Tagged: trilogy
Blades of Magic by Terah Edun
(Cover picture courtesy of Terah Edun via email.)
It is not a peaceful time in the Algardis Empire. War is raging between the mages and seventeen-year-old Sara Fairchild will be right in the middle of it.
She just doesn’t know it yet.
Sara is the daughter of a disgraced imperial commander, executed for desertion. Sara is also the best duelist and hand-to-hand combatant in Sandrin. She lives quietly with her family’s shame but when challenged about her family’s honor, her opponent inevitably loses.
On the night she finds out her father’s true last actions, she takes the Mercenary Guilds’ vows to serve in the emperor’s army. Using her quick wits and fierce fighting skills, she earns a spot in the first division.
There she discovers secrets the mages on both sides would prefer stay hidden. Dark enemies hunt her and soon it’s not just Sara questioning the motivation behind this war.
While fighting mages, blackmailing merchants and discovering new friends, Sara comes across something she’s never had before – passion. The question is – can she fight for her empress against a mage who might unwittingly claim her heart?
This is year one of the Initiate Wars. Sara is hoping it doesn’t become the year she dies.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook copy from Terah Edun in exchange for an honest review.]
I was very excited to get started on Terah Edun’s Courtlight spin-off trilogy and I admit that I had very high expectations because of an excerpt I read from chapter one. Fortunately, the rest of the book turned out being just as good, sometimes even better.
Sara Fairchild kicks butt quite literally. She’s a battle mage, meaning that her fighting skills are unparalleled and she also has a certain magical advantage. That doesn’t mean she’s invincible because we learn soon enough that her powers can come at a very high price. I like how she balances revelling in her skills with being fearful of what they could lead to if not kept in check. It makes her more relatable than if she were just constantly kicking butt without any fear of consequences. Add in her emotional isolation and her need to clear her father’s name and you’ve got yourself a sympathetic, interesting and three dimensional main character.
The plot is very fast-paced; there’s almost no time when the reader can truly catch their breath. Which is, of course, how I ended up reading this book in one sitting despite my intentions only to read about 25% of it before going to bed. It was so good I couldn’t put it down because I just had to see what was going to happen next. There were plot twists all over the place and I love how even with Sara, our main character, things aren’t always what they seem. Even the bumbling Ezekiel Crane is more than he appears to be.
As usual, Terah Edun’s world-building was amazing. Even if you haven’t read the Courtlight series, you can enjoy this one because the two series aren’t dependent on one another. In this one we learn a lot more about the powerful mages that made the Initiate Wars so devastating. There’s a lot of political intrigue but it’s never so ridiculously complicated that the reader will get bogged down in the details. As I said earlier, not everything is as it seems in this book, even when it comes to the supposed rules of the world. With magic flying left, right and centre things in the Algardis Empire are constantly changing. It makes for a very unpredictable story.
Basically, Blades of Magic is a great kick-off to Terah Edun’s new trilogy. I can’t wait for the next book, Blades of Illusion!
I give this book 5/5 stars.
The Iron Bells by Jeanette Battista
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
The year is 64 A.D. — though now A.D. stands for Anno Daemonii. Demons have crossed a gate into our world, taking the reins of power from humanity. A new Inquisition has begun, determined to root out any who stand against the new world order. The holy sites on earth have been destroyed — Jerasulem first, then the Vatican, then Mecca — and what resistance remains is ruthlessly crushed. Amaranth is a fighter in the resistance cell based in London. Dham is a Ringer, one of the few people left able to ring the remaining sets of blessed hand bells that have power over demons. When Amaranth discovers that her best friend has been possessed by a demon and is going to be used in the Resistance’s final, desperate mission, she asks Dham for his help in saving her friend. With the Inquisition closing in and betrayal threatening from inside the Resistance itself, Amaranth, Dham, and the demon — along with Catriona, a new, highly-skilled, highly-blonde bell-ringer — decide to head to Rome and the ruins of Vatican City, hoping to find a way to stem the tide of demonic possessions and close the gate.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.]
I’m not sure what I expected from The Iron Bells. Certainly not a well thought out world where demons rule and the main character knows her mind. Amaranth is pretty confident in who she is but isn’t perfect and that’s such a breath of fresh air after the terrible slew of YA books I’ve read recently.
