«Vengewar» by Kevin J. Anderson: a bright edition, dragons and epic dark fantasy. Review by ITC.ua

At the end of 2023, we wrote about the book «Dragon’s backbone» by American writer Kevin J. Anderson. This dark fantasy novel «under Tolkien» is part of the trilogy «Awaken the Dragon». Mediason Publishing has already released the second book, «Vengewar». It’s just as beautifully done, with detailed pictures, maps, and a cool super cover. But the main thing is that this part turned out to be better than the previous one and it’s not a classic second volume in a trilogy. I’ve already read it, and now I’m sharing my impressions.

«Війна помсти»

Pluses:

quality of design and illustrations; interesting storyline; the second novel in the trilogy is much more lively than the first; short chapters full of events and action; familiar characters are further developed and become more three-dimensional; well-developed world and its history

Minuses:

many banal fantasy motifs that have long been outdated; there are still few dragons; the author lacked the skill to make the world truly epic and detailed

8/10

Rating
ITC.ua

Vengewar

Author Kevin J. Anderson
Genre Epic dark fantasy
Publisher Mediason
Language Ukrainian
Translator Iryna Saviuk
Number of pages 560
Cover Hardcover + Paperback
Illustrations Є
Year of publication 2024
Size 165×240 mm
Website mediason.pro

The two countries of humans, the Commonwealth and Ishara, have almost found common ground to face the sand and ice of February together. But during the meeting, plots are made on both sides, so instead of an alliance between the human continents, enmity flares up with renewed vigor.

The new young king of the Commonwealth, Mandan, is completely dependent on his assistant, Brave Uto, who only wants to destroy Ishara and continues to ignore the danger from the Fierce. At the same time, the high priest of Ishara, Clovus, becomes its temporary ruler and prepares to attack the Commonwealth.

Kings Collanan and Adan need help in their confrontation with the Fierce, and their new conag Mandan not only does not help, but also greatly interferes. He even plots to destroy his relatives in order to become the sole ruler of the Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, the sand and ice Furies are getting more and more impudent and overconfident in their abilities. But the awakened dragon and his minions quickly bring them to their senses and make them think about their next steps. The world is definitely on the brink of something terrible, but what it will be and in what form depends entirely on the actions of the parties to the conflict.

«Vengewar» — is not a classic second book in a trilogy, as it is, for example, «Stone of Farewell» Ted Williams. Of course, the local events prepare the reader for the epic resolution of the conflict, but there are a lot of them, they are vivid and constantly evolving. This novel is really full of action. It is much more lively than the first book, although at the beginning 50-70 pages are still just a warm-up.

In addition, «Revenge War» provides a significant development of the characters. They grow in size, become even clearer, more courageous, or, on the contrary, more disgusting. However, just as in the novel «Dragon’s Back», the writer does best with classic positive characters, but the antagonists are still somewhat flat and generic. However, let me remind you that this is a dark fantasy, so there is no Good and Evil as such. Almost every character has something to be punished for, everyone has their own truth and understandable motives.

I liked the fact that the second novel has no sex and everything related to it, but there are still naked bodies. Probably, sex is an adequate phenomenon for dark fantasy, but the «Awaken the Dragon» series still initially resembles the above classic fantasy and only then dark, so this theme, especially in the second novel, looks strange and played up here.

It is good that the author did not slow down the pace, but rather increased it. And there are still the short chapters of 5-7 pages, each of which switches the reader to a different character. All of them end on some important event or its beginning, so it’s never boring to read, but, on the contrary, you always want to know what happened next.

However, there may be another side to this. For example, I saw a review somewhere that the reader didn’t like these short chapters in Kevin J. Anderson’s books. He likes long chapters with detailed descriptions that he can dive into for half an hour or more. But this is definitely a taste thing. And in my opinion, short chapters do not prevent you from delving into the book. On the contrary, as I wrote above, it makes you turn the pages like a madman and be as involved in the events as possible.

«Vengewar» has the same main flaw as the novel Dragon’s Back» — lack of epicness and scope of events and a minimum of details. Everything seems to be vast and majestic, but the world is described in a constrained and poor way. The cities seem to be large, but they have few inhabitants, the king has a guard of five people, no servants, etc. 200 soldiers are an army, and ten ships are a navy.

Kevin J. Anderson was able to create a well-developed world and its history, and it’s there. But he doesn’t always manage to describe and present it well. In my opinion, this is due to the author’s banal inability to describe it all in the way that is required for the genre.

It is also affected by the brisk pace of the narrative, when there is no time for descriptions and clarifications because it is mostly allocated to events and action. That is, the advantage of the book in some moments becomes its disadvantage, but either that or the existing 560 pages should have been increased to 800+. The author did not do this and I understand him.

I would also like to note the quality of the publication and its overall epicness. The layout was definitely given maximum attention, so we have an oversized book, super-soft and thick paper, a super-cover, color maps on the flyleaves, and detailed pictures throughout the book. In other words, the lack of epicness in the text is more than compensated for by the publication itself.

In my opinion, these are some of the most beautiful books I’ve ever seen, but this probably had a big impact on the price. I would like to see a simplified edition of these books, 100-200 hryvnias cheaper, in paperback, etc. And this applies to all fantasy and sci-fi books by all Ukrainian publishers.

We need to make each book in two formats. One as it is now: a cool edition, cover, paper, etc., and the other as simple and cheap as possible to read and forget, or to give to a friend or give as a gift. This is also important, as Western publishing houses have been doing for so long because sometimes people just want to read a book on the road or by the sea, and for this they need a certain format.

It is interesting that the first book «Dragon’s Back» already has an audio format, and the second will get it by the end of the fall, and everything is available in the MEGOGO app. It’s cool that small publishers make not one but several different formats. This is definitely more convenient for readers who prefer audio.

Conclusion:

««Vengewar»» — is not a classic second novel in the trilogy. The author has managed to saturate it with events and develop familiar characters. He has created even more tension, raised the stakes, and put the characters in extremely difficult circumstances, from which they come out in an interesting way. The characters have become even more three-dimensional, but the antiheroes are still noticeably flatter than the conditional «positive» heroes. Also, the author lacked the experience or skill to add detail and epicness to the world, but it is well developed and believable. The short chapters are full of action, make you turn the pages quickly and not be distracted until the end of the book. In my opinion, this is more than enough to recommend this book for reading and give it a reasonable rating.