The surest sign that the end of July and all of August got away from me is this: I haven’t posted about Venators: Legends Rise yet. I wanted to get my initial impressions of this out before now, closer to the e-book release date, but now with the Paperback release this week, this will have to work. I’ll be taking part in a book tour for this book in a month—and will have new thoughts, second impressions, and things to say about the audiobook then (as I have with the first two books this year). But here’s where I am at this point.
“How long ago were we here?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Two weeks? Three? I’ve lost track of the days.”
She sat with that for a moment, trying to reconcile the timeline. “Why does it seem like forever ago?”
“Because it was.” Grey rested his forearm across the saddle horn, face pensive. “We’ve lived a lifetime since then.”
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who couldn’t believe how little time went by in the first two books.
What’s Legends Rise About?
At the end of Promises Forged, Tate is taken by the Fae and is sent back to the Gladiator games that he’d escaped from not that long ago. He’s doing this so he can get his wife and son to safety (and maybe see them for the first time in years, too).
But our heroes, Grey and Rune, need to get him free from that—preferably without letting the Council know he’s been taken. So while they’ve been assigned to go rein in the remnants of the Werewolf pack they let get away in Magic Unleashed, and maybe bring another pack to order, they’ll use that assignment as cover for their real concern.
A neat trick if they can pull it off.
Along the way they get to train, they get to experience more of their new world and abilities than they’ve been able to thus far in their crash-course introduction to the ways and mores of Eon. The training, obviously, is really important if we’re to continue to believe their success in combat. A couple of lucky breaks like we’ve seen so far is one thing, but at a certain point, we need to see some competence out of them.
Venator Development
This book sees Rune and Grey getting to know each other better—Grey shares a lot with Rune and she responds as she ought. They both settle into roles as partners, their individual personalities helping them support the other in weak spots while working together.
Grey continues to be the character I’m most invested in and most interested in for this series—his strengths—compassion, empathy, concern—are seen even more clearly than before. He’s quite the contrast to the Venators of legend on Eon. Yes, it gets him into trouble. Yes, he has flaws and stumbles into being someone I really don’t like during the final battle of the book. But assuming he can keep himself from that in the future, and stay true to who he is, he’ll be the hero that Eon needs and will keep me reading the series.
Rune on the other hand…I change my mind about her repeatedly in each book. As a character, Walls keeps developing her along the lines we’ve seen so far—particularly in Promises Forged, building on those traits and showing herself, her trainers, Grey, and the Council what she’s capable of. I’m not crazy about some of her choices and actions—but I think most of them will be good for the series, and one of them will lead to melodrama and problems (and will be a source of delight for most readers).
I’m glad that I’m not all-in with either character—it makes them feel more real, more grounded that I like aspects of them, and am troubled by others. It also points to the tendency Walls showed in Promises Forged for the Venator powers to shape the thinking and attitudes of the individuals and how much these two need to strive against that. Give me a complex protagonist any day.
Some Skin in the Game
Zio makes a move here—a lot sooner than I expected her to, too. It’s not a big attack, it’s more of a surgical strike, just to sound out her opponents and test out her pet Venator. If more happens and she gains some big advantages while she’s at it, all the better.
She’s craftier than I gave her credit for and I think that this was a smart move by Walls—both for the progression of the story and for the development of Zio as a character. It’d be easy to write her off as a Skeletor-type, just a power-hungry magic-user trying to cause chaos and destruction for her own gain. And, yes, I still think she is that—but I think there’s more to her than that.
A Bonanza of Backstory
Two of the most important figures for our Venators are Beltran and Verida. We know there was some sort of romance in their past, and that it didn’t well at all. We get that filled in a little bit, which is good. But more than that we get looks into their pasts—what brought them to the point they were at when we first encountered them.
We see a lot of what motivates Verida in her desire to train these Venators, to aid the resistance. We get some insight into what drove the wedge between her and her father. We even meet some of her family and can see that she could very easily have been a different kind of person. I walked away from this book liking Verida a lot more than I did before.
We see more of Beltran’s story, too, and come a lot closer to understanding him—I think Walls is keeping a surprise or two about him up her sleeve, though. I’d like to think that someone with his centuries of experience would possess a little more maturity, and not be quite so emotionally adolescent—but maybe for his species you don’t hit that for a few more hundred years.
An Almost Entirely Frivolous Sartoirial Question
Does anyone on Eon wear loose clothing? Every time* someone’s pants are described, the words “tight” and “leather” appear. From just about everything I’ve ever read, leather pants are really uncomfortable. Maybe society would be better, people would be more prone to get along if Rune introduced them to denim? Could Grey get people to wear chinos and with the improved blood flow help cooler heads to prevail?
* No, I haven’t done a search on e-copies of this to verify this, there may be exceptions—roll with the hyperbole here.
At the very least, from this point can’t we just take it as read that every time Walls says “pants” that she means “tight” and “leather” and trim 1-2% of her word count?
Is this petty? Sure. But Walls spends enough time talking about clothing that questions arise. If I were so inclined (and someone would have to pay me to be), I think I could do an entire post on the clothing of Eon.
My Big, Not-Frivolous Question
What are people (the Council/Zio/Resistance) fighting for? Control of Eon? Power? Sure, that’s obvious. But Power for the sake of Power is a dull and hard to care about as a reader. If you look at Panem, you can get an idea why people are fighting for it (on either side), ditto for The Society in Red Rising.
What are the ideals of this society? What has the Council betrayed? Are they pretending to uphold something from the past that they’ve actually abandoned and that the resistance are trying to restore? (see the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars)—while at the same time, Zio has another idea entirely?
What’s the point of this Resistance movement? What are their goals? When are we going to finally meet them?
Where’s the joy in this world? Where’s the Good (or just good)?
We spend some time in a city and in a village here—they couldn’t be less similar, so we’re getting two separate looks at Eon society. The city puts Mos Eisley to shame, and the poor village is just…well, poor. Even before tragedy hits (thanks to the Venators, in a way) this village, I don’t see that there’s a lot going for it or its citizens.
I guess that I was just struck by the question, “why?” Why are these factions working so hard to gain control of this place? I don’t doubt for a moment that Walls has a handle on this question—she knows it. I just hope she clues her readers in soon.
So, what did I think about Legends Rise?
This was by far the most ambitious of the Venators novels (I know it’s only book 3, but I read two versions of book 1, so I’m counting this as the fourth), and I applaud Walls for taking a big swing here. I wonder if she maybe tried to do too much, though. I’ve tossed this idea around a lot over the last few weeks and I’m undecided. I’m hoping that listening to the audiobook for the upcoming Book Tour will help me decide.
We got some good backstory on pivotal characters, we see a lot more of the world and have a better understanding of parts of it, the Earthlings get a chance to acclimate a bit more to Eon and spend some time with citizens. And, yeah, there are some pretty great action sequences. There’s even some romance for those who want that sort of thing—and I’m certain almost every reader of this series will be very pleased by it (I actually don’t mind a romantic subplot, I just can’t stand this one and think it’s a bad move for everyone involved).
Regardless of what the stars may suggest—I enjoyed this book and recommend it. Furthermore, I like this series, I’m really curious about what’s going to happen next and I think anyone who reads them will, too.
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