In this stunning conclusion to N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed sci-fantasy duology, elite warrior Ikenna and her rogue cohort must outrun bounty hunters, their former comrades, and a megalomaniacal demi-god, all in the hopes of saving their friends and enemies from the racist and misogynistic oppression that threatens the continents from all sides.
After discovering the depth of betrayal, treachery, and violence perpetrated against her by Mareen’s Tribunal Council and exposing her illegal blood-gift to save her Praetorian squad, Ikenna becomes a fugitive with a colossal bounty on her head.
Yet, somehow, that’s the least of her worries.
Her grandfather’s longtime allies refuse to offer help, and the Blood Emperor’s Warlord is tracking her. She’s also struggling to control the enormous power she was granted by the Goddess of Blood Rites…and come to terms with the promises she made to get such power.
Amidst all of this, the Blood Emperor wages a full-scale invasion against Mareen and leaves a trail of decimated cities, war crimes, and untold death in his wake. As the horrors increase, Ikenna and her team realize they must assassinate the Blood Emperor and quickly end the war. But the price to do so is steep and has planet-shattering consequences.
The price to do nothing, though, is annihilation.
War has erupted. Alliances are fracturing. And Ikenna is torn between her loyalties, her desires for revenge, and the power threatening to consume her. With the world aflame, only one thing is certain: blood will be spilled.
My Review
I enjoyed this book. I stayed up all night reading it. This may not be the most coherent review due to lack of sleep. Seriously, I sat down at half eight last night to read a few chapters before bed and realised I read all night when it started getting light, and finished reading the book at 6:03 a.m., and was stunned for a few moments. I have the Illumicrate Exclusive Edition which has blue edges and a red cover. It matches/contrasts with my Illumicrate Exclusive Edition of The Blood Trials. I also reviewed that book as part of the blog tour and was excited to find out what happened next.
The book begins some short time after the end of The Blood Trials; Ikenna and her team have spent time among the northern Microstates trying to gain allies for their war against both the Blood Emperor and the Tribunal of Mareen, but aren’t having much luck. They turn to a criminal syndicate for the means to fight their war, but don’t get to spend long with their new ally because they get attacked by Praetorians from Rhysian War House and mercenaries.
Eventually, they end up in the hands of Ajani, the Apis of Accacia – the second in command of the Blood Emperor, Nkosi. Ikenna and Ajani do not get on well, but for the good of Iludu, they make an agreement to work together long enough to kill Nkosi and put Ajani on the throne of Accacia. Ikenna doesn’t trust Ajani and assumes he’s going to kill her when he gets a chance, and Ajani doesn’t do much to reassure anyone on her team.
After a traumatic encounter with Krashna, the ancient god of Mareen, and being saved by Kissa, the goddess of Kanai, Ikanna learns that she needs to commune with her goddess, Amaka, to gain more control of her powers, but she doesn’t listen and things start to go very wrong with their plans. Eventually, Ikenna listens and comes into her power and learns that she is more than just a blood-gifted warrior. Her ancestry is more complex than that.
This is sci-fantasy. The cultures are technologically advanced but also use magic, some of the countries are stratified societies and monarchies, and most have a difficult relationship with religion. I quite enjoy this mix of magic and technology.
Ikenna and Darius’s relationship develops and their conversations addressing their personal issues is one of the best parts of the book. The fights are really fun too. Ikenna is slowly developing as a person, she is still often childish but has moments of maturity which improve her as a character. The team are becoming a cohesive unit, and they survive repeated attempts on their lives, from both the Mareen Republic and the Accacian Empire, as they try to gather allies to reset the planet.
The latter chapters which cover the war with the Tribunal and Ikenna’s revenge on Selene Rhysian and her family, feels a bit rushed. I can see a further series where Ikenna and the Invictus squad fight the gods, and Selene and Enoch team up to give Ikenna problems.
This is really two books squished into one, and it would have been best to end it at page 291, and then have the events after the death of Nkosi and the rearrangement of the world in a third book. The war against the Tribunal and the battle at the Krashna’s Citadel should have been the a third book. I don’t think this is the author’s fault, but a publishing decision. I would love to see Nia Davenport get a chance to write the two novels this was meant to be.
