"Deathless Beast" by Andrew D. Meredith

This book is long as nouns.

(Now, I should qualify that statement. I read this piecemeal whenever I had time. I'm not sure if that was because it's too long to read in a few long sittings, or if it felt long because I read it in small bits.)

But yes. It's really long. It also takes forever to actually get started with the plot; I recall looking up from it once and declaring to my family, "It's page 373 and the main villain has finally put in an appearance."

For all that, though, it's not bad. The author decided to forgo the usual fantasy races (elves, dwarves, etc.) in favor of making up all new ones such as hrelgren and qavyl. They're mostly rather weird. He's also äddicted tö ümlauts when naming pläces (one of them even includes the capital Œ [or OE], which I'm not sure I've ever seen before).

The book contains something I really like, as well: your Fantasy Organized Religion that isn't evil, or even antagonistic. Sure, there are bad guys within the church, but they're bad guys because they're a sort of evil cult trying to bring it down and/or take it over, not because they're in the church. It stands against oppression, its paladins and clerics are the Good Guys (for the most part, although as in any organization there are some jerkfaces), and its patron deity genuinely wants the best for humanity. Every fantasy church should be like these guys, and I say that with absolute certainty.

There are a bunch of glossaries at the back if you want to know how all these ümlaut-läden nämes are actually pronounced. I didn't know those were there. I just took potshots at the pronunciation, and I probably got 50%-70% of it wrong.

This is a low-magic high fantasy. It's set in an extremely original world, but there's barely any magic involved. Most of what magic there is is thanks to the world's pantheon, though there's also this weird seed pod thing one of the main characters has that doesn't seem to have ties to any of them. Yet. That may change.

(Oh, did I mention there are four main characters? One of them is a paladin, one of them is the girl version of a cleric, and we also have a brother-and-sister duo of mercenaries from Morally Greyish Mercenaries Incorporated -- also known as the Black Sentinels.)

Probably my favorite part of this book is |the battle between the nonagenarian paladin leader and the giant evil werewolf king. The werewolf king gets wrecked. It's the first actual magic we see in the book, and it's glorious|.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: A hard T for fantasy violence and some sexual references.

4 stars.

(Endnote: Technically, I am also deathless. I have experienced zero deaths.)