Age of War
The Legends of the First Empire series, Book 3
Michael J. Sullivan
Del Rey
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: The impossible has happened: the many human tribes have united under a single keening to face the threat of Fane Lothian and the Fhrey race... none other than Persephone of Dhal Rhen. The next step will require them to place more trust than ever in the exiled Galantian warriors and their leader Nyphron - a man who has made little effort to mask his own ambitions to replace Lothian on the Forest Throne. Nyphron was once the commander of the garrison at Alon Rhyst, the Fhrey city at the Grandford gorge between human and elven lands. He is confident that his name still holds enough weight to convince the residents and soldiers to allow him to return despite him being an exile, even if they're unlikely to go so far as to actively take up arms and support the humans. At Alon Rhyst, they'll control a chokepoint between the realms, and they'll be taking the coming war to the Fane instead of waiting for Fhrey armies to sweep across Rhuneland toward them. With that advantage, and with their new weapons - secrets of iron stolen from the dwarfs, bows and arrows and the world's first archers, and Suri, the first human known to have mastered the magical Art once exclusively wielded by the Fhrey clan of Miralyith - the humans just might stand a slim chance of surviving Fane Lothian's wrath. But, though the Fhrey are no gods (as humans long believed), they are still formidable foes, and even the greatest of sacrifices may not be enough to endure the might of the elven empire.
REVIEW: The third volume of this epic series marks a pivotal point in the history of the world. It was the beginning of the end of an era when Raithe became the first human to strike down a Fhrey lord, revealing the elves to be mere mortals after all. Now, as Persephone, the survivors of Dhal Rhen, and the rest of humanity marches toward open warfare with their former masters, so much has changed, yet they still have a long way to go to begin to stand a chance against the ancient civilization of the Fhrey, even notwithstanding the threat of their magic; one half-wild girl outlier, no matter how innately talented, cannot stand alone against an entire clan of mages who have trained for centuries. As greater changes move through human society - iron tools, arrows, the wheel, and other innovations, often the work of the prodigal young woman Roan - the characters find their own roles and futures changing in ways they never imagined. Raithe has gone from being the lone survivor of a clan with an unsavory reputation to a hero... and from the man who once wanted nothing more than to turn his back on his fellow humans, to run away and live out his days far away from elves and wars and responsibilities, to a man willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of his race - and for Persephone, whom he still loves, even if her new rank and responsibilities (and some missteps on his part) move her further and further away from his reach. Persephone, meanwhile, is still getting used to the burden of leadership; it was one thing to be wife of a chieftain, and later the chiefain herself of her small clan, but quite another to be keening of all the humans... a keening in a time of unprecedented change and a coming war that may well see the Rhunelands swept clean of her kind. She finds herself increasingly torn between love and duty, feeling every loss yet forced to move forward if those losses are to have any meaning. The rest of the core cast also find their roles and lives shifting. None of them are the simple villagers they were at the start of the first book, and not everyone is guaranteed a happy ending.
On the Fhrey side, the spoiled Prince Manwyndule of the Fhrey has, predictably, not learned as much as he should have after the events of the previous book, already editing his memories to a version he prefers to live with. Like his father, he still sees humans as little more than flies to be swatted away, not taking the threat before them seriously; he's more indignant than alarmed that things still haven't been resolved, though he's sure war will be an interesting, even fun little excursion (and perhaps a chance to finally impress his father, whose disappointment in his presumptive heir is palpable in every moment they're together).
As before, the plot moves along at a decent enough pace, though there are a few times when people seem to dither and drag out moments that call for more alacrity. There are also a few surprises I didn't see coming - in a good way, not in an eye-rolling are-you-kidding-me way. The ending sets things up for an exciting next installment, which is apparently a pivot to a second trilogy. Which is a good thing, as the book would've lost a half-mark if it had left things where they are. (According to a foreword, Sullivan almost did that; I suppose, if I'd read the original Riyria books first as I was probably supposed to, I would be able to infer the events in the gap between the ending of Age of War and the beginning of the original series. But he looked at his work and realized it wasn't finished, and so wrote on. Thus, I will read on.)
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