Information About the Book Title: Lucha of the Night Forest Author: Tehlor Kay Mejia Release Date: 21st March 2023 Publisher: Random House Inc Genre: YA
Blurb
An edge-of-your-seat fantasy about a girl who will do anything to protect her sister–even if it means striking a dangerous bargain. Dark forces, forgotten magic, and a heart-stopping queer romance make this young adult novel a must-read.
A scorned god. A mysterious acolyte. A forgetting drug. A dangerous forest. One girl caught between the freedom she always wanted and a sister she can’t bear to leave behind. Under the cover of the Night Forest, will Lucha be able to step into her own power…or will she be consumed by it?
This gorgeous and fast-paced fantasy novel from acclaimed author Tehlor Kay Mejia is brimming with adventure, peril, romance, and family bonds–and asks what it means for a teen girl to become fully herself.
Second chunky new fantasy in two days, I’m spoiling you all!
THE JAGUAR PATH │16 FEBRUARY 2023│ HB │ EB │EA Anna Stephens
Book Two of the new epic fantasy trilogy by the acclaimed author of GODBLIND.
The Empire of Songs reigns supreme. Across all the lands of Ixachipan, its hypnotic, magical music sounds. Those who battled against the Empire have been enslaved and dispersed, taken far from their friends and their homes.
In the Singing City, Xessa must fight for the entertainment of her captors. Lilla and thousands of warriors are trained to serve as weapons for their enemies. And Tayan is trapped at the heart of the Empire’s power and magic, where the ruthless Enet’s ambition is ever growing.
Each of them harbours a secret hope, waiting for a chance to strike at the Empire from within.
But first they must overcome their own desires. Power can seduce as well as crush. And, in exchange for their loyalty, the Empire promises much.
Once, Lan had a different name. Now, she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and spends her days scavenging for remnants of the past. For anything that might help her understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother, in her last act before she died.
No one can see the mysterious mark, an untranslatable Hin character, except Lan. Until the night a boy appears at the teahouse and saves her life.
Zen is a practitioner – one of the fabled magicians of the Last Kingdom, whose abilities were rumoured to be drawn from the demons they communed with. Magic believed to be long lost. Magic to be hidden from the Elantians at all costs.
Both Lan and Zen have secrets buried deep within. Fate has connected them, but their destiny remains unwritten. Both hold the power to liberate their land. And both hold the power to destroy the world.
Genetically-modified teens try to bring down the organisation that made them, in this second action-packed installment in the 21% Monster series. The girl put her hands on her hips, cocked her head and answered: ‘My name is Aurora María Ash-Valero and I’m here to kick your butt!” Since Darren Devlin and Marek Masters joined forces, there has only been one thing on their minds – taking down XSP, the secret organisation that transformed them into genetically-modified superhumans. Even with 21% monster Darren’s incredible strength, and 19% alien Marek’s super intelligence, XSP is more than a match for them. But what if there was another survivor of XSP’s experiments? A tall, tough, athletic teen girl able to withstand sub-zero temperatures and track potential predators? A girl who’s 17% sabre-tooth polar bear, and out for revenge. Two’s company, but Three IS UNSTOPPABLE in this high-octane adventure, 21% Monster: Ice Giant.
Wandering cleric Chih of the Singing Hills travels to the riverlands to record tales of the notorious near-immortal martial artists who haunt the region. On the road to Betony Docks, they fall in with a pair of young women far from home, and an older couple who are more than they seem. As Chih runs headlong into an ancient feud, they find themselves far more entangled in the history of the riverlands than they ever expected to be.
Accompanied by Almost Brilliant, a talking bird with an indelible memory, Chih confronts old legends and new dangers alike as they learn that every story—beautiful, ugly, kind, or cruel—bears more than one face.
The Singing Hills Cycle
The Empress of Salt and Fortune When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain Into the Riverlands
The novellas of The Singing Hills Cycle are linked by the cleric Chih, but may be read in any order, with each story serving as an entry point.
My Review
I’ve been waiting for this book to come out. It’s Chih’s next adventure and I wanted to know what they would get up to. I adore Almost Brilliant, they’re funny and sharp. In this novella, Chih and Almost Brilliant fall in with a couple of young women on the road and a middle aged couple. They are legends and legends in the making, and it is Chih’s job to write down their stories.
