Weekly Reader: Empire's Heir (Empire's Legacy) by Marian L Thorpe; Boring Historic Fantasy Has Very Little Suspense, Plot, and Fantasy

 

Weekly Reader: Empire's Heir (Empire's Legacy) by Marian L Thorpe; Boring Historic Fantasy Has Very Little Suspense, Plot, and Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I absolutely hate reading a book in the middle of a series when I am unfamiliar with the previous volumes. It's not just a matter of getting confused by the plot or not understanding the characters or their motivation. It's also that doing so makes me feel like an intruder. I feel like I'm butting into the middle of a conversation. The characters are all looking at me as though I don't know what I'm talking about and saying things like "This is an AB conversation so C your way out."

I don't blame the authors when that happens or even those who send the books to me. When I am able to, I usually try to compromise with the authors or providers by reading the series in its proper order and reviewing each volume so I have some information about where this plot is going and what happened previously. When that doesn't happen, I try my best with what information that I am given.

To her credit Marian L Thorpe makes it easy for her Empire's Legacy novels. If you have to read a later one, as I did with her latest Empire's Heir, she offers a link that provides a synopsis of each previous volume to update the Reader on the story so far. 

Online synopses work to an extent. You learn about important events. You learn who is allied with who, who were lovers before, and who became enemies. In a series like Empire's Legacy which seems to rely on ever changing romantic relationships to carry on most of the plots, that is very important.

However online synopsis only goes so far. You read about what the characters did but don't fully know them or care about what they did. It's not the same as experiencing the journey with them. Without that vicarious thrill, you can't be an observer. You are an outsider locked out of the loop and the story.

I don't blame Thorpe for these problems with her book. It's not her fault. It's my own ignorance for not following the power plays between who becomes the heir to Esparias or the importance when Gwenna, the adult daughter of Senior Prince Cilia and Major Lena of the Esperian Army is chosen as heir over Faolyn the son of Talyn, the General of the Esperian Army.

  I understand the conflict between arranging Gwenna's potential marriage to Alekos, Prince of Casil over her personal feelings in her relationship with Lianthe, Lieutenant of the Esperian Army and Faolyn's sister. However, I don't get why this particular union is important over any other.

Speaking of relationships, It's my problem not Thorpe's that I practically need a flow chart to recognize the relationships in the series. That Cilia and Lena appear to be happily married but they just lost a daughter, Liane leaving them with Gwenna and a son, Colm. The parents also had or continue to have same sex relationships.

 Lena had a former lover, Maya and their relationship carried through the first few books of the series. Cilia had been involved with Sorley and even though he married Lena, Sorley still serves as a bard and advisor to Cilia. To add to this drama, after Cilia's marriage, Sorley obtained another lover, Druisius who also serves as Cilian's bodyguard and Captain of Esperian Army.

It's my fault that I didn't read the previous books in the series and got lost in the plot developments in this book.

I do however blame Thorpe for the problems that can be found in this volume. Even without the benefit of reading the previous books, I can tell that this is a lackluster volume in the series which mostly has a lot of talking about of events, a lot of summary of what happened before, and manufactured emotional tension to move the thin plot forward as Readers who had followed the series waits for the better stuff in the series. Not every volume in a series can be a winner and I found this to be the potential weak one in this series.

But here is also the thing. If I were to even judge this book as a stand alone book (which admittedly is hard to do), I still would have problems with it. It's just not that good. It's slow paced, plods on for too long, plot points get repeated, and after awhile it gets tedious and boring. 

I don't expect a Historical Fiction or Epic Fantasy to be filled with nonstop bloody action or magical characters around every corner, but I do expect something to happen. I expect some important stakes about why these power struggles are important, some suspense, maybe yes something Historic, Epic, and Fantastic. 

For example, say what you will about the quality of the series, especially the final season, of Game of Thrones but they got those large aspects right. They had personal conflicts and power struggles but there was always the realization that Westeros was the largest stake. There was tension that spilled out and affected everyone. There was also the threat of the White Walkers and the questionable motives of many of the higher ups who vied with each other. The overall emotions was no matter who "won" the Game of Thrones, no one from the highest lord to the lowest slaves's lives were ever going to be the same again. Many would die, many would grieve, many lands would be destroyed, borders would shift, and the world would be forever rocked and may continue to be so for a long time afterwards, no matter how much they try to heal.

