a bunch of those creatures and it doesn't go well for some. They manage to kill a few with all of them fighting but they see this massive man on a beast reptile thingy that take down a few of them on his own. Merros wants to know who this man is and this is how we meet Drask Silver Hand. The Emperor's Sorcerer sent some women with the group and they make it so Drask and Merros can understand each other as Drask has a different kind of language.

Drask wants to take the group back to the Seven Forges and his home so Merros can meet one of the kings. It all goes well and they send some warriors back with Merros along with one of their kings and of course, Drask.

They meet with the Emperor and they find out this race of people are called the Sa'ba Taalor. They are a sort of grey people and I have already said they are huge, even the women. They are all muscle and kick ass and they live by their gods. They start training when they are little kids on how to forge their own weapons, farming, fighting, etc. They are cool and I love them. Well, I did in this book, who knows what will happen later on.

The Sa'ba Taalor want to be friends with the people of Fellein. They even go and help one of the Emperor's mates down the way that have some other people getting ready to attack them. Drask sends 10 of his people along with Merros to show what they can do. Most of them were women warriors and they basically take out 1000 or more men, although the majority were asleep in their tents. But still, that's some sh*t! And the leader of this little band is named Swech and she's bad to the bone too, they all are, every single one. Swech and Merros get a little something going on, but it's not graphic. The only graphic parts are the blood and guts and bashing of bones, ya know - that stuff =)

He looked at her more closely and saw the bandages on her left arm and on both legs, as well as across her neck. She had received several injuries to his one scratch. Then again, he had only killed one man. Who knew exactly how many she was responsible for?

"Will they go back to their people and say they were attacked?"
"There are none to go anywhere."
"What do you mean?"
"There are no survivors." Her words were calm. Merros felt a deep chill creep through him.
"All of them?"
She reached out and touched the wound on his arm. "You should tend to that. There is always a risk of infection."

"You killed all of them?" He had to ask a second time, had to make sure that he had heard what he thought he'd heard. Madness, it had to be.

"They cannot go home and claim they were attacked by King Marsfel and his people They cannnot go home and report anything to anyone." Her logic was flawless, of course.

Oh, and terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
 
So a bunch of other stuff goes down and - wait- I forgot to mention the Sa'ba Taalor can heal themselves with metal. I don't know the whole story behind that yet but it is cool as hell! So the bunch of other stuff goes down and then the Sa'ba Taalor decide they are going home. Merros sees his new friends off and thinks he's going to have a normal day.



Some woman creeps out and kills the Emperor and pushes him out the window. Really? Then some @sshat that's over the whole army thing whatever sends soldiers after the Sa'ba Taalor. Dude, what part of your dumb as hell don't you understand?



Merros finds out and freaks clean out and pretty much tells him he's an idiot and he watched them leave way before the Emperor was killed. And of course nothing goes well for the soldiers that went and attacked them. Hello? I mean is anybody home? NO! And you know what these means . . . a freaking war that doesn't need to be, at least from all I read in the first book. There may be stuff we don't know in the other books. But still!







I hope everything turns out okay in the other books. Now I have to go on Amazon and buy all of them and worry! Damn it all!

GOODREADS REVIEW:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1810757874

AMAZON LINK TO THE BOOK:

https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Forges-Book/dp/0857663836/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479849294&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+forges