James Nicoll Reviews

King of the Rising is the second volume in Kacen Callender’s Islands of Blood and Storm series. 

The Islanders’ cunning ruse allowed them to slaughter Fjern slavers; many Fjern aristocrats are among the dead. The rebels are in firm control of the island on which the revolution started. Rebellions have cropped up all across the archipelago. 

But … the rebellions are not coordinated. The Fjern still control many islands, patrol the sea at will, and they have more armed men at their command than any of the rebel groups. Absent some brilliant strategy, time is not on the rebels’ side.

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2019’s Queen of the Conquered is the first volume in Kacen Callender’s Islands of Blood and Storm series.

Centuries ago the pale-skinned Fjern descended on the islands to plunder and rule. Those of the dark-skinned Islanders who resisted were killed. The survivors became slaves. The islander language was forbidden, islander culture suppressed, the islands themselves renamed in the language of the invaders.

The population of the islands has fallen by half since the invasion. Every slave who demonstrates even a hint of kraft (magic) ability is killed on the spot. Every uprising is brutally crushed. Liberation seems impossible.

Sigourney Rose is an anomaly, a dark-skinned person who nevertheless enjoys lofty social status and power. She lives as one of the Fjern but she identifies with the slaves. She is determined to overthrow the Fjern.

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