Book Review: The Gray Wolf Throne (Seven Realms #3)

Release Date: August 30, 2011
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 517 pages
Source: Library Book

Han Alister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. The costs of his efforts are steep, but nothing can prepare him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl he knew as Rebecca is none other than Raisa ana’Marianna, heir to the Queendom of the Fells. Han is hurt and betrayed. He knows he has no future with a blueblood. And, as far as he’s concerned, the princess’s family as good as killed his own mother and sister. But if Han is to fulfill his end of an old bargain, he must do everything in his power to see Raisa crowned queen.

Meanwhile, some people will stop at nothing to prevent Raisa from ascending. With each attempt on her life, she wonders how long it will be before her enemies succeed. Her heart tells her that the thief-turned-wizard Han Alister can be trusted. She wants to believe it—he’s saved her life more than once. But with danger coming at her from every direction, Raisa can only rely on her wits and her iron-hard will to survive—and even that might not be enough.

The Gray Wolf Throne is an epic tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice, and the heartless hand of fate.

    

Review:

Protagonists: After being kidnapped by Micah Bayar and then nearly taken by Gerard Montaigne, Raisa is on the run for her life, hiding away from the High Wizard and his dastardly schemes. However it isn't long before she's pursued again and this time she may not get away so cleanly. Han Alister just wants to find the girl he knows as Rebecca Morley and make sure she's safe and sound, blaming himself for her disappearance. When he finds her near death in the mountains, he doesn't expect to soon find out that she's none other than Raisa ana'Marianna Princess Heir to the Fells, and the girl he begrudgingly agreed to protect. I honestly don't know how much more I can gush about how amazing these characters are. In other novels when a protagonist does something I've deemed stupid, even if I logically know they've done it because of a certain reason, I never quite believe it. In this book I believe it, and it's not just with stupid things. Everything these characters do, each hard choice and sudden outburst not only seem very realistic but very in line with the character this author has created. Each and every one of the characters in this book are so three-dimensional, no one is all black or white, just different shades of gray.

Romance: Man, does the romance in this book get super complicated and sometimes very aggravating, though since it's obvious the author intended to write it that way it's much easier to digest. First we have Amon and Raisa, a romance that just wasn't meant to be unfortunately. We don't get any progression in this book, only some much needed closure and a bit of pain. Then we have Han and Raisa, the romance that not only makes the most sense, but seems the most impossible. If Han and Raisa were to marry the whole country would be up in arms, possibly the whole continent. Raisa marry a street urchin wizard fostered by the Clans? That's just unspeakable. Not to mention the huge rift that grew between Raisa and Han after Han learns her true identity. There's a feeling of betrayal there and Han doesn't know how to sort out his feelings, so he lashes out. Honestly, while I'm very positive these characters will end up together, the "how" to that dilemma currently escapes me, unless Raisa can find a way to use Amon's ability to do nothing to hurt the line to somehow convince everyone that she and Han belong together. Then there are the romantic complications I kind of hope are eventually killed off. Ried Nightwalker and Micah Bayar attempt to reenter their hats in the ring for Raisa's hand. It's nothing to take seriously, just a constant, although semi-necessary, annoyance.

World Building: Even though I thought I knew what to expect going into this installment, I was not prepared for what went on in this book. There's a lot of preamble in this book. Things are steadily building up and what it's building up to is pretty fantastic. There's a turning point in this book, where the storytelling changes in a way, or the story itself changes, and the path I had expected it to go on, isn't the path anymore. As you can no doubt tell, I'm try to be vague and avoid spoilers. That being said, this book has the most political intrigue out of all of the books. Playing politics is a dangerous game, but these characters are smart, let's just hope they are smart enough to not only stay alive, but build a better Queendom. There's quite a bit of world building in this book. We see more of the clans, more of the Fellsian court, and learn some vital secrets that just may prove too dangerous to know. Honestly, there's so much I want to say, but I don't want to reveal more than I already have. Let me just say before I go, that when this book took a turn I wasn't expecting, it wasn't for the worse, but to catapult this story forward in an unexpectedly expected way.

Predictability: I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but I'll say it again, Chima has a fantastic way with foreshadowing. However, sometimes I just want the answer to my questions during the book in which they come up and that never seems to be the case. Take this book for example: In The Exiled Queen there was one mystery introduced, one I had felt I had pinpointed the answer to fairly early on, only to never get the satisfaction of saying that I called that twist during that second installment, however not fully two chapters in and it's revealed, I was right, but it was near torture to get there. That being said I'm not mad. There are plenty more twists and mysteries foreshadowed in this book that I am looking forward to finding out in the next installment, but that may just be because I'm reading the next and final installment after I finish this review.

