Book Review: The Fires of Vengeance, by Evan Winter
Book two of "The Burning." Shit gets burned.
Orbit, 2020, 529 pages
Tau and his Queen, desperate to delay the impending attack on the capital by the indigenous people of Xidda, craft a dangerous plan. If Tau succeeds, the Queen will have the time she needs to assemble her forces and launch an all out assault on her own capital city, where her sister is being propped up as the "true" Queen of the Omehi.
If the city can be taken, if Tsiora can reclaim her throne, and if she can reunite her people then the Omehi have a chance to survive the onslaught.
This epic fantasy, set in an Afro-themed secondary world, has been quite entertaining for what it is, which is basically a retread of the "Farmboy of Destiny" plot where a lowly serf rises to become the greatest warrior in the land, suffers endless brutal torture and trauma, trains up an elite army of fellow "Lessers," and has to keep fighting one battle after another against an escalating series of enemies.
In the first book, The Rage of Dragons, we got the world of the Omehi, who emigrated to a new continent centuries ago, fleeing from vague enemies who drove them out of their homeland. The Omehi are divided into a rigid caste system, with royalty at the top, nobles below them, and "Lessers" like Tau living lives of drudgery and serfdom, oppressed and brutalized at will by any noble who feels like being a dick. Tau followed a very predictable path in the first book: after his father was killed by a spiteful noble, he swore vengeance, learned how to game the metaphysics of the world, and became a superhuman warrior capable of fighting even magically-enhanced nobles. He got lots of vengeance, lost more loved ones, and ended the book becoming the queen's champion.
In The Fires of Vengeance, Queen Tsiora is locked into a civil war with her twin sister who also claims to be Queen of the Omehi. Most of the book is Tau fighting with Tsiora's army to try to reclaim her "rightful" throne, while playing will-they-won't-they? with the beautiful young queen. Meanwhile there is also an ongoing war with the indigineous "barbarians" whom the Omehi displaced when they arrived, and who are about to overwhelm them with ever-growing numbers.
There isn't a lot of subtlety or originality here. It's a hamburger of an epic fantasy, very satisfying for those who like a by-the-numbers male power fantasy about a nerd becoming an Uber-Chad and being so Alpha that he is oblivious to the come-ons of a super-hot queen because he is so consumed with VEEEEENGEEAAAANCE!!!! There are lots of army battles, one-on-one duels, magical battles with demons, dragons burning shit, with people being maimed, decapitated, disemboweled, beaten, tortured, impaled, incinerated, hung, and murdered in every possible way.
Tau is sympathetic because of all he has gone through, but he's basically a vengeance-obsessed killing machine. We get a little bit of development at the end of the book, with some rather awkward chapters showing us the story from the point of view of Tsiora's sister, who might or might not be crazy, and who reveals that Tsiora might actually have been kind of a nasty bitch and maybe isn't actually the rightful queen. And then there is the predictable twist at the very end, indicating an even Bigger Bad coming in the next book.
I'm enjoying the series, but it needs more dragons.
Also by Evan Winter: My review of The Rage of Dragons.
My complete list of book reviews.
Orbit, 2020, 529 pages
Tau and his Queen, desperate to delay the impending attack on the capital by the indigenous people of Xidda, craft a dangerous plan. If Tau succeeds, the Queen will have the time she needs to assemble her forces and launch an all out assault on her own capital city, where her sister is being propped up as the "true" Queen of the Omehi.
If the city can be taken, if Tsiora can reclaim her throne, and if she can reunite her people then the Omehi have a chance to survive the onslaught.
This epic fantasy, set in an Afro-themed secondary world, has been quite entertaining for what it is, which is basically a retread of the "Farmboy of Destiny" plot where a lowly serf rises to become the greatest warrior in the land, suffers endless brutal torture and trauma, trains up an elite army of fellow "Lessers," and has to keep fighting one battle after another against an escalating series of enemies.
In the first book, The Rage of Dragons, we got the world of the Omehi, who emigrated to a new continent centuries ago, fleeing from vague enemies who drove them out of their homeland. The Omehi are divided into a rigid caste system, with royalty at the top, nobles below them, and "Lessers" like Tau living lives of drudgery and serfdom, oppressed and brutalized at will by any noble who feels like being a dick. Tau followed a very predictable path in the first book: after his father was killed by a spiteful noble, he swore vengeance, learned how to game the metaphysics of the world, and became a superhuman warrior capable of fighting even magically-enhanced nobles. He got lots of vengeance, lost more loved ones, and ended the book becoming the queen's champion.
In The Fires of Vengeance, Queen Tsiora is locked into a civil war with her twin sister who also claims to be Queen of the Omehi. Most of the book is Tau fighting with Tsiora's army to try to reclaim her "rightful" throne, while playing will-they-won't-they? with the beautiful young queen. Meanwhile there is also an ongoing war with the indigineous "barbarians" whom the Omehi displaced when they arrived, and who are about to overwhelm them with ever-growing numbers.
There isn't a lot of subtlety or originality here. It's a hamburger of an epic fantasy, very satisfying for those who like a by-the-numbers male power fantasy about a nerd becoming an Uber-Chad and being so Alpha that he is oblivious to the come-ons of a super-hot queen because he is so consumed with VEEEEENGEEAAAANCE!!!! There are lots of army battles, one-on-one duels, magical battles with demons, dragons burning shit, with people being maimed, decapitated, disemboweled, beaten, tortured, impaled, incinerated, hung, and murdered in every possible way.
Tau is sympathetic because of all he has gone through, but he's basically a vengeance-obsessed killing machine. We get a little bit of development at the end of the book, with some rather awkward chapters showing us the story from the point of view of Tsiora's sister, who might or might not be crazy, and who reveals that Tsiora might actually have been kind of a nasty bitch and maybe isn't actually the rightful queen. And then there is the predictable twist at the very end, indicating an even Bigger Bad coming in the next book.
I'm enjoying the series, but it needs more dragons.
Also by Evan Winter: My review of The Rage of Dragons.
My complete list of book reviews.