The Lizy Reviews: Wrath of the Storm by Jennifer A. Nielsen

I have done the thing--I just finished reading another wicked awesome fantasy series. Wrath of the Storm was an interesting conclusion to the Mark of the Thief trilogy.

I must admit, this story feels a little anti-climactic after the first two action-packed volumes. Probably because, ironically, there is so much happening. Or probably because the main characters are trying their hardest to get the heck out of Rome and keep thinking that everything is resolved. But, as Nic's experience shows, it's not over until its over. Caela and Callistus both return but they are both woefully underused. Most of the animal action (Key word: most) comes from the terrifying dragon known as the Mistress and, occasionally, a creepy spectral deer.

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Nic is trying to do everything in his power to NOT create a Jupiter stone, but inevitably, he realizes he has to attempt it in order to complete his escape. Also spoiler, Nic's brush with death was a little too cliche. We pay one last trip to the arena and that scene is very satisfying, and we even spend a day or two in the Roman courts. The gods themselves never come out to reveal themselves or work out their issues in person--I really would've liked to see Nielsen's take on them--and the final action is left up to humans. But the final scene is still very epic.

The new characters in Wrath of the Storm, if any, aren't worthy of note--except for the fact that the Roman Emperor is actually involved this time. Nic, of course, has a hard time trusting ANYBODY, including his friends. Especially his friends. Every time someone who is not Nic tries to fix something, it almost never goes as planned. He doesn't trust the people in power who are watching his case, because, at least according to Nic's perspective, they all have ulterior motives, which is true, but in some cases it doesn't make so-and-so a bad person. And Nic doesn't want anyone else to sacrifice themselves for him even though they gladly would, and do. The stakes being as high as they are, I don't blame him for wanting to do everything himself. Grandpa Radulf, for instance, has finally moved past the antagonist stage, in fact the only opposition he creates is repeatedly telling Nic to PLEASE JUST STOP. Everyone's goal is for Nic to walk away from this mess alive, while Nic insists that he has to make sure everyone else is okay even if it means paying the ultimate price. What else is new?

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This book has a lot going for it. We have some interesting demonstrations of Nic testing the limits of his power, and using his abilities to full effect so that he can get back up and keep fighting, so the action scenes can keep going in a believable way. Nic and Aurelia finally sort out their issues--yes, it does draw the attention of the enemy but I think Nic's insistence on having to protect Aurelia was the only real issue. Aurelia, as we well know, can take care of herself. So yay for having Nicelia confirmed. Crispivia is hinted at but not really a central part of the story. I can live with that. Crispus continues to be the real MVP of the squad. What really sold the book for me, though, was the unexpected redemption story, but if I said anything else then it would be giving away too much. The Mark of the Thief trilogy is definitely up there with my other favorite fantasy series.

Mark of the Thief

Rise of the Wolf

The Lizy Reviews: The Scourge by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Well, the bad news is, The Scourge did not turn out to be my new favorite book. The good news is, there were still some parts worth reading. Overall, the story didn't do much to catch my interest or create suspense. I guess part of the problem here is I'm a jaded twenty-something amateur critic and this book was intended for middle-grade audiences.

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There is not a lot of description for the setting of this story--we have a few mentions of guns and ships so I would guess the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century. The protagonists Ani and Weevil are from a minority group called the River people but there isn't a lot of explanation as to why they don't get along with the town folk. This world simply isn't developed enough to be satisfying.

The heroine, Ani, tests positive for a disease called the Scourge and she is sent to a colony for other Scourge victims. Ani is a stereotypical "tough" girl, and I couldn't really relate to her, but the feisty heroine has a loyal-to-death best friend named Weevil follows her to the colony.  I could understand Ani's point of view on the town girl she meets, Della, but Ani takes a while to make up her mind whether or not to trust Della. At the colony, the Wardens enforce strict rules and make everyone work, even though they are "sick". Though she is weakened by the sickness, Ani fights back against the Wardens every step of the way. There is a particularly stirring scene when Ani has to climb the treadmill as the other colonists watch and rally around her. Ani also defies the odds to uncover the truth and make her escape, including (my favorite part) climb out of a pit of venomous snakes. 