Ending: This ending was weird, good weird, but still. There wasn't anything I could necessarily pinpoint as a final climax, save for some small climaxes in the final few chapters. The ending is very solid, full of hope as well as tension, and then there's the epilogue. I'm not sure why, probably because this is the book right before the end of the series, but I expected a gigantic twist at the end of this book. So going into the epilogue I had high expectations, but all I was left with was a puzzled look on my face and an intense desire to read the final installment of this series, yet not gigantic twist in sight.

Rating:

I mean, is this even a surprise at this point? It wasn't to me. I absolutely love this series and while didn't go into it planning on giving it five stars, it blew me away in it's slow paced and game changing story line. I have so many questions by the end of this book and I am about ready for some answers.

Book Review: The Exiled Queen (Seven Realms #2)

Release Date: September 24, 2010
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Publisher: Hyperion Books
Length: 586 pages
Source: Library Book

Haunted by the loss of his mother and sister, Han Alister journeys south to begin his schooling at Mystwerk House in Oden’s Ford. But leaving the Fells doesn’t mean that danger isn't far behind. Han is hunted every step of the way by the Bayars, a powerful wizarding family set on reclaiming the amulet Han stole from them. And Mystwerk House has dangers of its own. There, Han meets Crow, a mysterious wizard who agrees to tutor Han in the darker parts of sorcery—but the bargain they make is one Han may regret.

Meanwhile, Princess Raisa ana’Marianna runs from a forced marriage in the Fells, accompanied by her friend Amon and his triple of cadets. Now, the safest place for Raisa is Wein House, the military academy at Oden's Ford. If Raisa can pass as a regular student, Wein House will offer both sanctuary and the education Raisa needs to succeed as the next Gray Wolf queen.

Everything changes when Han and Raisa’s paths cross, in this epic tale of uncertain friendships, cut-throat politics, and the irresistible power of attraction.

    

Review:

Protagonists: When we left off on this journey both Raisa and Han were travelling to Oden's Ford to seek schooling there and escape their lives in the Fells. Raisa finds that she likes not being treated like a princess every day and actually having to work hard to get the things she wants. Her drive to be a better leader and Queen than her mother grows as she learns new things in Oden's Ford. She becomes a stronger character both physically and mentally learning the hard truths about her people's suffering and doing all she can, while doing her best not to expose her true identity, to help them. Han is on his way to learn magic alongside his best friend Dancer. but crossing paths with the Bayars isn't what he had hoped for. While in Oden's Ford Han makes a lasting impression on some of the staff. Soon he finds himself caught in a dangerous game as the Wizards and Clan folk try and use him as a puppet. I love both these characters, once again their paths don't cross quite as much as I would have liked and they do have completely separate stories from each other, but the times where their paths do cross, they're good for each other, they challenge each other and help the other grow as an individual.

Romance: To say the romance in this series is complicated is an understatement. Honestly I'm not sure where I stand. There are a lot of complications with any of these romances. First off, Amon and Raisa can't be together due to the vows Amon made to protect the Gray Wolf line and the measures put in place that keep them apart. That won't stop the attraction however, an attraction that can only lead to heartbreak. Then there's Han and Raisa, who at first only have a subtle romance, like the first book, commenting on the other's features, but as the story goes on something begins to develop, but it's not like they could get together either, Han's a wizard, and while his intentions might be pure and he has, at least for the most part, the love of the clans, he's still a wizard. Plus there's the whole fact that both parties are keeping secrets from the other, and that too con only spell disaster in the end. Again, I don't know where I stand, hopefully there will be some sort of way everyone can have a happy ending, but as it looks now, I don't know if that'll ever happen.

World-Building: One of the things I love best about this series is that the world-building is so expansive. There are seven realms in this land and as of this book we've only really gotten a good look at two of them. Going into this book I thought it'd be a quick trip to Oden's Ford for both parties, but it turned out to take longer than I expected. On their journeys, specifically Han's, we see a lot of Arden, and learn about the prejudices there against wizards, and find out more about the civil war among the princes. War is coming to this world in many ways. First there's the war between the realms which looks to be getting ever closer to becoming a reality, and then there's a war that hits closer to home in the Fells, between the wizards and clan. Unfortunately our heroes somehow find their way right in the middle of everything. What we learn most about though are the schools in Oden's Ford, about the magic the wizards carry, and we are given some particularly intriguing foreshadowing to future installments.

Predictability: So I'm kind of mad. There is a huge mystery at the heart of this book, something with what looks to be a lot of foreshadowing surrounding it, something I'm convinced I know the answer to, and there's no reveal in this book. Now, I'm not mad enough to start knocking off stars for it, but it's really evil to keep readers in suspense like that. Plus, again, while my theory would probably sound crazy, I'm convinced I'm right and that just makes waiting to find out all the more aggravating. As for everything else, the author does an amazing job of weaving in foreshadowing without making anything too obvious, as well as add in those twists from no where that begin to make sense the more they're digested. I'm also not completely used to high fantasies apparently, or it's a genre that has no real set patterns or story telling formula, which makes it harder to predict where things are going.

