The Last Skinweaver by W. G. Hladky is a novel with a strong appeal to a wide audience — thriller lovers, fans of science fiction, and fantasy enthusiasts. The novel delivers a setting that captures the austere and challenging, featuring characters that are vividly drawn, complex, and memorable in many lights. The protagonist is Roge Callan, a man who has grown tired of his father and now changes his name and finds refuge in the camp of a former enemy, together with a banished RangerKnight. The Skinweavers are known for their barbarism in the past which they want to shun, but their Widow Witches and their sentient Yetis have gone missing. Roge becomes the only one who can help them to find the witches because he has Widow Witch blood in his veins. With a small crew of misfits, Roge sets out on a dangerous adventure to the Middle Kingdom, facing perils and dangers along the way — from ruthless ambushers to strong storms, from invaders to enemies with alien technology. Can they survive or be doomed with their mission?

The impeccable world-building swept me completely off my feet. W. G. Hladky creates a stunning world in which nothing is what it seems and the protagonist faces all forms of danger. I enjoy difficult landscapes and inclement weather when intelligently written into tales filled with adventure, and one finds a lot of it in The Last Skinweaver. There is an adventure, intrigue, phenomenal conflict involving aliens, and more to discover in this mesmerizing tale. Hladky creates larger-than-life, deeply flawed, and believable characters. This is an extraordinary tale with spectacular writing that readers expect from a great storyteller. The original world-building and the multifaceted characters stand out in this tale in which the author skillfully joggles the epic and the personal. I look forward to more literary creations from this author.