Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
full disclosure: i received an arc through a goodreads giveaway.
wow. woooow. this book was so. good. so good. i dragged my feet picking it up; i knew i had to start it if i wanted to have it finished before its release date but epic fantasy is something i sometimes, kinda, er... half-dread? when it's good, it's GREAT. when it's bad.... it's often bad in some of the very worst ways: sexist/racist/ignorant/etc. epic fantasy from a male writer is especially iffy, in my experience. but i finally made myself do it, and then inhaled this in three days because WOW.
the characters were so freaking strong. there wasn't a single weak link, no perspective i got bounced to where i was rolling my eyes or just hoping to get through it. everywhere i was, i was so happy to be there. the world was incredibly three-dimensional and i was sucked into it fast. and the one time i thought this was going to veer into a place i hated, it was clear a few chapters later that the author knew how uncool it was too and was showing how easily avoidable it was, like: 'look what i easily coulda done but why the fuck would i when that blows?' HELL YEAH, MAN. HELL. YEAH.
wow. woooow. this book was so. good. so good. i dragged my feet picking it up; i knew i had to start it if i wanted to have it finished before its release date but epic fantasy is something i sometimes, kinda, er... half-dread? when it's good, it's GREAT. when it's bad.... it's often bad in some of the very worst ways: sexist/racist/ignorant/etc. epic fantasy from a male writer is especially iffy, in my experience. but i finally made myself do it, and then inhaled this in three days because WOW.
the characters were so freaking strong. there wasn't a single weak link, no perspective i got bounced to where i was rolling my eyes or just hoping to get through it. everywhere i was, i was so happy to be there. the world was incredibly three-dimensional and i was sucked into it fast. and the one time i thought this was going to veer into a place i hated, it was clear a few chapters later that the author knew how uncool it was too and was showing how easily avoidable it was, like: 'look what i easily coulda done but why the fuck would i when that blows?' HELL YEAH, MAN. HELL. YEAH.
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway. This book took FOREVER to get started. The chapters had normal headings but they kept jumping back and forth between characters and did not seem related or even relevant to each other for the longest. When it was finally revealed how they were related ti was pretty anticlimactic. The three "main" characters are fine, but not my favorite. Taru, the "undeclared" (nonbinary - they/them pronouns) is my favorite character. They are a calm, soft spoken, highly skilled warrior charged with protecting Lexi (one of the main characters) and her husband, Brio. Brio is missing and that is what starts this whole adventure. Brio has been investigating rumors of a Savage Legion and how they are rounding up people from the streets and forcing them to fight in a war with barely any training. Well, he is asking too many questions and gets himself taken. For a while we don't know what happened to him until after the first battle of the book. Evie (another of the main characters) is arrested in a bar brawl and forced into the Savage Legion. She is way more than she seems and survives the first battle. Afterwards she finds Brio. While she is in jail she meets Dyeawan (the third main character). Evie is sent to battle and Dyeawan is sent to the planning committee where she is supposed to just transport messages, but ends up becoming part of the main planning team because she is so smart. Dyeawan, through a long series of events, realizes that Edgar, her mentor, the person who saved her, is the brains behind everything, including the Savage Legion. She finds out that he is killing everyone who has some kind of physical or mental disability because he thinks they are of no use, but she finds a way to kill him and make it look like an animal attack (he used a mini-dragon to talk) and she is not the head of all things. That is where her story ends. Evie saves Brio, joins with the other savages and their enemies and leads a rebellion against the military. Evie, aka Sparrow General, and her team plan to take over the tenth city and that's where her story ends. Lexi sends Taru to run an errand and while they are out she gets captured. She is taken to an old castle where she is given the proposition, help the former nobles get their power back. That is where her story ends. Taru is captured, taken to jail, and then taken to become a savage. That is where their story ends. Taru is by far my favorite character and they must be protected at all costs. They are the only reason I want to read book two. However, Taru is an amazing fighter, maybe even better than Evie, and they are planning on finding Evie and joining the rebellion (they do not yet know that Evie is the head of the rebellion). I am not worried about Taru and their ability to survive, but the fact remains, they must be protected. Taru is so good at protecting others that someone must protect them!
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Savage Legion follows three sides of the same story behind the eyes of three strong female protagonists:
Evie aka the Sparrow General aka the warrior/'Savage'.
