Synopsis:
The gritty underworld and razor-edged found family of Six of Crows collide with the mysterious magic and sweeping intrigue of The City of Brass, all against the vivid industrial backdrop of Arcane in Michael Vadney’s nobledark fantasy debut.
Nearly a decade under the empire’s grip has left Burunt a troubled land.
Kyndel Heim knows the truth behind the Viceroy’s rise to power. After years of torture, his only goal is vengeance, but to master his powers he needs a mentor, one that won’t kill him first.
Major Jelert Egarro came to Burunt to build something better. Instead, his talents have become weapons in the wrong hands—and those hands are everywhere. He must choose between his ideals or survival.
Lady Amara Khar must renew her family’s legacy. Sharp and ruthless, she’s kept her house alive through smuggling and shadow deals, but reclaiming power means making allies as dangerous as her enemies.
In the struggle for power, justice, and survival, each of them must decide who they’re willing to become.
Review:
Michael Vadney listed a ton of comparable works for his debut novel, Crownfall, from Six of Crows to The City of Brass and Arcane. All of those present themselves to a certain degree, but as I was pulled into Vadney’s fantasy novel, I couldn’t help but remember how I felt when I first read Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series. The setting and characters all feel a smidge familiar in some ways. Vadney also brings an interesting but fairly grounded magical system to play with into a land with political intrigue, scientific intellect, and armies poised to fight over pieces of an empire. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Crownfall, and desperately snuck in a page or two whenever I had a free minute as the book neared the end. With this novel, Vadney has secured a solid debut with characters that jump off the page, each striving towards their own goals, but eventually coming to realize those goals are not solitary tasks, but instead are better accomplished together.
Kyndel Heim is very much constructed in the vein of a typical Sanderson hero, ala Kaladin (from the Stormlight Archive) or Vin (from Mistborn). Wide-eyed with wonder, touched with a taste of magical power, and burdened with vengeance, Kyndel has a big journey ahead of him in Crownfall. As a character, he may have the lowest of the lows, but may also have the highest of the highs when it comes to moments throughout the book.
For a good chunk of the first part of the book, I wanted to shout at Jelert Egarro — which I suppose may have been the point. While extremely smart and innovative when it comes to the science of Vadey’s fantasy world, he tends to be very pure and innocent, and perhaps a tad (or a load) gullible.
And our final POV character, Lady Amara Khar is doing her best to guide her house through the political and economic uncertainty of their island after the death of her father and the illness (similar to Alzheimer’s) of her mother. Out of the three, Amara’s morals are perhaps the most flexible as money and ambition are her driving factors through much of the book.
Vadney expertly and efficiently alternates between these three characters as POV perspectives, almost flawlessly weaving their stories together. For the first third to half of the book, there was some interaction between the three, but in many ways Michael Vadney could have written three separate books featuring Kyndel, Jalert, and Amara. As the plot moves along, we start to see the transparent threads that are binding and bringing our characters together. The conversations are natural and each of the characters has unique qualities that showcase them in their own ways.
One of my favorite chapters in the book actually may seem like a bit of a throwaway chapter. About a quarter of the way into the book, Jelert and Amara go on a date. There isn’t a lot that happens, but we learn a ton in the process. Each character reveals portions of themselves and what makes them tick and we learn a bunch about the political, military and economic situation they’re in. But the part that really makes that chapter work…is that it’s just two somewhat nervous people eating dinner together. It feels so natural even though it’s clearly entrenched in a completely different world. Vadney makes his characters absolutely relatable and sympathetic as they sometimes have to work through tragic backstories as well as difficult futures.
Vadney calls Crownfall an example of “Nobledark,” which is laid on a foundation of grimdark, but, “The settings are still harsh. Kingdoms still rot from the inside. Magic still maims. Empires still exploit. The victories, when they come, are partial and hard-won. Yet within that same brutal landscape, more stories are doing something quietly radical. In the middle of all that darkness, characters are choosing kindness and hope anyway.”
For each of our main characters, their moment when they’re eyes are truly opened for the first time to what’s really happening behind the curtain happens nearly simultaneously. Each reacts and handles that moment differently, but they each move towards the light. Each of them could wallow in darkness (and no one would blame them at all), but choose the noble path anyway. Kyndel, Jelert, and Amara each go on their own journeys with complete character arcs — frankly pretty impressive for an indie debut.
I thoroughly enjoyed Crownfall by Michael Vadney and will gladly pick up the next work they put out. His characters are deep and memorable, the conflict puts them all in terrible positions, but ultimately their choices make them better on the other side.
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