FORGOTTEN BOOK: BLOOD OF THE FOUR

 Blood of the Four by Christopher Golden & Tim Lebbon  (2018)

The book is only seven years old and the authors are both very popular writers, so can this book be called "forgotten"?  Perhaps, both Golden and Lebbon are prolific authors and sometimes things get lost in the mix.  Forgotten or not, Blood of the Four is worth the attention of any fantasy fan.

Quandis is a large island kingdom in the middle of the ocean, surrounded by two rings of smaller islands.  Beyond those rings are unknown lands...and pirates.  Despite this being an old world and Quandis being n old kingdom, technology has not had a foothold here; ships still use sail, although cannons exist, modern weapons do not, technology remains medieval, at best.

The capitol of Quantis is the city of Lartha, ruled by a royal family of the descendants of "The Four,"  the god-like beings of millennia earlier.  The Four may have been merely sorcerers or may have been actual gods.  They control magic and the elements.  They came to Quantis after the Fire and introduced their people to the island.  The actual deeds and qualities of The Four are lost in myth and legend but a state religion has grown around them.  The rulers of Quantis are rulers because they have the Blood of the Four, and are supposedly direct descendants.  The current ruler is Queen Lysandra, and her children are Aris (the oldest and the direct heir, as well as being Lysandra's favorite), Phela (the scheming daughter who has secretly gathered information on all around her), and Myrinne (the youngest daughter, gentle, And pledge to marry the warrior Demos Kallistate, the scion of one of the five powerful famileis of Quantis).  Lysandra at one time had been a decent queen but she has now become addicted to spiza, a powerful, mind-altering drug, capable of making its users very erratic and paranoid..  Lyysandra has also taken on a secret lover, the married Linos Kallistate, father of Demos.

There is a slave class in Quantis -- the Bajumen, considered property without any rights.  Every Bajumen has had a brand placed on their hands to indicate their status.  Lysandra, unnder then influence of spica, decides that Linos was about to betray her.  She orders Lonos killed, and his family taken prisoner, and sold into slavery, and Clan Kallistate Hall destroyed.  And so it was done.

Phela realizes that her mother was losing control and soon the crown will be turned over to Aris, a wastral, a weakling, and a bully.  She orders Shome,  the head of  the Silent, a fanatical group pf assassins loyal only to Phela, to kill Aris.  (The Silent are the most efficient killers in the kingdom.)  Shome finds Aris in bed with three Bajumen slaves and kills all four, saving the most gruesome death for Aris.  Phela manages to blame the assassination on rogue Bajumen plotting against the crown.  In a rrage, Lysandra decrees that all Bajumen be executed.  The royal Guard and the Silent begin going through the city, from house to house, and summarily executing Bajuman; over 700 were killed the first night.  The spica is having a grave effect on Lysndra,  She is week and erratic. and Phela helps her mother on the way by smothering her with a pillow.  

Now Phela is queen.  Now she has to hold onto her power.  Now she has to increase it.  And the way to do that is to tap into the magic of the ancient gods.

There are many other threads in the novel.  Daria is a Bajumen who had been thrown into the sea when a child, only to be rescues by sailors and eventuually be promoted to admiral of the Quantis fleet.  He brother Blane has been accepted as a novice in the church of The Four, while plotting to free the Bajumen, and not realizing he harbors a hidden magical power within himself.  Demos and Myrinne plot to be run away and be together.  The old priests try to protect their church and call forth the Phage. a group of ghost warriors for protection.  The five Clans of the city are nervous and don't know what to do.  The Bajumen in the inner and outer rings of islands are rising up against Phela.  Deep in the bowels of the city are monsters.  Also deep under the city are the sarcophagi of The Four, leaking magic.  No one knows the true power or the origins of The Four.  And people are getting killed, many of them are those the reader does not want to see dead.

An epic fantasy, detailed and well-told.

Christopher Golden is the author of many New York Times best-selling novels of suspense, horror, fantasy, and mystery, as well as numerous tie-in works for various media franchises.  Tim Lebbon is a British author of horror and dark fantasy.  He has won the British Fantasy, August Derleth, Scribe, and Dragon awards.  He has published at least four dozen novels, including eight with Golden.  Both authors are worth checking out.