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florishimself's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
nonesensed's review against another edition
5.0
Amalia is a Cornaro, which means her whole life as been staked out from day one. She is her mother's sole heir. She is supposed to invest herself in the politics of the empire. She isn't supposed to sneak around and read books on magic she can't even perform herself. She still does this. This minor rebellion lands her in more complex politics than she's ever had to face before.
When I heard the premise of "a setting where people with magic are enslaved by the government to work for the military", I had a very set idea of what the story would be about. It'd be about the poor magician who's captured and fighting to escape enslavement. Turns out, this book is far from that black and white in its morals. While it's extremely clear that the idea of forcing people to join the military based on a thing they can't control is Bad, the problem of having people born with the ability to literally murder everything and everyone around them with a tantrum makes the need for a solution other than "live and let live" is also very clear.
In addition to the complex moral decisions the characters need to deal with, there's also a threatening uprising! And the POV is of the person who's "captured" the mage and needs to deal with the guilt from that! And there's a traitor somewhere! Maybe!
At the halfway point of this book, I just went out and bought book 2 & 3, that's how intriguing the setting, characters and plot were. Recommended!
When I heard the premise of "a setting where people with magic are enslaved by the government to work for the military", I had a very set idea of what the story would be about. It'd be about the poor magician who's captured and fighting to escape enslavement. Turns out, this book is far from that black and white in its morals. While it's extremely clear that the idea of forcing people to join the military based on a thing they can't control is Bad, the problem of having people born with the ability to literally murder everything and everyone around them with a tantrum makes the need for a solution other than "live and let live" is also very clear.
In addition to the complex moral decisions the characters need to deal with, there's also a threatening uprising! And the POV is of the person who's "captured" the mage and needs to deal with the guilt from that! And there's a traitor somewhere! Maybe!
At the halfway point of this book, I just went out and bought book 2 & 3, that's how intriguing the setting, characters and plot were. Recommended!
kaela35's review against another edition
4.5
This was exactly what I was looking for right now - an interesting fantasy world that’s also easy enough to follow. The world building was not super complex, but that was actually a big plus for me (adulting is exhausting). Will definitely read book 2!
rafaellamikayla's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
songwind's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent high magic flintlock fantasy. The author does a good job of combining mystery, adventure, social commentary and politics.
I look forward to the rest of the series.
I look forward to the rest of the series.
skycrane's review against another edition
4.0
When I first finished this book, I thought, "that was perfect." I've reconsidered slightly since then; I think it was more that this book was exactly what I was looking for at the time rather than actually being flawless. But overall, it's a really fun story with interesting characters and a nice compelling plot.
The Serene Empire is a decentralized empire whose many constituent states exercise a large degree of independence from the capital, Raverra. However, the central government is tightly controlled by an elected monarch a semi-hereditary small ruling council, and this body directly controls the foreign policy for the empire as well as the powerful Raverran military, the key component of which is the Falcons, a body of mages who are essentially slaves. All mages of any power in the empire are subject to "conscription" as soon as their powers manifest in infancy. They are generally well-treated, but they cannot leave the military and their powers are locked through the use of a device which puts the decision of when each mage can use their magic into the hands of a chosen individual guardian, that Falcon's Falconer. This system is kind of like the damane/sul'dam arrangement from The Wheel of Time, except that in this case each Falcon has one designated Falconer, and the Falconer has no control over [i]how[/i] the Falcon uses their powers; they just can give or withhold permission to use the powers at all. It's acknowledged in the book that this whole arrangement is one of subjugation, and it's made clear that Raverra uses its monopoly on magic to dominate neighboring nations, but for the most part the mages are treated pretty well, and the client states retain many rights, so nobody complains too much. The issue of slavery is brought up and plays a major role, but this is a pretty light book so don't expect deep dives in the horrible abuses of authority.
The main character, Amalia Cornaro, is a member of the noble elite of Raverra. Her mother is a hereditary member the small ruling council, and by virtue of her rank, wealth, and personal connections, is essentially the second most powerful person in the empire. Amalia herself is more interested in scholarly pursuits than in the ways of power, but as her mother's heir she recognizes that eventually she'll have to get used to the idea. The inciting incident occurs when Amalia is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets enlisted into capturing a fire mage who presents a danger to the city. The situation is unusual in several ways: fire mages are incredibly rare and powerful fire mages are one of the most sought-after weapons; this fire mage has managed to avoid capture until her late teens; and generally, Falconers are chosen from the professional military—high-ranking nobles like Amalia are not permitted to hold that power. Due to her family's position, she can't be expected to follow orders like a common soldier, causing some complications. So we get a somewhat typical story of an innocent young person thrust by circumstance into a powerful but dangerous position, where she must use her wits to forge a path for herself.