Lexi aka lover of her people aka former 'wife behind the man' turned principled woman with a mission.
Dyeawan aka the genius, paraplegic with an unknown past and the weight of Crache in her hands.
Fanatics of dystopian worlds and government conspiracies would love Savage Legion. Action enthusiasts would really be into this book as well because of the frequent entertaining and in depth bloody, close combat fighting that's written wonderfully into the story. There are battles and massacres galore that really brought this book to the next level for me. I also love the inclusion of the non-binary aka Undeclared characters in this story.
There was a lot of slow-ish world building/explaining in the first few segments of the book which is to be expected in the first part of a trilogy but some things were also context clues type things to figure out that took a bit of getting used to to understand.
As I got closer and closer to the end, preemptively knowing that this is the first book in a trilogy and that the story wouldn't end here provided a whooole lot of comfort. I am definitely looking forward to book two and seeing how all the players in the story come together and what becomes of the Savage Rebellion.
Evie aka the Sparrow General aka the warrior/'Savage'.
Lexi aka lover of her people aka former 'wife behind the man' turned principled woman with a mission.
Dyeawan aka the genius, paraplegic with an unknown past and the weight of Crache in her hands.
Fanatics of dystopian worlds and government conspiracies would love Savage Legion. Action enthusiasts would really be into this book as well because of the frequent entertaining and in depth bloody, close combat fighting that's written wonderfully into the story. There are battles and massacres galore that really brought this book to the next level for me. I also love the inclusion of the non-binary aka Undeclared characters in this story.
There was a lot of slow-ish world building/explaining in the first few segments of the book which is to be expected in the first part of a trilogy but some things were also context clues type things to figure out that took a bit of getting used to to understand.
As I got closer and closer to the end, preemptively knowing that this is the first book in a trilogy and that the story wouldn't end here provided a whooole lot of comfort. I am definitely looking forward to book two and seeing how all the players in the story come together and what becomes of the Savage Rebellion.
Synopsis: A politician's got lost in the secretive world of a superficially happy state. Behind the curtains, there are ugly ghettos, and a police state with hidden dictatorial rulers. The three main characters find their way through the impenetrable surface in different angles:
See that armed girl on the cover? Red and fiery is Evie's part, just like the cover indicates. She is a drunk brawler forced into the eponymous Savage Legion, cannon fodder in the battles for the expansion of the country.
Lexie represents the upper society in a Council of States. Her husband is missing in action, and her House is endangered of being shut down. She needs to counter the political maneuvers and wants to find her husband.
Slider nearly found her way into the Savage Legion, as she was grabbed from the city's slums. Lucky for her, the crippled girl was put into service of a cloister filled with inventors. They find that she's too intelligent for messenger services and put her under a few tests to find out where she's really good at.
After a longer while, the three threads start to interleave.
Review: "Hugo Award Winner" is a true statement, but shouldn't be confused with novel awards - Mark Wallace has got one for Best Fancast, i.e. best non-professional audio/video periodical devoted to SF&F. The author is well connected and loved in fandom but that has nothing to say of his qualities as an author.
Having said that, I nearly DNFed the book after some 25%, as I started to skip half pages. I was too confused and even bored by the novel, couldn't relate to the characters. Usually, that ends in a DNF, but this book is the rare exception, as it made an astonishing comeback with my reading attention. Somehow, it started to get interesting, and from 50% onwards, I was in a reading flow and didn't stop.
Evie's scenes dive deeply into military fantasy. The fighting descriptions are very detailed, and the author doesn't hold back with guts&bloods&brains dangling from opponents' remains. If you like some splatter, there it is. At least, the author spares us pornographic scenes, the rare sexual encounters are far more reluctant than the fights, and that is a blessing; I'd call this a mild romance suspension.
Chapters with Lexie concentrate on the Urban and social criticism - police state vs. underclass, and a kind of Council of States. It doesn't go very far there, and the whole construction with the rulers behind the secretive police state isn't very believable.
Slider's chapters are funny with all their innovations and tests. They fulfill a classic trope of trainee going through stages. But it took a very long exposition, after which it takes a harsh short cut and took different turns. The outcome didn't work for me.