That is what Historical Fiction and Epic Fantasy does. It often reminds the Reader that among the romantic and personal, something larger is going on. 

With this book, what I got was a Soap Opera with Swords.

There is some great characterization especially regarding Liane's death. It's moving to read Lena and Cillian grieving for her. Even though it's a fictional kingdom, it mirrors a time period when child death was all too common. In some countries, children weren't even named until their first birthdays because parents didn't want to get too emotionally attached if they died. It's actually heartbreaking and anguishing to read about Liane's parent's grief and while they clearly love and care for each other, her death fractures their close but strained marriage. 

There are some sweet moments between Cilia and Sorley and Gwenna and Lianthe. It's truly moving that Gwenna has to decide between choosing what the kingdom wants, to marry Alekos and produce heirs and what she wants to continue her relationship with Lianthe. It's also clear that Cilia chose the political over the personal and while he loves Lena, it's apparent that he misses what he had with Sorley and doesn't want his daughter to go through what he did. Still be makes some power grabs that Gwenna, Lena, and Sorley question and could be detrimental to his family anyway.

However the deep emotion felt by the characters is neutered by the tediousness of the plot. The plot points get repeated ad nauseam. Conversations were similar and characters kept talking about the same things over and over. It got to a point where I was uncertain whether I was rereading the same chapter or an entirely new one. I would have reread previous chapters to make sure but the slow pacing made doing that a chore so I didn't bother.

It's a sad state of affairs when the most exciting events that occur are when one character slips on the floor towards the beginning and an assassination attempt is easily thwarted towards the end. The middle is just endless talking and repeating the same things.

I don't expect an exciting battle or blood and guts to spill throughout the book. That would be just as tedious and plotless. But I do expect something interesting to happen to further the plot, something larger than the endless diatribes over the various love shapes.

Speaking of love shapes, there is another concern in this book. While the series' setting is based on European history, it is set in a fictional world. A fictional world that is free of Abrahamaic religious influences, influences that state that force LGBT rights and relationships in hiding. It's a fictional world that can make up it's own rules and morals and doesn't have centuries of brainwashing that tell the people that being gay or trans is wrong.

So why does the central government and standards in the Empire's Legacy series look so disdainfully on same sex relationships in the first place? Why do characters like Maya, Sorley, and Lianthe have to play the roles of side lovers while Lena, Cilian, and Gwenna have to settle into conventional heterosexual marriages? While the characters keep repeating that they don't "have" to be married, the fact that they are suggests that there is pressure for straight marriages, even continuing arranging them for political purposes.

In the introduction Thorpe stated that Esperian culture is based on ancient cultures like the Romans and Celts. But here's the thing: heterosexual marriages were not required across the board with them either. The Greeks were noteworthy for allowing same sex unions. Alexander the Great's advisor, Hephaestus, was also his life partner and for all intents and purposes, his husband. The Roman Empire was famous for its leaders carrying on various affairs. 

While yes I know a possibility is to allow for procreation,to keep family lines going, and the Imperial line to continue. But in the latter, that is definitely not true because in Esperias, ruling heirs are clearly selected and are not inherited titles. As for family lines, there are ways to get around that as many cultures have shown such as fostering. 

Celtic and Native American social structures for example often encouraged fostering. There are many stories where a foster child rose up and fought on the side of their adopted family over their birth one. In Native American families' cases that even included white children that were adopted or married into the tribe defending their adopted home against white authority figures who challenged them.

There is no real reason that Sorley and Cilian couldn't be a couple with Gwenna as their foster daughter or even in an arrangement between them and Lena and Maya. The only reason that doesn't happen in these books seems to create dramatic tension in a world where that tension isn't necessary.

I want to like Empire's Heir, I really do. It has all of the things that I would usually like: a historical setting, fantasy and high adventure, strong female leads, struggles in marginalization, and parallels between the real and fictional world. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. 

New Book Alert: A Kite at The Edge of The World by Katy Grant; Moving, Beautiful, and Lyrical Juvenile Book About Youth, Death, and Summer Days That Never End

New Book Alert: A Kite at The Edge of The World by Katy Grant; Moving, Beautiful, and Lyrical Juvenile Book About Youth, Death, and Summer Days That Never End

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



PopSugar Reading Challenge: A bildungsroman




Spoilers: We all remember when we were kids. The best friends that we made just by being at the right place at the right time, on the swing set at the playground, in line on the first day at school, or sitting next to you in class. We remember the summer days that seemed to never end. When life was all about the next game, the next imaginative adventure, the next trip to the movies or the library, or the next ice cream cone or frozen popsicle. The sun seemed brighter, the sky seemed bluer, and the days always seemed better. Nothing could bother us and we could live forever.


