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The Stars and Green Magics #3
A Bid to Rule
While this book happens 23 years before the main events of this series, it contains characters, events, and context needed to fully enjoy the rest of the series. This is the preferred reading order, but it can also be read any time before, during, or right after books 1 and 2.
THE RULER IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE THE RULER. Homaj Rhialden has lived his whole life knowing his older sibling, not himself, will rule his interstellar kingdom—and as a court rake, he’s perfectly okay with that. But when his parents are assassinated and the Heir goes missing, Homaj is suddenly thrust into power. All evidence points to an inside job, but who among his father’s trusted advisors are his enemies? Determined to track down his parents’ killers and prove himself in an increasingly hostile court, Homaj hatches a plan with his servant cousin, Iata, to use their shapeshifting abilities to switch while Iata impersonates him and rules the kingdom as a willing target, Homaj searches for the Heir in the capital city. But in a kingdom ruled by shapeshifters, anyone can be anyone, and not even your own identity is safe. When lies run deep enough to shatter a kingdom and family is hardly friendly, can Homaj protect both his kingdom and his identity from crumbling around him? A Bid to Rule is a fast-paced royal thriller with a genderfluid lead and glittering court intrigue! This book was first published as The Seritarchus in serial form on Kindle Vella.
THE RULER IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE THE RULER. Homaj Rhialden has lived his whole life knowing his older sibling, not himself, will rule his interstellar kingdom—and as a court rake, he’s perfectly okay with that. But when his parents are assassinated and the Heir goes missing, Homaj is suddenly thrust into power. All evidence points to an inside job, but who among his father’s trusted advisors are his enemies? Determined to track down his parents’ killers and prove himself in an increasingly hostile court, Homaj hatches a plan with his servant cousin, Iata, to use their shapeshifting abilities to switch while Iata impersonates him and rules the kingdom as a willing target, Homaj searches for the Heir in the capital city. But in a kingdom ruled by shapeshifters, anyone can be anyone, and not even your own identity is safe. When lies run deep enough to shatter a kingdom and family is hardly friendly, can Homaj protect both his kingdom and his identity from crumbling around him? A Bid to Rule is a fast-paced royal thriller with a genderfluid lead and glittering court intrigue! This book was first published as The Seritarchus in serial form on Kindle Vella.
578 pages, Paperback
Published August 12, 2023
45 people are currently reading
596 people want to read
About the author
Novae Caelum
42 books272 followersNovae Caelum (he/they/starself) loves royalty, cloak and dagger, and sparkly queer magic, and will unapologetically write things with all three.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 31, 2024
You can skip this book and just continue with The Stars and Green Magics #4. Yes, it's nice to see Homaj and Iata growing closer, but I haven't really learned anything new about the characters and the world. The writing style, complex intrigue and world building is as nice as the first two books though, so I would still consider it a 3-star read.
A Bid to Rule allows you to discover more information about the bloodservants, Homaj' parents and how Homaj is tied to the Green Magickers, but that information wasn't essential to me. You don't need these origin stories if you've read the first two books, because you already know the result. This book works much better as a standalone, like it was supposed to be. I just really wanted to continue with Ari's perspective and with Dressa's romance :')
Not only was I mildly annoyed by the fact that I "had to read" this 500-page prequel about a character I had little connection with first to continue with the storylines I enjoyed much more. A Bid to Rule was also too long for my taste. Some stuff was repeated quite a bit and other stuff took really long to build up. (There is an entire chapter dedicated to Iata confirming some information with technology, which could have been replaced by one sentence indicating that the new information triggered a long-forgotten memory, for instance.) Because everything was build up over many pages, there are no real plot twists and you see everything coming.
Not only is this book very long, it also takes 350 pages for the story to pick up speed and get exciting. The rapid fire assassination scenes were pretty cool. The ending was pretty good, but could have probably been just as good in a lot less pages. In short: I would definitely recommend this book to hardcore fans of the series, because the background information does add to the experience, but I just really want to read a romantasy about Dressa :')
A Bid to Rule allows you to discover more information about the bloodservants, Homaj' parents and how Homaj is tied to the Green Magickers, but that information wasn't essential to me. You don't need these origin stories if you've read the first two books, because you already know the result. This book works much better as a standalone, like it was supposed to be. I just really wanted to continue with Ari's perspective and with Dressa's romance :')
Not only was I mildly annoyed by the fact that I "had to read" this 500-page prequel about a character I had little connection with first to continue with the storylines I enjoyed much more. A Bid to Rule was also too long for my taste. Some stuff was repeated quite a bit and other stuff took really long to build up. (There is an entire chapter dedicated to Iata confirming some information with technology, which could have been replaced by one sentence indicating that the new information triggered a long-forgotten memory, for instance.) Because everything was build up over many pages, there are no real plot twists and you see everything coming.
Not only is this book very long, it also takes 350 pages for the story to pick up speed and get exciting. The rapid fire assassination scenes were pretty cool. The ending was pretty good, but could have probably been just as good in a lot less pages. In short: I would definitely recommend this book to hardcore fans of the series, because the background information does add to the experience, but I just really want to read a romantasy about Dressa :')
November 25, 2023
I received a free copy from the author and voluntarily review it.
I love this series and was happy when this book released. Although I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this one and was a bit worried I wouldn't enjoy this one as the other books as this one goes back in time and shows how Homaj became the Seritarchus and I was more interested in what's going on now. Luckily this book quickly proved my worries were unfounded as I quickly got sucked into this book and really enjoyed it.
