Devin Eveson is a Soulkeeper, traveling through remote villages as a preacher and healer. But when a mysterious black water washes over the world, the veil is torn, flooding the land with ancient magic and forgotten races: fire that dances as if alive, corpses that walk, and creatures that can manipulate time itself. And not all the creatures that have re-awakened remember humanity fondly.

As the land grows more dangerous and more chaotic, Soulkeepers are turning up dead, their bodies transformed into macabre works of art. Devin must set aside his words of peace and accept his new role: slayer of monsters and protector of the human race.

There’s this thing I seem to do quite a bit: Start an author’s brand new series, when said author has one (or more) completed series under their belt. I’ve done this recently with Robert Jackson Bennett, Myke Cole, Miles Cameron, Devin Madson, and soon I’ll be adding Sam Sykes to that list. There’s always that temptation to start at the beginning of any particular author’s bibliography and work forward chronologically. That said, there’s something incredibly exciting about starting a brand new series when the first book has just come out, and I’ll always leap at that opportunity if possible.

*adds David Dalglish to that list of authors*

So yeah, Soulkeeper is the first book in David Dalglish’s new series, The Keepers. And this book is a fucking blast, folks. This is one of those books that kept growing on me the further I got into it. Which is not to say I wasn’t digging it from the start, because it starts strong, and I was hooked right away. But Dalglish put this story together in such a way that I went through many different levels of enjoying it!

The first large chunk of this large book (all 650 pages of it) is spent primarily with Devin Eveson, a Soulkeeper with the Keeping Church, worshippers of the Three Sisters (goddesses). Devin has many responsibilities as a Soulkeeper…he’s a bit like a wandering healer/priest, but also he carries a sword & a gun with him, and will fuck up some evil when the need arises.

The need fully arises almost straight away.

Summoned to a village called Dunwerth under the pretense of helping the people cope with a plague (and performing the very important funeral rites when needed), Devin soon finds himself in a world full of magical creatures, and a long-dormant evil. A mysterious black fog/water sweeps over the village, and shit gets all kinds of Living Dead.

This first section of the book is very fast-paced & fun to read. I had resigned myself to Devin being the only POV character, which would’ve been fine. But then everything changes (for the better), and Dalglish brings in multiple POVs at around the 100 page mark. There’s some really cool bits of storytelling magic involved in the changing POVs, one in particular that fucking delighted me completely (no spoilers here!!)

The story then shifts to the city of Londheim, where we meet so many new characters, including Adria, Devin’s sister, a Mindkeeper for the church (we also learn quite a bit about the roles of the different Keepers..Soulkeepers, Mindkeepers, and Faithkeepers). Devin is also paired up with a woman named Jacaranda, known as a Soulless…these are people who show and feel no emotion, they only follow orders in a very literal sense. The dynamic between Devin and Jac over the course of this story was my absolute favorite!

Londheim is facing certain doom. An absolutely deranged killer named Janus is unleashed on the city, and it’s gonna fall to Devin & his friends (Devin is kind of like a magnet for people in need) to lead the fight for humanity. Janus is…a really interesting villain, to say the least. I honestly was getting some Erik Killmonger vibes in places…where it’s like, yeah, ok…this guy is a fucking sociopathic killer…but he does make some good points here and there.

This is a BIG novel, so there’s only so much I can get into without getting too spoilery. There’s all manner of cool creatures & monsters in Soulkeeper, some good, some less good. Some bloodthirsty & pure evil. The cast of characters is entertaining & vibrant. And there’s an earnestness to Dalglish’s writing that really charmed me. There’s not too much in the way of cynicism in this book, and that felt kind of refreshing.

I am not at all qualified to say that something feels like “classic fantasy”, because I haven’t read much of it at all. Truthfully, reading fantasy novels has only been a big part of my life for the last three to four years. But still, somehow Soulkeeper gave me that “classic fantasy” vibe. This book is absolutely tons of fun, but not at the expense of good characterization, and never frivolous. Devin, ostensibly the main character of the book, is just fundamentally…a good dude? He listens. He empathizes. He apologizes. And he really cares for the people around him.

This is an awesome start to a new series…it’s 650 pages long & reads like a much shorter novel. The pacing is fast, especially in the early going! There’s some great action sequences in Soulkeeper, an intensely likable cast of characters, a very charismatic villain, and a lot of surprises! Highly recommended!

Huge thank you to Orbit Books for sending me a copy!! Soulkeeper releases today, March 19th!