Hugh D’Ambrey, the
great Biblical wizard’s Warlord, has been banished from his presence. For
decades, longer, Hugh was Roland’s servant and a lethal, terrifying fighting
force and general. And now he doesn’t know who he is
But his soldiers rely
on him, people hold grudges, his rival Ness especially. They need safety, they
need a home - but who would trust them
Ilara and her people
need protection. They’ve been driven to run for too long but are now secure in
an actual castle… but they have no soldiers. And Ness wants their land.
It’s not a romantic
match… but it is a practical one.
It is so hard to
review an Ilona Andrews book. It’s hard because the things that make
these books so special - the awesome world building, excellent characters,
massively fun storylines and tight, descriptive yet well paced writing are
pretty much the same in every book. Early on they set the bar at awesome and
kept repeating the same levels of awesome and that leaves me with a happy stunned
with joy, grieving because I’ve finished it and then flummoxed on how to
produce a review that isn’t a duplicate of the last review
This book follows
Hugh D’Ambrey - a very different standpoint from Kate given how he has been
such a major villain for much of the Kate Daniels Series and how he is,
pretty much, The Worst. I admit to having some reservations - I’m not against
redeemed villain narratives but all too often they’re done far too
simplistically which rarely if ever actually touches real redemption and
usually amounts to a handwaving of their past
But this worked.
Because it didn’t try to redeem Hugh. Hugh is a monumental bastard and always
has been. He doesn’t claim to be different, Ilara doesn’t think he’s different,
even the fact he wants to preserve his people isn’t presented as making him a
good guy. Even exploring his toxic relationship with Roland and how Roland
controlled him isn’t used to redeem or excuse him (though it does include some
really excellent character growth moments as Hugh basically learns how to be
Hugh without Rolan’s overwhelming presence). Even meeting old enemies who are
grudgingly willing to work with him isn’t presented as forgiveness, even when
he apologises. Even his own levels of self-hatred and self-recrimination: all
of this is here but, at the same time, I don’t think the book ever intended me
to think “Hugh is a good guy now”.
And I really like his
relationship with Ilara. Firstly she’s an equal - she has her people and he has
his both are the supreme leaders who have earned a vast amount of loyalty and
even as the two factions begin to blur, it never happens in a way that
undermines either of them. Neither are ever the junior partners and while he
clearly has combat advantages over her in some situations, she is equally
clearly the one with by far the most powerful magic.
And they hate each
other which I love. Yes, I
know I talked about persistence not being a virtue and love interests whose
dislike is worn down by one party’s persistence. But that isn’t happening here - Hugh
and Ilara marry for political reasons, so people will believe that their
alliance is real (especially since Hugh. under Roland broke a whole lot of
alliances). But Hugh and Ilara despised each other from the very first day and
their sparring is glorious. Their searing loathing for each other (even as it
slowly melts into respect but is never ever not a battle) is hilarious and
mutual - Hugh isn’t setting out to win Ilara’s heart and Ilara
I also like the
grounding reality that their conflicts can bring - with them arguing over how
much things cost and how large Hugh’s monetary demands are. In fact I love that
as an entire branch of the storyline - while fighting the many arcane and
terrifying enemies that face the castle, they also take time to make alliances
with local authorities, overtures to nearby towns and establish business and
trade deals to maintain and increase their wealth. This mix of the mundane with
the magical is compelling and also makes them even more cemented as leaders
(and helps further them as peers since Ilara is more of an expert in this
field)
Ooh, bouncing to
another thing I love - those myriad arcane threats. In a world setting that has
set up an enemy as epicly as the Kate Daniel’s series (there was a
moment in a previous book where who and what Roland was was finally spelled out
and it was EPIC enough that I couldn’t sit down) but at the same time in this
glorious complex and varied world there’s never just one threat or one enemy. I
like that there were problems from all sides.
The world - oh the
world - the shift between magic and tech, the vampires, the various gods and
magical beings and magic waves and out of control nature and just EVERYTHING.
EVERYTHING. All explained awesomely without info dump or being too sparse. It’s
perfect, perfect, perfect.
I also like how,
while Hugh and Ilara are Major Powers they’re not the only major powers among
them - I like the surprising little revelations, the commonality of magic and
oh, hey, your next door neighbour may actually be a creature of legend. Even
though this book was very much ALL ABOUT Hugh and Ilara (I would hesitate to
say any other character was MAJOR despite the huge number) we still got several
snippets of several other characters ot throw flesh on their bones and make
them intriguing. Whether it’s Hugh’s lieutenants like Bael and Stoyan or
Ilara’s own council with head witch and druid and more. This also continues
this world setting’s show of diversity - several of Hugh’s Iron dogs are POC,
with a Middle Eastern werewolf scout and at least one Black lieutenant. Ilara’s
chief witch is a Black woman and major part of her entourage is Deaf. We also
have Ness a Native American character who has magic and power in a completely
non-stereotyped way. The fact there are several women among the Iron Dogs is
mentioned in passing and shows several of these characters and really
normalises the female warriors. No-one thinks it strange and the language used
to describe them doesn’t single them out as the ZOMG FEMALE IRON DOGS just as
the Iron Dogs
I also kind of like
how even relatively minor characters and people in Ilara’s group tend to have
little magic tricks. And how so many of them snark with both Hugh and Ilara but
also with each other
Sadly, if there are
LGBTQ characters among this vast cast they’re just brief mentions and not
characters even among the big cast.
I love this book and
think Hugh and Ilara have a huge amount of story ahead of them - but I worry if
this will ever happen. The Kate Daniels series is, tragically, coming to
a close. If Kate is out of the picture along with her major antagonists, what
would that even mean for Hugh and Ilara’s story? Would it continue
I dearly hope so
Also with all these TV adaptations why hasn't anyone approached Ilona Andrews? WHY?!
