"The Queens of Renthia" series review
Overview
Title: The Queens of Renthia series
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Subgenre: High fantasy
2021 Bingo squares:
- The Queen of Blood: Book club, Backlist, Forest setting (hard mode!!!), “{Blank} of {Blank}”
- The Reluctant Queen: Backlist, Forest setting
- The Queen of Sorrow: Backlist, Forest setting, “{Blank} of {Blank}”
Recommend: Yes! The world is SO COOL
Stars: 5/5 for the series
Review
Don’t trust the fire, for it will burn you.
Don’t trust the ice, for it will freeze you.
Don’t trust the water, for it will drown you.
Don’t trust the air, for it will choke you.
Don’t trust the earth, for it will bury you.
Don’t trust the trees, for they will rip you,
rend you, tear you, kill you dead.
Okay this fantasy setting is just, the coolest. Any plot set in this world would be worth reading just because the world is so damn cool. And admittedly, the plot in the first novel isn’t the greatest, but it does subvert a bunch of expectations, and the plots of books 2 and 3 are much more interesting. And the world is SO COOL.
Imagine a giant forest, where everyone lives in the trees. The Queen compels spirits to construct villages from the trees in midforest - midforest refers to the height off the ground - and people live in these tree-constructed homes. There are cities and palaces built from trees. High in the canopies are wires you can use to travel through the forest quickly. The spirits have a dual nature: they want to create, but they also hate the humans, and they want to destroy, to harm, to kill. The Queen keeps people safe with a command to all spirits: Do no harm. Well…mostly safe.
Daleina’s village was slaughtered by spirits when she was a child, but she showed an affinity for controlling them and was able to keep her family safe. Now, encouraged by her little sister, she’s in training to become an Heir to the current Queen, with a chance to be chosen by the spirits when the Queen dies. She may not be among the strongest candidates, but she has her own ways of interacting with the spirits - and also a strength of character that makes her stand out.
In The Reluctant Queen, we’re also introduced to Naelin, a mother with two children, who pretty much singlehandedly makes up for the plot and characters of The Queen of Blood being mediocre (which, again, doesn’t actually matter because this fantasy world is so cool that all other flaws are immediately forgiven anyway). We also meet Hamon’s mother, who is most excellent and a great addition to the story.
I highly recommend this trilogy. You can read the first novel as a standalone if you like, just to experience the world, but the sequels are both much better, and reading all three is definitely worth it!