That magic is captured in A Kite at the Edge of the World, Katy Grant's beautiful and lyrical juvenile novel about those days. It's a simple story about two young boys meeting during a summer vacation and spending their days having fun, going to the beach, and flying kites. Children, about ages 8-12 will love the kids and their friendship and adventures and how they use their imagination to have fun and get out of trouble (As a bonus, the book includes instructions, so children will learn how to make a kite.)

But there is a sad wistfulness throughout the writing that adults will understand. Similar to another children's book that I reviewed, The Voyage of Gethsarade by M.G. Claybrook, this could almost be considered a children's book with an adult audience in mind. However, unlike Gethsarade which is an edgy satire of heroification, what will appeal to the adults in this book is the longing nostalgia of those days. The desire of the narrator to relive those days and bottle them up now that he is older and weighed down with maturity. The children reading the book haven't yet reached that longing (one hopes) but the adults reading it to them have.


The unnamed Narrator is an old man who is nearing the end of his life and thinks back to the best day of his life. It happened when he was a boy and on holiday with his parents. Grant's lyrical description gives her writing an almost poetic feel, as though describing an Impressionist seascape painting. As an old man, The Narrator recalls the sights and sounds of that beach: "Rows of little wooden cottages painted white with roofs with red shingles. A great many wooden boardwalks. The lovely thumping sound they made under bare feet-despite the very real danger of splinters. Along the boardwalks, decks with wooden chairs, also white. Tables shaded by blue striped umbrellas. An occasional gazebo.

But mostly sea, and sky, and sand. The turquoise sea, the azure sky, the buff sand. The salty taste of the breeze. And the smell of fish, not unpleasant in the sea air. Dots of white on the ocean where the waves peaked. The sky-a blue suffused with sunlight-expansive, endless. Sands glittering white at noon, tawny at sunset, shapeshifting. Sea and sky and sand all meeting at the confluence of that little white seaside village."


While playing on the seashore, The Narrator makes a new friend Ilio. Ilio is brave, adventurous….and dying. Ilio is very ill and it is clear that his illness is taking its toll on his body, but he is determined to make the most of the little time that he has and that includes receiving a new best friend.


The first item on the friendship itinerary is to fly a kite. The Narrator has a book that gives detailed instructions on how to make a kite, unfortunately they don't have the money to purchase some of the things that are needed. No matter, the ever resourceful Ilio says, we'll find some. So the Dynamic Duo go through the seaside town looking for loose change under the boardwalk, inside the Penny Arcade, and a water fountain. (They make sure that when they take the coins from the fountain, they make a wish that the person's wish will come true so they don't deprive anyone of a wish.) During their journey to get money and to buy supplies, Ilio shows off a feisty charming nature. He is feisty when he is ready to fight a bully for their money and charming when he shares details of their adventures to sympathetic adults. His exuberant mental state belies his physical weakened body, which is revealed whenever he has to stop for a breather.


When the two finally get their kite in the air, it is a sight to behold, a splash of various colors in the blue sky. The moment enchants the adults on the beach as they watch the kite dance along the air. The boys imagine what it would be like to let it go and allow it to fly forever into the sky. The boy's musings contemplate the existence of many things. The Narrator wonders: "If all the words that had ever been spoken by all the people who had ever lived were floating around the Earth above us. If that was true, was there some way to hear them? Like the way Ilio imagined others might see our kite? Once a thing like a kite or a word was gone from you, was that the end of it? Or was it a part of you forever?

.....I felt like the kite was a part of me, and it was there, but here I was, far below it, standing on the beach. Only this string from the general store kept us together.

And yet-how could that be? Was I the kite? Was the kite me? And what about Ilio? Was he the kite, too? We're he and I connected forever?"

These words suggest the transience of things how objects like kites as well as people don't last forever. Like that beautiful kite in the air or words like "I love you" or "You are my best friend" can disappear and float along. Eventually, they disappear. Objects get destroyed. Words are said and forgotten. Bodies die. But our memories are what last. Those things are still there as long as we are there to think about them and remember how they made us feel.

