SciFi/Fantasy Advance Book Review: King of the Rising by Kacen Callender: https://t.co/33lXqIHG3P
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 25, 2020
Short Review: 9 out of 10
1/3
Short Review (cont): The sequel to the WFA winning Queen of the Conquered features former slave Løren trying to lead the slave rebellion against the Fjern & being forced to decide how like their former slavemasters their people should & must become. Powerful & devastating
— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 25, 2020
2/3
Full Disclosure: This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on December 1, 2020 in exchange for a potential review. I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.
King of the Rising is the second book in Kacen Callender's "Islands of Blood and Storm" duology, which began with last year's "Queen of the Conquered. Queen of the Conquered was my pick for best SF/F book of 2019 (My review here) and it recently picked up the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. It was a tremendously (brutal to read) novel about a black woman in an enslaved/colonized group of islands (inspired by Callender's home of the US Virgin Islands) who uses her magic (mind controlling) and wits not to free her people, but to obtain power and vengeance instead, no matter the cost. Not to spoil anything before the jump, but it concluded with an absolutely devastating ending that made me both excited and terrified to see what Callender would do with a sequel that switched protagonists from someone so morally gray (to be generous) to someone actually good.
And King of the Rising delivers, with a continuation of the story that is just as tremendously powerful, but in a very different way. The story shift's focus to the perspective of Løren, the young man whose approval the last book's protag Sigourney tried to obtain...even as she held his reins as her slave. Løren is a very different protagonist in that he's somehow an idealist - having experienced the pains of slavery and seen all its horrors, he's determined that the result of their revolution will be a better world not constrained by the ruling attitudes of the Fjern slave masters...but as with the last book, this is not a series about the triumph of the good, and things do not go easily for him despite his good intentions. Add in a well done setting that shows us the perspectives of the various enslaved and formerly enslaved people on the Islands, and you wind up with another devastating novel, even if it has a few more flaws than its predecessor.
The revolution has begun, and the islanders have risen up against their Fjern masters on the Islands of Hans Lollik, with the capital island of Hans Lollik Helle falling to the islanders along with a few others as planned. But the Fjern have managed to get word of and fight back much of the uprising on at least a few of the islands, and still pose a formidable force in opposition...one whose response to revolution has been killing both guilty and innocent islander slaves alike, and who will show no mercy upon the revolution's leaders if they get their hands on them.
Løren finds himself now one of those leaders after the events on Hans Lollik Helle, even though he does not want to be. He's determined that their people's new way of governing, of living, will not be anything like the Fjern's, and that they will have no more masters. But his fellow leaders of the revolution don't all quite agree, and he finds himself in conflict with them over how to organize and run their forces....as the military and food situation becomes all the more dire, and the Fjern become more and more emboldened in their attacks.
Løren will soon be forced to trust the one woman he absolutely cannot: Sigourney Rose, the black woman with the dangerous Kraft of controlling the mind who tried to rise up to the head of the Kongelig, the Fjern's noble class, and who cared not for her own people, but only for her own power and vengeance. Løren's own Kraft has given him a connection with Sigourney, and tied their powers and together and, when he releases Sigourney to act as a spy on their enemy, he finds that not only their powers, but their fates will be tied together as well......
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King of the Rising is similar book in mood to Queen of the Conquered - this is not a happy or optimistic story in any sense - but is also a very very different book in how it works. Part of that is the big different in attitudes between Løren and Sigourney - sure Løren has a white parent, but he was never allowed to think - by his father or brother - that he was one of the Fjern, through beatings and worse, whereas Sigourney was raised by a family who tried to claim that she and them were Fjern themselves, despite the color of their skin. As a result, Løren not only knows himself to be an Islander, a black man, rather than a Fjern, but also believes that there has to be a difference between the two for that distinction to matter. Sigourney felt that she deserved a superior station, because that was the Fjern mindset, but Løren believes that no one deserves such, and that there has to be another way - a way where people can live and work together in kindness, rather than out of compulsion and cruelty.
But that's not the whole way that King of the Rising differs, because Løren's ability allows him, and thus the reader, to see not just the way he sees the world, but those around him as well. Løren possesses the ability to borrow or interfere with another's Kraft (magic) - and that ability has strengthened thanks to all that time around Sigourney's mind controlling Kraft, allowing him to read the minds of those around him. As a result, Løren, and thus the reader, gets to see inside the minds of the other Islanders fighting for freedom and their differing views of the sort...and why they have that - why they might borrow the Fjern's methods of enforcing loyalty through force, why they might desperately seek help from outsiders, why they may keep the gods of their captors - or for those not on the side of the rebellion, why they might try to continue to work for their masters, even as they hate them, and might curse the rebellion at the very same time. It's a fascinating look at the setting and the characters and the people who are so emblematic of the real history these books draw from, and it furthers the plot and Løren along from beginning to end as he discovers more (and as he sees occasional non-Islanders through the same power, in one notable sequence).
This all helps guide a tremendously powerful, albeit quite frequently depressing, plot. Løren seeks to lead his people through good, through kindness and caring, but the world is not set up to reward such behavior, and things do not go necessarily well as a result. People with the same overall goals demand he go further, and sometimes try to force his hand, and that's to say nothing of people without the same goal, whether or not they be Islanders. And while their rebellion may be a just cause, it relied heavily upon the element of surprise allowing for a quick takeover of all the islands...something that was not wholly successful, leaving them in dire straits to a certain extent. Add in a potential traitor among the revolt's leadership, to say nothing of honest disagreements about methods, and you have a compelling plot that shows the perils, danger, deaths, and horrors of a rebellion against a powerful evil force in a world that is realistic rather than idealistic. Whereas Queen of the Conquered featured a protagonist whose goals might've been achievable but would have been ultimately meaningless once achieved, King of the Rising features a protagonist and supporters whose goals would mean everything but just might not be achievable. And it's tremendous almost from beginning to end as a result.