Vo’s novellas are always a joy to read, as we explore the world they’ve built around Chih and their adventures, through multiple eyes with the mediation of Chih and Almost Brilliant. This book is short but immersive. It takes you into a world of magic, legends and mammoths, based on a version of Chinese history, into a world where heroes from the stories live and breathe, fight and love.
As a half-goddess possessing magic, Yaga is used to living on her own, her prior entanglements with mortals having led to heartbreak. She mostly keeps to her hut in the woods, where those in need of healing seek her out, even as they spread rumours about her supposed cruelty and wicked spells. But when her old friend Anastasia—now the wife of the tsar and suffering from a mysterious illness—arrives in her forest desperate for her protection, Yaga realizes the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia’s. Yaga must step out of the shadows to protect the land she loves. As she travels to Moscow, Yaga witnesses a sixteenth century Russia on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan— soon to become Ivan the Terrible—grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.
When an army of giant robot AIs threatens to devastate Earth, a virtuoso pianist becomes humanity’s last hope in this bold, lightning-paced, technicolor new space opera series from the author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe.
Jazz pianist Gus Kitko expected to spend his final moments on Earth playing piano at the greatest goodbye party of all time, and maybe kissing rockstar Ardent Violet, before the last of humanity is wiped out forever by the Vanguards–ultra-powerful robots from the dark heart of space, hell-bent on destroying humanity for reasons none can divine.
But when the Vanguards arrive, the unthinkable happens–the mecha that should be killing Gus instead saves him. Suddenly, Gus’s swan song becomes humanity’s encore, as he is chosen to join a small group of traitorous Vanguards and their pilots dedicated to saving humanity.
Paperback, 512 pages Published August 16th 2022 by Orbit ISBN:0316538566 (ISBN13: 9780316538565) Series The Burning Kingdoms #2
Audiobook Published August 16th 2022 by Orbit ISBN:1668613557 (ISBN13: 9781668613559)
Blurb
“Alluring, action-packed, and gut-wrenching,” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), The Oleander Sword continues Tasha Suri’s acclaimed Burning Kingdoms trilogy, in which a powerful priestess and a vengeful princess will change the fate of an empire.
The prophecy of the nameless god—the words that declared Malini the rightful empress of Parijatdvipa—has proven a blessing and curse. She is determined to claim the throne that fate offered her. But even with rage in her heart and the army of loyal men by her side, deposing her brother is going to be a brutal and bloody fight.
The power of the deathless waters flows through Priya’s blood. Now a thrice born priestess and an Elder of Ahiranya, she dreams of seeing her country rid of the rot that plagues it: both Parijatdvipa’s poisonous rule, and the blooming sickness that is spreading through all living things. But she doesn’t yet understand the truth of the magic she carries.
Their chosen paths once pulled them apart. But Malini and Priya’s souls remain as entwined as their destinies. And saving their kingdom from those who would rather see it burn will come at a terrible price.
Paperback, 480 pages Published July 7th 2022 by Head of Zeus (first published October 5th 2021) ISBN13: 9781788543248 Edition Language: English Series: Burningblade & Silvereye #2
Blurb
Standing on opposite sides of a looming civil war, two siblings discover that not even ties of blood will keep them from splitting the world in two.
Four hundred years ago, a cataclysmic war cracked the world open and exterminated the Elder races. Amid the ashes, their human inheritor, the Dawn Republic, stands guard over lands littered with eldritch relics and cursed by plaguespawn outbreaks. But a new conflict is looming and brother and sister Maya and Gyre have found themselves on opposite sides.
At the age of five, Maya was taken by the Twilight Order and trained to be a centarch, wielding forbidden arcana to enforce the Dawn Republic’s rule. On that day, her brother, Gyre, swore to destroy the Order that stole his sister… whatever the cost.
Twelve years later, brother and sister are two very different people: she is Burningblade, the Twilight Order’s brightest prodigy; he is Silvereye, thief, bandit, revolutionary.
For centuries, the Dawn Republic has ruled over the land unopposed. No more.
