Dark Shores is technically book number 1 in the series by the same name if you don’t count the prequel. I am glad I read the Prequel first and personally recommend that it is read first. I really think it helped me understand the lives of those not only in the legion but around them better. It went into more detail about life in the legion and how it effects the legionnaires mentally. I feel like I was able to empathize more with Marcus and his struggles as well as understanding the horrors of the Empire better having read the prequel first.
Set 3 years after the prequel the 37th legion is camping outside Celendrial, the capital of Celendor, after having completed their successful yet bloody conquest in Chersome. Marcus finds himself a pawn in the political schemes of an ambitious senator who is blackmailing him with a secret from his past. Yet again he is put in a position where he has to compromise himself morally to protect both his blooded and bonded families. Marcus is so self sacrificing and in his own ways noble always putting those he cares for ahead of himself. Throughout the book you really get a feel for how tortured he is by the actions he is forced to take by the Empire that owns him in every way. He finds himself going from one no win situation to another with little time between. Always trying to protect those he loves with the least collateral damage, knowing no matter what he does he will feel the weight of his actions on his soul and be the villain in someones story. He wants nothing more than to find a way to get out from under the senates thumb, seeing his chance in the mysterious dark shores.
Teriana is a literal pirate princess tasked by the gods of her people with keeping the 2 sides of the world ignorant of the others existence. She is brash and fiercely protective of her crew/family. When she finds that her long time friend, who happens to be a Clendorian senator’s adoptive daughter, is being forced into an unwanted marriage she breaks her god’s most important edict revealing the secrets of her people hoping to help her friend. Unfortunately her friends betrothed is worse than she can imagine and that informations lands in the wrong hands. The betrayal cuts her deeply. She is almost the polar opposite of Marcus in almost every way except for in their mutual ferocity for those they love. This makes their interactions entertaining and pushes both of them to grow, challenging the other constantly. Teriana and Marcus cross paths when the Empire sets its eyes on the lands they only have knowledge of due to her folly causing her deep emotional anguish. As she spends time with Marcus she learns that her and Marcus are more alike than she realizes and is surprised to find he isn’t the bloodthirsty villain of her nightmares, but a thoughtful , complicated man tortured by the fates of those he has no choice in destroying. Both are wonderfully complex, morally grey characters.
With beautifully a done and immersive world, a magic system of god touched mortals and present gods adds just enough fantasy, and well paced action that moves the story along it’s a hard book to put down and will keep you up till the very last page.
