The Phoenix King | Book Review

Look at that I’m back from the dead! Not gonna bother with excuses and all, just here’s my review for the recent(ish) release The Phoenix King.

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⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Series: The Ravence Trilogy #1
Author: Aparna Verma
Published: August 29, 2023
Genre: Fantasy
Age Group: Adult
Length: 513 pages

It took me a long time to get through The Phoenix King (mostly by fault of my own and the busyness of moving house) but I found that, looking back, this made my overall enjoyment of it to be a pleasant surprise.

One of my favorite things about this novel becomes apparent in the very first scene. Here, I’ll just give you a snippet and maybe you’ll know what I mean:

The rain lashed down, drenching him. It wasn’t like the thunderous, refreshing monsoons that swept across the deserts of Ravence leaving a riot of color in their wake. This storm bit down, clenching the coast in its grey jaws, unwilling to relent until it blended the world into hues of slate and brown.

Verma is adept at establishing atmosphere through environmental descriptions. As drenched as this first chapter is, the majority of the book takes place in the desert, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt the desert as much as I did here. (Granted, I have yet to get around to reading Dune.) And that’s particularly important because the desert is meant to be significant, almost a character of its own, connected to the princess and part of her relation to her family’s Pheonix god.

Speaking of which, another thing I appreciated about Verma’s writing was just how cool the lore of this world is and how we get to discover more about it throughout. The combination of blinding metal cities and pulsefire guns with old-religion fire magic and harbingers of a prophet would be cool on its own, but what I was most excited to discover is the story of the magic itself. How did the royalty of Ravence come to hold this power? Is there really a god? A prophet? Is it inherently vengeful? Has other similar magic been forgotten? While not all of these questions were answered, there were enough hints and reveals to keep me satisfied and enticed to read the next book.

I will say, also, that there was a refreshing variety to the types of relationships portrayed: aching estrangement of a father and daughter, mutual respect between arranged spouses, tentative trust betwixt childhood friends, the unshakable bond of a princess and her lifelong bodyguard, a new and hesitant attraction coupled with both easy understanding and distrust. The potential romance was often left to simmer as our protagonists dealt with much more pressing worries.

But as much as I enjoy a slow burn, I can’t be quite satisfied with the way it played out because of an aspect I kept catching hints of throughout the entire book, yet am still uncertain whether I should let myself expect. (Yes, it’s a throuple. Still hoping.) Overall though, I very much appreciated the nuanced development, the yearning for connection that most of these characters felt but could hardly express.

If you enjoy a political, slow burn fantasy fraught with prophecy and rebellions – a fierce princess, hardened king, weary ex-assassin, and mysterious consort – absolutely give The Phoenix King a try.

And, as usual, many thanks to Orbit for generously providing me a free e-ARC for review, even when it does take me a couple months to get around to it.