Deep below the Gap, Gyre Silvereye discovered a city, hidden far from human eyes. There, the ghouls have dwelt for four hundred years in hibernation, awaiting the moment to wreak their vengeance on the Dawn Republic.
With their help, Gyre can finally see a way to overthrow the all-powerful Twilight Order. But the ghouls do not give their trust easily, and Gyre will need to secure the alliance of the human rebels to the south if they are to even stand a chance. And uniting the two won’t be simple.
His sister Maya still fights for the Order. But after recent events, she is no longer certain where her loyalties lie. Chasing the origins of a mysterious artefact to a long-lost library, she just might find the truth – whether she is ready for it or not.
My Review
I have two editions of this book, and the first one in the series. I have Goldsboro Books special editions in hardback, and paperbacks. The paperback from Head of Zeus arrived on Thursday, because I had it on pre-order. I have two copies of the first book in the Burningblade & Silvereye series too,Ashes of the Sun, which I reviewed in March 2021. I also have both as audiobooks. I couldn’t get on with the audiobook narration for this one, or I’d have reviewed it before now. It’s very unfortunate, since I quite liked the audiobook of Ashes of the Sun and was looking forward to listening to this one too.
Gyre Silvereye and Maya Burningblade are siblings on opposite sides of the social order. As a Centarch, Maya represents the ruling Order, heirs to the mysterious Chosen, while Gyre is a rebel, a thief and determined to bring the Order down, with the help of the ‘ghouls’, a sentient species who are almost extinct and hated by humanity.
The ghouls are a rather large, humanoid species, with hair and fangs, who use dhak, a form of magic. They live in the hidden Refuge, an ancient ghoul city that is now almost empty after 99% of the ghouls died because of the plague that also wiped out the Chosen. Ghouls use constructs to do all the heavy lifting, and have weapons that Gyre can use in his rebellion. He ropes Elariel, a ghoul who worked for Naumoriel (villain in the first book), into helping him. He offers the ruling parliament of the ghouls a way to get revenge on the Chosen and the Order by supporting his rebellion with weapons and tools. Elariel undergoes a terrible operation as punishment which makes her look human to help with the mission.
Kit is now happily running around in multiple construct bodies, lamenting only her inability to fuck, although she does discover how much she enjoys voyeurism and fighting in multiple places at once. The three leave Refuge for Deepfire, where they collect three large wagons and a lot of alchemical equipment, and Sarah, an alchemist formerly of the Order who joined the rebels in Deepfire. They travel through the Splintered Kingdoms to Khirkhaz, a mountainous and forested region where a Commune led by the ousted Apphia, Baron Kotzed, fights to retake the area from the Republic and return to her family’s tower.
Meanwhile, Maya, her partner Beq, and their scout, Varo, go looking for an Archive in the mountains in the north west, beyond Deepfire and near the coast. Many Centarchs had attempted to clear the place of plaguespawn to reach the Archive, but had failed. Maya and her small team find a village, a mystery and information about the Thing and Maya’s deiat. Beq gets over-excited by the possibilities of the archive. They return to the Forge, where they are sent out on a secret mission that involves them going to the capital of the Republic, Skyreach to break into Kyriliarch Prodominus’ private warehouse. There, they discover a great secret and more information about betrayal in the Order.
The two groups meet in Khirkhaz during the fight to defend Apphia’s claim from the Republic. They go off on a mission of their own that could destroy or save the world…
The world and its history is explored further as the two groups travel across the continent by different means, and we learn more about the Chosen and the ghouls. It becomes increasingly obvious that humans have been lied to for centuries and that the Order is fractured. Who can anyone trust? The tension lies between what the reader knows from following Gyre and his group, and what Maya believes to be true based on what she is told and what she finds in her adventures. They are both driven by idealism, which doesn’t do well in the real world. Gyre finds his Khirkhaz Commune is really a collection of argumentative, disunited factions from different backgrounds, only nominally led by Apphia. Maya discovers that she’s been lied to repeatedly, although we don’t really see how it changes things for her, other than her internal confusion about who to trust. Hopefully, it’ll become clearer in the third book.
