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Title: An Empire Asunder
Title: An Empire Asunder
Series:
Scourwind Legacy #2
Author:
Evan Currie
Rating:
4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
SFF
Pages:
334
Format:
Digital Edition
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Synopsis: |
The Scourwind Twins have saved the Empire from being taken over but it is civil war. Lydia is doing her best to rule and Brennan is growing into his new role as cadreman and warrior.
Corian, exhibiting signs of madness,
begins Operation Godstrike, all the while vaguely hinting about some
unknown threat that apparently nobody but him is aware of or prepared
to do something about.
It is strike and counter-strike as the
Imperial forces clash against the Alliance forces. Throw in Mira
Delsol, former cadrewoman turned Pirate and you have some serious
action.
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My Thoughts:
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For whatever reason, Currie is hitting all the right buttons with this series for me. I enjoyed my time reading this above and beyond the normal. That is not to say I think this is going to be a SF classic or that it will wow you. In fact, I suspect most people looking on would give it 3-3.5 stars.
For me though, it has this: a coming of
age story without angst and whines. No crap about “romance” and
“feelings” taking precedence over your duty and responsibility.
You are a Scourwind and you run the Empire, you don't whine like a
baby. A young lady becoming an Empress. Sure, she might write in her
journal, but we the readers aren't subjected to that or every bloody
thought in her head. The story gets told. A young man becoming an
elite warrior in the shadow of his dead older brother. He's not some
tortured, broken individual who just needs the love of the “right
woman” to “fix” him. Neither of these Scourwinds are BROKEN
and Currie doesn't fall into the trap of making the story about
“fixing” them. Grrrrrr, you don't “fix” people. That pisses
me off and I hate that in a story. And there is NONE of that, not
even a hint, in these books and I really like that.
The other thing I really liked was the
continuing glimpse of the world. With the new ship, Delsol is able to
go atmospheric and realizes that humanity is in a box. It is obvious
that Corian knows a lot more about the whole situation but in his
arrogance thinks he's the only one capable of facing the situation,
whatever it may be. We the readers aren't privy to it.
Currie's writing is improving with each
book and while his earlier books were pretty rough around the edges,
I am glad I started reading him. I was really enjoying his Odyssey
One series and I have the next
book of that on tap, but I really hope he sticks with this series for
a bit and finishes things up before becoming too distracted with
other series, old or new.
Finally,
I like the covers. They are a huge step up from the first couple of
books that had very obvious amateur covers desperately trying NOT to
look like amateur covers. These books have the kind of covers that I
want in hardcover on my shelves just because I like how they look.
Sadly, that is not an option and I'm not going to change my “no
paperback” rule for Currie. He hasn't reached that status, yet.
Chris McGrath is the artist and here's a small list of some other
covers he's done:
- Aeronauts Windlass
- Star Wars: Kenobi
- Alloy of Law
- Daughter of the Sword (I broke my “no paperback” rule for Steve Bein. Love his books that much)
- Dresden: Changes
I
didn't do a Cover Love in my February Roundup, but for March's
Roundup, this one is definitely going to be a contender.
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