We Ride The Storm by Devin Madson – A Book Review

Blurb:

AS AN EMPIRE DIES, THREE WARRIORS WILL RISE. THEY MUST RIDE THE STORM OR DROWN IN ITS BLOOD.

The kingdom of Kisia is divided, held together only by the will of the god-emperor. When an act of betrayal shatters an alliance with the neighbouring land of Chiltae, all that has been won comes crashing down.

Now, as the fires of war spread, a warrior, an assassin and a princess must chase their ambitions, no matter the cost.

War built the Kisian Empire. And now war will tear it down.

Author: Devin Madson

Publisher: Orbit

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 512

Release Date: 25/06/2020

My Chosen Format: Kindle

My Rating of ‘We Ride The Storm’: 5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon, Audible

Review:

Ordinarily, when I see nothing but excitement and rave reviews for a book I tend to buy it, get excited and inevitably get let down. With We Ride The Storm I bought it, got excited and then got blown away. We’re not out of January yet but I’m fairly positive this will rank as one of the best fantasy novels I will read this year. 

It’s an exciting blend of ancient historical influence as far as character/peoples go. We have a Mongol-type influence with the Levanti (they also have names from Ancient Egypt and, at one point, the history nerd in me smiled wide when a guy called ‘Amun’ couldn’t be seen/found. Amun was an Ancient Egyptian god whose name translates to ‘The Hidden One’, so if that was a little nod to the god, or an accidental nod, I’m happy either way). We also have a Chinese theme running through the Kisians and with the Chilteans I get a distinct Roman flare. All in all it’s a wonderful little mash-up of cultures that blends really well.

The book is told through three POV characters (two women and one man) all of which are distinctly different from one another and bring so much flavour to their respective chapters. It got to the point where I was hard-pressed to choose a favourite. If I thought it was Rah and his attempt to regain what he felt his people had lost, Miko would come along and make me change my mind with her ambitions of power within her empire. Then Cassandra would stroll and make me think that she was by far the most interesting (hard to argue with an assassin who seems to have some kind of link to the dead/spirits). So well done to the author for creating such a range of intriguing characters.

Madson has wove an intricate tapestry of epic fantasy that just keeps the reader guessing and engaged from start to finish. There was one chapter where I thought Rah was just pretty much just repeating his actions from a  previous chapter and thought it was a tad dull … but then I turned a few pages, got proved wrong and felt foolish because it. 

I’m not the fastest of readers, but this one gripped me so much that, even when my kindle claimed the chapter would take forty-five minutes to read, it felt like barely any time had passed by the time I had finished said chapter. To cut a long story short, the book was filled with so many moments that felt big, or that felt incredibly interesting, and made me not want to go to sleep at night, as sleep felt like wasted time when there was still pages of this book to read.

I can’t put my finger on what I like the most about Madson’s style. She doesn’t do any one particular thing great, she seems to do everything great. It really was one of those books that was easy to pick up and hard to put down. I look forward to carrying on with the sequel and looking into other works by the author.