Wexler continues writing excellent sci-fantasy. I love the melding of energy swords and healing magics. A highly, technically advanced civilization that has fallen. Magic is held in the hands of a few, tech is tightly controlled and scrounged from remnants of the previous age. Life is very different depending on where you live, within the Republic, in the splinter kingdoms, or outside on the fringes.
Blood of the Chosen picks up immediately after the events of Ashes of the Sun. A potentially humanity ending calamity has been averted. Gyre and Maya limp away from the confrontation and try to figure out what happens now. Both bemoaning that they weren’t able to get the other to understand why they follow the ideology that they do. Gyre is not about to let this set back deter him from the goal of destroying the Order and dismantling the Republic. Maya is deeply concerned about her interactions with two centarchs attempting to interfere with the calamity. It leaves her wondering, what exactly is going on within the Order and who can she trust?
Gyre hatches a new scheme and despite the recent failure, heads back to the city of ghouls to ask for more supplies. He is greeted with hostility but they warm to his plan. Gyre recognizes that the people of Deepfire are not ready for revolution. However, there are those in Southern Khirkaz mountains who have organized and are striving for independence from the Republic. Gyre hopes that by arming them with powerful ghoul weapons they will be able to drive out the Republic.
Maya returns to the Forge, the seat of the Twilight Order, and tries to investigate the strange spider plaguespawn that she has encountered twice now. When asked to take on a mission from Kyrilliarch Prodominus, with a warning about his being potentially untrustworthy from Kyrilliarch Baselanthus, Maya decides it’s better to be on the inside if someone is a traitor and accepts. The mission only brings up more questions than it answers. When rebellion flares in Khirkhaz, Maya is sent with Prodominus, another centarch, and heavily armed legionnaires to squash it. But Maya has a separate, secret mission.
Fate once again brings Gyre and Maya to the same place at the same time. This time on opposite sides of a much larger conflict. Neither wants to kill the other which complicates their duties. The finale of the book is just as bombastic as the ending of the last one, with even more shocking results.
In this book, the cast of characters rounds out more and relationships deepen. Maya falling in love with the female arcanist Beq is adorable, it is the first relationship for either of them. Sarah, a self taught, ghoul appreciative arcanist, a minor character in Ashes of the Sun, becomes a strong secondary character. Varo the scout continues to provide much entertainment and Tanax unbends from his strictly held principles. Elariel and Kit have the biggest transformation and it’s interesting to watch their development unfold.
This book has me so excited for the next in the series! I am eagerly looking forward to 2023 so I can find out what happens to next to this beleaguered world. Will it be able to find balance between tech magic and bio magic? Will a new society to be able to be founded with more equality? Who knows?! Wexler does, and I just have to patiently wait to find out.