King of the Rising is similar book in mood to Queen of the Conquered - this is not a happy or optimistic story in any sense - but is also a very very different book in how it works. Part of that is the big different in attitudes between Løren and Sigourney - sure Løren has a white parent, but he was never allowed to think - by his father or brother - that he was one of the Fjern, through beatings and worse, whereas Sigourney was raised by a family who tried to claim that she and them were Fjern themselves, despite the color of their skin. As a result, Løren not only knows himself to be an Islander, a black man, rather than a Fjern, but also believes that there has to be a difference between the two for that distinction to matter. Sigourney felt that she deserved a superior station, because that was the Fjern mindset, but Løren believes that no one deserves such, and that there has to be another way - a way where people can live and work together in kindness, rather than out of compulsion and cruelty.
But that's not the whole way that King of the Rising differs, because Løren's ability allows him, and thus the reader, to see not just the way he sees the world, but those around him as well. Løren possesses the ability to borrow or interfere with another's Kraft (magic) - and that ability has strengthened thanks to all that time around Sigourney's mind controlling Kraft, allowing him to read the minds of those around him. As a result, Løren, and thus the reader, gets to see inside the minds of the other Islanders fighting for freedom and their differing views of the sort...and why they have that - why they might borrow the Fjern's methods of enforcing loyalty through force, why they might desperately seek help from outsiders, why they may keep the gods of their captors - or for those not on the side of the rebellion, why they might try to continue to work for their masters, even as they hate them, and might curse the rebellion at the very same time. It's a fascinating look at the setting and the characters and the people who are so emblematic of the real history these books draw from, and it furthers the plot and Løren along from beginning to end as he discovers more (and as he sees occasional non-Islanders through the same power, in one notable sequence).
This all helps guide a tremendously powerful, albeit quite frequently depressing, plot. Løren seeks to lead his people through good, through kindness and caring, but the world is not set up to reward such behavior, and things do not go necessarily well as a result. People with the same overall goals demand he go further, and sometimes try to force his hand, and that's to say nothing of people without the same goal, whether or not they be Islanders. And while their rebellion may be a just cause, it relied heavily upon the element of surprise allowing for a quick takeover of all the islands...something that was not wholly successful, leaving them in dire straits to a certain extent. Add in a potential traitor among the revolt's leadership, to say nothing of honest disagreements about methods, and you have a compelling plot that shows the perils, danger, deaths, and horrors of a rebellion against a powerful evil force in a world that is realistic rather than idealistic. Whereas Queen of the Conquered featured a protagonist whose goals might've been achievable but would have been ultimately meaningless once achieved, King of the Rising features a protagonist and supporters whose goals would mean everything but just might not be achievable. And it's tremendous almost from beginning to end as a result.
The book has some issues which I think knock it down a slight notch from its predecessor. For the second straight book, the book includes a mystery subplot - in this case involving a mysterious traitor who the reader knows (but Løren doesn't) is somehow wiping Løren's memory of seeing him. And for the second straight book, this subplot is more distracting from the far more interesting remainder - except unlike the last book, which makes the mystery pay off in the end, King of the Rising really doesn't, with the reveal coming as little more than a whimper than a bang. Also, I'm not sure if one aspect of the ending really comes forth logically from the setup, with it seeming to jump from point A to point C without covering point B in between, due to Løren's perspective keeping us away from the events in between. I'm also not sure if the thematic resonance of that ending works....but it bears thinking about.*
*Spoiler in ROT13: V'z gnyxvat urer bs pbhefr, nobhg Fvtbhearl'f sngr. Fur tbrf sebz orvat xabjvatyl znavchyngrq ol gur srne Xensg bs n Swrea aboyr naq va qver fgenvgf, pbaivapvat urefrys gung ure bayl pubvpr vf gb orgenl gur vfynaqref ol yrnqvat gur Swrea sbeprf ntnvafg gurz...gb orvat va cbyr cbfvgvba jvgu ure arjyl-nyyvrq obqlthneq gb xvyy gur pheerag yrnqre bs gur Swrea sbeprf naq gb gura hfr ure Xensg naq vasyhrapr gb ertnva n cbfvgvba va cbjre whfg nf fur'q bevtvanyyl vagraqrq ng gur raq bs gur svefg obbx. Gur whzc whfg frrzf noehcg orpnhfr jr qba'g frr Fvtbhearl'f bja zvaq nf fur chyyf vg bss.
Naq gura gurer'f gur dhrfgvba bs jurgure guvf npghnyyl jbexf, fvapr vg xvaq bs haqbrf gur erfhyg bs gur svefg obbx - gung Fvtbhearl qbrfa'g trg gur cbjre fur penirf, n cbjre fur pna arire ernyyl unir orpnhfr gur Swrea jvyy arire gehfg ure qhr gb ure Oynpxarff, naq ure bja Oynpx crbcyr jvyy erwrpg ure sbe gelvat gb or bar bs gur znfgref vafgrnq bs gelvat gb fnir gurz. Urer Fvtbhearl QBRF jvaq hc jvgu gur cbjre - rira vs fur qbrf nyfb unir gung ernyvmngvba gung zhpu bs vg vf zrnavatyrff. Jvgubhg Fvtbhearl'f cbvag bs ivrj gb fubj ubj rzcgl vg nyy vf, V'z abg fher vg ernyyl jbexf sbe zr.
In short, however, King of the Rising is an absolutely tremendous novel, one which made me scream in so many feelings upon its conclusion. Both it and its predecessor make up one hell of a must read of a duology, even if not one for the faint of heart.
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