New review: Kingsbane, Claire Legrand

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review. 

Kingsbane is the sequel to Legrand's New York Times bestseller, Furyborn. Although I hadn't read Furyborn before starting Kingsbane, a quick read through of some other reviews gave me a general gist - but I do recommend reading the books in order and I intend to go back and read Furyborn so questions I have about its sequel make more sense. I wasn't sure what to expect as reviews of Furyborn were very polarising, but I'm happy to say that I've been thrilled as a reader with this novel.

Anyway. Kingsbane starts with one of its two protagonists, Rielle, having been proclaimed the Sun Queen. She is an elemental - meaning she can manipulate the elements. Only she is unusual - and special - because she can manipulate all four as opposed to one, which is most common among elementals. She is making a tour of the kingdoms, but not all is well. Controversies seemed to have reigned through her journey to becoming the Sun Queen (reading Furyborn will make more sense of that, it seems) and she is battling with her seemingly would-be lover and arch enemy, an angel called Corien. Rielle becomes aware that the Gate that separates the human world from the world of the Deep, a void to which the angels got banished during a war between angels and humans, is fracturing. It can only be repaired if she finds the original castings with which the Gate was made, although the effort and power involved could kill her.

The second protagonist, Eliana, is Rielle's daughter - except that they are separated by a thousand years. She was brought up in an adopted family and is a trained assassin. She finds it hard to accept any of her new powers and what is expected of her - namely, that she will save the world. She struggles with her mother's legacy - her mother became known as the Blood Queen (lots of murder implied with that title, though I'm not sure if that context has been provided in Furyborn or will be in Kingsbane). 

This is pure high fantasy, and I am devouring it. Rielle and Eliana are incredibly complex and richly drawn characters, although Eliana falls into the YA female lead tropes at times. There is also some LGBT+ representation in the book, which - while refreshing - is also not forced in as points for diversity and inclusion. 

There is a huge supporting cast of characters and plots as well. I would very much be interested to see the spreadsheets or mind maps Legrand used to keep track of them all! She holds all the threads of the story together, so even though the plot may seem sprawling at times - on several occasions I had to flick back to previous chapters to pick up the thread of a plot point I'd missed - as a writer she seems in control of it all.   

Kingsbane has all the markings of a great fantasy - magic, monsters, implicit history, excellent worldbuilding - while also making it all seem new. It has reinvented the wheel, as most fantasies do, in a compelling and page-turning way. Already I'm impatient to read the conclusion to this rich tapestry of a story.