Review: The Fires of Vengeance is epic fantasy at its finest

The Fires of Vengeance is the second book in Evan Winter’s The Burning, and if it keeps going like this, it could become a new fantasy classic.

With his hit 2019 debut novel The Rage of Dragons, author Evan Winter introduced readers to a vibrant, violent, imaginative world that scratched just about every itch fantasy fans have. It had dragons, magic, immersive African-inspired world-building, solid characters, politics, romance, you name it. Written in the vein of adult fantasies like A Song of Ice and Fire and Joe Abercrombie’s First Law, The Rage of Dragons was a frenetically paced fantasy war story with a hauntingly moving ending.

Its follow-up, The Fires of Vengeance, is one of the most anticipated fantasy releases of the fall. But can it live up to the lofty promise of the first novel?

We’ve had the chance to read The Fires of Vengeance, and can safely declare that the answer is a resounding yes. (Before some spoilers for The Rage of Dragons beyond this point.)

Image courtesy of Orbit Books

The Fires of Vengeance picks up immediately following the calamitous events of The Rage of Dragons. The Omehi people are divided, as two queens both lay claim to the crown. Commanding one side is Tsiora Omehia, the rightful ruler whose goal is to reunite her people before they are crushed by the native Xiddeen army banging on their door. Her sister Esi claims the Omehi capital of Palm City, where she is declared the “true” queen. Most of the nobility back her, further dividing a society already splintered by caste. Tsiora represents a broader, more inclusive future, Esi the strict caste system of the past.

If that sounds shockingly timely, then you’d best brace yourself. The Fires of Vengeance feels both timeless and like it taps into questions we’re trying to answer today, tackling issues of oppression and race head-on while never straying beyond the bounds of the tale being told. It’s a powerful story well told, full of thought-provoking lines that Winter drops with ease.

Chief among the nobles backing Queen Esi is Abasi Odili, one of the men Tau blames for the death of his father. Needless to say, Tau Solarin, generally the baddest and most righteously angry dude in the room, needs basically no convincing to join Queen Tsiora’s cause once he realizes that it represents his best chance at bloody, brutal revenge. That he ends up as her bodyguard is more a convenient means to an end…at first.

Tau’s quest for vengeance is one of the major forces that drives forward both this book and The Rage of Dragons, and Winter continues to do an amazing job of exploring what kind of effect that single-minded quest for violence can have on a person’s psyche. The vast majority of Fires is told from Tau’s point of view, allowing plenty of time to really dissect all the deep and dark places he pushes himself to on his journey. There’s also the fact that Tau may or may not be losing his mind, as he finds himself constantly haunted by literal demons. One of the secrets to Tau’s strength is his grueling training in Isihogo, the underworld where demons dwell and from which the Omehi priestesses draw forth the magic to do things like turn warriors into hulking goliaths or bind dragons to their will. The longer a person spends in Isihogo, the greater the chance it’ll permanently damage their mind…and Tau has spent a lot of time there.

Image courtesy of Orbit Books

Tau’s time in Isihogo was a highlight of Rage, and I’m happy to say that Fires has plenty more of the demonic plane. Saying anything more would be diving too far into spoilers, and this is a book I do not want to ruin for you. Suffice it to say that, just like virtually everything else about The Fires of Vengeance, the underworld sequences are even bigger and better than in the first novel.

That truth holds pretty much across the board — really, you could point to just about any aspect of this book and easily find things to praise. Perhaps that breadth is part of what sets Evan Winter’s work apart from the broad field of Tolkien-inspired fantasy that has dominated the genre for so long. The setting is refreshingly unique, an African-influenced world inspired by Xhosa culture. The romantic plotlines are handled incredibly well, including one LGBTQ+  relationship which is seamlessly included without ever feeling forced. The magic system is strong, and grows ever-deeper the more you read. The writing is poetic and beautiful and heartbreaking in the right places, and so pulse-pounding in others that it’s easy to get sucked in until suddenly hours have passed and your coffee lies cold and forgotten beside you.

But I wouldn’t be doing right by you, reader, if I failed to mention the battles. Evan Winter has a penchant for writing brutal and exhilaratingly well-executed action scenes — perhaps some of the best of any fantasy writer working in the field at the moment. The climax of The Fires of Vengeance is the sort of battle that’s a fantasy nerd’s dream. It achieves a perfect balance between utterly epic and deeply personal, with the push and pull providing a ton of tension. It almost feels like the sort of battle that George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire was always leading up to, but had yet to arrive at. It’s that big and crazy, and the fact that Winter was able to deliver it in only his second book is a testament to his skill and the series’ heart.

The Fires of Vengeance is epic fantasy at its finest. If the momentum and excellence of this series continues, there’s little doubt that it could become a new staple of the genre.

The Fires of Vengeance is out today, November 10!

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