Book Review: The Whisper that Replaced God by Timothy Wolff

Genre(s): Fantasy

Book Synopsis:

Murder is just, so long as it serves the crown.

Hidden behind a mask and with a dagger in his sheath, Mute serves the crown with pride. A fair life, if not a monotonous one. But his next contract nicks too close, for murder within a brothel is always nasty business, especially the one which Mute frequents. The brothel his Dorothy works, his Dorothy who awaits Mute and only Mute. Surely none would dare touch her, for if they did, royalty or not, they would fall to Lord Mute, the Silent God’s chosen one. They would scream…

And not a sound would be heard.

Review:

I’m a little conflicted about this one. I love the author’s Legacy of Boulom series, so I was initially pretty excited to read something new from him. The Whisper that Replaced God has an interesting storyline and it’s written well, but I really struggled with the main character, which makes this review a little difficult.

Lord Mute was definitely an odd duck. He was an assassin in service to his brother, the king, and cursed/blessed by the god of silence. (If no one can hear the screaming, it makes an assassin’s job easier, right?) But I found Mute was a difficult character to like. Not because of his profession, but because he came across as delusional so much of the time. He was oblivious to the politics going on around him, he was almost blinded by the loyalty he had for his brother, and some of his ideas were just…bizarre. Especially when it came to Dorothy. That whole dynamic really bothered me; he came across as creepy and somewhat possessive at times, then completely dismissive of her at others. Having dealt with a guy like that in my distant past (it didn’t end well, no good memories there), those personalities always set me a little bit on edge. It’s hard to overcome my immediate distrust/dislike of characters with that disposition.

The storyline itself was set up so that the reader never fully knows what is going on. There were a bunch of twists I never saw coming, and it was paced well, given its length. I like when stories are a bit on the unpredictable side, so that was definitely a plus.

I also thought the power Mute had courtesy of his god was fascinating. He could silence the world around him by speaking a single word. It’s not an ability I’ve seen featured in other books, and I like when something feels original or unique. And despite his control over silence, Mute was pretty adept with words when he needed to be. (He had a couple memorable one-liners toward the end.)

But in the end, I can’t shake the sense of Lord Mute was just WEIRD, or the creep-factor involved in how he acted with Dorothy. There are readers who genuinely love this story, so I think I’m just not the right audience for it (you can blame that aforementioned ex if you like.)

If any of what I mentioned above sounds interesting to you, I encourage you to check it out, because maybe you will be the right audience for Mute’s special brand of bizarre.

Author’s Amazon Page: Timothy Wolff