Wrath of Empire Review

Title: Wrath of Empire
Author: Brian McClellan
Date Purchased: 10/28/2019
Price Paid: $3.17
Date Finished: 4/11/2021
Rating: 4/5

I have always felt that the middle work in a trilogy is the one that carries most of the weight. The first work (and I’m using “work” here because I think this applies to movies as well as books) will typically benefit from a lack of expectation – sometimes it’s a new property, or maybe it’s just a new story set in a known universe. And the final work has but one job: wrap things up. If folks have made it that far, all you have to do is tie everything up in a bow, for better or worse.

But that middle work? It has to really put in some overtime. You have a world to continue building, characters to continue developing, and plot threads to carry over…and all of that needs to be balanced with the introduction of new characters and plots. It’s a lot to ask for one work, especially as it also has the task of keeping the audience entertained enough to finish the series.

Wrath of Empire, being the middle book in The Gods of Blood and Powder series, had a lot of heavy lifting to do. McClellan’s character development was on point in the first book, and we expect more of the same from book two. In his previous trilogy the pacing was very similar – book one was mostly character development, book two intermingled more of the plot, and the final book wrapped everything up.

The formula works for McClellan, so why mess with it?

I’ll preface all of this by saying that if you haven’t read this book, and think you might, you may want to come back after you’ve done so as I’ll be getting spoilerific up in here. You’ve been warned.

As we open book two we have three main storylines to follow: Vlora’s quest to destroy the Godstones, Michel’s quest to infiltrate the Dynize now taking over Landfall, and Ben Styke’s quest to…well…finally find some purpose. I want to specifically focus on each of these characters, because that’s what I’m left with after reading this book.

We’ll start with Vlora. Throughout book one, we get a very clear picture of Lady Flint: she’s determined, just, and strong. But the discovery of what the Godstones can do shakes her to the core. She’s been through this before, and there’s no way she’s going to let another god walk the land. To that end she takes risks she normally wouldn’t to help uncover the location of the remaining two stones. It means that much to her.

This isn’t really a divergence from her norm, but we do get an interesting journey as she goes from being the leader of a mercenary force to the sole wedge between Dynize and Lindet’s drive to seize the Godstones. Instead of working to fulfill the terms of a contract, she’s standing on her moral ground and acting for the good of all people. At least that’s how she sees it. It’s an interesting lateral shift in how she handles the world.

Michel was perhaps the most interesting character from book one. His double agent status, coupled with the Taniel reveal, made his storyline one that made the reader always wonder what was around the next corner. In this book we continue to see more of Michel’s resourcefulness, but his character shines through even more than it did in the previous offering.

Not only is he in Landfall trying to uncover the identity of a (sorta) double-agent, but he goes from trying to mesh with the remaining Blackhats to being adopted into a Dynize family. Adopted is a strong word there, but he gains household status and finds himself cared for in a way he hasn’t experienced before. We see some of his walls starting to come down, and he finds himself acting more on what he feels is right than what he must do to complete his mission.

Finally we come to Ben Styke. Throughout most of book one, we see him as a man driven by revenge. He’ll stop at nothing to put an end to Fidelis Jes, and it comes close to consuming him. As we rejoin him here, Jes is dead, Styke has reunited The Mad Lancers, and Vlora has offered him a position within the Riflejacks. It’s a whole new chapter for him.

Styke’s journey through the second book is nothing but growth. He finds out that four of his former Lancers sold him out years ago, and he decides that he wants revenge…which doesn’t go quite how we think it will. His relationship with Celine becomes more than just an adult watching over a child: they begin to bond more tightly than ever before. And he starts finding himself motivated by loyalty instead of greed.

McClellan knows what he’s doing, that’s for certain. Not to say that the plot is immaterial at all, especially as the plot entirely drives Vlora’s actions, but it takes a backseat to the wonderful characters he has created. This was a great read!

Final Thoughts: Such a masterful handling of character development. Definitely a series that’s worth the read.