Synopsis
Four hundred years ago, a cataclysmic war cracked the world open and exterminated the Elder races. Amid the ashes, their human inheritor, the Dawn Republic, stands guard over lands littered with eldritch relics and cursed by plaguespawn outbreaks. But a new conflict is looming and brother and sister Maya and Gyre have found themselves on opposite sides.
At the age of five, Maya was taken by the Twilight Order and trained to be a centarch, wielding forbidden arcana to enforce the Dawn Republic’s rule. On that day, her brother, Gyre, swore to destroy the Order that stole his sister… whatever the cost.
Twelve years later, brother and sister are two very different people: she is Burningblade, the Twilight Order’s brightest prodigy; he is Silvereye, thief, bandit, revolutionary.
Review
Blood of the Chosen is book 2 in Django Wexler’s Burningblade & Silvereye series, and the follow up to Ashes of the Sun (the first in the series, published in 2020 – a book which I also enjoyed. Read that review here). Blood of the Chosen does a great job of upping the stakes and keeping the tension high. I loved this book.
I really love with Wexler is doing with this story. If you read my review of book 1, you will see I was a pretty big fan of it. The story elements are layered and intriguing. My favorite part of the narrative has not changed from the first book to the second: the drama that comes with the sibling relationship between Maya (Burningblade) and Gyre (Silvereye). Whatever happens in the story, this situation is always hanging in the background, influencing every decision either character makes. There is so much subtext that comes along with it, the and added depth takes the narrative to another level.
And that is just the thing about this book: it would still be a really good book without the family drama. There was already a lot of history baked in to the story elements, but Blood of the Chosen really ups the ante in this area. I do not want to say too much because I do not want to venture into spoiler territory, but this book takes a deep dive into the past. That not only comes through in the active narrative, but it also has a big effect on the ending, too – which was phenomenal, by the way. This book could not have left things in a more intriguing place for book 3 and the finale of of the series. I am really looking forward to it.
As with the first book, I am still enjoying the magic, the way it is conjured and its uses. I think it is a really unique setup, and the fact that it is steeped in the remaining story elements makes it that much better.
Ashes of the Sun was really good, and Blood of the Chosen is even better. In my opinion, Wexler took what was a really good foundation for a story and successfully turned it into a must-read series. I am excited to see how it all ends.
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