Synopsis:
My execution draws near…
The noose beckons. My days dwindle. And still, my story is unfinished.
Tears are left to be shed. Blood has yet to be spilled. Lend me your ear once more to hear of sins and failures. Of swords and shadows. Of violet lightning and black blood.
For it was I who began the war of the gods.
A moody, banter-laced, violent, and poetic framed story – Z.B. Steele presents Rising Gale, book two of Song of the Damned.
Review:
Writing your first novel is hard. Writing a good first novel takes dedication. Seeing that first novel take off and earn praise from readers and reviewers across the fantasy genre is amazing. Then…writing a sequel to that novel that somehow retains the magic from the first book and in many cases exceeds the readers’ expectations…well, that’s what we got with Z.B. Steele’s Rising Gale, the second book in his Song of the Damned series, out today.
I’ll admit it — I slept on Steele’s first novel, Whispers of the Storm. I’d seen countless friends and readers consume and praise it over the past year, yet I didn’t pick it up. I’d read his novella, An Inkling of Flame, but for some reason I hesitated to read the full novel. Perhaps I’d been burned so many times on “amazing” indie books that I didn’t want to find myself disliking something so many others loved. Ultimately, the reason doesn’t matter. I picked up Whispers of the Storm about two weeks ago and found myself engrossed in Redlin’s story. And when I finished it, I did something I haven’t done since I read the Farseer Trilogy last year — I picked up the very next book in the series.
And that book did not disappoint.
You can’t talk about the Song of the Damned books without talking about the narrative structure. If you’ve read Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller books or Jay Kristoff’s Empire of the Vampire series, you know what it is — a first-person retelling of the hero’s life story. In each case, the protagonist is almost mythic in their status by the time they’re being asked to recount their life and the story adds credence to their titles and nicknames while also dispelling some of the misinformation that comes about when stories and legends are told about a living legend. In this case, our story is about Redlin of the Wolves.
Redlin is an imperfect hero, but that’s precisely why we’re drawn to him. Presented at first as a villain, it’s slowly revealed that there are layers and depths to his character. In Whispers, we see his growth from a young boy through adolescence through trials and errors, yes…but also friendship and achievement. I’d say Patrick Rothfuss was the biggest influence on the first book, but I definitely got hints and vibes from Ender’s Game, too.
In Rising Gale, the story deepens and continues Redlin’s tale, which is hard to do. For a second book, many authors simply rinse and repeat their first novel, or give up on it completely. It’s clear that Steele has a plan for Redlin and is following through on that plan, even as tragedy peeks around the corner at every step. And tragedy does strike — I won’t deny that tears were in my eyes towards the end of Rising Gale.
Something brilliant that Steele has done with his world is the use of magic. Magic exists, but everyone has only a limited quantity. That scarcity is what drives the push-and-pull of evil in Steele’s fantasy world. There’s no mana potions or arcane tricks to recoup what you spent and lost and knowing that and knowing where Redlin is as he’s telling his story sets it all up for the reader.
But even with so much that we know, Steele manages to surprise us and sneak in plot twists when we had our eyes on the book the entire time. Looking back, he drops hints and clues, but he magnificently is able to hide his true intentions with his characters and plot until it’s too late.
Rising Gale truly is the sequel that lives up to the hype of the original. Z.B. Steele has two fantastic books between this and Whispers of the Storm, setting himself up for the pressure of Book 3 in the future. But after this outing, I don’t have a lot to worry about for Steele’s next installment in the Song of the Damned series.
Repeated throughout Rising Gale, is one line — “The gods are greedy.”
Well, I guarantee that by the time they finished Rising Gale, Z.B. Steele’s fans will be greedy for the next book in this crisp, action-packed series.
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