SON OF THE POISON ROSE

In the second of a dark epic fantasy series, two brothers battle for the fate of an empire…and perhaps a universe.

Kagen Vale has learned the dreadful truth: The Witch-king of Hakkia, who invaded the Silver Empire and slaughtered the Silver Empress’ children—whom Kagen had sworn to protect—is actually Kagen’s older brother, Herepath, once a respected cleric and scholar. Herepath now goes to ever more extreme lengths to pursue his brother and permanently prevent him from revealing his secret as Kagen goes on the run again, searching for allies and a new weapon against his powerful foe. The Witch-king also faces obstacles on two other fronts. First, his coronation was interrupted, so the subject nations of the Silver Empire don’t fully consider him their ruler, leading him toward covert but brutal attempts to sow discord among them so that they don’t unite against him. Second, the Silver Empress’ sole surviving heirs, the 6-year-old twins Alleyn and Desalyn (whom Herepath has claimed as his own children for reasons that are quickly apparent), are fighting their way out of the dark spell that turns them into sadomasochistic monsters. Will this new, potentially unstable empire collapse from within, or are the dreaded powers that Herepath and his patron god, Hastur, command too overwhelming to defeat? Maberry continues to dump more subgenres—this time, zombie plague plus Indiana Jones–style treasure-seeking adventure—into this still-beguiling kitchen sink of a milieu, but despite the multitude of action scenes, the plot doesn’t advance to any great degree; instead we have a wide scattering of multiple subplots that await resolution in Book 3. Alas, the series also seems to be in need of a good copy editor; some minor discrepancies from Kagen the Damned (2022) have carried through to this novel and spawned new ones. These are not annoying enough to destroy pleasure in the story but do prove to be a bit of a distraction.

A thrill ride that’s clearly gathering steam for the next installment.