Yet Evadine’s growing fame has put her at odds with both Crown and Covenant. As trouble brews in the kingdom, both seek to exploit her position for their own ends.
Sent to the Duchy of Alundia to put down a rebellion, Alwyn must rely on old instincts to fight for his new cause. Deadly feuds and ancient secrets are laid bare as war erupts, a war that will decide the fate of the Kingdom of Albermaine and, perhaps, prevent the coming of the prophesied Second Scourge.
Although it hasn’t been very long since I read THE PARIAH, the first book in Anthony Ryan’s series, THE COVENANT OF STEEL, I have to start this review by talking about recaps.
I think by & large, fantasy readers love this kind of thing. My memory for books is…shaky, sometimes. Having a little refresher in the beginning of the book (and I’ve also seen some authors who have them on their websites) is HUGE, and the one in THE MARTYR may just be the cleverest one I’ve ever seen.
I’m tempted to say what makes it so damn clever, but I’ll save the surprise for anyone who is going to read this. Cleverness aside, big thanks to Anthony Ryan for going the extra mile to include the recap of book one at the beginning of book two, it’s much appreciated by those of us with sieve-like memories.
The legend of Lady Evadine Courlain continues to grow, and who better to tell us the tale than Alwyn Scribe, the spymaster for the Anointed Lady.
THE MARTYR is far & away a more action-packed book than THE PARIAH. There’s a prolonged siege in this book that could rival The Battle of Helm’s Deep! The siege in question is at the request of the King, and may ultimately be a trap to ensure the death of Evadine, the Risen Martyr. She is…an extremely polarizing figure, for sure.
Evadine & Alwyn have pieced together an army, kind of picking up some stragglers along the way. We’re introduced to some incredible new characters in this book, including a woman known as the Widow, a character that is holding onto a tremendous amount of grief & also singularly motivated by one thing: revenge. She’s a really fascinating secondary character, and someone I’m glad is on Alwyn’s side.
I also loved the addition of Lilat to the cast! She’s a total badass and gets Alwyn out of more than a couple dangerous situations. I’m excited to see more from her going forward!
I’ve been chipping away at this review for way too long, and was also super sick with covid while writing much of it…at this point, my brain has given up.
I’m a big fan of Anthony Ryan’s…I’ve adored nearly everything I’ve read by him & tend to think of him as one of the most natural storytellers in fantasy. And I’m really digging THE COVENANT OF STEEL a whole lot. The characters are phenomenal in these books & that’s the thing that will always win me over. It doesn’t matter how thrilling the siege scenes are (and they are VERY thrilling), if I’m not rooting fiercely for the characters, it just won’t have much of an impact.
THE MARTYR was fantastic, start to finish. Just a great balance of action & dialogue, interesting character moments, humor, and just a sprinkling of ominous & weird magic. I loved it!
Grimdark Dad 