Thursday, September 30, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Blood of the Chosen by Django Wexler

 



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 October 5, 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.

Blood of the Chosen is the sequel to Ashes of the Sun (reviewed here) and the second in his epic fantasy trilogy "Burningblade & Silvereye".  The series is heavily inspired by Star Wars, featuring an Order of warriors who wield an energy force (which manifests often as blades made of light and fire) who are taken...by force...as children from their families to be trained to serve and maintain order for a Republic, although it seems like some of those warriors, Centarchs, have less noble goals in mind.  As you can probably guess from the series title, it follows two characters - siblings: a brother Gyre Silvereye who had his eye cut out by a centarch when they took his sister and has vowed to destroy the Order and its corruption and that sister Maya (Burningblade), now a young centarch, as she attempts to maintain order and fight for justice....which years later leads them into conflict.  The first book in the trilogy ended with the two characters parting ways still resolved towards their own goals, and was really enjoyable, so I was excited to get an early copy of this.  

Blood of the Chosen is a solid second installment, if a hundred pages shorter, which continues the story in an enjoyable way....albeit in ways that are very typical of a second installment in a trilogy.  And so the story marches towards a cliffhanger for the finale, as Gyre and Maya try to achieve their own objectives and eventually come back together for another conflict....or perhaps alliance.  It's a lot of fun, and Wexler writes his characters and action scenes really well, so despite the book still being nearly 500 pages (as opposed to 600 in book 1), it never drags, and I definitely look forward to book 3 to see how things finish off.  

Note:  In a really rare but nice gesture, this book comes with a summary of Book 1 at the start, so readers will not need to reread book 1 to remember what happened there.  It's a big help and I suspect most readers will appreciate not having to reread a 600 page book.

-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Maya Burningblade's life is in a whirl - her mentor Jaedia is in a coma after breaking free from the control of the black spider, and of course her long lost brother Gyre is an enemy of the Order, wielding ghoul who almost killed her and wants the Order destroyed...even if he did do the right thing and save her and the world at the last moment.  She also knows that Nicomedi wasn't the only corrupt centarch within the order, but the only people she knows she can trust at this point are her lover Beq, her friend the scout Varo, and Tanax.  And so when her other mentor Baselanthus sends her on a mission on behalf of another Order member who he believes to be corrupt, she has her eyes out to try and discover the truth behind the rot inside the order that nearly got her killed.  Except what she finds is something far different than what she expects, not to mention monsters of a kind long thought forgotten.  

Gyre Silvereye has a plan - although it's not a good one.  If he and Kit, now embodied in the constructs of the analytica, can convince the Ghouls to help, they can arm one of the splinter factions fighting against the Order, and can inspire a larger rebellion against the Order and the centarch...to free humanity from the yoke.  But Gyre's plan relies on a lot of unknowns, such as the splinter kingdom rebels being willing and able to help, and things so far away are also far different than what he expects....and will require all his skills, both ghoul-given and not, to survive.  

In their quests, both Gyre and Maya will search for a path towards a better world - one looking to destroy the system, the other looking to save it.  And their paths will cross once more, providing answers to their questions that will change the world forever.....
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This series isn't one that really does anything particularly unique or special, or hits hard questions on interesting themes like some of Wexler's and other author's works.  There are themes underlying this novel of course (based in part on the Star Wars-esque setting and in part on more unique aspects) - so Gyre is fighting to break the system while Maya is fighting to reform it and both of them come across decadence and greed that shows how the system and other aspects of the setting allow injustice to thrive and grow - and both struggle with what their end goals may require them to do.  But the story is too interested in where it's going to really do much of a deep dive into the philosophy of these themes, so if you were looking for such things here, you won't really find them here - not that any of this should be a surprise for readers of book 1.  

But what this book remains is a fun exploration of this world, as both characters remain highly enjoyable as they go about their quests.  First Gyre, joined by the now construct version of Kit (who is hilariously sarcastic at times), arcanist Sarah and ghoul Elariel, sets out for the other side of the world to try and use Ghoul weapons to unite rebels against the Order...and runs into trouble first getting there and then actually achieving his objective (the rebel commune has real People's Front of Judea energy).  Gyre's a tremendously likable character, who's both smart in his approach to his objective and in his loyalties - he's even loyal in his own way to Kit as his former lover, despite Kit once having betrayed him and being completely unable to have sex in this form (and Kit encouraging to get some with someone else).  And the rest of his team is a lot of fun too to follow as they grow alongside him.  

And then there's Maya's team, which is more static since it developed last book - her and arcanist Beq, scout Varo, and occasionally Tanax, as they fight against more dark creatures, go on a heist mission (complete with a flying car scene that is hilariously fun) and the once again go on a mission that takes her right into a confrontation with Gyre (this isn't really a spoiler since the book is obviously heading in this direction).  They're all highly likable characters and enjoyable as Maya, who is basically a young Jedi, struggles to find answers.  

And again the action is really done well and the plot works and moves well enough, although the book suffers from second book in at trilogy syndrome, and thus winds up at a cliffhanger instead of a stand alone-esque conclusion like the last book.  And the book does rely upon Maya being a bit gullible for the plot to work, leading to a twist that every reader will see coming for miles away - but it's done well enough for what it is, so I can't complain too much.  

All in all it's a fun book with a solid epic fantasy setting, solid to great characters, and leaves things off in a way that will lead clearly to an interesting conclusion so yeah, if you liked book 1, I'd recommend this.  


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