Tag Archives: Oromondia

Why You Need to Read: "The Queen of Raiders"

The Nine Realms #2: The Queen of Raiders

By: Sarah Kozloff

Published: February 18, 2020

Genre: Fantasy

            I could lend my Talent to (the) Raiders. I could attack the Oros in their lair, (Chapter Thirteen, Slagos to Alpetar).

            The wait between books in a series are often long. There are times when the book comes out the next year, or in two or three years. Then, there was the case of Alan Garner’s Tales of Alderley Trilogy which had a 50-year wait between the 2nd and the 3rd books! And, of course fantasy fans still await for the next books by both George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, patiently. Meanwhile, author Sarah Kozloff gifted her fans and readers with a one-month waiting period between each book in her The Nine Realms Quartet! And, The Queen of Raiders begins where A Queen in Hiding ended.

            Book 2 starts off with Thalen and the other survivors of the invasion of the Oromondo army. Thalen decides that a small group of raiders instead of a large army would work more to their advantage in fighting back. Once the first rounds of recruitment are over, Thalen and his Raiders travel into Oromondo in order to liberate the Free States. Meanwhile, Wren—now under the alias of ‘Kestrel’—escaped detection from Lord Matwyck but had to leave her foster family. She arrives in the Green Isles and Kestrel must decide her next move before she is recognized again and captured. Gustie, one of Thalen’s friends from the Scolairíum, has been captured by the Oros and is forced to serve one of the generals, but she decides to fight back with the other captors. And, Lord Matwyck continues to increase his power and corruption as Lord Regent of Weirandale, leaving only his son, Marcot, to question his governorship without fear of losing his life. Each of these characters develop more into themselves due to the Oromondo aggression. Out of all of these protagonists, only Matwyck ignores the Oromondo threat, which serves as a reminder that Matwyck is ruling for himself and for power, and not for the benefit of his country or its people. Thalen, Kestrel, Gustie and all of the other characters are aware of the extent the Oromondos can have on their nations if they’re not stopped. The only thing Marcot can do is work behind his father’s back and learn how Matwyck’s selfishness is affecting everyone else in Weirandale. No one is safe from either Matwyck or the Oro army. The complexity lies not amongst the characters, but how they deal with their complex scenarios. These characters develop because of these hardships and conflicts.

            The main plot in The Queen of Raiders is the resistance and the retaliation against the Oromondo army. Thalen is the Commander of the Raiders and he leads his small army into enemy territory knowing that the odds are stacked against them. Gustie uses her location amongst the Oros to her advantage and plots various attacks on the Oro army from the inside. And, Kestrel decides to participate alongside the Raiders in order to protect her citizens and to get vengeance for Weirandale. There are two subplots within this novel. The first is the continued corruption of Lord Matwyck and his “council.” It’s been over a decade since Matwyck seized control of Weirandale and he’s become obsessed with power. Matwyck’s corruption and desperation to maintain power has him posting bounties of the missing heir in other realms and executing the nobles who remain loyal to the Nargis Throne. The citizens suffer and Cerúlia remains in exile. The second subplot focuses on both the survival and the world-building in the other realms affected by the Oromondo invasion. The army didn’t just invade the Free States, but the realms bordering Oromondo as well. It turns out that because the Oromondos suffered, it lead to the suffering of the neighboring realms in the name of survival. So, these other realms decide to fight back as well, and the protagonists (and the readers) learn about the culture and the livelihood of the denizens of those realms, and what they need to do in order to survive the war and the occupation. Kestrel doesn’t return to Cascada due to the Oromondo invasion. She knows that the bigger conflict must be dealt with first before she reclaims the Nargis Throne. This is necessary to know because Kestrel is aware of her responsibilities as the queen she hopes to become. 

            Once again, the narration is told from several points-of-view. The protagonists and the other characters are reliable narrators as they provide this chronological sequence from first-person P.O.V. and their stream-of-consciousness. Just like in A Queen in Hiding, the readers will know everything that is going on everywhere consecutively. Only this time, the motivations and the actions of the characters aren’t as complicated and justified as they were in the first book.   