A Bid to Rule is told from the perspectives of Homaj and his bloodservant Iata. It takes place back in time compared to the rest of the books in this series, but I definitely think this book adds a lot to this series and reading this after book 2 is probably the best place for it. If you read it as a prequel it will spoil some surprises and in this place it adds depth to the story and characters without ruining any reveals.
I thought the start of this book was a bit slow, but I got quickly pulled into the story. I wanted to know how Homaj's parents died and who killed them. As well as how he ends up becoming the Seritarchus. It was fascinating seeing it all play out and I felt the additional understanding I gained about the characters and their past adds so much to the story and the world. There were so many events and things that happen that I saw in a different light now after reading this book. And I am just really glad I read this book as it was not only a great story, but also adds a lot of depth to the characters and story.
Like what I've come to expect from this series there is plenty of political intrigue. There is a lot happening in relatively few days and there is so much mystery and intrigue. It kept me guessing and trying to figure out what had happened. There is a lot about Change and how Truthspoken can be other people and I felt that got explored a lot more here as well. I also grew to like both Homaj and Iata more thanks to this book now that I read more about them and understanding their characters even better.
To summarize: This is an excellent addition to this series. It goes back in time to 23 years before the other books in this series, but I felt like this book really adds a lot to this series. I grew to like Homaj and Iata more, understood more about Homaj became the ruler and this backstory really fleshed out the world and characters more. And besides that it was just a great story to read too, with plenty of intrigue and mystery as Homaj and Iata try to figure out who killed the previous ruler. I enjoyed reading this book and seeing it all play out. I can't recommend this series enough if you like scifi books with intrigue.
I love this series and was happy when this book released. Although I have to admit I wasn't quite sure what to expect of this one and was a bit worried I wouldn't enjoy this one as the other books as this one goes back in time and shows how Homaj became the Seritarchus and I was more interested in what's going on now. Luckily this book quickly proved my worries were unfounded as I quickly got sucked into this book and really enjoyed it.
A Bid to Rule is told from the perspectives of Homaj and his bloodservant Iata. It takes place back in time compared to the rest of the books in this series, but I definitely think this book adds a lot to this series and reading this after book 2 is probably the best place for it. If you read it as a prequel it will spoil some surprises and in this place it adds depth to the story and characters without ruining any reveals.
I thought the start of this book was a bit slow, but I got quickly pulled into the story. I wanted to know how Homaj's parents died and who killed them. As well as how he ends up becoming the Seritarchus. It was fascinating seeing it all play out and I felt the additional understanding I gained about the characters and their past adds so much to the story and the world. There were so many events and things that happen that I saw in a different light now after reading this book. And I am just really glad I read this book as it was not only a great story, but also adds a lot of depth to the characters and story.
Like what I've come to expect from this series there is plenty of political intrigue. There is a lot happening in relatively few days and there is so much mystery and intrigue. It kept me guessing and trying to figure out what had happened. There is a lot about Change and how Truthspoken can be other people and I felt that got explored a lot more here as well. I also grew to like both Homaj and Iata more thanks to this book now that I read more about them and understanding their characters even better.
To summarize: This is an excellent addition to this series. It goes back in time to 23 years before the other books in this series, but I felt like this book really adds a lot to this series. I grew to like Homaj and Iata more, understood more about Homaj became the ruler and this backstory really fleshed out the world and characters more. And besides that it was just a great story to read too, with plenty of intrigue and mystery as Homaj and Iata try to figure out who killed the previous ruler. I enjoyed reading this book and seeing it all play out. I can't recommend this series enough if you like scifi books with intrigue.
October 25, 2023
A Bid to Rule is the perfect follow-up/prequel to The Truthspoken Heir and The Shadow Rule. It fleshes out the backstory and sets the president for all the books to come. In-depth character building, detailed backdrops/settings, and a full introduction into the political and sociological facets that create and sustain the socio-economic and geo-political climate of the introductory novel and the following novels.
I create a rich weaving to build the rest of the story. It is a MUST-READ!
I create a rich weaving to build the rest of the story. It is a MUST-READ!
December 10, 2024
This is actually my favorite book so far!!! So much mystery and suspense and paced very well. I was on the edge of my seat. It also made me fall even further in love with Zhang and painted a much fuller picture of Iata, Homaj, Ceorre, etc. Was I still on the edge of my seat hoping for answers to book 2’s cliffhanger, absolutely. But this prequel was so good that it is worth waiting for book 4 to answer those questions
June 6, 2024
With how the second book ended, I was so confused why this one would be a prequel, but I slowly came around to the idea and got wrapped up in the mystery of this book. This might be my favorite book thus far in the series, but I did miss the characters I was starting to love from book 1 & 2.
April 27, 2025
My one piece of feedback on this book in the series is that there is a LOT of inner monologuing amongst the characters which made it a bit slow going for me. The ending brought tears, and ties a lot of important backstory in, so it was worth it. Looking forward to starting the next!
January 7, 2025
This one was really slow for me. Hard to finish but I wanted to read the next ones bad enough that I pushed through.
May 12, 2025
Authors use of GenAI to promote, write, voice act, and produce special edition art cards is despicable. Queer stories deserve so much more than this.
July 31, 2025
The backstory was nice but I feel like it was misplaced in the series. I would’ve preferred to come back to this later after the huge cliffhanger left with Ari and Dressa in the main story.
November 14, 2025
This digital narrator has been the least challenging but is still noticeably AI.
The story felt like it needed to be half as long. I appreciate that it's a solo back story piece but it didnt feel like the stakes were high enough or the background info dense enough to warrant a book nearly double the length of the first two.
The story felt like it needed to be half as long. I appreciate that it's a solo back story piece but it didnt feel like the stakes were high enough or the background info dense enough to warrant a book nearly double the length of the first two.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews