I loved this book! It’s not perfect, but it’s a complete world and a faerie-tale story wrapped up in one volume – a skill many fantasy writers seem to lack ;)

Silverheart begins with an extract from an explorer’s travel diaries, telling us of the wonders of the multiverse and how the fabled city of Karadur-Shriltasi really does exist. Somehow this manages not to feel contrived, and serves as a brief exposition to introduce us to the world we’re about to enter.

Karadur is a city in decline – a fact seen by the common people but not, it seems, by the ruling aristocratic ‘Metal’ families. This is a quirk I liked: Lady Silver marries Lord Tin, and their son is Clovis Pewter! Daft, but I liked it!

An outlaw scion of the Silver family, Max Silverskin, is our anti-hero. From petty criminal, he becomes a semi-mythical hero character, held by the common folk as the future saviour of the city, from the terminal decline and encroaching ice beyond the city walls. Max is amused and cynical, but then something happens to him… between the silver disc that appears over his heart, to his meeting with the magical creatures from the mythical sub-city of Shriltasi, he finds himself driven on a quest to recover magical artifacts – and, of course, save the multiverse!

My one complaint here is the ‘destiny’ element: people magically knowing what they must do, following prophecy and fulfilling their density. But it keeps things ticking along at a breakneck pace, and while the outcome is fairly predictable, the imagination along the way is fantastical.