{"id":309,"date":"2024-09-09T11:05:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T11:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=309"},"modified":"2024-09-09T11:05:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T11:05:00","slug":"book-review-the-grandmasters-gamble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=309","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

The Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Paul G. Zareith<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Science Fiction \/ Horror<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798329948547<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 198 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
<\/span>Buy from Amazon<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen<\/em><\/p>\n

An ancient evil rises, a ruthless senator seeks revenge, an empire senses a threat to its power, and Norman is stuck in the middle.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble<\/em> starts with a powder keg of opposing forces, and nearly every character feels like a lit match tossed into the fray. The first book in the Nightwyrms\u2019 Resurgence series, this novel combines elements of sci-fi, horror, cyberpunk, and grimdark to create an infinitely compelling narrative.<\/p>\n

A trio of students from the Illustrious Academy, the most prestigious and most demanding educational facility in the Irvanian Empire, seeks out an ancient civilization, hoping to unlock some of their impressive technological secrets for their dissertations. The last thing they expect is to find an ancient evil stirring on the Yaskh planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now Norman, the brains behind this venture, must conceal the sentient parasite attached to his leg as well as the death of one of his teammates. This is easier said than done; his teammate was a brutal senator\u2019s son and physicals are par for the course at the Illustrious Academy.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Norman is nothing if not resourceful. With his fierce intellect, he\u2019s determined to keep his ill-fated trip a secret, find a way to get the Nightwyrm off his leg, and create a shiny new dissertation in time to secure an advantageous sponsor.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, he may have underestimated all of his opponents. Senator Greymus and his family are more ruthless and well-connected than he could have imagined. The Nightwyrm has too much to lose to give up without a battle. And, as for sponsors, well, every student in school is fighting for them and no lengths are too far to go to get one.<\/p>\n

The world of Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble<\/em> is a complex, nuanced affair that incorporates a long, colorful history of socio-political upheaval and half-forgotten societies. This is a fully immersive, dark adventure we\u2019re set on. Using Norman as the main vehicle for this narrative keeps the story grounded and human enough to relate to while the viewpoint switches show the vast scope of what lies beyond his perspective.<\/p>\n

Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble<\/em> covers a lot of ground. There are long swathes of time where the narrative moves away from one of the storylines, and it can be jarring to go back to some of these, especially the ones that only appear in the novel a couple of times. There are also situations where readers are told that an event leads to a particular outcome, but the connection between the cause and effect are not shown.<\/p>\n

This is a promising start to a grimdark sci-fi adventure. We get a glimpse of a vast and terrifying world, and it\u2019s clear that there\u2019s potential for this story to grow exponentially as it continues. The ending is as much a hook as the beginning, and it sets the scene for the stakes to rise even higher in the next novel.<\/p>\n

\n
\n \n
<\/span>Buy from Amazon<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Thank you for reading Joelene Pynnonen\u2019s book review of The Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble <\/em>by Paul G. Zareith! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

\n
\n \n
<\/span>Book Reviews<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p><\/a><\/div>\n

\n \n
<\/span>IBR Blog<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p><\/a><\/div>\n

\n \n
<\/span>Resources for Writers<\/span>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Book Review: The Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble by Paul G. Zareith Genre: Science Fiction \/ Horror ISBN: 9798329948547 Print Length: 198 pages Buy from Amazon Reviewed by Joelene Pynnonen An ancient evil rises, a ruthless senator seeks revenge, an empire senses a threat to its power, and Norman is stuck in the middle. Grandmaster\u2019s Gamble starts with a powder […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}