Illborn is the best epic fantasy book you have never read, and if you have, I hope you’re as excited as I am about the upcoming third book in the series, Gatebound. It will be released on 28th February, 2025.
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I have written reviews for both Illborn and Aiduel’s Sin, the first two books in The Illborn Saga by Daniel T. Jackson, so in this article we will do something different. We’re going to focus on tropes.
The fantasy genre is full of tropes, and for good reason. While we might complain about the chosen one overcoming a dark lord, or whatever, there is a reason these stories are still being written.
We absolutely love tropes.
Why else would we read fantasy if not to sink comfortably into the pages of a familiar yet alternative world of epic quests, unlikely heroes, mythical beasts, and dark lords that need defeating?
The issue with tropes and cliches is when they are done badly. Give a bad writer an interesting trope and they will fuck it up. Give a great writer an overdone trope that everyone is tired of (love triangles, anyone?) and you will still be hooked!
Illborn has plenty of tropes. It’s tropey. And Daniel T. Jackson is a great writer.
From the basic tropes of taking place in an alternative, medieval setting, to having reluctant heroes and powerful artifacts, Illborn ticks off plenty of fantasy tropes. And they are all done brilliantly.
My favourite aspect of the book is religion. Religions have been done to death in fantasy. Arguably the weakest aspect of Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris is the religion, as it doesn’t do much that’s new or interesting with the worldbuilding.
Jackson, however, excels in making the religion of the world an intriguing mystery that has direct consequences for the plot. It’s not totally revolutionary, seemingly being based on Catholicism, but the slow burn reveals, venomous characters, and the building threat that comes from this aspect of the worldbuilding is intense and exciting.
You might be wondering at this point whether there is any nuance. Of course there is, and it’s implemented in the best way: one of the main POV characters, for a lot of her time on the page, is a highly devoted member of this church.
Then you have all the other main and side characters who are also followers of the religion. Their relationship with their religion, and its evolution over the course of the book, is carefully written and well paced.
No one has a sudden break from the church or anything, and even when things are revealed to perhaps not be quite what the individual thought, there is still devotion there.
This aspect of the storytelling absolutely blew me away when I first read Illborn, and it only gets better in Aiduel’s Sin. Jackson is a purposeful writer, weaving several threads of story carefully together throughout his 700-plus-page tomes.
This is absolutely the best epic fantasy book you have never read and I implore you to pick it up today. You’ve probably got some time over Christmas to read, so why not read both books and while you wait for Gatebound?Check out my review of Illborn and review of Aiduel’s Sin for more spoiler-free thoughts on the books. I also interviewed Daniel T. Jackson a while back for anyone interested.
