Monday, October 15, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Queen of Crows by Myke Cole




The Queen of Crows is the second in Myke Cole's "Sacred Throne" trilogy of short novels and is the sequel to his novel from earlier this year, The Armored Saint (Review Here).  The Armored Saint was rather dark and its results were very predictable (the cover was a major spoiler, for real), but its worldbuilding and characters were extremely interesting and I was looking forward to where Cole took the story in the follow-up.

I can safely say that The Queen of Crows is far less predictable in how it plays out and remains rather interesting and worth a read for those who don't mind darker fantasy stories.  It....seems to hand-wave away one of the major interesting aspects of its worldbuilding from the first book, but its main heroine's journey in this book is so interesting that it hardly matters.  The result was a second book I enjoyed a good bit even though I'm not really that interested in battle scenes, which take up a good portion of the last act of the book, and I look forward to the finale to this trilogy.

---------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------
After defying the Order and destroying a demon with a suit of powered armor, Heloise Factor has been anointed by some members of her village as a Holy Palantine, the first of the holy fighters who in the distant past legendarily destroyed the demons.  Now she seeks to lead her village against the powerful Order, which seeks to brand them as heretics for consorting with a Wizard and refusing to consent to further oppression.  But not all members of Heloise' village really believe in her sainthood and her cause.

But more importantly, Heloise is still a young woman with no experience in battle - is she really able to lead her village....and any others she meets....against a trained military force such as the Order?  Is she really some holy warrior, or was she merely lucky in her powered armor?  And as she remains heartbroken from the loss of the young woman she loved, is she really emotionally able to lead her people?

Can Heloise really win a new life of freedom for her people, or is she doomed to cost all her family their lives?  And can she achieve this freedom so without becoming as bad as the Order itself?
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The Armored Saint asked largely how much was security from a very real danger worth if it cost brutal oppression and a lack of freedom and The Queen of Crows continues that theme as characters wonder whether a fight for freedom that seems doomed to failure is worth the sacrifice of lives.  But it adds a theme about whether or not Heloise is really appropriate for her role as a figurehead and leader of men in the fight for freedom.

So naturally, Heloise is the key to this story working and she's written incredibly well....this is after all a young woman whose heart has just been broken, with idealistic goals but little military experience, attempting to lead a scrappy military force.  Her guilt and self-doubt come through strongly and realistically, as does her inspiration and need to keep moving forward.  Her repeated actions taken to furthering her ideals of freedom - at the potential cost of losing military resources - make her a curious leader, and you can see both sides of the argument that she is wrong in doing so.  This is not a book where you can't definitely see both sides of the argument between those who support Heloise and those who think she is leading them to destruction - both sides have clear merit.

The side characters here, both old (Sigir the Maior, Barnard the tinker, her father and omther) and new (her new bodyguards Onas and Xilyka the Traveling People), are also well done and realistic in their actions.  And the plot is excellently done and much more surprising than The Armored Saint, since well the cover and title hardly spoil anything this time.

It should be noted that this second novel basically hand-waves away one of the interesting parts of worldbuilding from The Armored Saint: that wizardry and magic-usage results in demons coming through into this word, making the Order at least partially justified in its brutal repression of any hint of wizardry.  Instead, in this book, the few magic users we see Heloise meet claim they can avoid being consumed by demons by careful use of their power, and that seems to be the case here, negating "the ends justify the means" nature of the Order that previously existed.  There's still plenty interesting left in this world without this aspect, but it's a minor disappointment to see it dropped.

The book also features in its last act some major battle scenes as things come to a head.  I've stated previously on this blog that I am NOT a great fan of battle scenes (part of why I don't love MilSci), so these things didn't do much for me, but others will probably enjoy them a lot more.

Still, I enjoyed this book quite a bit and hope the trilogy is concluded soon - although I don't see a release date for the final work in the trilogy yet announced.  Hopefully soon.
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