Review – We Ride The Storm by Devin Madson

I picked this one up ages ago, and it’s been languishing on my TBR ever since. Then a few days ago I heard it was a semi-finalist for the Self Published Fantasy Blog Off, which is run by the venerable Mark Lawrence and has churned out some gems over it’s short life. Having read this, I can see this being a strong contender for the 2018 edition. Here’s the scoop:

The stories tells of three pawns, caught in a series of events that will change their world. However, even the lowliest pawn can  topple the mightiest of kings.

Rah eTorin is a captain of the Second Swords of his tribe, one of the Levanti nomadic peoples who roam the plains. Rah and his band are exiled for a year from their tribe for trying to maintain tradition. Rah believes in the old ways, and goes to great lengths to preserve them, despite the changing times. When he and his band are captured and forced to fight in a foreign war, Rah’s beliefs are put to the test.

Cassandra Marius is a whore and an assassin, and a damn good one at that. She chooses her jobs carefully and is highly regarded in her field. However, when a high risk, high reward job comes her way, Cassandra jumps at the opportunity. She finds though, that not all is as previously advertised, and she holds off on fulfilling her task initially, only to find that she may have made a terrible error in judgement.

Miko (my favourite) is a woman living in a man’s world. She is the daughter of the former reviled emperor, and now step-daughter of the current emperor. Trained as a warrior and politician from an early age, Miko and her twin brother Tanaka are groomed to rule by their mother, also wife of the former emperor. But when Tanaka makes a grave mistake, Miko is unsure not just that she will lose her chance to rule, but her life.

This book was a blast. It starts fast and never lets up, at times ratcheting up the tension to the degree that you may find your heart pounding (I sure did). One might think that sounds like there is plenty of action, but that would not necessarily be true. I found most of the action was verbal, and some of the scenes in Miko’s court were simply stellar. All of the characters were terrific, not just the leads, and the breadth of each character is vast. The author covers each event in great detail, and draws the eye to the visual cues and unspoken words that we often miss out on in the written word.

If you want to nitpick, people who find first-person narratives to be jarring may want to give this a wide berth, as we get three, and the individual chapters give no hint as to who is next. Can’t say I found this a problem, but I’ve seen some moans about it (no pleasing some people).

One of my favourite books of 2018, and in some good company. 5/5 stars