#CBR12 Book 104: "A Touch of Stone and Snow" by Milla Vane

Page count: 398 pages

Rating: TBA

Official book description (cause I haven't finished the book yet):

Danger lurks in the western realms. The Destroyer’s imminent return has sent the realms into turmoil as desperate citizens seek refuge—but there’s no safety to be found when demons and wraiths crawl out from the shadows. Even Koth, a northern island kingdom left untouched by the Destroyer a generation past, is besieged by terrors spawned from corrupt magics.

When Lizzan leads the Kothan army against these terrors, only to see her soldiers massacred and to emerge as the only survivor, she is called a coward and a deserter. Shunned from her home, Lizzan now wanders in solitude as a mercenary for hire, until she encounters a group of warriors seeking new alliances with the northern kingdoms—a group that includes Aerax, the bastard prince of Koth, and the man who sent her into exile.

Though they were childhood friends, Aerax cannot allow himself to be close to the only woman who might thwart his treacherous plan to save their island realm. But when a goddess's demand binds them together, Lizzan and Aerax must find a way to overcome their painful pasts. Or there will be no future for the western realms...

According to the reviewer over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, this works fine as a standalone, because it was the first in the series she read. Be warned before you check any of the books out, however, that this is NOT for everyone. These books have a lot of violence and darkness and the order of the day is pretty much survival of the fittest and strongest. The world is still reeling from the terrible destruction wreaked by Anumith the Destroyer a few decades ago, and now there has been confirmation that Anumith is on the rise, returning to the Continent once more. The various peoples, countries, and tribes that live there need to form an alliance and fast, or they will all be swept away in the wake of the Destroyer's second invasion.

The protagonists of this book are Lizzan and Aerax and their romance keeps seeming impossible. They've known each other since they were children, and come from vastly different positions. As a royal bastard, Aerax wasn't officially acknowledged until a terrible epidemic came and killed most of the royal house. Lizzan's father was a high ranking army commander and her mother is a magistrate, before he got recognised as an actual prince, she would be seriously throwing away her future to be with him. Then came the incident that led to Lizzan's exile, where her father and much of the Kothan army led an attack to pacify nearby bandits but were surprised by a supernatural threat, leaving Lizzan as the only survivor. 

Lizzan was deemed a coward and a traitor, and her name was struck from the official records. No one from Koth is allowed to speak her name or even recognise that she is still alive. She had to leave Koth in disgrace and exile and hates Aerax for not speaking up in her defence at the trial. Aerax, having at that point been trained and come to know many of the island's official secrets, couldn't defend her, as it could lead to her death. He's adored Lizzan for as long as he can remember and will do anything to keep her safe, even if it means she despises him.

Lizzan has made her way, lonely and heart-broken, both physically and emotionally, using her warrior skills to protect refugee caravans and other travellers. She hears news of a Kothan delegation, including a white-haired prince (all of the Kothan royal family have tell-tale white hair) and does her best to get away. The book starts with Lizzan trying to flee, and Aerax wanting to catch her.

The Kothans need help from their neighbours to the South, and want to join the big alliance that's forming. But Aerax knows that they're going to need Lizzan's presence and her truth about the supernatural threat to convince others to risk themselves for an island and a people who withdrew when danger previously threatened. He also has motives of his own, that he's keeping from everyone, determined to see his course through, even if he ends up branded a villain by everyone, especially his true love.

Lizzan has by this point gotten sick enough of dishonour and scorn, and drunkenly demands a quest from the goddess Vela. The only way to fully be forgiven is to die gloriously in battle, and she asks Vela to help her accomplish this. Vela tasks her to protect the first person she casts her eyes on when she leaves the temple (one guess who she runs into seconds after leaving) and promises her death in a battle on the day of the first snow. So now both she and Aerax have purposes they must keep secret, and it seems unlikely that they'll ever have a future, as Lizzan is fated to die in a short while. 

I'm only about 50% through the book, yet I love what I've read so far. If it wasn't for having to finish a lot of reviews, help co-parent my demanding child and planning and prepping a three-course New Year's meal, I would be on the sofa with noise-cancelling headphones, blocking out the world and reading right now. I know so many reviewers have loved this book, including our own Emmalita, so I'm convinced it's going to be a satisfying final book for me to end 2020 with. 

Normally, I'd feel bad about reviewing a book I haven't finished yet, but the clock is ticking and the deadline for CBR12 is just around the corner. Time and the double Cannonball waits for no person. The continued adventures and just how Aerax and Lizzan get past their challenges to find true happiness together at last shall have to wait a few hours, until I've tidied, cooked, we've eaten and are settled down to wait for the fireworks. That's one good thing about this wretched year, we have no guests who will disapprove if I read for a while until the clock strikes midnight. 

And with this rambling review, I declare my reading goal for 2020 reached (double Cannonball achieved and a total of 25 out of 26 reading challenges completed), and wish you all a Happy New Year!

