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Kingsbane picks up where Furyborn left off, following the constant peril that Rielle and Eliana face. Rielle is still trying to prove that she deserves the title of Sun Queen, and Eliana’s show of power to push back Empire forces in Astavar has elevated her to that same title by those who still believe in such things and are seeking the overthrow of the Emperor.
Eliana is facing two major concerns: one, that her friend the princess of Astavar, Navi, will be entirely transformed into a crawler by the poisons she was given before Eliana and Simon rescued her from the enemy’s clutches. She can’t bear the thought of her dear friend losing herself, nor can she bear the thought that she didn’t get there early enough to save her. Two, she hasn’t been able to use her power again, after the dramatic display on the beach. She feels such pressure to be able to use magic that no one else has anymore, a millennium after the days of Rielle, when most people at least possessed some kind of elemental magic. At the same time, she is afraid that she will end up being like her mother, bringing more ruin on those she loves. Can she possibly use the power she has for good and be the Sun Queen, rather than another Blood Queen?
In Rielle’s time, the Gate that has kept the angels trapped is failing. Rielle, feeling the power she commands that is far greater than anyone else’s, is convinced she can repair it. But an encounter with the Gate shows her that even she needs help. It’s suggested that if she is able to collect the castings of the long-ago saints who created the Gate initially, she may be able to draw upon their power to fix it, so she goes about this task of trying to collect the castings from the various countries where they are kept safe. Meanwhile, however, she still has to deal with the insidious temptations Corien continues to put in her mind: as much as she hates him (or tells herself she does), she is attracted to some of what he represents, and she has a hard time resisting the pull of promises of freedom and ever greater power.
Kingsbane is just as compelling and hard to put down as Furyborn, with nonstop action and the constant concerns about whom our heroines can trust. There’s also the ever-present knowledge that Rielle is racing toward a doomed end, as was presented in the very first pages of Furyborn. Reading this book, especially toward its conclusion, felt very much like watching the transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader in “Star Wars” — inevitable yet painful and heartbreaking.
After the big conclusion and cliffhangers of Kingsbane, I’m on tenterhooks waiting to see how the series will be wrapped up (in Lightbringer).
Rated: High. There are almost 10 uses of strong language here. Violence is constant. Some is gory. Sexual content is more than the first book. There is one detailed and longish sex scene, and there are lots of no-detail or little-detail sex scenes throughout; it seems that everyone is eager to just have sex whenever they feel the urge with whoever is around — and that includes whether they’re male or female and the people nearby who are willing are male or female. It’s very casual and incredibly frequent. There’s even a reference to the possibility of a threesome. This is definitely not for teen readers. Again, this seems at the very least that it should be categorized “new adult” if not adult. But I would prefer it not be marketed as young adult, with this kind of content.
