Wednesday, July 7, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Savage Bounty by Matt Wallace

 


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 July 20, 2021 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.

Savage Bounty is the second book in Matt Wallace's "Savage Rebellion" epic fantasy series, which began with last year's "Savage Legion" (My review is here).  Savage Legion was a revelation last year, an epic fantasy novel with themes of class, empire, colonization, propaganda, and more - weaving these themes in really well in a story that featured 3 really likable point of view characters.  Wallace's prior works (outside his award winning podcast) were the very much comedy novellas Sin Du Jour, so I did not expect him to take to serious epic fantasy so well, but Savage Legion absolutely blew me away and I was thrilled when I saw the chance at getting the sequel early.  

And Savage Bounty continues the story in this dark world, with its strong characters and themes, but can't quite keep up the momentum of the first book.  Our three real POV characters expands to four, but much of their plotlines feel like the book is merely spinning its wheels, without much happening with long term that seems to move the plot forward.  And the book ends on a real dark note, which is never really a thing I love.  This is not to say the book is bad - Wallace's strong characters and strong writing kept me interested throughout and I devoured this book quite quickly, just that it doesn't quite live up to the high bar of the first one.  

Spoilers for Book 1 are below:  -----------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
The Savage Legion was supposed to be Crache's secret weapon - a place to throw the undesirable people of the city into combat for the city's constant expansion, such that Crache's real troops can suffer minimal casualties.  But when Evie came into their ranks, seeking the rescue the man she loved, everything changed, and now Evie - with help from peoples of different cultures and histories - leads Savages in a rebellion against Crache, an empire whose promise she now knows to be a lie.  But Crache still maintains a tremendous military force and the means to smash Evie's force to pieces...if she can even hold together the disparate groups and interests long enough to get them into another battle.  

Meanwhile, Evie's former leader Lexi finds herself held captive by a noble with dreams of regained power, and that noble's mad corrupt Aegin (Cop) enforcer.  To stay alive, Lexi may have to assist the noble's cause and preach in his favor...even if to do so would be to betray the people she has always fought for.  

And in the Planning Cadre, Dyeawan has taken over Edgar's position as head of the Planners, the individuals behind Crache's decision making.  She intends to change the course of the Empire onto a path that will benefit those like herself, those who were left behind, born in poverty, and given up for dead.  But the conservative Planners in the Cadre are disinclined to even the smallest changes, and another former disciple of Edgar has her own plans for how things should move forward, and is not willing to defer to Dyeawan like she might have their former mentor.  

The fate of Crache may fall in the hands of Evie, Dyeawan, and Lexi....but their own fates may be out of their control, and mere survival, nevertheless positive change, will not be easy.....
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Like Savage Legion, Savage Bounty is told from a rotating sequence of viewpoints - Dyeawan, Lexi, Evie, and now, a new addition, Lexi's former Undeclared (non-binary) bodyguard, Taru.  Each character is in a different place within Crache or its outskirts, each dealing with the issues of the Empire, and those who have plans for the Empire, in their own ways.  And again, all of these characters are extremely likable, from Dyeawan's hope to use her brilliance to convert Crache's resources to being used to help all its people, to Evie's attempts to bring forth a group of rebels together from different backgrounds without losing people or ideas she cares about, to Lexi's attempt to deal with a seemingly crazy noble who plans to take the Empire back to an older seemingly worse era, to Taru's attempts to deal with being oppressed as a new member of the Savages.  It's a likable cast in a dark dark world.  

And I mean dark, with serious underlying themes.  So Evie discovers not only that the city they're besieging belonged last to her lover's conquered people....but that it belonged to various other conquered people before them, so whose land is it really?  So Lexi deals with being caught between the current corruption of Crache, which leaves the poor and weak for dead and is unconcerned with openly talking about "indoctrinating" people, and a noble woman who intends to use Lexi's connection to the poor to raise up a rebellion in favor of the nobility....using those struggling people as tools instead of just ignoring them.  With Dyeawan, she discovers that being brilliant and in charge isn't enough to change an Empire, where inertia and those used to the old ways will resist even the smallest shifts.  And Taru finds that even those who have survived an Empire's incursions and sympathize with those rebelling aren't very happy to leave their homes and fight for others' sakes.  These themes and ideas aren't done as well as book 1, but they're still strong concepts that guide the plot here throughout.  

It's a shame that so much of the actual plot here feels like the book is spinning its wheels.  Dyeawan's plotline in particular just feels like an excuse to have her not have an impact on everything outside of the Planners' Cadre, with her plotline featuring revelations that are honestly kind of disappointing and a conflict for control before she even gets a chance to make a difference, which just results in her being practically in the same position at the end of this book as in the beginning.  Lexi's conflict between two powers results in her always being reactive instead of proactive, and I just kept waiting for her to actually make a choice and do something, even if her plot was strong in themes.  Taru is the shortest plotline, and you know from the beginning that he's going to wind up meeting up with Evie in some respect....and he barely gets there at the end, so it just feels like we're killing time.  Even Evie's plotline dances around a big military conflict for the entire book until the very end, which just frustrated me to some extent, although her plotline at least featured a good amount of character development and themes to make it worthwhile.  

And then there's the ending, which wow - did I mention how this series (which I can't imagine finishes in just one more book) is dark?  Because wow, is this a grim ending for our characters, after the book decides to move them all forward.  This doesn't mean the ending is in any way bad - it's just very brutal and not in a way that's necessarily powerful in its themes, but in a way that forms a dire cliffhanger for practically everyone.  It's the type of ending I usually dislike and that usually drives me away from series, but Wallace has done enough here with the characters to keep me invested for one more book.  But uh fair warning - whereas book 1 ended with two characters in moments of "triumph", grim as they were, that is not what you're getting here.  

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