Savage Legion

Starred review from May 25, 2020
Cunning plotting and brisk action elevate this impressive tale of swords and super-science, the first in the Savage Rebellion series from Hugo Award winner Wallace (Sin du Jour). At first glance, Evie is a belligerent drunk. That’s why the Empire of Crache dragoons her into the Savage Legion, a hapless mob of suicide commandos culled from the downtrodden masses of the empire and forced to fight and die on its behalf. But Evie is secretly a warrior on a mission, infiltrating the Legion to rescue her former lover who was kidnapped after discovering government corruption. Meanwhile, Dyeawan, a wheelchair-using beggar, is similarly abducted from the streets, but she’s recruited to Crache’s Planning Cadre instead of the Savage Legion. Dyewan uses her formidable intelligence and ruthlessness to rise in power. Wallace’s multifaceted characterization of both women offers consistent surprises. In fact, it’s rare for anyone in this epic’s expansive cast to remain as they first appear, as Wallace masterfully subverts readers’ expectations. As the plot spins through convincing battlefield combat and personal confrontations, Evie rallies the Savage Legion to turn against the empire that exploits them. Readers will be left thoroughly satisfied and eager to know what’s to come. Agent: DongWon Song, Morhaim Literary.

June 1, 2020
The city of Crache overthrew aristocrats with plans to form an egalitarian utopia. The Savage Legion is the brutal and expendable force that makes up the front line in what seems like a never-ending war against other city states, and they make the way easier for the trained Skrain soldiers who follow in their deadly wake to finish battles. The Legion is made up of people who don't fit into the structures of function in Crache. Evie has been asked by Brio's wife Lexi to join the legion to find her husband, who she fears was mistakenly drafted. Evie soon finds out her warrior skills may not be enough to make it through one battle, let alone the 100 battles that would allow her to retire from the legion. Though Dyeawan's legs don't work, the Planning Cadre recruits her, which begins her education about how things are really done to improve life for the favored people of Crache. The stylish first book in the Savage Rebellion series promises that Wallace will do for epic fantasy what he did for urban fantasy with the Sin du Jour series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from April 1, 2020

The Savage Legion is the crafted weapon of the empire of Crache. Condemned people are given one last shot: either die for their empire, or live and fight again. Warrior Evie is on a mission to find the man she used to love, who can reveal dark truths about those who enter the Legion. She must become a Savage to complete her mission. Lexi of Gen Stalbraid knows that her husband is not a traitor, even if his disappearance brands him as such. As their Gen is in peril, Lexi tries to stay one step ahead of the council that would end her work with the poor and forgotten in the Bottoms. Dyeawan knows that her crippled body means she has little chance at survival, until a mysterious person discovers the true strength of her mind. Three women on different journeys, tied together by the secrets of their empire. VERDICT Smart characters and brutal action create an intriguing story about power and the decisions made to keep it. Wallace (The Failed Cities) introduces a new epic fantasy trilogy filled with rich worldbuilding and people who battle bravely. [See Prepub Alert, 1/15/20.]--Kristi Chadwick, Massachusetts Lib. Syst., Northampton

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2020

In Queen of Storms, the second in the "Firemane Saga," Hatushaly and young wife Hava restore the fire-blackened Three Stars in trade-rich Beran's Hill, but they aren't the cheerful innkeepers they appear to be (100,000-copy first printing). A young woman in small-town Queensland, Australia, undertakes a gothic journey after hearing from her long-gone brother, thus launching Hugo- and World Fantasy-nominated illustrator Jennings's buzzing debut novel, Flyaway. In The Relentless Moon, sequel to Kowal's Hugo, Locus, and Nebula-Award winning The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky, the moon is being colonized even as a meteor strike brings climate crisis to Earth. Originally scheduled for October 2019, Malerman's Malorie reveals what happens to the title character eight years after events in Bird Box, basis of the Netflix mega-hit. The perennial best-selling Modesitt's Quantum Shadows is set in a place called Heaven, where humankind's major religions each have their own land and places of worship are being scarily marked with inscrutable black images. With his stories already nominated for Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Sturgeon, and World Fantasy honors, debut novelist Rosenbaum (The Ant King and Other Stories) returns with The Unraveling, which dreams up a far-future, distant-galaxy, rigidly structured society where individuals have multiple bodies and staid-gendered Fift and bail-gendered bioengineer Shria wind up in the midst of an eyebrow-raising art spectacle. Salvatore's Relentless closes his "Generations" trilogy with Zaknafein reunited with son Drizzt Do'Urden and reconciled to life's unpredictability (100,000-copy first printing). In multi-award-winning Walton's intriguing-sounding Or What You Will, a character who's been a dragon, lover, scholar, warrior, and thief in the many books penned by Sylvia Harrison knows that the 73-year-old author won't be around much longer and is trying to figure out how the two of them can escape into immortality. Born in England to South American parents and raised in Africa near the historical territory of his Xhosa ancestors, Winter draws on his background to light The Fires of Vengeance, second in "The Burning" series, wherein a queen who has lost her throne joins with a young warrior in a battle to regain it (75,000-copy first printing).

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