Published: April 20, 2021
Publisher: Orbit Books
Series: The Goddess War #2
Pages: 480 (Paperback)
My Rating: 2.5/5.0
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis:
Sonya has brought a foreign army to free her country from imperial rule, but her allies may have other goals in the second book of this thrilling epic fantasy trilogy from Jon Skovron.
The first battle is over, but war yet looms on the horizon. Sonya and her allies–the foreign Uaine and their armies of the undead–have beaten back the imperial soldiers from the capital city. Now they have the rest of the country to free.
Meanwhile, her brother the famed wizard Sebastian has retreated with the imperial forces to regroup and lick his wounds. Betrayed by his sister and his wife, the beautiful noblewoman Galina, he will regain control of his life and his country at any cost.
I really can’t resist a book with a cover this pretty, which is why I picked up the Ranger of Marzanna in the first place last year. I mean, the synopsis was cool too, but that cover really sealed the deal. I picked the second one up largely due to the cover as well, since the first book didn’t wow me overmuch. It was an entertaining story certainly, but not a memorable masterpiece. I thought The Queen of Izmoroz would determine if I would continue on with the series… but it ain’t looking good.
Sonya recruited the undead horde of the Uaine to help free Izmoroz from the clutches of the empire occupying their land. Sebastian, her brother, decided to use his incredible mage abilities to aid the same empire that came and murdered their father. The two siblings continue to oppose one another, but ultimately events conspire to make them question their motivations and whether or not they are being used by others. Unfortunately, both of the main characters are unfailingly stupid and I can’t believe how blind they are to the motivations of others. I almost DNF’d this book at ~100 pages because their continued bad decisions were just so unbelievably ridiculous that I could almost not tolerate it. And then things started to get interesting again, so I stuck it out. Yes, Sonya, Sebastian, and even Galina, realized they made poor choices and were being used to fulfil the endgame of others and they began to take charge of their own destinies.
This story has potential, but the execution is inelegant and the characters are almost caricatures because they completely lack subtleties or nuance. It’s called the Goddess War series, but the goddesses only have these little interlude chapters that do entirely nothing for the story. Yes, you can see that Marzanna and Zivena are playing their own games using humans as pawns but it doesn’t change anything. Also, there was much potential for some excellent worldbuilding because Sonya goes to Raiz and Sebastian travels into the empire and beyond but that was underutilized as well. You get a taste of the new land, but events rush right along, the secondary characters don’t have a chance to make you care about them, and even the main characters struggle to compel me. Overall, I can’t say I particularly recommend this series and I really hate to be so negative, but those are my thoughts on The Queen of Izmoroz.
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