In “Priest,” Matthew Colville introduces us to Heden, a sort of warrior priest.
Heden is sent by the bishop of his church to investigate a murder among a reclusive order of knights. The knights should be protecting a nearby city that is threatened by an army of urqs (read orcs), but they’re frozen and guilt-ridden by the death of their captain. Heden must try to unravel what happened and get the order back on track to have any chance to save the people.
“Priest” moves along at a very fast pace. In the early going, though, you can almost hear the dice tumbling in the background. I kind of cringed every time Colville used the word “campaigner” because it gave me more of the D&D feel. I’m a former gamer, but I really don’t like my books to feel like the storyline of a campaign.