The relationship between Gyre and Maya is fraught before they meet up in battle, but it becomes more so as they realise they need to work together. Gyre is deeply affected by his sister’s actions in the last chapters, but still helps her. I’ll be interested to see the fall out in the next book. I have a feeling that Gyre and company might be arrested and Maya is placed in an even more compromised position, or the Corruptor will overcome the Order. Pretty sure Tanax and Basal are corrupted. I hope the ghouls are able to save themselves though and humanity gets its collective head out of its collective arse. The Order and Republic are clearly positioned as compromised and controlling in these books, while Gyre and the rebels as ‘heroes’, but it’s more complicated. No one group is evil or good. They’re humans; venal, greedy and selfish in some cases, deceived and deceptive, selfless, determined to improve the world, and generous. The technology has limits even if magic is involved and people get exhausted, no one can fight forever, weapons and tools break and ammunition or fuel runs out. Like in the real world.
There is a development of Maya and Beq’s relationship carries through their chapters, as they support each other and realise how important they are to each other. I like their relationship; they’re young and inexperienced, and trying to work out what they are to each other. It’s sweet. Thankfully, the author manages not to make their sexuality a big deal, it’s just a background fact that both are girls and they are in a relationship. It’s the development of their relationship that’s important, not the fact it exists.
Beq is a marvellous character, geeky, intelligent and brave, who doesn’t have much confidence in herself, but can do anything she sets her mind to. I also enjoyed the little scene where she’s reading while waiting for Maya to finish her visit Jaedia in the hospital, and doesn’t notice Maya come out of the room because the book is so engrossing. Been there, done that. Haven’t we all? She also struggles with jokes and is very literal. She’s practical and loves Maya deeply although she doesn’t seem to have many other relationships or friends.
Kit, having died and then returned as the controlling intellect in a construct army, is a lot more fun that in the first book. Death seems to have allowed her to put aside her angst and enjoy life. The abilities she has as a construct allow her to be in so many places at once, which helps her and Gyre to escape from various traps, fight battles and rescue each other. The image of chicken sized mechanical spiders carrying smoking ceramic bombs attacking Maya and Legionaries made me giggle but at the same time are very practical. They would be useful.
This is a world where both magic and technology mix to allow aircraft, long distance almost instantaneous travel, but humans still live in squalor in cities, hide behind high walls in the countryside, and the magic and tech developed by two species though to be extinct is limited to a certain class or group. It’s a blending of science fiction and fantasy that works well. I enjoyed Elariel’s questioning of the social rules and distinctions, because things are very different on ghoul society, where helping anyone in pain is an obligation, all the work is done by constructs, and decisions are made by a representative group. Her complaints about clothes are funny, and true. They are uncomfortable.
Details like Elariel being in pain because she isn’t used to walking in shoes or the difficulties of getting wagons along forest paths bring a touch of reality to this book. The descriptions of the environments people travel through and the different societies of the continent seem to have been well thought out. The writing is fluid and gripping, it’s punchy and fast paced at times while also having slower, more reflective sections. I stayed up rather later to finish the book and can’t wait for the next in the series. I know it’ll be out next year and the title ‘Emperor of Ruin’ which sounds promising.
Because I’m a bit obsessive, and I have Ashes of the Sun in the Orbit paperback edition (US publisher), and Blood of the Chosen in the Head of Zeus edition (UK publisher). I’ve just bought the opposites so I have both books in both editions. I’ll get the Goldsboro Books special hardback of the third book and the two different paperbacks. They have different covers, I’m not just being pedantic about having matching publisher’s editions. I am however aware that most people don’t do this,
Now to my criticisms. There aren’t many. Elariel’s appearance, especially the comments about her attractiveness get a bit repetitive and aren’t really adding to the plot. Other people’s reactions and her utter cluelessness get the message across adequately. The ability of the ghoul swords to cut through unmetal armour where it’s thin is mentioned in every fight, which is just unnecessary, the reader won’t forget that these swords are pretty amazing even if they do have limits. I knew we were heading into the final fight when Maya and Gyre meet up to go to the Purifier and that they would be betrayed, because the same thing happened in Ashes of the Sun. It’s a little formulaic, even though it works.
Generally, I was impressed by this solid sequel, even with the minor irritants. I recommend it to fans of science fiction and fantasy.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 