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A review by sugarloaf
Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-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
3.75
Hawke has delivered another excellent installment in the Poison War series in Hollow Empire, which delivers the same well-paced political mystery and suspense that I so loved about City of Lies, and even improves upon some of my critiques of its predecessor despite stumbling on other blocks.
Hawke continues to find fresh ways to look at the genre. We still follow Kalina and Jovan, who are chronically ill and neurodivergent, and who are proofers who test for poison in the Chancellor's food (as opposed to be assassins, as is more common). Last time they found themselves on the wrong side of a civil war, discovering they were ignorant oppressors, and Hawke now asks the question: what happens when the battle is over? The political rifts and tensions are clear to see; the divide between the recently accepted Darfri and the rich Families is highly realistic and reminiscent of real-world racial tensions. The attitudes which led to the problem have not disappeared overnight, and many people are unhappy at losing some of their power in the shift from the status quo, while others feel that not enough is being done. In a show to the other nations, Sjona has invited representatives from surrounding countries to the Karodee, the world's version of the Olympics, but they soon find there is an assassin stalking and threatening the Chancellor, and possibly threatening the Karodee itself. With so many nations present there is no way of knowing who the threat is, and in addition to that, strange magics are appearing and spirits are being murdered outside the capital Silasta.
The invitation of other nations to the book was very welcome; one of my previous complaints was how intangible the world outside Silasta and Sjona felt. Here, we are exposed to a variety of cultures and informed of frictions, agreements and trade between Sjona and these nations. Unlike Sjona, many of the other nations are based on a system of oppressing women and I thought this was used to good effect, with meaningful commentary about the roles of women and how these systems can affect them in various ways, without feeling overdone or tired.
The book also continues to expand on its representation; there is now a non-binary character introduced in the book, Sjease, and one of the main characters is granted a same-sex relationship, rather than being restricted to side characters. Also on the matter of relationships, the character Hadrea was significantly more enjoyable this book; she has the same stubborn, grating demeanour but it's delivered in a less tired way, making her a genuinely complex character this book, and her relationship with Jovan was equally complex. As for new characters, there are a host of them, most notably Dija, Jovan and Kalista's thirteen year old niece sent to the capital to learn to become Jovan's heir. Hawke uses her to partly to underline a subtle theme about trauma (and the role of children in war), which is undermined slightly by the fact that Dija's decision to stay in Silasta after seeing a series of traumatic events is treated as a good thing, but it's good to see that trauma is at least acknowledged in the book, and Jovan and Karina are both loathe to involve her in these events and try and shield her from it when they can. On that note, Jovan and Karina's trauma is present - Karina's near-drowning has stayed with her, the fear cropping up at relevant moments, and Jovan is aware of his own paranoia. But so are their learning experiences from the last book; although they still make mistakes here and there, they no longer feel like kids who don't know what they're doing.
This book had some pacing issues, with Jovan's side of the mystery being resolved in a slightly choppy and underexplained manner, and the showdown with the villain was disappointingly short for a 550 page book. In addition, magic was a strong theme this book, appearing differently to how it did in the first one, and it's through this new use of magic that the villain both gains power and is subsequently defeated. However, these variations are never explained to us. I get the sense Hawke is holding it back for a third book - it was very clearly purposeful that the magic was breaking the known rules, and the mystery of how it worked was a focal point of this book, but it never delivered. That left one of the book's main mysteries unsolved and the final showdown less satisfactory than it should. The villain also felt a little pulled-out-of-a-hat and, while it makes sense, I felt it hadn't been properly established or a strong enough theme in this book or the previous one. However, overall, I still very much enjoyed this book - Hawke is capable of handling a large cast of fully realised characters and cultures with fascinating and realistic politics delivered at a slow pace that is still just the right speed, unfolding one piece at a time but always moving. She's a master at interweaving various plots and pulling them all together, dropping subtle hints here and there. The plots are massive, but I'm yet to find a legitimate plot hole in her writing (just things that have been deliberately left unexplained). I was able to guess a couple of twists but that was mostly because I have the benefit of knowing this is a book and the characters are all here to serve a purpose rather than because it was predictable or obvious within the story, and I was still delightfully surprised by a number of twists. I very much hope there'll be a third novel!