Judging a book by its cover: Yeah, I just can't take this cover seriously. Why is he wearing armour on his arms, and a big chainmail/armour hood thing, yet leaving his very ripped abs entirely exposed? It's like the whole discussion about superheroine costumes. This is just dumb. Cool sword, though, dude.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR12 Book 96: "The Beast of Blackmore" by Milla Vane

Page count: 162 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Mala, sent on a quest by the goddess Vela, comes to Blackmoor to locate and tam the legendary Beast. She initially believes the beast to be a demonically possessed mammoth that plagues the area and is surprised when she instead discovers that it is the warrior Tavik, who she first met protecting a caravan of refugees from blood-thirsty revenants. 

Tavik is pretty much a broken man, who once foolishly defiled a temple of Vela and now believes that everything that happened since then is divine punishment. The goddess told him when the woman in red shows up, the end will be near. He has already had vivid dreams about Mala for several years and isn't entirely sure he isn't hallucinating when he first sees her. When he hears that Vela has ordered her to tame him, he is despondent, but he hadn't counted on what Mala considers taming to be. 

Maddek, the hero of A Heart of Blood and Wishes is cold, angry, and bull-headed, taking far too long to see what a precious gift he has in Yvenne. Tavik knows what a remarkable woman Mala is before they ever meet in person, as he's seen her in his dreams for years. He wanted to return to his home in Blackmoor with an army to kill the sorcerous warlord who ruled there and was instead captured, humiliated, and repeatedly raped and assaulted. When Mala approaches him after visiting the warlord, claiming she has been tasked with taming him, he cannot bear the thought. Instead, he discovers that Mala has no problem showing him both vulnerability and submission, in order to earn his trust. 

As a result, I liked this novella (which is technically a prequel to the whole series, first published in the Night Shift anthology and only published separately by Ms. Vane this summer) a lot more. In the first novel, I loved the world-building and pretty much everyone BUT Maddek (although even when I wanted him to snap out of it, I also understood the reasons for his rage and alpha idiocy). Here Mala and Tavik are equally compelling protagonists.

We get to see a different part of the large pre-historic world that Vane has created here. It's a harsh and brutal world, still reeling from the damages when the Big Bad, Anumith the Destroyer, swept the continent with his armies and left ruined cities and deeply scarred people in his wake. The warlord who rules in Blackmoor uses the same weapons as Anumith to subjugate the people he rules, and he clearly needs to be stopped. We also get a clearer impression of the goddess Vela and what might happen if those devoted to her quests fail to complete them (don't worry, all ends well, this is a romance, after all). 

I can see why the author chose a different pseudonym when writing these, they're very different from her previous novels as Meljean Brook, yet just as compelling. I'm excited to end the year reading the next full novel in the series. 

Judging a book by its cover: I genuinely don't know whether to roll my eyes or applaud these book covers. The barbarians are clearly dressed in random pieces of costuming in a modern photo studio. Still, they give the reader an idea of what the book is about, and isn't that the main purpose of a book cover?

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

 

#CBR12 Book 61: "A Heart of Blood and Ashes" by Milla Vane

Page count: 555 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Official book description: 

A generation past, the western realms were embroiled in endless war. Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil - until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.

Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents’ murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.

Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surpri sing is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones—because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own…

This book is pretty much your ultimate enemies to lovers story. There isn't just the flirty banter of rivalling colleagues in an office or dislike growing into attraction and affection, Maddek, our grouchy and grieving hero really is initially prepared to kill Yvenne, our clever and vengeful heroine, when they first meet. He hates her father and brothers and believes she is the reason his wise and brave parents were tricked away from the safety of their own lands and into enemy territory, where they were betrayed and killed.

Yvenne may be the daughter of a king and a legendary warrior queen, but she has not been raised in pomp and privilege, rather kept captive in a tower and forced to watch her father's abuse of her mother for years. Both her father and most of her brothers have abused her horribly, both physically and emotionally and desperate for a marriage alliance with a powerful and honourable tribe, Yvenne begged for Maddek's parents' help to get her away from her family. Her plan backfired spectacularly, and she feels terrible guilt about her role in their deaths, and the suffering they went through at the hands of her father, brothers and the men loyal to them. While she is physically weak and crippled, she nevertheless has her mother's blood in her veins, and the gifts of the goddess that bless the women of her line, and she's determined to be a worthy queen to her people. She just needs a man strong enough to defeat her father to marry her, so she can claim her birthright and inheritance.

Maddek's tribe values truthfulness above all, and before she died, Maddek's mother made Yvenne swear never to lie to him. Unfortunately, Maddek's grief and anger make it impossible for him to trust or believe anything Yvenne says, and he makes her swear never to even utter his mother's name (or he'll cut out her tongue). The massive distrust between the two doesn't exactly create a fertile ground for a good and strong relationship. Nor does it help that thanks to her father's mistreatment of her mother, Yvenne was born too early and barely survived her childhood. She's also been additionally crippled by her family after trying to help Maddek's mother escape. She's a far cry from the legendary warrior queens that make up her ancestors, nor is she anything like the independent, strong and capable warrior women of Maddek's nomadic tribe. When they meet, she's never even ridden a horse. 

