Balthazar’s Bane
Kat Ross
(Gaslamp Gothic, #6)
Published by: Acorn Publishing
Publication date: July 31st 2020
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal, Retelling
A bungled murder.
A ridiculous quest.
And a hero with extremely dodgy credentials.
Christmas 1889. Count Balthazar Jozsef Habsburg-Koháry tries to lead a simple life.
Oh, he enjoys a few hobbies.
Collecting ancient Egyptian artifacts. Hunting necromancers with a wire garrote. Impersonating dead Hungarian nobility. Seducing an endless string of women who never suspect the price of the count’s attentions.
But considering what Balthazar used to be like, these pursuits are harmless. And surely he deserves a reward for assassinating the elusive necromancer John Mortlake in the middle of Cairo’s teeming bazaar. What could be better than a holiday cruise up the Nile with his secretary Lucas Devereaux?
There’s just one thing that might ruin his mood.
If, for example, someone stole the talisman that’s kept him alive for two thousand years.
That would really suck.
Unfortunately for Balthazar, he just killed the wrong necromancer – one with a vengeful daughter and huge debts to some very shady djinn. To get his mojo back, he and Lucas must find a legendary sword and liberate a desert kingdom of magical misfits. For centuries, the people of Al Miraj have sought a valiant champion willing to face the wrath of the arch demon Fulad-zereh!
What they get is Balthazar.
But the gods always did like a good joke.
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Review:
An oldie but a goodie!
By oldie, I am talking of Balthazar of course, I mean he must near two thousand years old now and maybe even older… LOL
Having said that, and apparently I woke up in a goofy mood today, I am really glad he has his own story here going on. For those of you visiting for the first time here today, then Balthazar was introduced in The Fourth Element series. If I am not mistaken, he appeared first in book 2 Blood of the Prophet (It’s been a long time now, so I could be wrong…).
You can read this book as a standaone for sure, but as I always say, reading the background stories always takes it to the next level. However, here there are 2 series to read, plus let’s not forget the previous books of this current one… so it will keep you busy friends.
We are still more or less in quarantine and I have nothing better to do than read and watch Chinese fantasy dramas (don’t ask!) but you can very much read and enjoy Balthazar’s Bane without all that background info…
Balthazar was always an interesting character as he is a good mix of good and bad and he has changed so much over the centuries… We see him earlier in this current series but now he gets to have his own adventure and I enjoyed it.
Though the book is not super fast paced (sigh), we do get some killer moments. Careful, spoilers ahead …. here we have a bit of a Hunger Games situation going on, or I should say Battle Royale (original inspiration) and those moments were fun. I love my ass kicking moments the rest for me was slow but I supposed it was to be able to build tension and give us a wider picture…
So based on what I have seen, we might see some characters we discovered here for the first time in coming books as well and now come to think of it, I cannot remember for the life of me when we last saw Lysandros (heeelllppp!!!). All that being said, someone experienced tremedous growth and I cannot wait to see what he does next.
A standout here is our main girl Zarifa, cracked me up especially at the end of the book and I was aughing so hard. I am also assuming we will cross paths with her in the future as well.
That girl is a minx and I so totally love her!
I had fun reading Balthazar’s Bane especially the fights and escaping death moments, and to be honest it is a great as every other Kat novel. We all know that I love all of her works and it would take a lot to disappoint me. The only thing I would say is please more ass kicking Kat… pretty please but other than that I have 0 complaints.
If you have read the other series so frankly you know what is coming, if you have not and that is the first time discovering this book or Kat in general, then I would say to go from the start and The Midnight Sea (you will thank me later) especially if you are like me and have time on your hands then go for it!
I am going to very highly recomment Balthazar’s Bane and hope you love it as much as I did! Can’t wait to see who we will cover next…
Author Bio:
Kat Ross worked as a journalist at the United Nations for ten years before happily falling back into what she likes best: making stuff up. She’s the author of the Fourth Element and Fourth Talisman fantasy series, the Gaslamp Gothic paranormal mysteries, and the dystopian thriller Some Fine Day. She loves myths, monsters and doomsday scenarios. Check out Kat’s Pinterest page for the people, places and things that inspire her books.
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