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Shattered Kingdoms #2
Fortune's Blight
Victory for the Shadari rebels has come at a terrible price. Hardship, superstition and a murderous cabal poison King Daryan's young regime, but help is nowhere to be found: the mercenary who led their rebellion has vanished, their Nomas allies have troubles of their own, and the Norlanders who returned home to plead - or fight - for the Shadari's independence have found themselves embroiled in the court politics of an empire about to implode. As the foundations of the two far-flung countries begin to crack, an enigmatic figure watches from a tower room in Ravindal Castle. She is old, and a prisoner, but her reach is long, and her patience is about to be rewarded...
528 pages, Hardcover
First published January 2, 2014
10 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
About the author
Evie Manieri
6 books80 followersEvie Manieri is the author of the Shattered Kingdoms trilogy from Tor Books and Jo Fletcher Books. She's also a UX designer with a software company, a mom, an obsessed knitter, and a classic film buff. She can usually be found lurking around Twitter. Evie lives with her family in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 24, 2015
Fortune's Blight
This was a worthy sequel to the excellent Blood's Pride. Just like the first book this was a dark, melancholy, character driven multiple POV fantasy. The world building was good, the plot intricate, and the characters complicated and well drawn. Plus it had some cool magic!
The Story
The Shadari rebellion may have been successful, but it came at a great cost. Most of the Shadar is in ruins. The young and inexperienced Shadari Prince, Daryan, is new to leadership and struggling to save his people from hardship, poverty, superstition, racial tensions, petty internal feuds, and a mysterious plague. The Nomas have issues of their own and can only offer minor help.
Eofar and Rho are on a mission back to Norland in the hopes of stalling any new invasion of the Shadar by the Norlanders. What they find is a Norland that is in the midst of political upheaval as the old Emperor has been killed in a challenge by an ambitious rival who is driven by dreams of glory. Just to complicate matters further the Mongrel has reasons of her own compelling her return to Norland.
As the two rival nations struggle with internal conflicts they barely have time to worry about each other never mind a more ancient threat that has been biding its time for a chance at freedom and vengeance!
Overall Thoughts
I really enjoyed this. It was every bit as complicated, engaging, and compelling as the first book and it also retained the same dark and melancholy feel. The excellent cast from the first book were back. Some much changed after their experiences in the first book, and all of them with new problems. The pick of the new characters was Lady Kira, a likable Norlander who was more reliant on her wits than her skills with the sword.
I loved learning more about Norland. It was every bit as interesting a place as the Shadar. I also really enjoyed learning more about the past of characters such as Rho and the Mongrel.
I'll be waiting with baited breath for the release of the third book Strife's Bane
Rating: 4.5 stars.
Audio Note: This series has been narrated superbly well by Bianca Amato. I really hope her services will be retained for the third books as I cannot imagine this faring half so well without her. She fits this book so perfectly.
This was a worthy sequel to the excellent Blood's Pride. Just like the first book this was a dark, melancholy, character driven multiple POV fantasy. The world building was good, the plot intricate, and the characters complicated and well drawn. Plus it had some cool magic!
The Story
The Shadari rebellion may have been successful, but it came at a great cost. Most of the Shadar is in ruins. The young and inexperienced Shadari Prince, Daryan, is new to leadership and struggling to save his people from hardship, poverty, superstition, racial tensions, petty internal feuds, and a mysterious plague. The Nomas have issues of their own and can only offer minor help.
Eofar and Rho are on a mission back to Norland in the hopes of stalling any new invasion of the Shadar by the Norlanders. What they find is a Norland that is in the midst of political upheaval as the old Emperor has been killed in a challenge by an ambitious rival who is driven by dreams of glory. Just to complicate matters further the Mongrel has reasons of her own compelling her return to Norland.
As the two rival nations struggle with internal conflicts they barely have time to worry about each other never mind a more ancient threat that has been biding its time for a chance at freedom and vengeance!
Overall Thoughts
I really enjoyed this. It was every bit as complicated, engaging, and compelling as the first book and it also retained the same dark and melancholy feel. The excellent cast from the first book were back. Some much changed after their experiences in the first book, and all of them with new problems. The pick of the new characters was Lady Kira, a likable Norlander who was more reliant on her wits than her skills with the sword.
I loved learning more about Norland. It was every bit as interesting a place as the Shadar. I also really enjoyed learning more about the past of characters such as Rho and the Mongrel.
I'll be waiting with baited breath for the release of the third book Strife's Bane
Rating: 4.5 stars.
Audio Note: This series has been narrated superbly well by Bianca Amato. I really hope her services will be retained for the third books as I cannot imagine this faring half so well without her. She fits this book so perfectly.
April 1, 2019
This was the second one in this series and I think I enjoyed the first of them a little more than the second, however, this one did build up the world as a whole and I felt like there was more going on with each of the areas than in the first book. I do think it suffered a little from a small pool of characters and area in book 1 trying to be stretched a little too thin in book 2, but it was still a good story and the plot kept me entertained enough that I will read the third.
