• Genre: Fantasy
• Age group: Adult
• Pub. date: January 12th 2021
• Format:  Ebook
• Pages: 576
• Goodreads link
• I received an ARC through NetGalley and these are my honest thoughts

The empire has fallen and another rises in its place in the action-packed sequel to Devin Madson’s epic fantasy, We Ride the Storm.

Into Kisia’s conquered north, a Levanti empire is born.

Loyal to the new emperor, Dishiva e’Jaroven must tread the line between building a new life and clinging to the old. Only Gideon can lead them, but when he allies himself with a man returned from the dead it will challenge all she thinks she knows and everything she wants to believe.

Now empress of nothing, Miko is more determined than ever to fight for her people, yet with her hunt for allies increasingly desperate, she may learn too late that power lies not in names but in people.

Rah refused to bow to the Levanti emperor, but now abandoned by the Second Swords he must choose whether to fight for his people, or his soul. Will honor be his salvation, or lead to his destruction?

Sold to the Witchdoctor, Cassandra’s only chance of freedom is in his hands, but when her fate becomes inextricably linked to Empress Hana, her true nature could condemn them both.

There is no calm after the storm.

This was great. I love it when books deal with the aftermath of a great war or similar, and We Lie with Death just dug into that and most of the book was just people messed up by circumstances, and often their own choices, trying to crawl through the mess left at the end of book 1 and come out the other side. This was also kinda true in book one, but it’s more obvious here, that we don’t have the PoV of any of the people truly pulling the strings, the characters we follow are constantly guessing at leader’s true plans and loyalties, and I found that a very interesting read. They’re constantly thrown about by faith in a whirlwind of hope and hopeless and they make the most of it by sheer determination.

I know it’s only been 6 months, but I loved being back with these characters! Sure they’re all messed up, smelly, tired, afraid, very smelly, but it was so good seeing them again! Especially some I wasn’t expecting to see much more of. As soon as we got started I was curious to see where all of this would be going, and I didn’t manage to successfully predict anything. I think there was a bit of middle-book syndrome, in that there wasn’t one thing towards which everything was flowing, there were 3-4 paths that were mostly separate. There wasn’t one big thing at the end, though each ending was life-altering or had a huge revelation, for that character. I can’t say that it really bothered me, but it was different from book 1. It worked great to make me want to read on cause I need to know what these lovelies do next. Ok, yes, I know they’re murderous lovelies but still.

Cassandra is the winner for me this round. She’s mostly removed from everyone else for the duration, hidden away with the Witchdoctor. But that part is fascinating. We learn more about how her passenger works. The place where they are is so old and rickety and atmospheric, the other characters we meet there are also mysterious and shady. I loved that entire part. She also spends a lot of time with Empress Hana and they are so good together. They don’t trust each other and there’s lots of bad blood but there’s also some grudging respect for the ways they’ve survived in a man’s world. The things she learns are probably also going to make a huge difference in future books, and it was a great case of something seeming to not make sense at all and the OHHHH.

Dishiva is introduced as a new PoV character in this book, and she’s our main window into what’s going on with the Levanti army. She’s trying to get back her feeling of control after she was sexually assaulted in book 1, and it’s tough for her. She’s also following Rah’s footsteps of being conflicted about Gideon’s actions, especially the more time Leo seems to spend with him.

Rah – I did not expect his story would lead where it did. I don’t want to spoil it, so no details. It was lots of fun, had a lot of nice moments, even cute and tender ones. In some ways, he was similar to book 1, constantly torn between his rigid honor and situations where there’s no right choice. He did spend a lot of the book doing Kisia: The Scenic Route, with a lot of rain, but he also had a lot of time to think about what he’s done. I’m very curious to see what he does next.

Miko is great, she reaches the bottom a few times but she’s always so strong, even when there are no allies in sight. We do get to see some vulnerability from her, and even a bit of acting her age, which was great, if over way too soon.

I’d love to have some PoV chapters from Gideon or Leo, to know how things are really standing and what’s really up. Which is probably why we won’t be getting any.

If We Ride the Storm had two of the strongest book openings I’ve recently read, We Lie with Death had a magnificent ending, so strong and powerful, I was left there just staring at it.

Recommended for: well this is the second book in the series, so people who read We Ride the Storm, which I’d recommend to people looking for low-magic political and war fantasy with well developed characters

r/fantasy Bingo squares: politics