Queen of the Conquered (Islands of Blood and Storm #1) by Kacen Callender
Published: November 12th 2019 by Orbit
Review:
Myth: 3/5
I’ll start by saying that this story focuses on racism, slavery and colonialism. It did so through one woman’s revenge story, her family overthrown by the colonizers, and her people enslaved, she aims to take back the regency through her own means. It’s a very complicated revenge story and what seemed like a clear goal gets very muddied along the way. Sigourney is no heroine, she makes brutal calls on her path to her revenge.
The story also hinges on a murder mystery in the countdown to the next named regent. I had a hard time with this part since I didn’t really get invested in any of the noble families, I understood this part better once the full story is revealed, but it was hard to stick with these parts of the story and investigation.
Magic: 3/5
Sigourney has a mind reading and control ability that is an essential part of her revenge plot. I didn’t get a great sense of the magic system overall though, some characters had magic and some didn’t.
Overall: 3/5
Dealing with complex themes, Sigourney’s story of revenge is brutal. It’s definitely not a straight-forward story of righting wrongs.