There are a couple of interesting side characters. The only one I didn't understand was Lexie's husband who got a prominent role as a motivation for the whole book, but was given a shallow place in the background only. His relation with other actors was slippery and didn't come to fruition, and I had to scratch my head where I should place him. Maybe he's up for a more prominent and interesting part in the second volume?
One other support character, Lexie's bodyguard Taru, fills a shallow LBGT+ role: an impressive fighter is challenged at every police inspection, as they are "Undeclared", i.e. non-binary gender, which is frowned upon in the oppressive state. I understood this role quite well after the first or second iteration, but could have lived without more repetitions of challenging calls and explanations.
An additional thing that I noted were the awesome, hillarious chapter titles: "The Mourning After" indicates Evie's hangover, followed by "The Knight Before". Most titles don't give much away but are funny in retrospective.
I love it when first books in a series are kind of standalone, when they close most of their threads, don't have cliffhangers, and open up in complete different ways for the next volume. This start of the series "Savage Rebellion" hasn't got that quality, and it is very clear that it asks for reading the next - yet unnamed - volume.
In summary, the novel has its problems with pacing. But I really enjoyed the second half and I'm glad that the book took its chance to persuade me and suck me in again. Recommended for fans of gory military action fighting for an oppressive country. Just give the story a while to unfold its treasures.
See that armed girl on the cover? Red and fiery is Evie's part, just like the cover indicates. She is a drunk brawler forced into the eponymous Savage Legion, cannon fodder in the battles for the expansion of the country.
Lexie represents the upper society in a Council of States. Her husband is missing in action, and her House is endangered of being shut down. She needs to counter the political maneuvers and wants to find her husband.
Slider nearly found her way into the Savage Legion, as she was grabbed from the city's slums. Lucky for her, the crippled girl was put into service of a cloister filled with inventors. They find that she's too intelligent for messenger services and put her under a few tests to find out where she's really good at.
After a longer while, the three threads start to interleave.
Review: "Hugo Award Winner" is a true statement, but shouldn't be confused with novel awards - Mark Wallace has got one for Best Fancast, i.e. best non-professional audio/video periodical devoted to SF&F. The author is well connected and loved in fandom but that has nothing to say of his qualities as an author.
Having said that, I nearly DNFed the book after some 25%, as I started to skip half pages. I was too confused and even bored by the novel, couldn't relate to the characters. Usually, that ends in a DNF, but this book is the rare exception, as it made an astonishing comeback with my reading attention. Somehow, it started to get interesting, and from 50% onwards, I was in a reading flow and didn't stop.
Evie's scenes dive deeply into military fantasy. The fighting descriptions are very detailed, and the author doesn't hold back with guts&bloods&brains dangling from opponents' remains. If you like some splatter, there it is. At least, the author spares us pornographic scenes, the rare sexual encounters are far more reluctant than the fights, and that is a blessing; I'd call this a mild romance suspension.
Chapters with Lexie concentrate on the Urban and social criticism - police state vs. underclass, and a kind of Council of States. It doesn't go very far there, and the whole construction with the rulers behind the secretive police state isn't very believable.
Slider's chapters are funny with all their innovations and tests. They fulfill a classic trope of trainee going through stages. But it took a very long exposition, after which it takes a harsh short cut and took different turns. The outcome didn't work for me.
There are a couple of interesting side characters. The only one I didn't understand was Lexie's husband who got a prominent role as a motivation for the whole book, but was given a shallow place in the background only. His relation with other actors was slippery and didn't come to fruition, and I had to scratch my head where I should place him. Maybe he's up for a more prominent and interesting part in the second volume?
One other support character, Lexie's bodyguard Taru, fills a shallow LBGT+ role: an impressive fighter is challenged at every police inspection, as they are "Undeclared", i.e. non-binary gender, which is frowned upon in the oppressive state. I understood this role quite well after the first or second iteration, but could have lived without more repetitions of challenging calls and explanations.
An additional thing that I noted were the awesome, hillarious chapter titles: "The Mourning After" indicates Evie's hangover, followed by "The Knight Before". Most titles don't give much away but are funny in retrospective.
I love it when first books in a series are kind of standalone, when they close most of their threads, don't have cliffhangers, and open up in complete different ways for the next volume. This start of the series "Savage Rebellion" hasn't got that quality, and it is very clear that it asks for reading the next - yet unnamed - volume.