Ending: This ending is one gigantic ball of chaos. Granted it's organized chaos, but chaos nonetheless. As this installment winds down, it also starts to build up again to prepare for the next book in this series. In fact there isn't really any cooldown in this ending. There are lulls, sure, but for the most part this ending is high intensity chaotic goodness that works to set up the next adventure in this series.

Rating:

I love this book to pieces, much like the first installment, the pacing starts off pretty slow, but once the ball gets rolling it's hard to stop. I'm cursing myself for thinking I could wait about a month between installments, I guess I'll have to do some adjusting to my July TBR because there's no way I'm waiting two months to complete this series!

Book Review: The Demon King (Seven Realms #1)

Release Date: October 6, 2009
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 506 pages
Source: Library E-Book

Times are hard in the mountain city of Fellsmarch. Reformed thief Han Alister will do almost anything to eke out a living for his family. The only thing of value he has is something he can't sell—the thick silver cuffs he's worn since birth. They're clearly magicked—as he grows, they grow, and he's never been able to get them off.

One day, Han and his clan friend, Dancer, confront three young wizards setting fire to the sacred mountain of Hanalea. Han takes an amulet from Micah Bayar, son of the High Wizard, to keep him from using it against them. Soon Han learns that the amulet has an evil history—it once belonged to the Demon King, the wizard who nearly destroyed the world a millennium ago. With a magical piece that powerful at stake, Han knows that the Bayars will stop at nothing to get it back.

Meanwhile, Raisa ana'Marianna, princess heir of the Fells, has her own battles to fight. She's just returned to court after three years of freedom in the mountains—riding, hunting, and working the famous clan markets. Raisa wants to be more than an ornament in a glittering cage. She aspires to be like Hanalea—the legendary warrior queen who killed the Demon King and saved the world. But her mother has other plans for her...

The Seven Realms tremble when the lives of Hans and Raisa collide, fanning the flames of the smoldering war between clans and wizards.

    

Review:

Protagonists: This story follows two main points of view; Han, a boy with a dark past and a magical secret not even he knows about, and Raisa the princess heir to the queendom of the Fells who wants to be more than just a bird in a glittering cage and a piece on a chessboard. I was actually really surprised at the lack of crossover in these two characters, there's maybe a chapter or two in which these characters interact before going back to their separate, but related, stories. Each of these characters has many layers to them that make them well thought out and individualized characters. Their development and growth over this book looks to be only a taste of the characters they will become over this series.

Romance: There is actually very little romance in this book. Honestly I was expecting a lot more, and moreover I was expecting that by the end of the book, regardless of my personal feelings on the matter, I'd know definitively where the author wants to go with the two main characters in terms of endgame. Honestly, since they both have other love interests and due to the very little interaction between the two of them in this book, I don't know if Chima wants fans to root for Han and Raisa to end up together, for them to form a platonic friendship, and/or for them to find romantic partners apart from each other. The little bit of romance that we did get to see was really only beneficial on the part of Raisa and her love interest, as Han and his love interest were kind of boring.

World-Building: There's so much world-building in this book that at times is was hard for me to keep up. First things first, there are two magical forces at play; the clans who control green magic, things related to nature and healing, and wizards who control high magic, things much more forceful and potentially destructive. The thing is that when I first learned about these two forces my mind immediately wanted to sort one as the "bad guy" and the other as the "good guy" but there are shades of gray in both of these factions and it's not as simple as right and wrong, even though it isn't hard to judge a character because of their factional ties. The history of this world is also very interesting, there are stories of a warrior queen who defeated a great evil and saved the world, but as we know history is written by the victors and there are two sides to every story. I sort of felt like I missed out on something though, that I was supposed to have a vague knowledge of the world, or that there was a prequel novella to read, but there isn't, still that feeling of being out of the loop story wise never fully went away.

Predictability: For most of this book, the best I can compare it to is walking in a dark room, I had a vague sense of what was coming next, but I couldn't rely on context for anything far off. There wasn't all that much foreshadowing and when there was it was extremely subtle, as in when a twist would be revealed it would sometimes take me a while to piece it all together. However, while for the most part the foreshadowing was subtle, there were times when it was a bit more obvious, though not by much, more a tingle in the brain, which led to some outlandish theories that may or may not have been right.

Ending: There is a lot of tension and action that goes on in this ending, on both sides of this story. It's hard to fully describe without spoilers but the ending of this book is very emotional, there are quite a few things revealed that I did not expect, and some things that I actually did expect that made me want to punch someone. The cooldown period did not last long as there is one more secret to be told, and it's a doozy. There's a lot set up for the next installment and while this book ended in a way that's leaving me clamoring for the sequel, it doesn't end in a cliffhanger but more that traditional first book plateau that hints at a brighter tomorrow.

Rating:

I'd say on the whole I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to continue the series, however it is paced a bit slow and there was definitely a bot of confusion in more than one area of this book.