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A review by siavahda
Inheritors of Power by Juliette Wade
5.0
Excuse me, I'm caught between swooning and shrieking at that ending.
Full rtc when I've recovered somewhat!
FULL REVIEW
HIGHLIGHTS
~it was all a set up!!!
~(for this book. It was all a set up for this book)
~sometimes ‘we’ and ‘I’ are the same
~the best kind of buried treasure is books
~everything you think you know is wrong
:DO NOT COME ANYWHERE NEAR THIS REVIEW UNLESS YOU HAVE FIRST READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES!!!:
I’ve loved this series from the first line of the first book, but I didn’t comprehend the sheer genius of Wade’s storytelling until Inheritors of Power.
Because this book? This is where the story starts.
Think about that for a sec.
(Strap in, it’s gonna be more than a sec.)
Another author would have begun the series with this book. They would have started the story here. And maybe they could have made it work – but they couldn’t have made it brilliant. Because so much of this story – the story Wade’s been waiting to tell us, and good GODS I cannot imagine the willpower and patience it took to wait and write two whole books, books that are completely amazing in their own right, FIRST, before finally getting to write the story she wanted to write! – so much of this story hinges on context. On the histories of the characters, the dynamics between the castes, the political and social divides in Varin society. So much of Inheritors of Power depends on us, not just being invested in these characters and this world, but on knowing them.
Because we know them, Wade doesn’t have to wave a flag at us to make us pay attention to the Important Thing – we’re already gaping at the page. Because we know them, Wade doesn’t have to spell it out for us – we’re already flailing, and shushing the anxious questions from our loved ones who want to know if we’re okay. (WE’RE NOT. THE THING. AND THE OTHER THING. AND THE THING AFTER THAT! WE ARE NOT OKAY. HOW DARE YOU. BUGGER OFF SO WE CAN GET BACK TO OUR BOOK!) Because we know them, Wade doesn’t have to lecture us, or info-dump us, or spell out all the implications of The Things – we’re already pacing the kitchen while ranting about All The Things with many dramatic arm gestures as emphasis!
(By ‘we’ I mean me. Obviously. We is me. I have been pacing the kitchen and ranting with a great deal of arm-gestures and my poor husband has had to sit through it all. He is wonderful and indulges me terribly. Send him good vibes!)
And honestly…just freaking WOW. Because who does that?! Who has the willpower, and the patience, to sit down and write two books to serve as context and background for the story you really want to tell??? Who has the brutal self-honesty to admit, and insist, to yourself that it’s necessary, that starting the series with Inheritors will cost you so much impact and poignancy???
WHO HAS THE GODS-DAMN SKILL TO WRITE TWO BOOKS THAT ARE NOT THE BOOKS YOU WANT TO WRITE…AND MAKE THEM AMAZING ANYWAY?!?!?!
Wade, I doff my cap to you. I really do. I am in awe.
Because it wouldn’t have worked, writing it the normal way, the expected way. If Inheritors of Power were a series opener, instead of book three… It wouldn’t have mattered. Not as much. Not enough. We might have gone ‘omg!’ at The Thing, but we wouldn’t have really felt it, deep down in our guts. I wouldn’t have freaked out at what we learn about the Grobal Trust in this book, if I hadn’t lived through the modern reality of it via two previous books and about 20 fictional years. I wouldn’t have been biting my nails over Xinta’s situation if I didn’t have the the weight of Nekantor’s history on my shoulders too. Breathtaking reveals and WHAT THE FUCK twists and the emotional gut-punches would have instead been… ‘oh, that’s interesting’ or ‘hm, clever bait-and-switch’. I would have raised my eyebrows in polite interest, rather than been SHRIEKING.
Wade has spent years – in real-world time, and decades of fictional-time! – immersing us in this world and these characters…so that we care. And so that we get it, so that we understand the implications and ramifications in ways that, honestly??? I think we understand better than we would understand, or do understand, events in our world!
Do you see?
GENIUS.
