It’s evident that someone has played a lot of D&D!
The title tells you everything: six heroes, one suicide mission against the Liche Queen, and an explicit promise that none will return. It's an elevator pitch, and Greenfeld delivers on it.
The structure is simple and effective. A group of champions is recruited by the king after a tournament fair: the archer, the swordswoman, the wrestler, the woodcutter, the old soldier, the seer. They are teleported into the Liche Queen's domain and must fight their way to her tower. One by one, they fall. Some to age, some to cowardice, some by deliberate choice.
The most interesting character is Shai, the seer who knows from the beginning how it will end but [SPOILER!]. It's a genuine tragic dilemma, and the book works best when exploring this tension.
The action scenes are cinematic and clear. Greenfeld knows how to handle group combat without confusing the reader, and the creatures, wights, a Dark Captain, spiked abominations, have physical presence.
Where the book doesn't convince is in depth. The characters are functional to their roles, the brute, the treacherous archer, the competent swordswoman, but they don't breathe beyond that. The worldbuilding is standard medieval fantasy with a Liche Queen who could come from any D&D campaign.
It’s a solid and entertaining book.
Everyone dies. But what if dying is the system?
In Greenfeld's world, death is the price of a suicide mission. In the Motherverse, death at forty isn't tragedy — it's policy.
Read: The Selection →ARC copy received in exchange for an honest review.
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