The fire mage, Zaira, is not very happy about being captured and enlisted. As well as the requirements you'd expect for the military, she's also imprisoned in a fortress (a very finely-appointed fortress) and cannot leave unless accompanied by Amalia. She cannot use her powers unless Amalia activates them, and she'll be expected to kill people on command. Zaira is... well, if you're like me, then when you hear "fire mage", Zaira is probably very close to what immediately comes to mind. An orphan from the slums and constantly on the run from the law, Zaira is the exact opposite of Amalia, a wealthy noblewomen of the class who make the laws. Zaira is bold, crude, violent, and illiterate, Amalia is shy, mannered, subtle, and educated, and now they're stuck together.
The main struggle in the novel is over the city-state of Ardence. Long loyal to Raverra, a recent crisis has caused the Duke to rescind trade privileges and make other moves in violation of the Serene Accords that Raverra imposes upon all her client states. There are signs of an outside conspiracy to increase tensions between Raverra and her vassals, and Amalia gets involved in the mission to settle the issue, both because of her ties to the city, and because she has the ability to burn the city to the ground if diplomatic options fail (apparently this is Raverra's usual response to rebellion. Rebellion is very rare).
There's a romantic subplot involving Lieutenant Verdi, a Falcon who would've been Amalia's superior officer if she were part of the normal chain of command, and some other supporting characters.
For a story whose plot hinges on espionage and political intrigue, the limited scope is probably its greatest weakness. The politics are fairly well-realized, but there simply isn't enough going on to give the impression of much depth. Once the main characters are introduced, they're personally involved in everything that happens and there are very few other actors with their own plans and interests, so it doesn't really feel like a major political conflict. Not every story has to be an epic with hundreds of named characters each with their own schemes and arcs, but this one has such a limited cast that it does end up feeling a little bare. So far as I've read, the sequels address this problem by building off what's established here and introducing more characters and more complexities, but this is definitely a series where the very few main characters are directly involved in almost every major development. Which is both good and bad.
Also, I think due to carelessness or vagueness in the writing, there are moments where it feels like people are acting off "immaculate" information; it's unclear how a character possibly could've known something, but they still manage to make decisions based on that information anyways. This is rare, and never has any major impact on the plot, so overall the story holds together pretty well. I wasn't able to work out the mystery until fairly late (I thought the author would be far more devious than she actually was), but everything fits together even after the reveal, and I'm sure a careful reader could figure it out far earlier than I did. After all, this is the kind of book where if things look like they're going really well, but there's 80 pages left, you know some horrible surprise is coming.
This novel has a bit of a young adult fantasy feel to it, but as far YA fiction goes, it's one of the better ones. It doesn't do anything groundbreaking and it sticks to genre conventions, but it's a solid story well told, with fun characters and a decent intrigue.
The Serene Empire is a decentralized empire whose many constituent states exercise a large degree of independence from the capital, Raverra. However, the central government is tightly controlled by an elected monarch a semi-hereditary small ruling council, and this body directly controls the foreign policy for the empire as well as the powerful Raverran military, the key component of which is the Falcons, a body of mages who are essentially slaves. All mages of any power in the empire are subject to "conscription" as soon as their powers manifest in infancy. They are generally well-treated, but they cannot leave the military and their powers are locked through the use of a device which puts the decision of when each mage can use their magic into the hands of a chosen individual guardian, that Falcon's Falconer. This system is kind of like the damane/sul'dam arrangement from The Wheel of Time, except that in this case each Falcon has one designated Falconer, and the Falconer has no control over [i]how[/i] the Falcon uses their powers; they just can give or withhold permission to use the powers at all. It's acknowledged in the book that this whole arrangement is one of subjugation, and it's made clear that Raverra uses its monopoly on magic to dominate neighboring nations, but for the most part the mages are treated pretty well, and the client states retain many rights, so nobody complains too much. The issue of slavery is brought up and plays a major role, but this is a pretty light book so don't expect deep dives in the horrible abuses of authority.
