King Breaker by Rowena Cory Daniells

King Breaker by Rowena Cory Daniells is the conclusion to the King Rolen's Kin series. The first three books came out in 2010, so it was a bit of a wait until the last one. Especially since, although the third book in the series could almost be taken as a conclusion to a trilogy sort of, oh my goodness there were a lot of things left entirely unresolved! So of course, I was very eager to read this last instalment, particularly after the tantalising novella released last December, The King's Man.

Speaking of, this is a book four in a four book fantasy series. The series is excellent, but I expect that someone picking up King Breaker without having read the earlier books will be a bit lost (and would not have the same investment in the characters, of course). Start with book one, The King's Bastard. On the other hand, someone picking this book up three years after having read the previous one — as I did — should have no trouble getting back into the story. Maybe it's that the earlier books burned into my brain through sheer excellence, but I think the deft way in which Daniells included reminders about past events definitely contributed.

Although this book picks up shortly after book three, The Usurper, left off, it also follows Gazrik, the main character of The King's Man novella, alongside the three children of old King Rolen and Florin the Mountain girl of the earlier books. I would suggest that Gazrik's storyline is a completion of the arc begun in The King's Man and those not reading the novella first would be missing out. It's not strictly necessary, unlike the earlier books, but I would recommend it. If you disagree, you could always read it afterwards to fill in his back-story. (And another reason to read it is because it's good. If you enjoy Daniells' work, why wouldn't you?)

Daniells is particularly good at writing characters that behave in irritating, yet entirely plausible ways. The group of point of view characters and their friends are all intelligent and well-educated (which makes sense since most of them are royalty) but their minor antagonists (as opposed to Cobalt the usurper) tend to be frustratingly short-sighted, ignorant or just horrible people. The utterly believable way in which Daniells wrote them had me heckling the page on several occasions and cheering when they were defeated — and a satisfying number of annoying characters got punched in the face, so that was also quite gratifying. I have said many times before that a mark of a good writer is the level of emotional investment they can get the reader to place in their characters, and Daniells has proved herself, once again, to be more than adept at doing so.

Readers worried about being left in the lurch again, as with the ending of The Usurper, need not worry. Although Daniells leaves the world open for a possible revisiting, the ending is quite settled. I won't reveal any spoilers, but I will say that it was ultimately satisfying, and some characters even got happy endings. (gasp!)

The King Rolen's Kin series is an excellent read. I highly recommend it to all fans of Big Fat Fantasy, especially the grittier kind. It's probably fair to say that Daniells' books generally are not for the faint of heart (there is violence and rape). But they are excellent. To readers who have read the earlier three books and didn't hate them, I can think of no reason not to go on to read King Breaker.

5 / 5 stars

First published: September 2013, Solaris
Series: Yes. Book 4 of 4, King Rolen's Kin
Format read: ebook
Source: Review copy from author and publisher
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge

The King's Man by Rowena Cory Daniells

The King's Man by Rowena Cory Daniells is a novella set in the King Rolen's Kin universe. It follows, Garzik, one of the characters whose fate in the trilogy is not definitively known (he's presumed dead when he disappears). It (and this review) contains some spoilers for the ending of book two, The Uncrowned King, but not any for book 3, The Usurper. The story starts just before the end of book two and while it fills a gap the trilogy doesn't cover, I don't think previous knowledge of the trilogy is required to enjoy this novella. I read the trilogy something like two years ago and it took me a while to remember who characters were when I started The King's Man. I found, however, that the story made perfect sense in the interim.

The King's Man follows Garzik (the younger brother of Orrade for those of you who've read the trilogy), a fourteen or so year old lord's son who was close to the royal family. When their kingdom is under attack he is sent to light the warning beacon but is waylaid and captured by slavers on the way. This is the beginning of his many misfortunes.

Daniells does not pull any punches and many horrible things happen to Garzik. There were many moments where I cringed on his behalf and several generally tragic moments. It felt like each time something could go wrong or could work out OK, the worse case happened. However, all of this served to give Garzik a trial by fire (or inferno) forging him into a stronger person by the end of the story. I really hope he appears in the sequel to King Rolen's Kin.

What I found interesting in The King's Man is the way in which Daniells uses other characters to illustrate Garzik's own character traits. Most obviously this is done with a similarly aged and noble boy in the same situation as Garzik in the second half of the novella, who copes much less well with his circumstances than Garzik does. But Daniells also uses a variety of other characters who all react in different ways to Garzik at various times. It was refreshing to have such a broad range of perspectives presented, even though most of them were from minor characters. Just because everyone agrees something is horrible, doesn't mean they won't react to it in different ways. Garzik is a survivor, but he's not the only kind of survivor we encounter in the story; a variety of horrible things happen to every character.

