
Synopsis:
Irdessa the Undying, a renowned arena fighter in Fohrvylda, has escaped imprisonment but at great cost. Broken and alone, she must outwit and outfight her pursuers.
Basalt Kale, a failed Consonant monk of the lowest order, embarks on a quest to improve Ausgan but discovers vile secrets of his order that he cannot abide.
The heathens of Fohrvylda amass ships and beasts of war to sail the Faithless Sea and assault the monks of Ausgan, who will greet the steel-bearing invaders with elemental destruction.
Review:
Violence & Vigilance is action-packed from cover to cover featuring an array of unlikely heroes and conniving villains. It has a unique magic system employed by one side of the story, and gritty cunning by the other. There was a lot of setup done in preparation for the rest of the series (which is forthcoming, I hope.) It was a really fun read.
The way the story was relayed was a little unusual, in that there weren’t any true “main” characters. There were two distinct storylines, but each was presented from the viewpoints of a variety of characters involved in that storyline. I wasn’t immediately clear how the two story arcs related to one another, but after a while, that did become clear.
The first arc was set on the island of Forhvylda, and begins in a gladiatorial-style arena. Forhvylda is run by Vretos, a man said to be unkillable. He’s ruthless and doesn’t tolerate failure from his subordinates. His ultimate goal is to launch his fleet of ships, known as the Heathen Tide, in an attack on another island, but he can’t launch until conditions are just right. With a ruler like Vretos, there’s bound to be some dissent, though it will need something to spark the populace into outright rebellion. There were two standout characters for me in this story arc: Irdessa (who begins the story as a conscripted gladiator), and Kraus (who is crass and barbaric, very rough around the edges…but he grew on me over time.)
The second arc is set on the island of Ausgan, which is ruled by mages. Their leader is Intemrus, who is also said to be immortal. The mages have a strict hierarchy that requires not only innate talent to ascend, but also a cutthroat mentality to outcompete everyone else. The mages use Consonance, which is a blend of singing and elemental power that allows them to bend even their island’s weather to their wills. Throughout this story arc, Ausgan is dealing with native unrest, while simultaneously preparing for the Heathen Tide. Kale was by far my favorite character of this arc; he’s an anomaly amongst the mages, and his unusual ability throws a major wrench into some of the others’ plans.
With so much going on, it’s no wonder this is a massive book. I bought it as an ebook, so I didn’t realize its length until I’d been reading a while and the percent completed had only ticked up a tiny bit (Goodreads lists it at 643 pages, which might be my longest read so far this year.) But it was written so well, and the story was so engaging, that the length didn’t bother me.
Overall, this was a great first-in-series with some memorable characters and a ton of action that I definitely recommend.
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