3*s
3*s
February 6, 2017
This was one Hell of a Read. Such fantastic and memorable characters. The twist and turns the plot takes kept me on edge and I really didn't want it to end. I can't wait to get my hands on Book Three Strife's Bane.
March 26, 2015
Fantasy Review Barn
Blood’s Pride was one of the first books I reviewed for this blog, and more noticeably it was almost certainly the first book I gave a two star rating to. A fast paced start and a fairly unique world with Mediterranean flair were enough to keep me reading but overall it didn’t leave a very good impression. It was an incredibly jumbled affair. It tried to juggle not just too many story lines but more so it tried to be too many different kinds of books. Rebellion, forbidden love, and a whole lot of ideas that seem to be thrown in without planning out how they fit. I thought for sure I was done with the series.
But time moves forward, tastes change, and I started seeing Blood’s Pride mentioned in favorable tones. So when Fortune’s Blight showed up in a slim three hundred and fifty page packet I thought ‘why not?’ Maybe it gets better. And in a lot of ways it does. This book is twice as good as I remember Blood’s Pride being. Unfortunately I don’t really think that it is good enough and this time I mean it; I am done with this series.
Book one was about a rebellion against a northern race of peoples who had taken over. Book two is the story of the aftermath, expanding its scope to people from both lands. A sickness is spreading that thus far has no cure, plots are hatched and royal games are played, and notorious mercenary The Mongrel has disappeared from the scene (some claiming she is dead). It is a much more focused affair than its predecessor and as such tells a more coherent story all around. I still struggled with some plot threads because so many of the characters felt exactly the same, but as long as I reference the dramatis personae every now and then it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Still, some distinct voices would have gone a long way here.
While it may have been more focused I still think this series could do with a major culling of extraneous storylines. Because Manieri has some great ideas, and when one particular story line caught my attention I was hooked (after almost putting the book down half way through). But that one story line was really the only one that kept me going. It didn’t disappoint, I was rewarded at the end for working through the book. By design through it is really unclear that this particular thread would end up being so important and only a hunch had me looking closely at the validity of a text the people of the world were following quite literally.
That a series must be looked at as a whole doesn’t seem to be a very controversial opinion. So while I have no problem stating that this book is better than the series’ starting point I don’t feel it is good enough to recommend working through after a rough debut.
3 Stars
Copy for review provided by the publisher.
Blood’s Pride was one of the first books I reviewed for this blog, and more noticeably it was almost certainly the first book I gave a two star rating to. A fast paced start and a fairly unique world with Mediterranean flair were enough to keep me reading but overall it didn’t leave a very good impression. It was an incredibly jumbled affair. It tried to juggle not just too many story lines but more so it tried to be too many different kinds of books. Rebellion, forbidden love, and a whole lot of ideas that seem to be thrown in without planning out how they fit. I thought for sure I was done with the series.
But time moves forward, tastes change, and I started seeing Blood’s Pride mentioned in favorable tones. So when Fortune’s Blight showed up in a slim three hundred and fifty page packet I thought ‘why not?’ Maybe it gets better. And in a lot of ways it does. This book is twice as good as I remember Blood’s Pride being. Unfortunately I don’t really think that it is good enough and this time I mean it; I am done with this series.
Book one was about a rebellion against a northern race of peoples who had taken over. Book two is the story of the aftermath, expanding its scope to people from both lands. A sickness is spreading that thus far has no cure, plots are hatched and royal games are played, and notorious mercenary The Mongrel has disappeared from the scene (some claiming she is dead). It is a much more focused affair than its predecessor and as such tells a more coherent story all around. I still struggled with some plot threads because so many of the characters felt exactly the same, but as long as I reference the dramatis personae every now and then it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Still, some distinct voices would have gone a long way here.
While it may have been more focused I still think this series could do with a major culling of extraneous storylines. Because Manieri has some great ideas, and when one particular story line caught my attention I was hooked (after almost putting the book down half way through). But that one story line was really the only one that kept me going. It didn’t disappoint, I was rewarded at the end for working through the book. By design through it is really unclear that this particular thread would end up being so important and only a hunch had me looking closely at the validity of a text the people of the world were following quite literally.
That a series must be looked at as a whole doesn’t seem to be a very controversial opinion. So while I have no problem stating that this book is better than the series’ starting point I don’t feel it is good enough to recommend working through after a rough debut.
3 Stars
Copy for review provided by the publisher.
April 21, 2015
Well, I actually finished this a few days ago, but forgot about updating this on Goodreads until today. Pretty good second novel in the series, those of you who enjoyed the first will like this. Review soon!
May 31, 2015
The second book in Evie Manieri's Shattered Kingdoms series, Fortune's Blight struggles a little bit with the complications of having a small set of people -- introduced in the first book -- take on a very large, nigh invincible empire. It's messier than the first book, but the intrigue is tightly leashed; at the end of it, most of the tangled threads have been either burnt away or sorted.
