My dear bookish friends,
I haven’t read a book like this before. I mean, I’ve read court room dramas, I’ve read legal-thrillers and I’ve read fantasies, but I’ve never read a court room drama/legal-thriller fantasy. It’s weird and different… and fun! A huge thank you to TheWriteReads and the author A.R. Turner for my ecopy of the book as well as my spot on the tour (none of wich influenced my rating). If you want to know what Advocatus is all about and what I thought of it, please read on!
The Blurb
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.
My Review
Advocatus is set in the kingdom of Placenamia. The main character, Felix, is a young, new lawyer who has just qualified as it were and is struggling to establish himself with a bunch of hard luck, small time cases. After landing a job with a powerful firm he suddenly finds himself thrown into the case of his life. A massive trial where the fate of the human race itself is on the line.
Even though the plot might sound heavy put like that, it has much more of a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy feel to it. A lot of tongue-in-cheek humour throughout, and all presented with a generally light, fun and quirky writing style. You will definitely find yourself chuckling again and again with this one.
My only gripe really is that it could have had maybe done well with one additional round of proofreading just to eliminate a couple minor typos and punctuation errors, as well as some slightly repetitive language here and there. I can’t help but to acknowledge these things as I stumble over them while reading. That, together with the fact that it was sometimes a bit hard to follow ad get into at the start, are my only minor negatives.
I have to say Advocatus was really different from my usual read. It took me a while to get into the story, even though the concept pulled me in right from the start. The humour definitely helped add a lightness to an otherwise heavier sounding topic. That, as well as the fact that concept is so unique – basically a lawyer fighting for all of humanity amongst the messy bureaucracy of the legal system – made it a one-of-a-kind read.
Something else that I really liked about it is the great list of diverse characters. Some of their characterisations will have you laughing out loud – even if they are more grotesque than actually funny by intention! You will come across many characters that you don’t ecpect to find – especially not in a court room!
If you want to escape into a funny and unique fantasy world for a while, I can really recommend to pick up Advocatus!
4 stars from me! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thank you all so much for reading, and do let me know what you think if you pick it up too!
xoxo
P.S. I LOVED working on the baner for Advocatus! I am honoured and love working on all the blog tour banners for the TheWriteReads tours, but this one – especially with the light element on the left – was one of my favourites to work on!