The King's Man was a great read and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy. Those of you waiting to find out what happens next to Byren and the other main characters in King Rolen's Kin won't find answers in this novella. It will, however, remind you why you loved the series so much in the first place. And it builds on the world Daniells has already set up by exploring an area not covered in the trilogy. While I'm at it, I also highly recommend the King Rolen's Kin trilogy which I read before I started this blog. It's a really great piece of political intrigue type epic fantasy set in a cold world where only a small strip of land around the equator is habitable (it also takes place on a smaller scale than the Outcast Chronicles). And I have it on good authority that Daniells is currently writing the fourth King Rolen's Kin book, so it shouldn't be too long a wait for more "adventure, betrayal, revenge and unrequited love" (to quote the author's tweet).

4.5 / 5 stars

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the author.

Sanctuary by Rowena Cory Daniells

Sanctuary is the third and final volume in Rowena Cory Daniells's Outcast Chronicles. I have previously reviewed the first two volumes, Besieged and Exile. I suggest reading those for a bit of background on the setting of the world if you are unfamiliar with it. A copy of this book was provided by the author for review purposes.

I jumped into Sanctuary immediately after finishing Exile. Unlike Exile, I'm not sure that Sanctuary works as a potential starting point into the series. The story picks up immediately where Exile left off and, although there are some reminders of earlier events, it builds a lot more on the events of the previous book. Needless to say, this review will contain spoilers for the first two books in the series.

After co-ordinating the evacuation of the T'En from Chalcedonia, Imoshen finds herself having to deal with all the brotherhoods and sisterhoods crammed into too few ships. Unsurprisingly, tensions are high as the T'En find themselves living in close quarters and resenting their exile. I really loved the way Imoshen thought ahead and foresaw many of their problems. Some of my favourite parts were when she kept outsmarting one of the more annoying brotherhood all-fathers and making him look stupid (which he was). Through all the hardship they have to face, it's her leadership and compassion which holds the T'En together.

Sorn, the halfbreed who was raised to serve King Charald and now serves Imoshen and the T'En, continued to grow on me as a character. He's clever and has somehow ended up without human or T'En prejudices. In the end he always fights for the greater good (admittedly, less so at the start in Besieged). His quick thinking and, in particular the way this plays off other people, was entertaining. He was definitely my favourite character in this book.

I was a bit worried that the ending would be a little up in the air as the King Rolen's Kin trilogy was. Luckily, this was not the case. There's definitely room for sequels — and I hope Daniells decides to write more books with these characters — but all the pertinent plot lines are nicely tied up.

Overall, I really enjoyed Sanctuary and the Outcast Chronicles as a whole. I highly recommend them to fantasy fans, particularly those that might want something a little different to the medieval gender politics commonly found in fantasy.

4.5 / 5 stars

Exile by Rowena Cory Daniells

Exile is the second book in Rowena Cory Daniells's Outcast Chronicles. You can read my review of the first book, Besieged, here. A copy of this book was provided by the author for review purposes.

Exile picks up not long after Besieged left off. If you've read the first book, this one is definitely a continuation of the same story. There are some new characters introduced but mostly Exile follows the, ahem, surviving characters of Besieged. I have the feeling The Outcast Chronicles suffer less from absolutely needing to be read in order than some fantasy series. Yes, reading Exile first will spoil many events in Besieged, but in terms of understanding what's happening, I think it wouldn't be too bad.

That said, this review contains spoilers for events in Besieged.

Where book one spanned something like twenty-five years from start to finish, book two only covers two-ish rather tumultuous years. It continues to portray interesting and unusual sexual/gender politics in terms of women having more power in T'En culture because of their stronger magic. The T'En being segregated into sisterhoods and brotherhoods causes more tension in this book than the previous. Before it was just generalised bitterness on the part of the men that the women had more power and worry on the part of the women that the men were physically stronger. Now external factors are causing changes to their society which in tern generates a different kind of tension. It's all rather interesting and the gendered power structures among the T'En and the contrasting power structures of the humans (where women are chattel and lucky if their husbands don't beat and rape them) are a compelling reason to pick up this series. That and the fact that it's an excellent yarn.

The Mieren (ordinary human) threat is shaking up T'En society and forcing change upon them, something which only Imoshen seems capable of taking in her stride. After being elected causare, the negotiator for the all-mothers and all-fathers, she manages to broker a deal with the ailing King Charald to allow the T'En to go into exile, rather than be slaughtered. Many T'En are disappointed with this decision, which causes much dissonance among their ranks.

Sorne, now secretly serving as Imoshen's spy among King Charald's men, was a much less conflicted character than in the first book. The main tension in his story arises from trying to help the T'En without outing himself to the Mieren, rather than trying to work out who he is. For me, that made him a more sympathetic character in the sense that his motivations weren't in question.

I feel that almost everyone who isn't a point of view character (or close friends/family of a point of view character) is a terrible person, generally lacking in anything approximating compassion. This was more stark than in the first book, not because the horrible people are more horrible but because the morally ambiguous characters are out of the picture for various reasons. There are so many travesties committed by aforementioned terrible people that it bordered on getting a bit much. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't gratuitous and it was in keeping with plot and characterisation, but by-gods more than just wanting to slap annoying characters, I wanted to watch some of them die slow and painful deaths, preferably at the hands of the people they were horrible to. Which is a mark of Daniells's skill as a writer.

