ISBN: 978-0316489805
Publisher/date: Orbit (November 10, 2020)
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Series: The Burning Book 2
Rating: MR (violence - this one is graphic)
Before you read this make sure to read my review of Book 1, Rage of Dragons, here. Why? I have listed all the terms and characters at the bottom of my review, creating my own mini fan page. Because WHERE IS THE FAN PAGE?
"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."
HOW IS THIS EVEN BETTER THAN THE FIRST BOOK?
Here I am, continuing to wait on the fandom to appear. Where are you fantasy fans? This is Tolkien level fantasy and I don't know why nobody is recognizing this. SO LET ME KEEP YELLING AT PEOPLE UNTIL THEY READ IT AND RECOGNIZE THE AWESOMENESS.
In this continuation of Rage of Dragons, Tau and his queen attempt to depose Abasi's newly "crowned" queen, Tsiora's twin Essie. At the same time, they must fight off the betrayed Hedeni long enough to reunite their Queendom and join the strength of their split military. All while trying to keep the nobles from rioting because Tsiora has chosen Tau, a lesser, as her champion.
Tau continues to fight solely to kill Abasi. But his sword brothers push him to understand the power he holds to change their world with his new position.
"Rage reaches into the world when we can no longer contain the hurt of being treated like our life and loves do not matter. Rage and it's consequences are what we get when the world refuses to change for anything less."
The political machinations of this book are a bit predictable, but that's the baseline plot for this book. Built upon that are the maneuverings of the Hedeni, all while Tau is learning slowly from Tsiora the secrets their way of life was built on. This book is a wave, and it builds and builds all the way up to a giant crest, where it stops to make way for the epic crash that is coming in the third book.
It's so well set up. It's a cliffhanger but not one that makes this only a partial book. If you've read any of my other reviews you know that my pet peeve is writers stopping a story midway through and calling it a book, when there is no resolution at all, nothing to make the book standalone instead of just a Part 1 to the next part. Drives me nuts. Not so here. We have a perfectly built storyline, a conclusion for that story, all as part of a larger plot. *Chef's kiss* this is how it's done!
Basically this review is solely to let you know that the second book is, in fact, worth reading. Now I'll summarize the book so that when book 3 finally comes out, you will have a little reference guide as to what happened here.
5.5 stars again, just as amazing as Rage of Dragons!