The Heart of Stone [Ben Galley Ultimate Blog Tour!]

Merciless. Murderer. Monster. He has been called many names in his time.

Built for war and nothing else, he has witnessed every shade of violence humans know, and he has wrought his own masterpieces with their colours. He cared once, perhaps, but far too long ago. He is bound to his task, dead to the chaos he wreaks for his masters.

Now, he has a new master to serve and a new war to endure. In the far reaches of the Realm, Hartlund tears itself in two over coin and crown. This time he will fight for a boy king and a general bent on victory.

Beneath it all he longs for change. For something to surprise him. For an end to this cycle of warfare.

Every fighter has a last fight. Even one made of stone.

Where to Buy

Amazon

My Review

When asked to join this tour I was perusing all the books, they all sounded good but for those of you who have been keeping an eye on my blog a little, well, I’ve done 10 tours so far this month with two more to go. So. even though I wanted to read all of them, I had to limit myself and pick one and just read samples off Amazon of the others to satisfy my curiosity. In the end I went with ‘The Heart of Stone’ and I have not one regret in having picked this book. It floored me, I figured I was going to like it [I mean, hello, that’s why I chose it] but I didn’t think I was going to absolutely love it.

Golems are scarce now, and that’s being optimistic. The tools have war have been widely down to a rare few, and Task is rare than most. He is a golem who upon his ‘birth’ dared to ask ‘Why?’ It was in that first part of the prologue alone that I was hooked. I knew Task would be the sort of character I would love.

Ben Galley gives us some really diverse character personalities; Task the golem who defies his creator long after his death by having emotions, Lesky the girl who seems to be more than just a ‘slip of a girl’ and not just in her inner strength but down to her very roots -and one that shows compassion-, and Alabast. Alabaster is the knight who has been, he slew a dragon, made a name for himself, and then coasted on that name and reputation until there was nothing but fumes to coast on and now he’s forced into a role or face the consequences of over borrowing.

Alabast certainly had the most character development out of all of them and Lesky the most actual growth in terms of what she thinks she’s capable of and what she is, while Task proved that his emotions and being can be used more than just as tools by a Master. He is his own and he can decide his fate. The journeys they all went on were so personal and deep and you felt as if you were there along side them, but even the side characters were fleshed out so well that I was left beyond impressed. Galley has used his style in all the best ways, highlighting his strengths by writing a deep immersive fantasy. His world building is incredible and I only wish I could have gotten to know more, to have more of a backstory to what was going on, but I still gave it five cups of coffee so obviously this fact is just me being greedy rather than being an issue.

By the end of this book I couldn’t help but pause and reflect on everything that occurred within its pages and I realized before I hit the halfway mark this might be a new favorite, and well, my intuition was correct. This book will forever hold a place on my favorite fantasies lists and Task will remain one of my favorite protagonists of 2019. If you’re wanting a bit of a slow building fantasy with deep storylines and fluid writing, I suggest Task and his crew to you all. If you have a chance, go read The Heart of Stone.

About the Author

Ben Galley is an author of dark and epic fantasy books who currently hails from Victoria, Canada. Since publishing his debut The Written in 2010, Ben has released a range of award-winning fantasy novels, including the weird western Bloodrush and the epic standalone The Heart of Stone. He is also the author of the brand new Chasing Graves Trilogy.

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The Tour

I want to thank @WriteReadsTours for inviting me to be part of this tour. This was such a fun thing to be a part of and I have to say, in my opinion, Ben Galley deserves this massive tour. His writing is great and his style and stories have really impressed me. I’ve already ordered the short story Shards, mostly because I need more amazing Task in my life! To see who else is on the tour for the other books, go ahead and click on the link for WriteReadsTours and check out the other books/bloggers!