            The style Sarah Kozloff uses in The Queen of Raiders focuses on military occupation and military strategy. Other recent military fantasy series written by R.F. Kuang and Myke Cole are about the realities of war. War isn’t just fighting and dying. Not all soldiers are trained fighters and are able to survive harsh conditions and injuries. Supplies run out, wounds become infected, horses die, etc. The stories told afterwards mentions all of the heroics and the battles; however, what occurs in the present are the planning, the struggling, the decision making, the suffering and the dying are often left out of those tales. The author presents war and occupation as a long-term conflict, not a quick battle. Anyone who participates with the fighting unit—cooks, medics, etc.—is just as vulnerable as the soldiers to the costs and the conditions of war. Success is often paid with death. The mood in this book is the occupation of hostiles and the terror that comes with it. Victims of the Oromondo army are held as slaves within their own homes and the denizens of Weirandale are suppressed by Matwyck and his “council.” The tone of the novel is rebellion. Both groups of oppression rebel in catches as opposed to one large group. This is done in order to derive suspicion from everyone else while succeeding with smaller victories; victories that garter hope for the oppressed and reflect the same fear back to the oppressors. Sometimes warfare becomes a necessity for survival.  

            The appeal for The Queen of Raiders will be a positive one. I say this because both the narrative and the pacing continues where A Queen in Hiding ended, leaving no open questions to be asked by the readers. Anyone who enjoyed the first book in The Nine Realms will be pleased with the short waiting period so that they can start back where they left off. And, with the cliffhanger at the end of this book, many readers will be happy that the wait for Book 3—A Broken Queen—is a short one! I want to mention that the final publications of the books do contain maps of the realms so following along the treks of all of the characters makes it easy for the readers to keep track of the events everywhere in the author’s world. 

            The Queen of Raiders is an excellent follow-up to A Queen in Hiding. Fans will appreciate how the conflicts continue in their own direction while all of the characters develop and participate in maintaining order through those conflicts. This action-packed part of the series reminds readers that there are other responsibilities individuals must rise up to in order to becomes the leaders they must be.

My Rating: MUST READ IT NOW (5 out of 5)!!!

Why You Need to Read: "A Queen in Hiding"

The Nine Realms #1: A Queen in Hiding

By: Sarah Kozloff

Published: January 21, 2020

Genre: Fantasy/Coming-of-Age/Military Fantasy

            Though dusty sits the Nargis Throne

            While tyrants befoul and bluster;

            Though citizens do their yoke bemoan,

            And the Fountain’s lost its luster:

            Someday the drought shall be broken,

            And the wondrous Waters course clean,

            One dawn the words shall be spoken,

            As the long-lost heir becomes queen,

                                                                        (Epilogue, Cascada).

            Binge reading. It’s something some readers will do when the time comes for it. If a book in a popular series is about to be released, then fans will not just re-read, but binge read those books. This happens a lot with readers of comics, graphic novels and manga, but it occurs amongst fans and readers of other genres of literature as well. Within the fantasy genre, readers have and continue to binge read their favorite series, and it happens when the series has enough books for fans to pass their time with while waiting for the next book (i.e. Harry Potter, A Song of Ice and Fire, etc.,). Yet, every once in a while, an author will put out several of their books within a short time frame so that fans and readers can read them all at once and they won’t lose track of the events of the story. Brent Weeks did it with his The Night Angel Trilogy(from what I’ve read online); and now, Sarah Kozloff is doing the same with her debut series, The Nine Realms. All four books in the series will be released within four consecutive months so readers don’t have to wait too long to learn what happens next. A Queen in Hiding is the first book in the series. 

            The novel begins with the central protagonist, Princella Cerúlia, who is eight years-old, and her mother, Queen Cressa, on a visit to Chronicler Sewell, the royal scriber and historian, for Cerúlia’s Definition—the moment when the future queen’s Talent (magical ability) manifests, and then announced throughout the kingdom of Weirandale. Queen Cressa is an Enchanter whose Talent involves gaining the truth from other people and alternating someone’s memories, and her late mother, Queen Catreena was known as “The Strategist” for being able to strategize her movements several steps ahead of her opponents. While Queen Cressa worries about her daughter’s future, she is dealing with grievances from the realm of Oromondia—which is dealing with drought and poisoned water—who accuses the Queen and Weirandale of sending poisoned food to them, which they did not do. After an assassination attempt on the royal family, the queen spirits her daughter away to the region of Wyndton. There the princella is disguised as an orphaned peasant and hidden with a family who is loyal to the throne. Cerúlia goes by the alias, Wren, the adopted daughter of Wilim and Stahlia, and sister to Percia. This happens because Cressa learns that her Lord Steward, Matwyck, arranged the assassination attempt in order to rule as Lord Regent through her daughter and then imprison her once she comes of age to rule by herself. Meanwhile, Sumroth leads an army from Oromondo through the other realms in order to obtain food and resources for Oromondia’s survival. At the same time, Thalen, the son of a potter, is accepted into the Scolairíum (a university) in the Free States where he divides his time between studying the subjects Earth and Water, and History and Diplomacy. Throughout the narrative, Cerúlia/Wren and Thalen are the protagonists who develop the most; not only because they demonstrate growth through their learning and maturity, but also because it is obvious that their stories are the most relevant to the entire series (so far). There are several minor characters who are essential to the story in their own ways: those whose remain faithful to the Nargis Throne, those who sided with Matwyck and his treachery, and Cerúlia’s foster family who remain oblivious to Wren’s true identity. These characters are just as heartwarming and memorable as the protagonists. 