I recognized the author and was eager to start in on it as soon as I saw it on the shelves, but I had a hard time remembering what happened in the first book. I think I was halfway through this before details came back. However, that doesn't matter too much; there's a convenient list of dramatis personae to consult as names are introduced, and the book switches to a new setting very early on , focusing on the Norlund Empire and its ambitious new Emperor. The rebellious colony/territory of Shadar has sent a team to make peace with the emperor, while some other leaders of the rebellion attempt to walk away and create new lives in peace. (I don't think it's a spoiler to point out this is not, on the whole, successful).
This novel focuses on intrigue. The Mongrel, the mercenary captain from the first novel, is rumored to be dead, and simultaneously rumored to be leading an army of cursed demons; the empire only learns about the rebellion in Shadar in small bits, but all of this plays into the hands of an emperor who wants to win great military victories, and the court -- still in disruption from the recent regime change -- wanting to position itself to win favor. Suing the empire for peace requires a more elaborate plan from the Shadari...
There is less military play and swordfighting than in the first one; while there are interesting asides about the taxation and military overextension of the empire, the narrative is focused on the religion that underpins the Norlund society (of course, in a world where magic is present and there may be active divine involvement, that focus on religion seems to pay off). One of my true complaints with the novel: the Norlund religion has been a driving force in the series so far, but it seems very undeveloped, theologically; the ending of this seems to simplify it even more. Somehow it felt like that didn't match the development of the actual characters.
The book is dense and compact, and enthralling. While it could be read alone, I'd strongly suggest reading the predecessor first.
I recognized the author and was eager to start in on it as soon as I saw it on the shelves, but I had a hard time remembering what happened in the first book. I think I was halfway through this before details came back. However, that doesn't matter too much; there's a convenient list of dramatis personae to consult as names are introduced, and the book switches to a new setting very early on , focusing on the Norlund Empire and its ambitious new Emperor. The rebellious colony/territory of Shadar has sent a team to make peace with the emperor, while some other leaders of the rebellion attempt to walk away and create new lives in peace. (I don't think it's a spoiler to point out this is not, on the whole, successful).
This novel focuses on intrigue. The Mongrel, the mercenary captain from the first novel, is rumored to be dead, and simultaneously rumored to be leading an army of cursed demons; the empire only learns about the rebellion in Shadar in small bits, but all of this plays into the hands of an emperor who wants to win great military victories, and the court -- still in disruption from the recent regime change -- wanting to position itself to win favor. Suing the empire for peace requires a more elaborate plan from the Shadari...
There is less military play and swordfighting than in the first one; while there are interesting asides about the taxation and military overextension of the empire, the narrative is focused on the religion that underpins the Norlund society (of course, in a world where magic is present and there may be active divine involvement, that focus on religion seems to pay off). One of my true complaints with the novel: the Norlund religion has been a driving force in the series so far, but it seems very undeveloped, theologically; the ending of this seems to simplify it even more. Somehow it felt like that didn't match the development of the actual characters.
The book is dense and compact, and enthralling. While it could be read alone, I'd strongly suggest reading the predecessor first.
August 6, 2016
Meh. I can't say that this book was an improvement on the first.
March 17, 2020
"This was her real homecoming: on her knees before these beautiful people, her people, who could barely stand to look at her."
What a solid sequel, and with a brilliant plot twist. The pacing of this was much better than the first book, though the 'spark' that made me give Blood's Pride 5 stars despite its imperfections was missing for me here (totally subjective opinion).
I particularly love the focus on the tragedy of ableism, the inevitability of fate vs. choice in this series, and also how a society can lose a vital part of itself when the meanings of traditions and religious texts get twisted beyond recognition. The last was true for the Shadari in book 1, and in this sequel it is true for the Norlanders.
The characters remain very well-written, the worldbuilding is very solid in my opinion. Overall, a brilliant and very underrated series.
October 14, 2017
Much better than the first book in the series; this book has some cool stuff we've been waiting for - prophecies fulfilled, duels of honor, an apocalypse we knew was coming eventually . . . the end of this book has the payoff for some stuff we've wanted since the beginning of the first book!
March 7, 2016
c2015: FWFTB: Mongrel, Nomas, swords, asha, triffon. This was a wonderful escapist read. With the worldbuilding and characterisations to focus on, the plot went flying along. In this book, I liked most of the characters with the exception of the baddies. 'Ware the old girl in the tower, methinks. Poor old Rho still seems to get the short end of the stick and I think he now deserves some luck and happiness, please, Ms Manieri. Definitely and highly recommended to the normal crew. "We'll jut have to wait and find out. all right? Until then, we'll just have to go on as we are. Understand? Exactly as we are."
June 9, 2015
A great second effort, the only problem is having to wait until 2016 to finish the series. I really enjoy the characters and where this seems to be heading. The Mongrel is now among my favorite fantasy characters.
November 3, 2020
It would get a 3.75 if possible, but Goodreads doesn't do that.
November 28, 2015
Fabulous world building. Great complicated plotting. Highly recommended.
October 20, 2017
was better then 1 st one
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews