SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter: https://t.co/eBDFh6saEA
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 12, 2020
Short Review: 9 out of 10
1/3
Disclaimer: This review is based upon an e-ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for a review. I give my word that my reactions and review below are not affected by this and that this review is entirely fair and unbiased. If I felt unable to review this book without bias, I would not have reviewed it.Short Review (cont): The sequel to The Rage of Dragons continues the story of Tau, as his quest for revenge leads him through a civil war and the battle against the indigenous people as his people's sins come to roost. Incredibly done- brutal epic fantasy with strong themes
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 12, 2020
2/3
The Fires of Vengeance is the second book in Evan Winter's "The Burning" epic fantasy series, which began with The Rage of Dragons. That first book, which I believe was originally self published before being picked up by Orbit, was a hell of a start to a brutal new epic fantasy series (Review Here) inspired by Winter's Xhosa heritage and which dealt with issues of class, race, revenge, and colonization. I compared the first book in that review to the anime Berserk because well: you had a revenge driven protagonist willing to go to unthinkable lengths to get stronger and achieve his goals in a world that is absolutely arrayed against him. It ended in brutal form, and I was absolutely thrilled to get an early copy to read the sequel.
And well, The Fires of Vengeance is an impressive follow-up, in pretty much all the ways you would imagine. Our protagonist Tau remains a compelling determinator as he tries to wreak his vengeance in a world that seemingly wants more and more of him, and the series' side characters, both new and old, get some strong development as well to build this world up. And we continue to deal with serious themes all the while. Combine it all with some impressive writing that uses different points of view in some rather clever ways, and well, this is another winner.
Note: If you couldn't tell from the first book, this is an absolutely brutal book, bordering on grimdark. If you enjoyed the first one and were able to deal with that, there's little here that will change your mind, although I guess I should add a Trigger Warning for SUICIDE.
Spoilers for book 1 are inevitable to follow:-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Against all odds, Tau Solarin is the Queen's Champion, the greatest warrior of the Omehi. But the cost has been impossibly high - Tau's love had to sacrifice herself to save them all, his squad is nearly destroyed, and the noble Tau has sworn vengeance upon - Odili - escaped...and has crowned Queen Tsiora's sister Esi and holed up in the capitol city. Now the fragile potential peace between the Omehi and the indigenous Xidden has broken thanks to Odili's betrayal, the Omehi are on the verge of civil war, and nightmares from the past may be returning.
To save them all, and to get his vengeance, Tau will need to lead the Queen's forces against their former allies, to quickly end the civil war before the conflict with the Xiddeen can re-ignite. But the Nobles aren't so eager to follow a Common man like Tau and his friends, and Tau will soon find foes on nearly every front in the path of his rage. In order to survive them, and to do the impossible once more and defeat his enemy, Tau will need to teach his friends the secret to his strength...and hope they won't go mad with the pain like Tau has....and hope that Tau won't go even more mad, in the process.....
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Like its predecessor, The Fires of Vengeance is mostly the story of Tau, and thus is mostly set from his perspective. But the key word there is mostly - Winter is absolutely not afraid to move his third person point of view around to other characters to convey the mood/feeling of a scene and of the characters in question, including memorably in one last chapter that flips everything on its head till it seems almost like horror. It's a fascinating approach that Winter uses to great effect and I'm hard pressed to describe it used in another book like this.
This approach allows Winter to continue the story of this brutal epic fantasy, but to expand the plot further as you would expect. So we still have Tau bitterly seeking his vengeance, now with an official position as the Queen's Champion - a Queen he finds himself having feelings for (and vice versa), as we learn a lot more about her (she wasn't really a character in the last book). But you also have Tau fighting the indigenous Xiddeen, and dealing with their leader's need for vengeance and the pain he can wreak - to say nothing of his brilliant stratagems. You have not just Odili - the spoiled evil noble whose death is Tau's goal - but you have the Queen's sister, and other nobles who are prompted also to rebel at the idea of equality between the Lessers and Noble castes. And, as you might expect from the first book's prologue, you have the threat of more, of supernatural creatures like Demons and the legendary beings who once chased the Omehi from their own lands onto the shores of Xidda, where they abused the dragons to become conquerors.