In summary, the novel has its problems with pacing. But I really enjoyed the second half and I'm glad that the book took its chance to persuade me and suck me in again. Recommended for fans of gory military action fighting for an oppressive country. Just give the story a while to unfold its treasures.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fantasy that feels like a political science student wrote it, so yeah I liked it.
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
None of my goodreads friends who are into fantasy have this on their shelves, and that’s a shame. It must not have had good marketing. :( While the format isn’t unique, the three main characters are all women and have diverse experiences that shape their motives. Also: it’s a really, really good start to a fantasy series. Would recommend to all fantasy readers, especially if you’re into complex worlds with complex characters.
My small issues: found a few small editing errors, and present tense writing is something that always annoys me. It also felt very much “first book” in the same way that the LOTR books don’t quite have definitive endings until return of the king.
My small issues: found a few small editing errors, and present tense writing is something that always annoys me. It also felt very much “first book” in the same way that the LOTR books don’t quite have definitive endings until return of the king.
Crache is an empire that, with the help of numerous Gens, appears to work towards the betterment of everyone, holding dear the idea that wealth and power should not be inherited. Crache also holds an awful secret, one that seems to contradict the entire belief system upon which Crache is built. It appears as though people from the Bottoms, an area populated by the poorest and most destitute residents of Capitol City in Crache, are disappearing, never to be seen again. Rumor has it Crache is using the Bottoms and its residents to man the Savage Legion. The Savage Legion happens to be one of Crache’s best weapons against its enemies, comprised of criminals and killers; throw enough bodies, also known as Savages, at your enemy and some of them will die, and if anything happens to the Savages, well, you can just get more. Evie is a new member of the Savage Legion, but she is not a Savage, she is a tough warrior sent to find one man, a man who holds the key to the truth about the Savage Legion, the only man who can help the citizens of the Bottoms.
Savage Legion is an action-packed page-turner that makes me unhappy that I need to wait for the next novel in the trilogy to find out more about the characters and about what will happen in Crache. The action of the novel is seen through the eyes of multiple characters, giving detailed glimpses into their lives and their motivations. I adore the characters; their strength, their courage, and the sacrifices they make for what is right and good. I also absolutely love the fact that this is a novel full of strong female characters and that these women, using their various strengths, make massive waves within the status quo of Crache. There are so many unique characters--my personal favorite is Taru, an Undeclared retainer--and they make for an enjoyable novel. Wallace’s descriptions of the fight scenes are solid; they aren't overly graphic, but the descriptive language paints a clear picture of the events, especially the fight scenes. Along with some remarkable characters and descriptions, there are many relevant themes and pertinent messages in Savage Legion, such as the power of money and status, what desperation can lead to, and the strength of many against their oppressors. I can’t wait to further explore these topics as the trilogy continues, and I’m excited to see what becomes of the characters as well.
I highly recommend The Savage Legion by Matt Wallace; between the characters, the action and the narrative itself, The Savage Legion was a wild adventure. Thank you to Matt Wallace, Saga Press, and BookishFirst for sending me a finished copy of The Savage Legion, given in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Savage Legion is an action-packed page-turner that makes me unhappy that I need to wait for the next novel in the trilogy to find out more about the characters and about what will happen in Crache. The action of the novel is seen through the eyes of multiple characters, giving detailed glimpses into their lives and their motivations. I adore the characters; their strength, their courage, and the sacrifices they make for what is right and good. I also absolutely love the fact that this is a novel full of strong female characters and that these women, using their various strengths, make massive waves within the status quo of Crache. There are so many unique characters--my personal favorite is Taru, an Undeclared retainer--and they make for an enjoyable novel. Wallace’s descriptions of the fight scenes are solid; they aren't overly graphic, but the descriptive language paints a clear picture of the events, especially the fight scenes. Along with some remarkable characters and descriptions, there are many relevant themes and pertinent messages in Savage Legion, such as the power of money and status, what desperation can lead to, and the strength of many against their oppressors. I can’t wait to further explore these topics as the trilogy continues, and I’m excited to see what becomes of the characters as well.
I highly recommend The Savage Legion by Matt Wallace; between the characters, the action and the narrative itself, The Savage Legion was a wild adventure. Thank you to Matt Wallace, Saga Press, and BookishFirst for sending me a finished copy of The Savage Legion, given in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.