The Fantasy Review’s Spoiler-Free Review of Conspiracy by A.C. Cobble.
Oh this book deserves the full five stars! A.C. Cobble has fantastic prose that will glue your eyes to the page. The plot, the characters, the world… all of it is fantastic and I urge all fans of high fantasy to give this series a go (book two, Revenge, came out in March 2023, and book three, Deception, cane out in August!).
I am a huge fan of political intrigue in my fantasy books. That’s why I love every book put out by Trudi Canavan, the A Song of ice and Fire series, and my favourite book in the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson is the second one, The Well of Ascension.
A.C. Cobble takes you on a wild ride of political intrigue that will grip you from the very beginning, if that’s the sort of thing you like reading. This is given agency by some very well written characters with great dialogue that sounds natural and gives each character a unique voice.
I think the most interesting thing about this book, the part of the blurb which first hooked me, was the utter turmoil this world is in. It’s chaos! And our characters have to work like hell to try and survive, never mind attempting to improve the situation.
You’ve got dragons and fae, so some cool magical elements, but they feel very much like the fantasy elements you find in A Song of Ice and Fire: grounded, and there are a few interesting fresh takes on these tropes too which were thoroughly enjoyable.
Overall, I hope you give Conspiracy a go and rush onto reading the second book, Revenge soon after!
