Monday, August 2, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Wild Savage Stars by Kristina Pérez

 




Wild Savage Stars is the sequel to Kristina Pérez' Sweet Black Waves, and the second book in her trilogy adapted from the story of Tristan and Isolde (My review of the first book can be found here).  I wasn't familiar with the story going in to the trilogy, but the first book covered much of what I found later when I looked it up with a very interesting and dark/tragic spin: telling the story from the perspective of Isolde's lady maid Branwen, a young woman who believes in duty towards her country and is desperate to keep peace and save all those she cares about.  And of course when Isolde jeopardizes that, it forces Branwen into desperate actions - especially with her magic healing/destruction power - that led to tragedies.  It was a really strong opener that made me really curious to read more.  

Wild Savage Stars takes us beyond the most known inspiration for the story, with Branwen, Eseult, and Tristan making it to Kernyv (a pastiche of Wales/England/Cornwall), where Esuelt is to marry the king in exchange for peace between their two nations....a marriage she has never been interested especially now that she drank the love potion that resulted in Eseult and Tristan's tryst.  There Branwen finds herself desperately trying to guide both her cousin and Tristan in the Court to hide their indiscretion and to make sure the marriage takes place....all the while dealing with internal Kernyvak politics that threatens the peace, her own past history of having her parents murdered by Kernyvak raiders, and the magic that is building up inside her and threatening to destroy everything.  It's again a very dark and tragic story, where best intentions lead to horrible decisions and actions, and it ends up on a pretty incredible cliffhanger.  
------------------------------------------------Plot Summary------------------------------------------------------
All of Branwen's designs have resulted in the worst possible outcome: her magic caused her to kill a man to protect her cousin Eseult, the love potion she brewed so that her cousin and the king of Kernyv would be happy together has been consumed by her own beloved Tristan, who Branwen found in bed with Eseult, and now that indiscretion threatens to destroy the peace between their nations that Branwen and her aunt, the Queen worked so hard to build.  Her magic has led her to kill another instead of just heal, and she has haunting thoughts of the visions shown to her by the darkness - that the Kernyvak King Mark was responsible the death of her parents.  So now with Branwen's heart broken, she finds herself determined to do the one thing she has left: her duty towards her country, ensuring that this peace works.  

But besides Tristan and Eseult's situation, the situation on Kernyv also threatens to destroy all Branwen is trying to build.  For it is a nation filled with nobles who have their own thoughts on a woman from Iveriu as their queen as well as on other countries with conflicting interests.  And then there are the chauvinistic priests of the Kernyvak religion, who find themselves threatened by Branwen's interest in healing and helping the people of Kernyv....especially those from Iveriu who now find themselves on Kernyvak shores.  

To navigate it all and maintain the peace, Branwen will need to use all her diplomatic skills, as well as the magical skills she dares not reveal to her new hosts....magical skills that will pull her more and more towards darkness if she wants everything she cares about to survive.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sweet Black Waves ended on a dark note, albeit one that was inevitable based upon the story the book was adapting: Tristan and Eseult drank the love potion meant for Eseult and King Marc, resulting in the man Branwen loved (and vice versa) falling for her cousin and vice versa (and him taking her virginity).  For Branwen this was a catastrophe on every possible level:  Romantically, it destroyed her dreams of love with Tristan; Personally, it meant that Eseult would be even more miserable than expected with marrying King Marc over the man she'd fell in love with back home; and Honor-wise, it threatened to destroy her own obligation to ensure peace between Iveriu and Kernyv by making sure Eseult was in a treasonous relation with King Marc's own nephew.  Suddenly not only is her heart broken, a heart that only recently had come to believe could find love, but her one true non-romantic desire, peace for her homeland, is in dire straits.  

It's a hell of a starting point for the second novel, where Branwen has to navigate her own desperation, her own strong-willed nature and intelligence, and the power of magic to try juggling all the balls now up in the air to get a result that is favorable.  Needless to say it goes all out of control fairly quickly, with Branwen's actions continuing to have dire consequences...but all of those actions are believable and understandable until the very fateful end, and Branwen remains an absolutely terrific character in a girl pushed to the limit, with nothing left but to try everything to save others, since she herself can't really be saved.  And Wild Savage Stars pushes her further by introducing a number of other interesting concepts to challenge her:

So we have Kernyv, where her captured countrymen have lived in poverty or in working in dangerous mines, challenging Branwen and Eseult's belief that peace is possible.  We have the country being split into political factions that may not all want peace, and may also want conflict with another neighboring country we see more of (who is a pastiche of that area of France) - and also controlled in some part by a chauvinistic priesthood who have only been grabbing more and more power....power they see challenged by Branwen and Eseult as women (and by Branwen's taking of the priest's roles as healers).  And then you have Branwen's own magic, which threatens to go out of control and shows her visions of her being the source of Darkness invading the country and causing devastation, as well as wise woman who tries to tutor her into realizing that only Branwen herself can choose how to apply that magic - it belongs to her, not to any gods or lands, but herself. 

The result is a plot that is twisty and dark, with things going horribly wrong on multiple occasions, but one that never gets too grim and depressing.  It's also filled with interesting multifaceted characters for Branwen to interact with, from King Marc, to Marc's wise mother, to another prince, a cousin to Tristan, who also clearly has an interest in Branwen.  That relationship with the prince goes in directions I really liked and didn't expect, as Branwen takes things into her own hands, and he isn't made simply to be a creep but to be a three dimensional person whose interests sometimes align with Branwen's and other times don't.  It all puts so much of the plot in Branwen's hands, as even in a world in which women do not have full rights, her fate is down to her OWN choices, as is her own personal and romantic interests, which I really liked.  The book isn't perfect - there are two obvious false flag situations (in which someone tries to start a conflict by pretending to be someone else) that the characters recognize...only for there to be a third that Branwen doesn't, which seems silly to the reader who will clearly know better.  

But still, that ending, wow.  I have no idea how things are going to go from here, but the book ends on another hell of a cliffhanger.  I can't wait to see how it'll end, even if I cannot imagine it will do so happily in the end, with all that Branwen has done.....Just tremendous stuff here.  

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)