Monday, March 16, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Wolf of Oren-Yaro by K.S. Villoso




The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is the first in a series/trilogy by author KS Villoso amusingly titled "Chronicles of the Bitch Queen".  The book seems to have been published a while ago, with a different publisher, but is now being reprinted by major SF/F publisher Orbit, along with its sequel later this year.  The story features an Filipino-inspired Epic Fantasy World, but told from the perspective of a single character, with a story that is far more personal than epic in consequence.

The result is a story that is really well done, with a really interesting main character, and some really strong themes throughout: especially of class, imperialism, and of gender.  A note: despite the series title and the cover, this is not a book about a badass woman just kicking ass and taking names - while the protagonist is a badass at times, the story is more about her dealing with her own personal and royal struggles, as she attempts to deal with the consequences of her husband abandoning her, assassins coming after her, and an Empire of people who think of her as dirt.  And despite some flaws, it's a story that really really works and makes me very interested to see where it goes from here.


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
As part of a treaty which ended a civil war that tore Jin-Sayeng apart, Talyien of Oren-yaro was supposed to rule the country together with her husband Rayyel Ikessar, with both taking the title of Dragonlord - the country's King and Queen.  But as they were to be crowned, Ikessar ran without any public explanation, and Talyien was left to be crowned alone.  For the last five years, she has had to rule the country alone, dealing with clan warlords with their own agendas and little respect for anything other than the use of force.

But when Rayyel sends word that he wishes to meet in the neighboring Empire of Ziri-nar-Orxiaro, Talyien takes a small force to meet with her husband in secret.  For she hopes to persuade Rayyel to return, where their combined rule will force the warlords to heel.....and more personally, Talyien still feels affection for the man she was supposed to marry for most of her life.

But when the reunion with Rayyel goes wrong, Talyien finds herself alone in a strange city with strange ways and little respect for her people.  With seemingly no one she can trust, Talyien will be forced to ally with a strange cast: a con-artist and thief, a bandit, and the rest of the city's underbelly, to find out what's truly behind Rayyel's actions and the disaster that follows, and even to survive......
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The Wolf of Oren-Yaro starts with a pretty great line: "They called me the Bitch Queen, the she-wolf, because I murdered a man and exiled my king the night before they crowned me."  But the line is somewhat misleading, because while Talyien, our protagonist and narrator is certainly brutal with those of who betray her, she's a lot more than some barbarian queen as those foreign to her country might see her - heartbroken by Rayyel's disappearance, caring for her son and for her people, and hopelessly out of her depth in her rule.  And using that very different prespective, the story often jumping back and forth between the present - Talyien's current predicament - and the past, as Talyien remembers and recounts how things got to this point, particularly between her and Rayyel.

The result is an incredibly strong lead character in Talyien, who is so many contradictory ideas and character traits rolled into one.  She's impulsive and arrogant, but also unsure and prone to temporary paralysis by indecision.  She's brutal and forceful, and yet doesn't understand a culture that doesn't lend aid to those lost and in need.  She resents Rayyel for what he did to her, and for his past betrayals, and yet loves him all the same despite knowing his flaws, and is willing to do anything to try and get him back - for herself, not just the country.  This type of character could be done so poorly by a lesser writer, given how contradictory some of these traits are, but Villoso writes her impressively well, so this mess of a character feels like such a real person.

And with this character, Villoso explores some really interesting themes - particularly with the contrast to Rayyel, the bookish husband who left her.  As the story goes on, and more of the past is revealed, Rayyel is revealed to be pretty much an ass - too obsessed with his noble standing at their first meeting, with repeated acts of indiscretion throughout their engagement, and a son he left behind in addition to his rule.  And yet Talyien blames herself for Rayyel's elopement, blaming it all on her own mistakes, and can't help love him, despite more and more evidence that he is the problem.  And the book doesn't ever take the easy way out in exploring this guilt - and Rayyel's gendered arrogance in blaming Talyien - by having her eventually come to a triumphant realization of Rayyel's fault, for it's not so easy to really break through it all, resulting in an emotionally devastating ending - even as the reader wishes the Talyien could see through her emotional pain.

Gender and Blame are not the only themes dealt with in this book - issues of class and privilege and force are as well, in a story that also contains a number of excellent side characters, from Talyien's bodyguards, to most notably the con-artist Kline, whom Talyien doesn't quite know what to do with.  The two make an excellent pairing in contrasts, guiding the plot forward as Talyien explores this strange unknown part of the world to her, facing those who would wish to kill her and worse, and tries to make sense of it all.  And the result is a plot that takes some interesting turns and will leave the reader guessing as much as Talyien as to what is truly happening....even at the very end.

In short, The Wolf of Oren-Yaro is a fascinating personal story of an interesting heroine lost in an epic fantasy world, dealing with her own brutal nature and her own emotional troubles among trying simply to stay alive, and I cannot wait to see more of Talyien's story.  This is clearly - and this is perhaps the book's biggest fault - only the beginning of this story arc for Talyien, and I will be there for sure when it continues with the sequel's rerelease this fall.


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