Book Review: The Game of War by Glen Dahlgren

Genre(s): Epic fantasy / Young Adult

Dantess is a boy who dreams of following in his grandfather’s footsteps and hopes to one day convince his father to allow him to test at the Temple of War. His father does his best to keep Dantess away from the temple; after all, he knows the truth of the priesthood and wants what’s best for his son.

But when events spiral beyond their control, Dantess finds himself in a difficult position. He can agree to test at the temple in exchange for seeing his father again, and perhaps helping him, or he can walk away and leave his father to be tortured and interrogated for a crime he likely had no part of.

I picked this book up after reading the SPFBO8 review for it (posted by Becky M). The review made it sound interesting and like something I’d enjoy, even though at the beginning of the book Dantess was a young teenager. (YA fantasy isn’t something I typically gravitate toward.) About mid-way through, the story skips ahead a couple years. He’s still a teenager at that point, so this one is definitely YA. Based on Becky M’s review, I was hoping the time skip would have been a bit more significant.

The story follows the typical “chosen one” theme. Dantess has always wanted to enter the temple of War as a priest. During his testing at the temple, he inexplicably discovers his “Longing,” the mark that the god of War has indeed chosen him. At the beginning of the book, it was made pretty clear that he’s been practicing combat with his friend Jyn for years. She almost always bests him, but he suddenly experiences the Longing while fighting her as part of his test in the temple.

I had my theory as to why he didn’t experience it sooner, but it wasn’t confirmed until the end of the book. (I was right.)

Anyway, he joins the temple to free his father and Jyn’s mother. Skip ahead two years. The parents are still imprisoned, but Dantess is now a priest with his own squad, and he’s quickly working his way up the ranks. But he’s incredibly naïve, even after two years at the temple, and he makes a number of mistakes. I get that he’s young, but the fact that he continually found himself in the same situations was a little aggravating. Dantess’ actions were a bit too predictable for my liking, and he continued to follow the same script through the end of the book.

As an antagonist, Kevik was cunning and cruel. He made for an okay villain, but the motivation behind why he was so set on ruining Dantess’ life was never explained. I like my villains to have a reason behind their actions, and Kevik’s seemed to be nothing more than pure spite because Dantess was there. Kevik’s character served his purpose well enough in the story, but I wish there had been a little more depth to him. His actions were also very predictable.

Now the worldbuilding in this one was pretty interesting. There’s a series of temples, each devoted to a different god. Those who experience the Longing toward a certain god will inevitably find themselves in the temple, and after testing, will become priests/priestesses. Anyone who tests but shows no indication of the god’s favor remain in the temple as conscripted servants. They’re often tattooed to mark them as property of the temple, and are considered “faithless.” Common people are expected to pay a tithe to the temples, and failure to do so will land them in jail, often in the temple of Evil (as you’d expect, it’s a bad place to wind up.)

There are also various artifacts kept by the priesthoods that are supposedly imbued with the power of their gods. The token of War Dantess receives allows him access to the collective knowledge of every priest who carried the token before him. It’s a handy item when faced with dangerous situations—and one many priests of his order rely on too much.

Then there are the Harbingers of Chaos, who aim to disrupt the order of the world and the temples. As a priest, one of Dantess’ jobs is to protect others from the Harbingers’ influence, but as the story progresses, the reader learns the temples have their own secrets and may not be as great as they try to portray themselves to be.

As I said, the worldbuilding was interesting. There are a couple more books in the series, and while this one wrapped up pretty well at the end, there is definitely more to come in book two.

If you like YA fantasy, this book has some unique elements set in a fascinating world. While I wish the characters had a bit more depth to them, it was still an enjoyable read.

Author website: glendahlgren.home.blog

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