Malik is one of those authors whose works I’ll read on principal, knowing that they’ll be outstanding (see my reviews for Dragon’s Tail and The New Magic). This novel uses the same world as his previous ones, albeit at a different location and characters so it’s independent from the others. I’ve had the pleasure of reading an early ARC, and it did not disappoint.

Expect a portal-fantasy story of military forces from our world finding and exploring an alien world. There’s...