What Yvenne does have is a fierce intelligence, a burning ambition, and the years spent being trained by her mother in the statecraft, manipulation and intrigue that a good queen will need to excel at. Her mother possessed psychic abilities and was able to see far and wide outside the tower she and Yvenne were captives in, and she told Yvenne everything and taught her as well as she could, to prepare her for her future. Yvenne loves her people and works very hard to get to know Maddek's loyal companions as well, knowing that she needs to learn as much about her new tribe as possible to be a worthy queen to them, even if she's nothing like what they value in a woman. 

This is not exactly a light-hearted or carefree book. In this barbarian world, an alternate reality where humans live side by side with pre-historic lizards and other dangerous beasts, physical strength and prowess in battle is valued. The gods that the various people believe in are very real and occasionally interfere directly in the lives of their followers. Some characters are blessed by the gods, others make horrible sacrifices to gain unholy magical powers for their own gain. 

There has been a lot of war, and death and all manner of atrocities and war crimes. Unscrupulous and evil men use rape as a weapon to demean and torture women (not directly described in the story, but there have clearly been loved one's raped in both the protagonists' pasts). A generation ago, the near-unstoppable and ruthless warlord known as the Destroyer was vanquished, but he didn't die, and there are rumours that he is on the move, coming back for another invasion. The various tribes of this world need a strong alliance to stand against him, and as prophecy would have it, Yvenne and Maddok are central to mounting a defense against him. 

I haven't really said much about the excellent world-building or the cast of interesting (and diverse) supporting characters, because this review is already getting long and if I'm ever to get through my backlog, I need to get better at being brief in my write-ups. Suffice it to say, two thumbs up for this too.

Milla Vane also wrote paranormal romances as Meljean Brook, whose Iron Seas novels, set in a Steampunk alt-Victorian world, are among my all-time favourites of the paranormal genre. As far as I can tell, she (like so many others) have had a difficult few years since she last published a novel back in 2014. I know she's been working on this new, pre-historic barbarian world for a long time, and thankfully for the reader, there are already two full novels and a novella to enjoy. My friend and fellow reviewer Emmalita absolutely raves about the books (and was lucky enough have her review quoted in Ms. Vane's social media promos). I have enough trust in the author after four novels and a few novellas set in the Iron Seas that I've already purchased everything Ms. Vane has published so far, but due to the darker subject matter and slightly grimmer feel to these books, I also don't feel in the mood to binge all three available stories in one go. I'm going to need a month or two to recover between books. 

Judging a book by its cover: Anyone seeing this cover, has to have at least a vague inkling that it's not your run of the mill Regency romance novel. There's the title, which suggests some dark subject matters. Then there's the cover model, who is wearing very little, except for some scraps of leather, scraps, and a whole lot of dirt and grime. The author describes this as "barbarian romance" and I think the cover sells that aesthetic very well indeed. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR8 Book 84: "Red Sonja, vol 1: Queen of Plagues" by Gail Simone and Walter Geovani

Page count: 160 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Red Sonja, the legendary She-Devil with a Sword, returns to Corinthia, to repay the blood-debt she owes to its ruler. Facing a battle against impossible odds, Sonja nonetheless agrees to lead what remains of Corinthia's fighting forces against its enemies, and comes face to face with Dark Annisia, a woman from her past. Having to face crushing defeat on the battlefield, unable to keep her promises to a man who once saved her life, Sonja is exiled and doomed to die. Always a fighter, even the plague cannot stop Red Sonja, who returns from the wilderness to wreak her vengeance.

Red Sonja, created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s, is pretty much the archetypal barbarian warrior woman now. Known for her mane of red hair, her chainmail bikini and her prowess on the battlefield, Red Sonja has been a pulp heroine in books, a really bad movie and several comic books. In this, Gail Simone's reboot of the character, we get her origin story, several blood-soaked battles and more than enough sword and sorcery. Simone's Sonja is a cranky loner with a serious drinking habit, who despite her ridiculous fashion choices is able to take down seasoned warriors with ease. The book balances several dark storylines with a fair amount of comic relief and while Sonja's costume may be exploitative, this is a feminist comic book with a lot of themes of female empowerment throughout.

The book is fun enough, and the art is absolutely gorgeous, but I never really emotionally connected with the characters and even when the story was at its darkest and tensest, I wasn't all that bothered with how things were going to play out. Of the many Gail Simone comics I have read, this was one of the more forgettable. Maybe pulpy sword and sorcery wasn't exactly what I wanted at the specific time I read it? Who knows? If my budget allows, I may keep reading it, but it's not going to be lower down on my list of comics purchases in the future.

Judging a book by its cover: All the covers in the trade are done by Jenny Frison, who strikes an interesting balance between functional and exploitative. While she is wearing her trademark chainmail bikini (seriously, the chafing, why would you choose to fight in this?), she is also portrayed as decisive, strong and capable. On the red cross-piece, the readers get a glimpse of the two principal female characters in the book in a more action-packed part of the story.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.