Hawke continues to find fresh ways to look at the genre. We still follow Kalina and Jovan, who are chronically ill and neurodivergent, and who are proofers who test for poison in the Chancellor's food (as opposed to be assassins, as is more common). Last time they found themselves on the wrong side of a civil war, discovering they were ignorant oppressors, and Hawke now asks the question: what happens when the battle is over? The political rifts and tensions are clear to see; the divide between the recently accepted Darfri and the rich Families is highly realistic and reminiscent of real-world racial tensions. The attitudes which led to the problem have not disappeared overnight, and many people are unhappy at losing some of their power in the shift from the status quo, while others feel that not enough is being done. In a show to the other nations, Sjona has invited representatives from surrounding countries to the Karodee, the world's version of the Olympics, but they soon find there is an assassin stalking and threatening the Chancellor, and possibly threatening the Karodee itself. With so many nations present there is no way of knowing who the threat is, and in addition to that, strange magics are appearing and spirits are being murdered outside the capital Silasta.
The invitation of other nations to the book was very welcome; one of my previous complaints was how intangible the world outside Silasta and Sjona felt. Here, we are exposed to a variety of cultures and informed of frictions, agreements and trade between Sjona and these nations. Unlike Sjona, many of the other nations are based on a system of oppressing women and I thought this was used to good effect, with meaningful commentary about the roles of women and how these systems can affect them in various ways, without feeling overdone or tired.
The book also continues to expand on its representation; there is now a non-binary character introduced in the book, Sjease, and one of the main characters is granted a same-sex relationship, rather than being restricted to side characters. Also on the matter of relationships, the character Hadrea was significantly more enjoyable this book; she has the same stubborn, grating demeanour but it's delivered in a less tired way, making her a genuinely complex character this book, and her relationship with Jovan was equally complex. As for new characters, there are a host of them, most notably Dija, Jovan and Kalista's thirteen year old niece sent to the capital to learn to become Jovan's heir. Hawke uses her to partly to underline a subtle theme about trauma (and the role of children in war), which is undermined slightly by the fact that Dija's decision to stay in Silasta after seeing a series of traumatic events is treated as a good thing, but it's good to see that trauma is at least acknowledged in the book, and Jovan and Karina are both loathe to involve her in these events and try and shield her from it when they can. On that note, Jovan and Karina's trauma is present - Karina's near-drowning has stayed with her, the fear cropping up at relevant moments, and Jovan is aware of his own paranoia. But so are their learning experiences from the last book; although they still make mistakes here and there, they no longer feel like kids who don't know what they're doing.
This book had some pacing issues, with Jovan's side of the mystery being resolved in a slightly choppy and underexplained manner, and the showdown with the villain was disappointingly short for a 550 page book. In addition, magic was a strong theme this book, appearing differently to how it did in the first one, and it's through this new use of magic that the villain both gains power and is subsequently defeated. However, these variations are never explained to us. I get the sense Hawke is holding it back for a third book - it was very clearly purposeful that the magic was breaking the known rules, and the mystery of how it worked was a focal point of this book, but it never delivered. That left one of the book's main mysteries unsolved and the final showdown less satisfactory than it should. The villain also felt a little pulled-out-of-a-hat and, while it makes sense, I felt it hadn't been properly established or a strong enough theme in this book or the previous one. However, overall, I still very much enjoyed this book - Hawke is capable of handling a large cast of fully realised characters and cultures with fascinating and realistic politics delivered at a slow pace that is still just the right speed, unfolding one piece at a time but always moving. She's a master at interweaving various plots and pulling them all together, dropping subtle hints here and there. The plots are massive, but I'm yet to find a legitimate plot hole in her writing (just things that have been deliberately left unexplained). I was able to guess a couple of twists but that was mostly because I have the benefit of knowing this is a book and the characters are all here to serve a purpose rather than because it was predictable or obvious within the story, and I was still delightfully surprised by a number of twists. I very much hope there'll be a third novel!