Winter deftly manages to deal with all of this with brutal and still excellently done combat scenes and tremendous character work, in ways that made this book near impossible to put down. Where certain events seem inevitable or foregone conclusions, Winter twists them in interesting/different ways, and so the book is the furthest thing from "predictable" and yet it never feels unfair in its narrative. And again we're dealing with issues of class and race, and colonization and its impacts, on cycles of vengeance and despair and how all of the issues involving these things often find themselves being balanced by the short and long term needs of society, such that true justice isn't possible to be achieved. This is a pretty horrible and brutal world, where even the good guys (and our protagonists are the colonizers, even if they were chased by a foe into doing it so they're not exactly "good") are often not quite as good internally as they seem and the bad guys have points of view which cast them as just and worthy of victory.
It all ends with an ending that is a tremendous cliffhanger, albeit one that still works with the main conflict of this book resolved a chapter earlier. This book doesn't quite handle all of its issues and ideas: an early plot point and issue that Tau brings up to himself is never mentioned again, and not in a way that made me think it would ever come up again in a sequel.* Still, it's overall really damn good and well, I want the sequel as quickly as possible, whether that sequel is the end of the series or not.
Spoiler in ROT13: Gnh guvaxf nobhg gur vawhfgvpr bs ubj gurl hfr gur Qentbaf guebhtu gur pncgher bs bar bs gurve lbhat, naq ubj gurl gerng vg naq fbeg bs ibjf gb serr vg....naq gura arire guvaxf nobhg vg ntnva, qrfcvgr gurve cyna sbe gur svany pbadhrfg vaibyivat gur hfr bs qentbaf. Vg'f xvaq bs n jrveq guvat gb abg ng yrnfg oevat hc va uvf zvaq bapr gur cyna pbzrf gb sehvgvba....
This approach allows Winter to continue the story of this brutal epic fantasy, but to expand the plot further as you would expect. So we still have Tau bitterly seeking his vengeance, now with an official position as the Queen's Champion - a Queen he finds himself having feelings for (and vice versa), as we learn a lot more about her (she wasn't really a character in the last book). But you also have Tau fighting the indigenous Xiddeen, and dealing with their leader's need for vengeance and the pain he can wreak - to say nothing of his brilliant stratagems. You have not just Odili - the spoiled evil noble whose death is Tau's goal - but you have the Queen's sister, and other nobles who are prompted also to rebel at the idea of equality between the Lessers and Noble castes. And, as you might expect from the first book's prologue, you have the threat of more, of supernatural creatures like Demons and the legendary beings who once chased the Omehi from their own lands onto the shores of Xidda, where they abused the dragons to become conquerors.
Winter deftly manages to deal with all of this with brutal and still excellently done combat scenes and tremendous character work, in ways that made this book near impossible to put down. Where certain events seem inevitable or foregone conclusions, Winter twists them in interesting/different ways, and so the book is the furthest thing from "predictable" and yet it never feels unfair in its narrative. And again we're dealing with issues of class and race, and colonization and its impacts, on cycles of vengeance and despair and how all of the issues involving these things often find themselves being balanced by the short and long term needs of society, such that true justice isn't possible to be achieved. This is a pretty horrible and brutal world, where even the good guys (and our protagonists are the colonizers, even if they were chased by a foe into doing it so they're not exactly "good") are often not quite as good internally as they seem and the bad guys have points of view which cast them as just and worthy of victory.
It all ends with an ending that is a tremendous cliffhanger, albeit one that still works with the main conflict of this book resolved a chapter earlier. This book doesn't quite handle all of its issues and ideas: an early plot point and issue that Tau brings up to himself is never mentioned again, and not in a way that made me think it would ever come up again in a sequel.* Still, it's overall really damn good and well, I want the sequel as quickly as possible, whether that sequel is the end of the series or not.
Spoiler in ROT13: Gnh guvaxf nobhg gur vawhfgvpr bs ubj gurl hfr gur Qentbaf guebhtu gur pncgher bs bar bs gurve lbhat, naq ubj gurl gerng vg naq fbeg bs ibjf gb serr vg....naq gura arire guvaxf nobhg vg ntnva, qrfcvgr gurve cyna sbe gur svany pbadhrfg vaibyivat gur hfr bs qentbaf. Vg'f xvaq bs n jrveq guvat gb abg ng yrnfg oevat hc va uvf zvaq bapr gur cyna pbzrf gb sehvgvba....
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