First off, the characters are fantastic. I like how even though she lives with a death sentence over her head for being part of the Resistance against demons, Amaranth is a pretty calm, cool and collected individual. She’s capable of thinking logically in difficult situations, but at the same time she’s also perfectly capable of screwing up. Although she tries to be above it all, she does get jealous of Cat and Dham and sometimes her anger clouds her judgment. In all honesty, that’s why I like her: she’s human. Dham wasn’t the greatest love interest I’ve ever encountered, but he certainly wasn’t the worst. Personally I liked Trick, who I can’t describe without giving away too much of the plot. You just can’t help but like Trick, believe me.
The plot was fast-paced and there were a few plot twists that I didn’t see coming. I liked how in some places Jeanette Battista slowed down a bit to let the reader catch their breath and to let the characters develop. Overall, it was well-paced and well-plotted and I didn’t want to put it down. The thing about The Iron Bells is that we also get little glimpses of this horrifying new world at a more natural pace. There aren’t any huge backstory dumps that slow down the plot and I’m grateful for that.
What impressed me the most was the world-building. An errant magic-user accidentally bringing demons into the world. How cool is that? And the fact that demons take over the world in a slow, subtle fashion and use our natural paranoia against us is just brilliant. The mythology Jeanette Battista presents us with is fascinating, as is the explanation for what demons may actually be. I didn’t see that particular twist coming, believe me.
Really, if you want to pick up something different in the YA/NA genre I’d definitely recommend The Iron Bells. It’s a breath of fresh air.
I give this book 4/5 stars.
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Emperor of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
(Cover picture courtesy of The Royal Library.)
The path to the throne is broken – only the broken may walk it.
To reach the throne requires that a man journey. Even a path paved with good intentions can lead to hell, and my intentions were never good.
The Hundred converge for Congression to politic upon the corpse of Empire, and while they talk the Dead King makes his move, and I make mine. The world is cracked, time has run through, leaving us clutching at the end days, the future so bright that those who see it are the first to burn. These are the days that have waited for us all our lives. These are my days. I will stand before the Hundred and they will listen. I will take the throne whoever seeks to thwart me, living or dead, and if I must be the last emperor then I will make of it such an ending.
This is where the wise man turns away. This is where the holy kneel and call on God. These are the last miles, my brothers. Don’t look to me to save you. Don’t think I will not spend you. Run if you have the wit. Pray if you have the soul. Stand your ground if courage is yours. But don’t follow me.
Follow me, and I will break your heart.
Um, wow? There’s really nothing else to say about this. What a stunning conclusion to such an unusual trilogy.
First off, Jorg is his usual horrible/awesome/ruthless/sarcastic self. He really makes no apologies for who he is and doesn’t even try to become a better person now that his child bride Miana is expecting a child. The plot flips between his actions and adventures five years ago and his current trek for the Congression in order to become Emperor of the Broken Empire. It’s reminiscent of Don Carlo’s character in Ernani except without the whole vowing to be a better person if he becomes emperor.
What I did like the most about Jorg’s character is that despite his all-around awfulness, you get the feeling that he’s broken on the inside as well and is fully aware of it. Even with those limitations on his character he grows within those limits quite well. As the end draws nearer you can feel his need to fulfill the purpose Fexler told him about despite the consequences. And how he fulfills that promise and solves the whole Dead King problem is absolutely brilliant on Mark Lawrence’s part. The epilogue also sticks to how Jorg’s character is and imagines a realistic ending for such a broken man.
As usual the world-building in The Broken Empire trilogy is amazing. We get to see all kinds of new places, learn about the promised lands where the radiation from the nuclear bombs went off and see all kinds of new characters that have grown out of the dark underbelly of the broken empire. What I found particularly interesting were not only how certain religions survived, but also the cult of mystery that surrounds ‘mathemagicians’. In a place that has essentially reverted back to the Middle Ages I suppose advanced math would be sort of magical.
The plot wasn’t nearly as confusing as it was in King of Thorns. I found the switches between different points of view had a more natural transition and that the little subplots were better explained. Overall it was a little more fast-paced because of that and Mark Lawrence kept me guessing until the end. Even in the epilogue I wasn’t sure what was going to happen to Jorg until it was revealed within the narrative. Now that is the mark of a good storyteller.
I give this book 5/5 stars.