The main character, Amalia Cornaro, is a member of the noble elite of Raverra. Her mother is a hereditary member the small ruling council, and by virtue of her rank, wealth, and personal connections, is essentially the second most powerful person in the empire. Amalia herself is more interested in scholarly pursuits than in the ways of power, but as her mother's heir she recognizes that eventually she'll have to get used to the idea. The inciting incident occurs when Amalia is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets enlisted into capturing a fire mage who presents a danger to the city. The situation is unusual in several ways: fire mages are incredibly rare and powerful fire mages are one of the most sought-after weapons; this fire mage has managed to avoid capture until her late teens; and generally, Falconers are chosen from the professional military—high-ranking nobles like Amalia are not permitted to hold that power. Due to her family's position, she can't be expected to follow orders like a common soldier, causing some complications. So we get a somewhat typical story of an innocent young person thrust by circumstance into a powerful but dangerous position, where she must use her wits to forge a path for herself.
The fire mage, Zaira, is not very happy about being captured and enlisted. As well as the requirements you'd expect for the military, she's also imprisoned in a fortress (a very finely-appointed fortress) and cannot leave unless accompanied by Amalia. She cannot use her powers unless Amalia activates them, and she'll be expected to kill people on command. Zaira is... well, if you're like me, then when you hear "fire mage", Zaira is probably very close to what immediately comes to mind. An orphan from the slums and constantly on the run from the law, Zaira is the exact opposite of Amalia, a wealthy noblewomen of the class who make the laws. Zaira is bold, crude, violent, and illiterate, Amalia is shy, mannered, subtle, and educated, and now they're stuck together.
The main struggle in the novel is over the city-state of Ardence. Long loyal to Raverra, a recent crisis has caused the Duke to rescind trade privileges and make other moves in violation of the Serene Accords that Raverra imposes upon all her client states. There are signs of an outside conspiracy to increase tensions between Raverra and her vassals, and Amalia gets involved in the mission to settle the issue, both because of her ties to the city, and because she has the ability to burn the city to the ground if diplomatic options fail (apparently this is Raverra's usual response to rebellion. Rebellion is very rare).
There's a romantic subplot involving Lieutenant Verdi, a Falcon who would've been Amalia's superior officer if she were part of the normal chain of command, and some other supporting characters.
For a story whose plot hinges on espionage and political intrigue, the limited scope is probably its greatest weakness. The politics are fairly well-realized, but there simply isn't enough going on to give the impression of much depth. Once the main characters are introduced, they're personally involved in everything that happens and there are very few other actors with their own plans and interests, so it doesn't really feel like a major political conflict. Not every story has to be an epic with hundreds of named characters each with their own schemes and arcs, but this one has such a limited cast that it does end up feeling a little bare. So far as I've read, the sequels address this problem by building off what's established here and introducing more characters and more complexities, but this is definitely a series where the very few main characters are directly involved in almost every major development. Which is both good and bad.
Also, I think due to carelessness or vagueness in the writing, there are moments where it feels like people are acting off "immaculate" information; it's unclear how a character possibly could've known something, but they still manage to make decisions based on that information anyways. This is rare, and never has any major impact on the plot, so overall the story holds together pretty well. I wasn't able to work out the mystery until fairly late (I thought the author would be far more devious than she actually was), but everything fits together even after the reveal, and I'm sure a careful reader could figure it out far earlier than I did. After all, this is the kind of book where if things look like they're going really well, but there's 80 pages left, you know some horrible surprise is coming.
This novel has a bit of a young adult fantasy feel to it, but as far YA fiction goes, it's one of the better ones. It doesn't do anything groundbreaking and it sticks to genre conventions, but it's a solid story well told, with fun characters and a decent intrigue.
allonsyechoes's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mellhay's review against another edition
4.0
This is fantasy and for me it moved faster than some fantasies I've read. There is always something happening or to learn in each chapter. Events happen and are all related to each other. I love how they feel natural in this world! I'm intrigued by what I learn in each chapter. I wasn't 100% sure who was behind the attacks and planning of sparking a war between Ardence and the Empire's main city of Raverra. I wanted to know everything Amalia came across and who was responsible.
****FULL REVIEW TO FOLLOW****
****FULL REVIEW TO FOLLOW****
kimreads14's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75