King of the Rising

On the face of it, writing a (notionally fantasy) novel from the inside view point of slave rebellion is a laudable endeavour. Though recent fantasy has tackled topics of colonialism and the oppression and estrangement of the peoples suffering from it, the viewpoint has mostly been one of its eventual subversion (with the poster child probably being Dickinson’s Baru Cormorant series), which tends to neatly evade the fact that, historically, resistance has mostly been successfully repressed (for a time, at the very least), often violently. This is especially true of slave uprisings, most of which have been drowned in blood, from Antiquity to the antebellum US South. The fantastic literature I am aware of has done little to address this horrific leitmotif of history, beyond using it as a foil for its plots.

Callender attempts to change that in the second and final instalment of their Islands of Blood and Storm cycle. King of the Rising starts where Queen of the Conquered left off, switching viewpoints from the Islander slave owner Sigourney to the leader of the uprising, Løren, and follows his doomed struggle to salvage a better world from the ashes of chattel slavery.

As a narrative of the deep and lasting damage to the soul the trauma of slavery causes, King of the Rising is a triumph. As a fictionalisation of slave uprisings, it is a hodgepodge of eras and forms, combining elements of genocidal colonisation, the late antebellum US slavery era and historical uprisings in the Caribbean, which irks the historian in me no end. As a novel, especially as a fantasy novel, it is a failure – and that is a pity.

The first instalment, while marred by one-dimensional characters and a slow, often repetitive pace, kept the reader engaged with its colonial game of thrones participants missing the ultimate point. The second never manages to go beyond hypnotic bleakness. Its cast loses all remnants of depth, getting relegated to set pieces illustrating the impending doom (especially Sigourney, who is reduced to the kind of “in the end, everybody is either evil or weak” cardboard cutout last seen in Abercrombie ’s First Law trilogy); there is no arc beyond the certainty of violent death under the merciless sun (characteristically, the one sequence involving getting help from outside the islands is the books’s weakest, remaining almost entirely inconsequential to the unfolding action); and the magic that was so central to the first part is surplus to requirements (it just adds to what is already there: fear, pain, power imbalance, treachery).

With all this said, Callender’s voice still is a resonating one, and until fantastic literature does better at giving the forgotten their voice back, their deeply flawed pair of novels should be on your reading list.

KING OF THE RISING concludes the story begun in QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED, following a secondary character from the first book while the previous main character stays on in the background. The current MC is one of a small group leading the islanders' revolution against their former masters. There are even more murders and a lot of mystery when compared to the first book, but this one isn't a "murder mystery" in the same way. I'm glad of that, because instead this is a slow burn, nail-biting, tense narrative without the need to try and be a whodunnit when they're literally in the middle of a war. Now, as for what this is: KING OF THE RISING follows the islanders as they turn a night of rebellion into a war for their freedom and the freedom of the Islands. The MC frequently travels to get food and fighters, returning to their island base of operations as morale dwindles and tensions rise. 
A lot of the narrative feels bleak and inevitable. I don't think I could have believed an attempt at a happier story, given what was established in the first book. The infighting and tensions feel realistic, and I liked the political wrangling. QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED felt like the MC didn't have room to think beyond her own ambitions, and that misguided focus helped set  up the events in KING OF THE RISING. Here, the MC is focused on trying to save as many people as possible. Rather than have a narrow focus, he's spread too thin, wanting to be a hero but also not wanting anything to go wrong, even though things will and they can't all make it even if they win (which isn't guaranteed). Some of this contrast is explicit in the text, especially when the current and former MC's disagree (which is pretty often). I like this MC a lot better as a person, but they're both great characters. It feels like part of the point is that this isn't the first rebellion and it won't be the last, but it matters. Every bit matters.

Time for the sequel check. This wraps up a lot of things left hanging from the previous book. It has at least one storyline unique to this book, I'm thinking specifically of the attempts to raise guards and the MC's rivalry with a fellow leader in the rebellion. There are things introduced and resolved within this book, but it's definitely part two of a two-part story. As the second book in a duology it wraps up a lot of things and feels very finished. I don't really know what could happen from here if at some point it were turned into a trilogy (though it could be nice to read more books set in these islands, I don't know if I'll be ready for this level of sadness again for a while). The MC is different from the first book and they feel very different in their actions and their motivations, as well as pretty distinct in their narrative voices. Finally, this could mostly stand on its own since it does a pretty good job of getting the reader up to speed without infodumping but it'll make way more sense if you read the first book first.

I feel sad and contemplative, mostly. It's a bleak story of desperate circumstances and a lot of sad endings. It's also worth it. If you've read QUEEN OF THE CONQUERED please pick this up and get the second half of the story.