I received an eARC from the publishers and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
In a kingdom where flames hold magic and the desert hides secrets, an ancient prophecy comes for an assassin, a princess, and a king. But none are ready to face destiny—and the choices they make could burn the world.
"If we carry the burdens of our fathers, we'll never know what it means to be free."
For Elena Aadya Ravence, fire is yearning. She longs to feel worthy of her Phoenix god, of her ancestors who transformed the barren dunes of Sayon into a thriving kingdom. But though she knows the ways and wiles of the desert better than she knows her own skin, the secrets of the Eternal Flame elude her. And without them, she'll never be accepted as queen.
For Leo Malhari Ravence, fire is control. He is not ready to give up his crown—there's still too much work to be done to ensure his legacy remains untarnished, his family protected. But power comes with a price, and he'll wage war with the heavens themselves to keep from paying it.
For Yassen Knight, fire is redemption. He dreams of shedding his past as one of Sayon's most deadly assassins, of laying to rest the ghosts of those he has lost. If joining the court of flame and serving the royal Ravence family—the very people he once swore to eliminate—will earn him that, he'll do it no matter what they ask of him.
But the Phoenix watches over all and the fire has a will of its own. It will come for all three, will come for Sayon itself….and they must either find a way to withstand the blaze or burn to ash.
The Phoenix King is an Adult SF/F book following an three points of view; Leo – the current king who is trying to pave the way for his daughter's rule, Elena – the heir clawing her way to ruling the kingdom the way she wants to, Yassen – an assassin-turned-bodyguard finding his place in the world.
Leo's storyline was easily my favorite because his actions were so heinous, but you could understand his attempts at saving his kingdom, even if his actions were deplorable. True morally grey characters, we love to see it!
I really wanted more from the romance between Yassen and Elena and really their whole storylines in general. Their openings were very slow in a way that I didn't find Leo's story.
The descriptions of the setting were very vivid. I always had a good image in my head of the setting.
I do want to re-emphasize the mix of both science fiction and fantasy here. I went into this book thinking it solely fell in the fantasy genre, so I was thrown off for most of the book when hover cars and communication devices were continually used.
Speaking of, a good example of the sci-fi confusing me was with the enemy kingdom, the Jantari. Side note, I found the Jantari pretty underdeveloped for most of the book and they just felt "evily evil" for most of the book. So, the Jantari king is described as having a metal eye that creeps Leo out. I was very shocked by this very startling ableism from the characters. It took so many further pages for the book to finally exposit that the Jantari royalty engage in body modification even when they are able bodied. The quick transhumanism discussion felt like it both came out of nowhere and came far, far too late considering when the "prosthetic eye is creepy" comment. I hope this specific instance has changed since this was an eARC to being published.
I rated this book 2.75 stars. This wasn't for me, but I would try a different book from this author, as she definitely has good ideas and a good writing style.
No comments:
Post a Comment