Devin Madson’s We Ride the Storm kicks off The Reborn Empire, an epic fantasy saga with dark undertones, Asian/non-European inspiration and a three-protagonist-POV structure. Originally self-published in Madson’s native Australia, the book was a finalist in the “Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off” organized by writer Mark Lawrence. Soon after, Orbit Books bought the series and is publishing/distributing it more traditionally. This is a smart move by the fine folks at Orbit Books because We Ride the Storm is a helluva novel. More support/details for that statement follow the cover shot and description.
As an empire dies, three warriors will rise. They will have to ride the storm or drown in its blood.
Seventeen years after rebels stormed the streets, factions divide Kisia. Only the firm hand of the god-emperor holds the empire together. But when an unexpected betrayal destroys a tense alliance with neighboring Chiltae, all that has been won comes crashing down.
In Kisia, Princess Miko Ts’ai is a prisoner in her own castle. She dreams of claiming her empire, but the path to power could rip it, and her family, asunder.
In Chiltae, assassin Cassandra Marius is plagued by the voices of the dead. Desperate, she accepts a contract that promises to reward her with a cure if she helps an empire fall.
And on the border between nations, Captain Rah e’Torin and his warriors are exiles forced to fight in a foreign war or die.
War built the Kisian Empire. War will tear it down.
We Ride the Storm is the epic launch of a bold and brutal fantasy series, perfect for readers of Mark Lawrence, John Gwynne, and Brian Staveley.
The three characters at the focal point of the story are: Captain Rah, an exiled warrior looking to reconnect with his people while leading what remains of his clan; the princess Miko who sees herself as a potential heir to her Stepfather who leads to the Empire of Kisia from Crimson Throne; and an assassin named Cassandra who is possessed by a magical spirit that carries an inner dialogue with her. These characters provide the lens into a world on the brink of war, as an invading army of Chiltaens is on the precipice of breaking through Kisia. The story is told from the first-person point of view of each of the three characters.
Miko and her brother are little more than prisoners to their stepfather who supplanted their father to rule over the empire. He is an unforgiving man and is cognizant of the place Miko and her broth hold with their ties to the Otako family, a beloved family in the empire. She is understandably living in fear of her life and her brother’s life because of how respected their father was and the potential threat they are to the Emperor’s rule. The Emperor is looking to quell the threat of the Chiltae and there’s a potential marriage in Miko’s future that will cement peace. In other words, despite being a princess, Miko is far from pampered and she must navigate her life in a way that she can maintain her stature while not angering her stepfather.
Rah leads a band of warriors, the Second Swords, despite being exiled. He wanders the plains with men seeking the Chiltae army. When he finds some of his lost people, the reunion does not meet any expectations he had, despite the fact that Rah had a pre-existing relationship (which he thought to be strong) with the leader of those men, Gideon.
With soldiers and court intrigue/court politics of the world covered by Rah’s and Miko’s perspectives respectively, our third focal character brings the supernatural element to the fore – Cassandra and her spirit/ghost/second soul speaking to her. Cassandra is an assassin for hire, but when one job is offered in the midst of her trying to complete another job, her priorities are tossed in the air and places her closer to the conflict and fermenting war that are consuming the storylines being told through Miko and Rah. That voice in her head isn’t helping matters.
Madson weaves these three characters’ storylines together in a very strong fashion. She gives just enough story for each of them in their respective chapters so that the jump to the next character is both a relief but also makes it so that you want to return to that character’s chapter which just concluded. She makes each of the characters distinct enough both in who they are and where their stories take place that it is easy to not forget which character is the focus. I think this worth mentioning because I’ve read a fair share of novels structured like this – multiple POV characters with first person storytelling – wherein the writer did a subpar job of making each of those characters distinct enough that when you could set the book aside and pick up the book later mid chapter you don’t have a good feel for which character’s story was “on screen.”
This is a Grimdark novel, make no mistakes. A novel with severed heads being this a prominent storytelling element is hard not to be Grimdark. My enjoyment of novels with a Grimdark bent has waned significantly recently, but Madson’s world-building and storytelling abilities have rekindled my enjoyment of these darker tales. I wouldn’t say this is the darkest of grimdark novels, so perhaps that is a factor.
I’d marginally characterize We Ride the Storm as a slow-burn novel. There’s a decent amount of table-setting with the three protagonists in the early third of the novel, but then Something happens, Something Momentous from my perspective made me say to myself, “Madson is NOT messing around. This is the real deal.” From that point on, I was completely enthralled by the story she set out to tell, and she accomplished something really special with this series-starter of a novel. She laid out the foundation for the world and characters, brought closure to threads she introduced at the start of the novel, and left enough existing and new threads dangling by the end of the novel that I’ve already ordered the second book, We Lie with Death.
Recommended
© 2021 Rob H. Bedford
Trade Paperback | 528 Pages
January 2020 | Orbit Books | The Reborn Book 1
Excerpt: https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/we-ride-the-storm
http://www.devinmadson.com/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher Orbit Books