            The plot of A Queen in Hiding is one that will carry throughout the entire The Nine Realms series. The Queen of Weirandale fled her kingdom with her daughter so that the Nargis Throne could not be usurped by her traitorous council. However, she is killed before she can reclaim the throne, which forces the princella to remain in exile in order to avoid capture by those who usurped the throne in the first place. The main storyline narrates the occurrence of the before and the after of the usurpation, which follows Queen Cressa’s campaign to reclaim the throne, Princella Cerúlia’s upbringing while in hiding, and the “Regency” of Lord Matwyck and the lengths he goes to in order to maintain power. There are several subplots within this novel and they’re all necessary for the plot and its development. This first is the threat of Oromondia and its army. Due to the land not being able to sustain life, the leaders decide to invade the Free States for their survival. At the same time, the fire priests who travel with the army act as the Spanish Inquisition and punish the denizens stating that their “lack of faith” caused the land to become uninhabitable. The next subplot is Thalen’s education at the Scolairíum. Thalen (and the readers) learn how each of the realms operate, why the Oromondos are invading the other realms, and why the lack of a Weirandale ruler is upsetting the balance of the world. The last subplot is how the lower-class denizens of Weirandale are handling the brutal regency of Lord Matwyck and how they avoid detection from other nobles—and how they continue to track down the princella—as they continue to hope and to prepare for the return of the new Queen. All of the subplots go at an appropriate rate with the plot, and the pacing is believable because all of these campaigns and events would develop over the course of several years. 

            The narrative is told from several points-of-view from both the protagonists and the other characters in a chronological sequence. As all of the events unfold, the narrative moves from character and setting to character and setting. This allows readers to know everything that is going on from each of the characters’ 1st person P.O.V.s and their stream-of-consciousness. Because of this flow of narration from character to character, readers are able to keep track of everything that happens within the story. In addition, readers can determine for themselves which characters’ motivations and actions are justified. 

            The style Sarah Kozloff uses for A Queen in Hiding follows the tropes and the traditions of epic fantasy with elements of reality that make the story more believable to her audience. The elements of magic and religion with the use of science and knowledge lets readers know that the author does not want either her characters or her readers to become too reliable on one factor of knowledge over the other one. This is similar to our world; science doesn’t explain everything, and different realms have different governments and cultural practices. The author’s word choice and sentence structure reflects the age, the level of education, and the location of each P.O.V. character. The author’s style for her characters and settings enriches her world and her story; and, the inclusion of science and military strategy—knowledge we take for granted—demonstrate realism and familiarity for the readers and any potential foreshadowing in the next book(s). The mood in A Queen in Hiding is chaos. Weirandale is without a queen and at the mercy of a tyrant, Oromondia believes conquest will ensure their survival, and all of the scholars and the students at the Scolairíum lack common sense when it comes to preparing for and to fighting against an army of invaders. The tone in this novel is the consequences and the results of chaos across all realms regardless of conflict and government. I should mention that I read a digital ARC of this book and there were no maps to be found in my edition of the book. They’re not necessary, but they would have been helpful to have them in the book. 

            Fans of other epic fantasy series such as A Song of Ice and Fire, The Daevabad Trilogy, The Lord of the Rings and The Priory of the Orange Tree will enjoy this series the most. This is because A Queen in Hiding focuses on one main conflict and fantasy trope of “the missing heir” while exploring several other conflicts and world-building in other settings from the points-of-view of several other characters. And, there’s a bonus: each book will be released in consecutive months, so by April 2020, readers can read the entire quartet in one sitting! If the story moves at the same pace and uses the same style as in the first book, then the appeal for The Nine Realms will be a positive one. The time and the effort of the author to write this series and to convince the publisher, Tor, to release them all in consecutive months must be lauded because one, over 2,000 pages and God knows how many characters written and presented as one chronicle is an accomplishment all on its own; and two, I already plan (and want) to read the rest of the series, starting with Book 2, The Queen of Raiders. 

            A Queen in Hiding is a bold debut epic fantasy novel. Sarah Kozloff creates one world with nine realms and numerous characters and conflicts which are tethered in ways that keep the attention of the readers from beginning to end (of Book 1). By the time readers reach the end of this book, they will be pleased with the short waiting period for the next one, and the one after that, and the last one.

My Rating: MUST READ IT NOW (5 out of 5)!!!