The kite flying ends what The Narrator describes as the best day of his life. His friendship continues even as Ilio's health gets progressively worse. The two still spend time together, building a sand castle that they know won't last and swimming just so Ilio can exert himself. (In his cheeky way, when an observer points out Ilio could have drowned, he answers "But I didn't.")

A particularly touching moment occurs when The Narrator tells a bed-ridden Ilio a story from his own imagination. With Ilio's prodding, The Narrator tells his friend a story about a boy's adventure at sea. Through his words, he gives his best friend an adventure that he can experience in his imagination, if not in reality. (The Narrator's recall of every detail of this story suggests that he too never got to have his adventures either, but his gift for imagination continued into old age and remains a soothing balm through an adult life of responsibility, stability, sameness, and tedium.)


A Kite at the Edge of the World is a true tear jerker and even the hardest of hearts will sniffle a little by the end. The Narrator realizes that even though Ilio did not live long, he left an impact on his life that allowed him to examine love and life and to be grateful for those moments even if they last only for a little while.

New Book Alert: Shove by Sarah Ciacia; Suspenseful Emotional YA Novel About The Traumatic After Effects of The Accidental Death of a Child

New Book Alert: Shove by Sarah Ciacia; Suspenseful Emotional YA Novel About The Traumatic After Effects of The Accidental Death of a Child

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: When someone dies after an illness, it's sad but at least it's expected. Plans can be made, possessions can be transferred, and there is a serene sense that at least the person is no longer sick or in pain. When a person dies unexpectedly, it throws everything off kilter and when the deceased is a young person, or worse a child, the after effects are worse.


That's the situation faced by the characters in Sarah Ciacia's novel, Shove. A young boy is suddenly killed by a teenage assailant for no reason except for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The horror of the randomness in the boy's death is emotional as many people are affected by his death and the circumstances surrounding it.


At first the only thing on the mind of of Whaly, the narrator, is whether Jude, one of the most popular boys at school likes her. So when she is invited to a party at popular girl, Cora's house,Whaly wants to get a chance to be alone with Jude to find out. She also brings her new friend, Lenore, a socially awkward new kid, to the party so she can make new friends and be part of the group.


The usual teen party hijinks of hooking up, making friends, and underage drinking comes to an abrupt screeching halt, when Kirby, Jude's tag along kid brother, is attacked outside the house where the party is held. Worse, he is attacked by Harlan, a friend of Lenore's older brother, Dustin. Harlan had been making inappropriate comments towards Whaly and lately has been getting more aggressive in his demeanor. At the party, he gets drunk, violent, and poor Kirby ends up being the innocent bystander that gets the worst end. This unexpected violent act which results in Kirby's death changes the book from a happy go lucky unassuming YA novel of teen romance into a tragedy on how people deal with the accidental death of a child.


Many of the characters react differently to Kirby's death and it says a lot about who they are as individuals. Jude is looking for someone to blame and is angry at everyone, including Whaly whom he blames for being the catalyst for Harlan's rage. He closes himself off emotionally from his friends as his family struggles with losing a son and brother.

Harlan becomes even more violent as if in denial over Kirby's death. He claims that he never meant to hurt the boy, and he's probably right. But, he continues to behave like a simmering volcano waiting to explode. Suspense builds when trying to figure out who will be the next recipient of Harlan's unpredictable rage.

Whaly's friend, Cora, proves what a faithless friend she really is. A self-involved popular girl, she doesn't mind playing up the tears in front of a media audience about how the tragedy occurred at her house. However, in private, she can't resist bad mouthing Lenore and Whaly. Lenore, meanwhile, sheds her social awkwardness and shows an underlying strength and resilience, emerging as a true friend to Lenore.


Whaly also has to deal with her emotions flying all over the place. She is grief stricken and guilty over Kirby's death and can't get him out of her mind. She feels separated from her friends when both Jude and Cora reject her in different ways.

She is also suffering from PTSD because of Harlan's aggressiveness. She is fearful and suspicious of everyone. This is particularly felt within her home when Dustin does some construction work around her house. Whaly constantly questions Dustin's motives. Is he in touch with Harlan? Is he coming onto Whaly's divorced mother and does her mother return those feelings? Whaly's behavior is that of most teenagers, constantly worried and angst ridden.


Things take a violent turn in the climax, which shifts friendships and romances. Some characters mature and change while others do not. By the time Shove ends, the characters still mourn but they also accept the changes that have come.