MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.75/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
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.
MY REVIEW
I was absolutely floored by this sequel to The Rage of Dragons, it lived up to and exceeded its predecessor in every way. While it wasn’t as fast-paced as its predecessor, it made up for it with a much more intense story filled with hair-raising and emotional parts, including a scene that made me empathize for others that I didn’t expect to. The prose is just as remarkable, which wasn’t shocking to me since I saved so many lines in its predecessor so I expected to be blown away again by his beautiful way with words. Mr Winter used it so well to pull me into this gritty world of unjustness, treachery and death.
There’s so much I loved about this starting with how chapter 1 expertly weaves a story so far to refresh the reader of some of the events that led to Fires of Vengeance, but it also sets the tone for the rest of the story. I love story so far’s so to have this done the way it was, was just a masterclass in story-telling. I also loved learning more about the almost hypnotic realm of Isihogo, which keeps getting creepier and better. Also learning more about the Cull, and the history of the Omehi people.
“To be understood, he’d speak the one language the powerful share with the powerless, the language of pain, fear, and loss. The powerful had to be shown that people can only be pushed so close to the flame before they catch fire and burn everything down.”
The main POV, Tau is such a fantastic character, but what I really like more about his character now is that he’s not just a relentless warrior with an insatiable lust for revenge, but with new duties as champion he has to learn to prioritize revenge and duty while fighting a war on two fronts. There’s also a few chapters from a different perspective that really makes you think about what others are seeing in Tau that I never thought about until getting to that.
That cliffhanger of an ending has got me frothing at the chops to see what is in store for us in The Lord of Demons once it comes out, but with no official release date, we must wait! I also want to talk about the narration by Prentice Onayemi, who I thought gave an incredible performance. I was able to transport my mind into the world itself and feel the emotions of the story as well as the characters as the story progressed through him.
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