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The symptoms of the Scourge made more sense through Ani's observations of the other colonists, especially Della, whereas Ani had no time to sit around and feel sick. The symptoms were mostly internal pain and fatigue, not a fever or cough or something you would expect from a real pandemic disease. It's kind of not hard for the reader to guess what's really going on, but you have to give Ani and Weevil the benefit of a doubt for not having a lot of information about the disease in a world without internet and mass media news outlets. The Governor's evil scheme being revealed is kind of anticlimactic, and at first it doesn't seem to fit with the theme of contagious disease--but then you have to remember, spoiler alert, that this disease isn't real. And I think carries less of a punch because in the scene right before that, we have Ani and company commandeering a ship and it's amazing.

The Scourge is an improvement over Nielsen's last stand-alone book, A Night Divided. But I have yet to see a first-person female narrator in one of her books who actually catches my interest.

The Lizy Reviews: Rise of the Wolf by Jennifer A. Nielsen

So, small spoiler alert, the titular wolf wasn’t that big of a player. Also, I super, super LOVED the Mistress--but a dragon, seriously? Kind of ruined it for me. Scary, yes, but ruined it.

Sequel to The Mark of the Thief and second part of the Mark of the Thief Trilogy, Rise of the Wolf is a spectacular book. I couldn’t tell you how unreliable a narrator Nic is, but he’s certainly an unpredictable protagonist as he struggles to stay ahead of his enemies. The Praetors are determined to recover both Caesar’s bulla and the Malice of Mars to aid the goddess Diana in waging a rebellion against the other Roman gods, a conflict that could destroy Rome and perhaps the world, although we have to take everyone’s word for it on that.

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Nic only wants to escape his enemies and protect his loved ones, but in order to survive he has to turn unwillingly to his (spoiler) grandfather General Radulf for help. Radulf has trained Nic to be a chariot racer, and Nic makes a (really stupid) bet with the Praetors that will hopefully save his life and keep the Praetors away from him and the Malice. But of course, everything backfires. I saw that coming a mile away.

We return to some familiar places, but the Circus Maximus racing stadium in Rome is the new haunt for Nic and his showdowns with Radulf and the Praetors. The descriptions of the chariot races can be kind of hard to follow, but the climactic race was actually a lot of fun, all things considered. There isn’t a lot of backstory for what’s going on aside from what gets roughly summarized, which while it makes for a smoother read it’s harder to keep track of what’s going on and why.

Nic’s sister Livia has a much bigger presence in this book, and it’s easy to see why Nic is so determined to protect her: she is the literal sunshine of his life. Aurelia is amazing right from the start, but I’m not sure how well of a finish she had. The romantic tension is building appropriately, I will say that much, but the love triangle seems like too much additional stress for Nic on top of everything else. Just...WHY? But, shipping conflicts aside, Crispus is the real MVP. He gets some awesome character development in this book. Calling it now: I ship Crispus with Livia and they will be together next book.

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The Praetors are appropriately creepy villains, led by the snivelling Decimus Brutus. But the Mistress...dang, I love her. She is so evil and awesome. General Radulf is still a bad guy, but as Nic works with him more we learn more about his motives. He’s actually a lot more complicated, and his relationship to Nic adds to the tension of the plot. We do get Caela back for one scene (d’aaaaw!) but most of the animal element of Rise of the Wolf is supplied by a unicorn, Callistus. Callistus is actually pretty cool. The author makes it pretty clear that he’s a serious unicorn, not a cute pet but a wild and dangerous but still magical animal. The Vestalis from Caesar’s temple in the first book is back, and she supplies the needed element of absolute good that this series has been needing: and a contrast, in fact, to the absolute evil of the Mistress. And the Roman gods? They are very, very real in this world. Of course Nic assumes that they cursed him with all of his bad luck, but I reckon he hasn’t seen anything yet.

The conclusion of the trilogy, Wrath of the Storm, comes out next January. Not soon enough.

The Lizy Reviews: A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen

I waited a long time to read this book, a long time meaning since the book launch party last September for A Night Divided. But of course I'd wanted to read it before then. The Cold War and the Berlin Wall is one of the most interesting stories of the last century. Nielsen's story brings it to the attention of a new generation of readers through a fictional family, the Lowes, divided the night the wall goes up, a father and brother in the west, and a mother and brother and sister in the east.

