"The Fires of Vengeance" by Evan Winter

So the follow-up to The Rage of Dragons is in some ways a step up from that book, and in other ways a step down. I enjoyed Rage quite a bit, though I do recognize that it’s a very trope-y book. It hits many of the well-worn tropes, but (as a commenter on my review of Rage remarked) it hits them in exactly the right way. This book continues that trend of using tropes well - something I’ve said often is that there are no tired tropes, only boring authors. Evan Winter is far from boring.

That being said, there were things about the first book that didn’t bother me there that did in this one. In particular, Tau’s impenetrable plot armor. I didn’t really notice it much in reading Rage - though in hindsight it’s obvious - but in this book it was everywhere, and that part of things got rather boring after a while frankly.

But that’s a minor quibble. Overall this book was every bit the roller coaster that Rage was, and with a good deal of really excellent worldbuilding mixed in. Many of the questions I had about book 1 were answered (huh, turns out there’s more to the Noble caste being bigger than a better diet). Many more questions were raised, which is as it should be.

One thing I particularly want to give Winter credit for: he leaned on the classic tropes in some truly intelligent ways. From the moment Tau set out on his quest for vengeance, I haven’t been looking forward to seeing him kill any of the individuals on his list. I don’t enjoy that kind of scene, where you see a character's righteous sense of anger turn bitter when they realize that vengeance ultimately isn’t fulfilling (you all know the kind of scene I mean). Winter manages to sidestep that entirely without shortchanging it. I don’t want to talk about it in any detail, because spoilers, but I was very impressed by how deftly he handled that.

Extremely curious about book 3, which promises more about the Xiddeen, the Cull, and the demons of the underworld. Looks like Tau is in for a trifecta of suck, and while I’m sure he’s not looking forward to it, I certainly am.