TL;DR Review – “Light” grimdark flavor, with singular characters and a world that just keeps getting more interesting with every chapter.
Synopsis:
In a world where writing disappears when the author dies, 22-year-old Cael Oberlan watches the last gasping breaths of his best friend. He pulls a scrap of paper out of his pocket as his friend’s signature fades. Cael only wants vengeance for his friend and to create a reality where he no longer has to bow before any man. However, the nagging suspicion that his father, who started this war, hasn’t given him the whole story about his role in this conflict threatens to unravel everything he ever thought he knew about himself and the people he is fighting to free.
As nephew of the King, 24-year-old Emil Trestinsen should be a hero. He should already hear his name echoing in celebration in the streets of the capital. In a young life already full of disappointment, the lack of recognition for ridding the kingdom of “Ruinous” Lorcen Oberlan may prove to be the final push he needs to seize his destiny. He will prove his worth to his family and his nation. He will end this rebellion and take his rightful place as the next governor of the rebels.
When 18-year-old Merily Oberlan receives letters from the frontlines, and the top one is blank, she is devastated to realize one of her loved ones has died in battle. She is determined to help bring an end to this bloody war and be strong for her people, a cultural and religious minority in the kingdom of Harfal.
What started as a simple rebellion transforms into a complicated web of lies, betrayal, and difficult decisions no one should have to make. It is a race against time and death as handwriting continues to disappear, erasing the contracts and historical records necessary for peaceful negotiations.
Full Review:
I was utterly unprepared for what I was getting myself into when I first cracked open The Traitors We Are.
Right in the beginning, we’re thrust into a big, bloody battle (my favorite!) and get a juicy dose of both action and worldbuilding from the jump. But we’re also introduced to some of our main players and some very cool aspects of the world. Over the course of the story, all of that keeps getting dialed up—until by the end, I was very much a fan of this fascinating fantasy world.
The World:
The world is familiar in many ways: the Reach (thing Scotland/Ireland) is fighting for its independence against the Keeps (England), only in this story, the Keeps are forced to consider making peace and giving the Reach what they want because the Reach’s chieftain, Ordan, keeps winning battles.
We’re given a look at the Scottish highlands-feeling world of the Reach, with its small towns, humble people, and tight-knit families. Then we’re whisked away to the very London-meets-King’s-Landing capital city, home to all the power players who want to take advantage of this new balance to, inevitably, gain more power.
There are also some very fascinating and unique elements, though. Chief among them is the way that writing disappears after someone dies. People keep letters or signatures written by their loved ones, and check them after every battle to see whether those people are alive. There are times I wish this was used to more dramatic effect—a critical piece of information isn’t given to the hero because the one who wrote it was killed—but instead it’s used in a fascinatingly callous, almost off-handed way that serves to underscore the grimdark flavor of the story.
The characters also have to “speak ill of the dead” to avoid angering the gods, so every funeral is filled with insults and disrespect—the crueler and harsher, the more it demonstrates the person’s love and respect for the fallen. A fascinating twist on the usual funeral/reverence for the dead flavors.
There’s a lot about the world outside the Reach and Keeps that isn’t explained, but overall, you know more than enough to stay grounded in the action and follow along with the characters’ journeys.
Characters:
There are a lot of POV characters throughout—sometimes they’re used as a “throwaway” to introduce some twist or reveal, to flesh out the world in interesting ways, or to give insight into some of the darker, twistier characters.
However, the main POV characters are:
Cael Oberlan. Fighter, hot-head, and general asshole, he’s always angry and spoiling for a fight with anyone over anything. He also has an immense amount of agency—he will do anything without considering the consequences until after it’s done, and that “wild card” flavor makes him a character you absolutely want to follow along to see what he’s going to do and how he’s going to make everything worse. Yet he’s also a surprisingly decent man (somewhere WAYYYYY down deep) in his own way.
Emil Trestinsen. War hero, slayer of Lorcan Oberlan (Cael’s brother), and spoiled nobleman, he’s an absolute naif when it comes to the world in which he lives. He thinks everything is glory and heroics, spectacular duels and celebratory parades. He trips his way through the world untouched by reality, but also unmarred by it. He is genuinely “good” and wants to try to make things better—he just goes about it with the innocence of a sheltered child in the body of a sword-wielding man. His story is a spectacular exercise in irony.
Merily Oberlan. Daughter to the conquering Reach chief, sister to Cael, and, unfortunately, prize to be offered off in marriage to whoever suits her father’s whims. She doesn’t start off with a great deal of agency, but she slowly develops into one of the strongest, most compelling characters in the story. Her pairing with (WON’T SPOIL IT FOR YOU!) makes for a fascinating dynamic, and promises interesting dramatic developments down the road.
Erik Tremmin. Knight of the Evertree, a soldier to the core, he carries around the scars and disabilities resulting from his loss in battle to Cael. Curiously, though, he and Cael both have a “that was war” mentality, so though they both had good cause to want the other dead in battle, they forge an interesting…well, friendship isn’t the right word quite yet, perhaps better said a mutual respect and grudging understanding.
Each of these characters feels utterly unique from the others, and in many ways, they’re standouts in the fantasy genre. They make for very compelling reading and anchor the story so well they keep you coming back to find out what’s going to happen next.
The Tone:
The Traitors We Are definitely falls into the grimdark genre tonally. There’s an utter disregard for human life, an almost casual acceptance of death and suffering, the mocking of the dead, the almost “breeziness” to the battles (people just die and no big deal is made of it), and the overall story progression skews toward the dark.
But it’s not PITCH BLACK like some other grimdark books I’ve read. Instead, it’s more “grimdark light”, where there are happy moments that are only slightly marred by the grim to come, and the grimness never goes quite as deep or dark as it could.
Wrapping Up:
The Traitors We Are proves a truly entertaining, compelling, and complex read, with some of the most unique characters I’ve encountered in grimdark—or in the fantasy genre at large. Highly, highly recommended!
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