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Most of the action takes place several years following the raising of the wall, when things are at their darkest and escape is the most impossible. Gerta and her brother Fritz grow up painfully aware that the East German government, under the thumb of the Soviet Union, is based on lies and propaganda and where any expression of dissent can result in imprisonment or death. It is a world without trust--not from the authorities, not the schools, not their neighbors, and not from people who should be their friends. Some people are resigned to things as they are, but for Gerta, waiting for the wall to come down isn't an option.

One day while passing near the Wall, Gerta sees her father pantomiming a digging song, and she receives a message to go to an abandoned building near the Wall. Gerta decides that she and Fritz will dig for their freedom through the cellar. But they're on their own for this impossible task. At any moment they could be discovered by their neighbors or the police, and their protective mother will surely refuse. They have little food and little money for buying supplies. They only have a few precious weeks of summer to dig before Fritz is expected to report for military duty.

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(So, spoiler: they make it, but by the skin of their teeth. I wish there had been an epilogue or something to talk about how life was different after escaping East Germany, and what it was like for them in the West and where they went next. It was kind of dissatisfying for the story to just end.)

A Night Divided is actually very gloomy to read, even considering the subject matter.  The novel focuses very little on the actual history--the explanation of historical background reads more like a less sophisticated elementary school novel, but there is very little of it. Nielsen's real strength is in depicting the world and the original story. The pacing of the action is slow, but the odds that the protagonists face provide plenty of suspense. And once again,  Nielsen impresses the reader with the determination and fearlessness of her characters.

The Lizy Reviews: The Mark of the Thief by Jennifer A. Nielsen

Jennifer A. Nielsen’s debut in the Ascendance trilogy was nothing short of brilliant. Now with The Mark of the Thief Nielsen has launched a new series that promises to be just as amazing, if not more. If you haven’t read The Mark of the Thief, you are missing out!

Nicolas Calva is a headstrong slave in the mines of ancient Rome. He is forced to descend into a cursed cave to retrieve a medallion (known as a bulla) that once belonged to Julius Caesar. He emerges with the bulla, a griffin, and a mark investing him with ancient and terrible magic. Nic and the griffin, Caela, are taken to the games in Rome for public entertainment, and Nic is immediately plunged into a web of conspiracy between powerful men who would use his power for their own purposes. And Nic wants nothing to do with them: he only wants freedom for himself and his sister and to get out of Rome, but of course that is easier said than done.  

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The stakes are higher for Nic in this story than they were for Sage/Jaron in the Ascendance series: not even the people he wants to trust are on his side. And Nic, as I mentioned, has a sister and he has to work around his attachments as he’s fighting for his own survival. The big bad in this story is General Randulf. Only a few pages in, and Nic has already overheard his plot to take over the Roman Empire, and he spends the entire book trying to keep one step ahead of the sinister general.  Of course the Roman emperor Tacitus is mentioned frequently but (spoiler alert) he never makes an appearance. And then there’s a fascinating maze of secondary characters with different agendas, political or otherwise.

For the record, Caela is the most amazing griffin I have ever read about. She and Nic don’t have a pet-owner relationship just yet: Caela is still very wild. But Nic cares about her and Caela can sense that in him. And then there’s the plebeian girl Aurelia. Unlike the heroines in the Ascendance trilogy, Aurelia is a straight-up action hero. She’s got a bow and arrow and a knife and she knows how to use them and she’s freaking awesome. In addition to being sincerely afraid of Nic’s emerging powers she’s 100% done with him. There are hints that she could end up as the love interest in future installments of the series but, the way the book ends, she and Nic have a long way to go.

The setting and magic system of this story is unique. Nielsen did her homework bringing the brutal world of ancient Rome to life. Nic’s magic is not completely explained in this first volume. Most of the people he works with agree that his power came from the gods, but there’s no real proof that the gods exist in this world. Aside from Caela and a reference to another mythological creature there doesn’t seem to be much else fantastic going on in this world.  And the Romans in this setting don’t seem to think that the appearance of a griffin at one of the gladiator games is at all unusual. However, by the end of the story the reader’s appetite is whetted for finding out more about the mysterious magic that Nic must learn to control and that will either win him allies or foes. The second book in this series, The Rise of the Wolf, is already out and let me tell you I cannot wait to read it.