Which is all to say… Folx, this is where the story really starts. Everything that’s come before, everything we’ve gone through with these characters and their world, was just setting the scene for us.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
Full rtc when I've recovered somewhat!
FULL REVIEW
HIGHLIGHTS
~it was all a set up!!!
~(for this book. It was all a set up for this book)
~sometimes ‘we’ and ‘I’ are the same
~the best kind of buried treasure is books
~everything you think you know is wrong
:DO NOT COME ANYWHERE NEAR THIS REVIEW UNLESS YOU HAVE FIRST READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS IN THE SERIES!!!:
I’ve loved this series from the first line of the first book, but I didn’t comprehend the sheer genius of Wade’s storytelling until Inheritors of Power.
Because this book? This is where the story starts.
Think about that for a sec.
(Strap in, it’s gonna be more than a sec.)
Another author would have begun the series with this book. They would have started the story here. And maybe they could have made it work – but they couldn’t have made it brilliant. Because so much of this story – the story Wade’s been waiting to tell us, and good GODS I cannot imagine the willpower and patience it took to wait and write two whole books, books that are completely amazing in their own right, FIRST, before finally getting to write the story she wanted to write! – so much of this story hinges on context. On the histories of the characters, the dynamics between the castes, the political and social divides in Varin society. So much of Inheritors of Power depends on us, not just being invested in these characters and this world, but on knowing them.
Because we know them, Wade doesn’t have to wave a flag at us to make us pay attention to the Important Thing – we’re already gaping at the page. Because we know them, Wade doesn’t have to spell it out for us – we’re already flailing, and shushing the anxious questions from our loved ones who want to know if we’re okay. (WE’RE NOT. THE THING. AND THE OTHER THING. AND THE THING AFTER THAT! WE ARE NOT OKAY. HOW DARE YOU. BUGGER OFF SO WE CAN GET BACK TO OUR BOOK!) Because we know them, Wade doesn’t have to lecture us, or info-dump us, or spell out all the implications of The Things – we’re already pacing the kitchen while ranting about All The Things with many dramatic arm gestures as emphasis!
(By ‘we’ I mean me. Obviously. We is me. I have been pacing the kitchen and ranting with a great deal of arm-gestures and my poor husband has had to sit through it all. He is wonderful and indulges me terribly. Send him good vibes!)
And honestly…just freaking WOW. Because who does that?! Who has the willpower, and the patience, to sit down and write two books to serve as context and background for the story you really want to tell??? Who has the brutal self-honesty to admit, and insist, to yourself that it’s necessary, that starting the series with Inheritors will cost you so much impact and poignancy???
WHO HAS THE GODS-DAMN SKILL TO WRITE TWO BOOKS THAT ARE NOT THE BOOKS YOU WANT TO WRITE…AND MAKE THEM AMAZING ANYWAY?!?!?!
Wade, I doff my cap to you. I really do. I am in awe.
Because it wouldn’t have worked, writing it the normal way, the expected way. If Inheritors of Power were a series opener, instead of book three… It wouldn’t have mattered. Not as much. Not enough. We might have gone ‘omg!’ at The Thing, but we wouldn’t have really felt it, deep down in our guts. I wouldn’t have freaked out at what we learn about the Grobal Trust in this book, if I hadn’t lived through the modern reality of it via two previous books and about 20 fictional years. I wouldn’t have been biting my nails over Xinta’s situation if I didn’t have the the weight of Nekantor’s history on my shoulders too. Breathtaking reveals and WHAT THE FUCK twists and the emotional gut-punches would have instead been… ‘oh, that’s interesting’ or ‘hm, clever bait-and-switch’. I would have raised my eyebrows in polite interest, rather than been SHRIEKING.
Wade has spent years – in real-world time, and decades of fictional-time! – immersing us in this world and these characters…so that we care. And so that we get it, so that we understand the implications and ramifications in ways that, honestly??? I think we understand better than we would understand, or do understand, events in our world!
Do you see?
GENIUS.
Which is all to say… Folx, this is where the story really starts. Everything that’s come before, everything we’ve gone through with these characters and their world, was just setting the scene for us.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!