ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I don’t get compensated for this, it’s just a passion of mine.
My mind is still buzzing with this book. Buzzing with the grand and breathtaking world Claire Legrand created.
Buzzing with the power, action, detail and subtle romance of the narrative.
Buzzing with the characters that, with in the first few chapters, I felt such strong feelings toward and a need to understand them that I canceled all my Saturday plans to sit in my jammies and read.
Legrand wrote that hell out of this gem of a Young Adult Fantasy novel. It undoubtedly will be amongst the best in its genre for 2018.
An End, and a Beginning
Furyborn is an original and well-constructed story of two powerful and independent young women (born Queens) centuries apart and deeply connected. One queen has the power to destroy the world and the other, to save it. This third person omniscient narrative (told by a narrator that is external to the story i.e. not a character) does something I love, the book begins with the story ending for one of the two Queens, an ending that captivates and haunts the reader the entire story.
“Since our war with the humans began, I have had only one dream. Every night, the fog surrounding it lifts, and I understand more of what I see: a woman, made of gold brighter than the sun. She stands in a river of blood, and light falls from the ends of her hair. Is she friend or foe? This my dreams have not made clear to me. But I know this: she will come. In this war, or the next-she will come.”
-Lost writings of the angel Aryava (Furyborn)
Who, What, When, Where and Why
Rielle Dardenne lives with secrets that killed her mother, and distanced her from her now cold father and may mean creatures long imprisoned may now be returning to the human realm. She’s raised amongst royalty in a kingdom of people born with elemental magic (wind, fire, metal, etc.). She is wild, interesting, and powerful and may be one of the long prophesied queens: a queen of light, and a queen of blood. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven elemental magic trials and faces certain death if she fails.
Eliana Ferracora is a talented bounty hunter, a notorious sword for hire who lives and works in the underbelly of the Undying Empire, ruled by a nameless and faceless tyrant a thousand years after the legend of Queen Rielle. Eliana seems invincible until her mother vanishes alongside countless other women and girls and she has to join the rebels she once hunted to find and save her from an unknown evil. Eliana unwittingly lands in the center of a war spanning across time.
Final and Random Thoughts
Stay Woke – This book has non-white people as central and minor characters. Is in a world with both really traditional notions of love and romance paired with main characters who are occasionally fluid in terms of sexual orientation and women who aren’t afraid of or apologetic about physical pleasure. But all these components are woven in simple and subtle ways. They are simply a part of the societal norms of the Furyborn world. Much respect to Claire Legrand for being one of the few storytellers in the Young/New Adult Fantasy genre who aren’t boxed in.
Just say no to lead female tropes! You ever read those YA stories where the chicks with the most power keeps playing the weepy damsel in distress to feed the machismo of man-boys who aren’t worth her time, this isn’t one of those narratives. I’m tired of stories (especially those written by women) that make other women less than for the sake of a romantic sub-plot.
Just a dash of love. Thankfully this isn’t a book overwhelmed by superfluous sex scenes but the author excels at conveying the chemistry, tension, attraction and/or intimacy among characters in a balanced, believable and complimentary way.
This is a true series. The story is too big for one book. Sometimes I read series and feel like they barely had enough content and color for one book and there isn’t really any story left to tell and the writer is trying to take my coins by painfully stretching out the narrative like a bad soap opera. I can honestly say that this story could not be wrapped up well in one book.
Rating: 4.5 Stars Interesting and engaging from start to finish.
Hardcover, 512 pages Expected publication: May 22nd 2018 by Sourcebooks Fire
What did you say?