With Exile I am continuing to enjoy the Outcast Chronicles. I was originally planning to read something else before getting into Sanctuary, the third book, but whoops, I couldn't not pick up book 3 as soon as I finished Exile. (Not that it was a cliffhanger, but the story is definitely unfinished.) I highly recommend this series to lovers of fantasy.

4.5 / 5 stars

Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells

Besieged by Rowena Cory Daniells is the first book in the Outcast Chronicles, which is being published around now (Solaris likes to release trilogies over three months). It’s set in the same universe as her Last T’en trilogy (which is out of print and difficult to find) but in that world’s distant past. You definitely don’t need to have read The Last T’en first (I certainly haven’t, what with being unable to get a hold of it). A copy of Besieged was given to me by the author for review.

I absolutely loved Daniells’s previous (and completely unrelated) trilogy, King Rolen’s Kin. The Outcast Chronicles (judging by the first book, anyway) is quite different in the way the story is told. Where KRK followed a few characters closely over a relatively short period of time, Besieged has a much larger cast of point of view characters and spans a much longer period of time — about 25 years. I felt it was as much the story of kingdoms/their equivalents and ideas as it was the story of the individual characters. They all play important parts, but the real story is in the overall tapestry, not each thread.

Of course, spanning 25 years means there need to be some time jumps and I was fascinated by the way Daniells managed them. Among other things (such as just jumping forward a handful of years when nothing happened), all the literal journeys are skipped. Given how much the travelling from A to B journey is a staple of fantasy, it was interesting to see them skipped. Of course, there was no reason not to skip them (the interesting things all happened after people got wherever they were going), but I found it unusual enough to warrant a mention.

The societies in this world were fascinating. There are the T’en who have magic powers and who live in a very structured society. Female T’en have stronger magic than males do and so their society is mostly controlled by women and men and women live segregated lives. Men are forced to give up their pure blood children (which might result from a couple consisting of a half T’en half human and a full T’en) to the women, who raise them and then return the boy-children when they come of age. Many of the men fear and resent the women for the power the wield over their lives.

Half-breeds, if they’re lucky, live with full-blooded T’en. They have no magic of their own but can sense it. They also look different (like T’en they have six fingers or toes on each limb) and copper-coloured hair. They are accepted as sort of servants in T’en society.

Then there are the ordinary humans who are old fashioned in their attitudes towards women and fear anything to do with magic. Occasionally a genetic throwback causes a half-breed to be born to two human parents and then the child is lucky if it’s given to the T’en and the mother is lucky if she isn’t killed.

The different power dynamics, especially the gendered ones, are in stark contrast between humans and T’en. But at the same time, there’s not that much difference in how the male T’en view women to the humans, they just can’t express it properly. Honestly, it’s an interesting read for the gender politics alone, but there is much more to the story than just that.

Like the characters! Although there was a large cast, I didn’t have any trouble keeping them straight in my mind. Even the few longish “fantasy” names used were distinct enough to avoid confusing. Each character was well drawn and realistic. Because there were time jumps, we got to see very clearly how the characters changed over several years, which added to their depth. In real life people do change, sometimes unpredictably, sometimes only to become more who they were always going to be.

My favourite at the very start was Vittoryxe but that quickly changed as her intended path unfolded. Not that I now hate her as a character, but she’s not a very nice person. Very few of the characters are particularly “nice” people, really, thanks to the societies they’re born into.

My favourite character was Sorn. Born the king’s unacknowledged half-breed son, he is taken away by the former high priest, Oskane, to be raised by the church in the hopes of one day using him as a spy against the T’en. I liked Sorn because he does what he needs to to survive even as his perception of what surviving means, and what price is too high, changes as he matures. I’d say he’s the character that grows the most from teenager to man (although he book starts with his birth) by the end of book and I really enjoyed his journey and his ability to make the best of things.

I also enjoyed Oskane’s character, partly because we have his as a viewpoint character and as seen through Sorn’s eyes. What I found particularly amusing is there’s one scene where Oskane and someone else are talking about how half-breeds always end up turning on their human masters, no matter now well they are treated, and siding with the T’en. They’re completely oblivious to the fact that not killing or maiming them is a) different to treating them well and b) doesn’t make up for the rest of society hating them. So there’s a bit of racial commentary thrown into Besieged also.

And then there’s Imoshen, who is a T’en born to a male brotherhood and kept secret from the sisterhood she was supposed to be surrendered to. The brotherhood’s plans were to use her to gain power. Unsurprisingly (because nothing is easy) it backfires. Imoshen is practically impossible to dislike as a character. There was many a moment when I thought she was going to do something silly, but every time she manages to make the sensible choice based on what she knows. It seems like she’ll be quite prominent in the next book, Exile, and I definitely look forward to reading more about her, especially since she only came into her own in the second half of Besieged.

I said before I started reading that I suspected this would be a book that would leave me pining for the sequel and I was right. While it doesn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, it definitely leaves much to be resolved.

I highly recommend this book to lovers of high/epic fantasy. If you like vast scales, lots of characters and intrigue, pick up Besieged.

4.5 / 5 stars