The Armored Saint
The Sacred Throne series, Book 1
Myke Cole
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Young Heloise was with her father when she first saw Brother Tone and the Pilgrims of the Order. The fanatical followers of the Sacred Throne wield the holy Writ's text as they wield their iron flails, scouring the land in pursuit of demonic wizardry and other heresies against the Emperor - and Tone sees heresy everywhere. On the brink of womanhood, she begins to chafe at the Writ-forged bonds on her future, as somewhere deep within sparks a burning certainty that their ways are not the right ways. When she acts on her rebellious feelings, she inadvertently endangers her family and her entire village, but what is started is not so easily stopped - especially not when the dangers of wizardry appear on her very doorstep.
REVIEW: This was an impulse buy during a recent bookstore binge, admittedly purchased because the sequel looked intriguing and I hate reading out of sequence when I can help it. (This paperback novella was also cheaper than the hardcover sequel at the time - so sue me, I'm on a budget.) Heloise isn't the by-now-standard tomboy heroine one might expect, and even if she can't imagine herself becoming a meek wife like her mother, constricted by the whims of a husband, she doesn't set out to upend her life or anyone else's. Seeing atrocities committed in the name of her god, seeing the fear and doubt in her steadfast father's eyes, not to mention feeling the pull of her own heart leading her against the Writ's basic tenets, ultimately make her incapable of tolerating the hypocrisies around her, but even then she must struggle to find the courage to face what she helped start. Her grim and brutal world, crushed under the heel of religion, finds many echoes in history; the people obey not so much out of piety as out of fear and survival instinct, enforced by repetition of religious propaganda (and, failing that, the utterly random strikes of the Order's minions, more plunderers than priests.) Beneath that corrupted crust, though, the heart of the religion hides secrets that even the Order has likely forgotten, making for a bit of a twist on the corrupted church trope. Another twist comes with the "tinker engines," traces of steampunk robots and mecha suits filtered through a gritty fantasy lens. These, plus Heloise's realistic struggles over following her heart versus doing what's expected, helped lift it over a few rough spots to a solid Good rating, even if it ultimately felt more like a prequel than a complete tale on its own.
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