paperback, 351 pages
Published March 16, 2020 by Faolan's Pen Publishing.
The Mage-King of Mars is dead Chaos rocks Olympus Mons A new monarch must rise – but she does not stand alone!
As the celebration of the victory at Legatus cools, a shuttle accident claims the lives of the Mage-King of Mars and his heir. The Crown and the Mountain fall to the Mage-King’s daughter, sixteen-year-old Kiera Alexander. She recalls Damien Montgomery, her father’s First Hand, to stand as her Lord Regent.
The pair are unprepared to govern but are thrust into the heart of Protectorate politics as the Mage-King had left behind everything from an unfinished war to an incomplete new Constitution. Even as they get a handle on the list Kiera’s father left them, Damien is grimly certain of one thing: when it comes to the deaths of Kings, he doesn’t believe in accidents.
I enjoyed this switchup in style, now it was more small scale, which was nice.
Avoid the back of the book! I hate spoilers, and am furious with the back of the book discussing a specific character's death. I'm tempted to dock the rating for that kind of marketing blunder alone.
Onwards to the review... my spoiler policy will assume you've read the previous novel, and will pretend you haven't any knowledge of the book aside from its title.
Mountain of Mars continues the grand tradition of Glynn Stewart being unwilling to accept any sort of status quo and write a story within it. The universe must change and the author holds nothing back. By the title alone, you will likely guess that Mars is at the centre of this novel, returning us to loose threads that had been put on pause during the war with the Republic and was teased at the end of Sword of Mars.
That said, because we're returning to …
Avoid the back of the book! I hate spoilers, and am furious with the back of the book discussing a specific character's death. I'm tempted to dock the rating for that kind of marketing blunder alone.
Onwards to the review... my spoiler policy will assume you've read the previous novel, and will pretend you haven't any knowledge of the book aside from its title.
Mountain of Mars continues the grand tradition of Glynn Stewart being unwilling to accept any sort of status quo and write a story within it. The universe must change and the author holds nothing back. By the title alone, you will likely guess that Mars is at the centre of this novel, returning us to loose threads that had been put on pause during the war with the Republic and was teased at the end of Sword of Mars.
That said, because we're returning to Mars itself, the book feels like it's pumping the breaks on the epic space battles that had filled the pages of the last two novels. We still get plenty of action with the Hand doing what a Hand does best, but this switch in story content was rather jarring. This is my main complaint, and you can tell it's a minor one. The cast around Damien continues to grow, the universe grows in scope, and the stakes are ever higher.
Highly Recommended.
