Rebel Blade by Davinia Evans
Publication Date: December 2, 2024
Summary from NetGalley:
From one of the most exciting new voices in fantasy comes the satisfying conclusion to Davinia Evans’s wickedly entertaining debut trilogy full of monsters, mayhem, dangerous society ladies, and a dragon who holds the fate of the most famous alchemist of all in her claws.
Siyon Velo has given magic back to the Mundane. But with it, monsters of myth have awoken to cause chaos in Bezim and–of course–everyone’s blaming him. Hunted high and low, Siyon struggles against the rising tide of mystery, magic and mayhem threatening the city that’s turned its back on him.
In the Flower District, Lady Sable has unleashed chaos. But in the Avenues, Anahid is desperate to keep her slippery secrets just a little longer, until Zagiri can join the froth and frippery of high society. With scandal stalking the sisters and revolution rumbling anew, the best–and the worst–they can do may not be enough to save their city…
The Alchemist must rise, or Bezim will burn.
ARC provided by Orbit Books via Netgalley for an honest review.
Confession:
This third and final book in the series was just as good as the others. This is a series that has not received the love and attention it deserves. I am hoping that that changes now that the final book is out as I think the author deserves a chance to publish more books.
The story is still told from three perspectives, although one is a bit more prominent in each book. The first book, Notorious Sorcerer focused on Siyon, and his struggles to learn and control his magic. The second book, Shadow Baron, was focused on Annahid and her struggles to fit into the new world that she found herself in. This final book is focused on Zagiri and her growth as a young woman and finding her true self among all of the chaos. But even though one character stuck out a bit more than the others, we got wonderful endings for all of them.
Siyon is still my favorite of the group. He is such an interesting character that faces many challenges in this series. In this book in particular he is struggling to understand and control his new powers, while feeling the weight of his responsibilities to his city and himself and grieving the loss of his boyfriend. And on top of everything else the city officials want to kill him. He has a tough time in this one, but pulls it all together to a spectacular ending.
Annahid also struggles in this part of the story. She is trying to hold her position in society as well as run her nefarious business without angering the other barons. She also struggles to help her sister Zagiri, but has to keep her distance because of society looking down on her business. She does a masterful job of manipulating those around her to changing their ways and helping her to achieve the goal of changing the city for the better.
Zagiri had a tough time in this book. Her impulsiveness and the choices that she makes were hard to understand. But she so wants to change things for the better that she was often blinded as to what the consequences of her actions could be. She kind of makes up for all of that at the end of the book, when she finally makes a stand and helps to make the city a better place after all.
This book was like the others in that it has a quick pace for the most part, but there are times when it lagged. I really enjoyed all of the political intrigue and the struggles that the characters went through felt realistic and made me want to root for them. There was a lot less world building in this book, which is understandable as most of that was taken care of in the first two books. It did make some of the book confusing though, as it has been awhile since I read the first two books. The writing continues to be beautiful and rich and I loved the dialogue and action scenes as well.
A very nice ending to a wonderful epic fantasy. This is one you should consider reading if you like magical worlds, interesting characters and a fast paced story that will leave you wanting more.
Confessions of a Serial Reader 