Review & Blog Tour: Advocatus or I need more law fantasy, please!

Hello people! I hope you all are safe and happy, and that some good book is keeping you company! Today I am here because I am taking part in a blog tour hosted by The Write Reads, for a very interesting book!

Title: Advocatus
Series: The Culpa Magum #1
Author: A.R. Turner
Pages: 469
Publication Date: January 17th, 2022

Advocatus tells the tale of Felix, a junior lawyer with one last case before he can strike out on his own.
His client? A terrifying magical warlord accused of, amongst other horrifying crimes, two counts of Attempted Genocide (and six counts of Theft). His plea? Innocent, of course! All in a day’s work for Felix.
Psychic frogs, downtrodden goblins, time-travelling wizards, and a whole host of other magical defendants become his caseload as Felix begins trying to make a name for himself as a successful lawyer in a world rife with sorcery.
The biggest case of his life: defending humanity in front of Habeus, the God of Justice himself. Lose, and it’s all over. Not just for him, but for the whole of mankind.

Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1952796075/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59761949-advocatus

First thing first, this book made me realize an important thing: I need more law fantasy in my life, so if you have some to recommend do not be shy! I am waiting!!
And now let’s talk about the book. The idea is quite brilliant, and I couldn’t resist the synopsis, really. A lawyer? A magical warlord? Psychic frogs?? Oh please, give me!
And the book delivered it all. And more! From the first page, I was completely immersed in this world, and I was there till the end. There are a lot of things in this book, and even if I didn’t love all of them, I had a great time with this book, and it kept surprising me time and again.

For example, this is comic fantasy. I mean, I was expecting some humor, yes, but… not so much. And here I am not complaining. I had so much fun with it, and the overlord case was brilliant, really! Also, I was expecting a more cohesive story, but we get a not really linear one, because we get the main story, with some cases in between and some journal entries with other cases. And, even if it was unexpected, it was a great way to tell this story. Unexpected does not mean bad, and in this case, it was something that add to my enjoyment of it all.
And also a lot of the stories in this book, the cases that our MC, Felix, has to represent, are surprising and fantastic and original. And unique. I had a great time with them all!

And Felix is an interesting MC. He is good at heart, and he loves his job (and I may be a tad biased here because I love when we get to read about people who love their jobs and are good at them!), and he is always on the underdog side. And what is even better is that he managed to find a firm that has made its mission out of it: they are on the side of the underdog. (And okay, it is more the firm to find him than not the other way around, but this is just a detail!) And his coworkers are all pretty unique characters too.
But the most unique of all is the clients. Racelsus is the best example of it, sure, but she is not the only unique being that we encounter in these pages (see the psychic frog!), and all of them are worth meeting.

And then we have the big case because all the previous cases are a sort of prologue to the bigger one: the one in which Felix and his friends have to defend humanity and its right to existence. I liked this part too, even if I have to confess that it was my least favorite of all. In this one, we get some moralization vibes that are not really my fave. Sure, it would have been quite difficult to present the case without it, and I am not really complaining but… this thing didn’t make me really happy. Mind me, I enjoyed it, and I was there for all of it because I was hooked and I needed to see it to its end, but the vibes killed a bit of my mood. It would be harder without it, sure, but I think that the result would have been way, way better. But, to be honest, it is not really a big thing, and I enjoyed the book quite a lot.

This book is firmly on the side of the underdog, of the people who are not rich or powerful, because everyone deserves justice and to be seen by the law, and it is quite full of joy and of faith in humans as a whole. And all of these are good things, but the best part is the idea of it. It is a brilliant book, and it is the perfect one to make you relax and enjoy an afternoon while making you think too.

and half!

About the Author:

Born on the Isle of Wight in the south of England, Alex now lives in South Wales with his wife and cat, where he divides his time between reading, writing and board games. Having always wanted to read a book about a lawyer in a fantasy world (but never successfully finding one), Alex finally realised that there was nothing else for it: he was going to have to write it himself. His other passion in life is a board game called Blood Bowl. He talks about it often in his podcast and one day hopes to compete in the Chaos Cup or other big global tournaments. Check his podcast here: https://anythingbuta1podcast.wordpress.com

Website: https://www.arturnerauthor.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/A_R_Turner
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/A.R.Turner.ART
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22043280.A_R_Turner
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_r_turner_writes/
Cloaked Press: https://www.cloakedpress.com/ata-arturner/

And that’s all! What about you? Do you have some books to recommend? And what do you think of this one?? Let me know!!

Happy reading!
S.

Advertisement