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| The Book of Ile-Rien by Martha Wells |
This is a combined edition of the first two books in Ile-Rien series, The Element of Fire and The Death of the Necromancer. Both were originally published in the 90s, and were received well. They’ve been revised here and are the author’s preferred edition.
First book is set in a renaissance or baroque type of royal court of Ile-Rien where tensions are high between the dowager queen, her rather useless son the king, the current queen, and the king’s favourite courtier. That alone would’ve made an interesting story of palace intrigue, but added to it are a conspiracy by a sorcerer, attack by the unseelie court of fayres, and the illegitimate daughter of the previous king by the fayre queen of Air and Darkness who returns after several years of exile. And at the centre of everything is the captain of the Queen’s Guard, Thomas Boniface, whose job it is to maintain order and keep both queens safe.
Kade’s return pushes several conflicts and conspiracies to light, and before anyone realises, there’s a battle for life and death going on. The enemy is rather vague and changes constantly, as the conspirators betray each other for their own gain, keeping the reader guessing as much as Boniface. When the dust settles, things have changed for everyone, and not always for the better.
This was a good and compact stand-alone story with high stakes, interesting characters and a bit of romance which I didn’t entirely feel. It’s a May-December one between Kade and Boniface that felt slightly icky even though she’s 24, mostly because Kade behaved like a capricious child. Luckily it was left to the end of the book, so I could let it go.
The second book takes place a century later in the same city. The world has advanced in leaps, and this one is a Gaslamp novel with gothic vibes and aesthetics, complete with séances and rambling manors. It doesn’t really build on the first book, even the magic has changed, and the focus is on the world of demimonde as much as the aristocracy.
Nicholas Valiarde is a successful thief and man of mystery posing as an art dealer. He’s lost his foster father to a conspiracy, and has spent the years since planning a revenge against the man he thinks is responsible for it. With his team, he’s worked hard and everything is ready for the final act in his revenge. And then things start to go wrong.
A man arrives who claims to know who Nicholas is. Even worse, he has items Nicholas’s father has invented that should’ve been destroyed. Nicholas has no choice but to go after the man. What should’ve been a quick kill turns into a full-blown investigation into necromancy and other forbidden arts that is as ghoulish as it’s difficult to solve. And to make matters worse, Nicholas himself is being hunted by an investigator.
This too was a compact, standalone story with great characters and an intriguing story. Interestingly enough, I’d tried to read The Death of the Necromancer years ago and hadn’t managed more than three chapters before giving up. Mostly, if I recall, because I couldn’t get into the world at all. Reading the books back-to-back, it was easier to understand the second book too, even though the worlds are completely different, and I rushed through it.
I would give the first book four stars (it was a tad confusing with too large a cast) and the latter five stars. As a whole, they get five stars for being well-written, imaginative and able to tell their stories in a concise manner that didn’t leave anything out and didn’t have anything unnecessary either. The characters were great and the world was interesting. There are other Ile-Rien books too, and I’ll have to give them a try after this.
I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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