Review of Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan

SFFaudio Review

Queen of FireQueen of Fire (Raven’s Shadow #3)
By Anthony Ryan; Read by Steven Brand
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: 7 July 2015
[UNABRIDGED] – 26 hours, 43 minutes

Themes: / fantasy /

Publisher summary:

After fighting back from the brink of death, Queen Lyrna is determined to repel the invading Volarian army and regain the independence of the Unified Realm. Except to accomplish her goals, she must do more than rally her loyal supporters. She must align herself with forces she once found repugnant – those who possess the strange and varied gifts of the Dark – and take the war to her enemy’s doorstep.

Victory rests on the shoulders of Vaelin Al Sorna, now named battle lord of the realm. However, his path is riddled with difficulties. For the Volarian enemy has a new weapon on their side, one that Vaelin must destroy if the realm is to prevail – a mysterious Ally with the ability to grant unnaturally long life to her servants. And defeating one who cannot be killed is a nearly impossible feat, especially when Vaelin’s blood-song, the mystical power that has made him the epic fighter he is, has gone ominously silent.

After how much I enjoyed the last two, it was almost going to be impossible for this book to live up to my expectations.

Some of this is probably on me. I read Blood Song and Tower Lord back to back. It’s been about a year since then, and my memory on the details were fuzzy. I should have reread. I wish there was a wiki or something with plot points and character bios I could have used to refresh myself.

I struggled at the start remembering many of the minor characters. I think all books in a series (and really all audio books in general) should have a list of the important characters with maybe a 1 sentence reminder of who they are. It would really help a lot. There are just too many books to reread previous books every time a new one comes out, even books I loved as much as the last two.

Both of those books grabbed me early on and never let go. That never really happened here. I was always happy to pick it back up, but I wasn’t making excuses to listen longer or counting down the time until I could get back to listening. So unfortunately I can’t give the whole series 5 stars.

I also found myself wondering for much of the second half of the book if there would be enough time to resolve everything. For the most part I think he does a good job of converging the different story lines, but it required a fairly large info-dump near the end to do so.

That said, I really love the world Mr. Ryan has built, and I’m especially fond of the characters. It’s always great to read about them, and this book is no different. Much like Tower Lord, I think Frentis and Riva both sort of steal the show again. However Vaelin’s chapters are pretty interesting as well. Lyrna’s story was still enjoyable, just not as much as the others.

Overall this has been one of the best series I’ve found in the last few years. I’d happily read another series set in this world, especially if we can visit again with some of the characters. This is definitely a series I’ll revisit down the road on a reread. Maybe reading all 3 back to back I won’t struggle as much as the start and enjoy it more the second time.

Either way, I’ll be looking forward to checking out what Mr. Ryan has in store for us next.

Much like the last 2 books, I enjoy Steven Brand as a narrator, save for the fact that he’s so QUIET. Thankfully my audiobook app lets me increase the volume, or it would be incredibly frustrating. I wonder if the publishers listens to the book with noise canceling headphones only or something, or if even that would be sufficient.

If you’ve done the previous two in audio, you should know what to expect. Hopefully like me you have a way to increase the volume so you can enjoy Mr. Brand’s otherwise excellent narration.

Review by Rob Zak.

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