Defiant Heir

The Defiant Heir, sequel to The Tethered Mage, and the second book in Melissa Caruso’s Swords and Fire series is a wonderful story that manages to be epic in scope but intensely personal in feel. It’s the sort of sequel that builds on the first novel and yet manages to continue to leave you guessing and discovering new aspects of the world and characters. Caruso has given us a page turner in this one, a novel that demands to be read.

It’s hard to know where to begin singing Caruso’s praises when talking about The Defiant Heir. The world building continues to be top notch. Instead of resting on her laurels after the first book, Caruso continues developing the world, allowing us to learn a great deal more about how magic works in this world and especially the impact that has had on the political map. In particular, we get to learn much more about the political makeup of Vaskandar and how their particular flavor of magic has impacted that political makeup. I continue to be impressed with the way that Caruso links the magic system into the political functioning of her world. Everything about it makes sense, but too often in fantasy we have mages that can throw fireballs around and yet the political system is not significantly different from feudal Europe. It’s not only the worldbuilding and magic that are wonderful in this novel, however. The character development is equally worthy of praise. Both Amalia and Zaira are different at the end of this novel than at the beginning. We get to watch them grow as individuals and in their various roles. I particularly enjoyed the camaraderie that—by the end of the book—is blossoming between these two. To top it off, it isn’t only the protagonists who are well-rounded and developed. The antagonists are equally well fleshed out, with realistic and believable motivations.

The Defiant Heir is a fantasy that is epic in scale, the fate of empires hangs in the balance, but Caruso manages to keep things very grounded in the midst of this. She does this by steadfastly refusing to introduce any viewpoint other than Amalia’s. Not only does this keep things tightly plotted and the action moving, which I enjoy, but it also makes the story a deeply personal one, which I love. It’s rare to read an epic fantasy with world altering stakes that still feels incredibly personal. Caruso manages this balance with great aplomb.

The novel does have a couple weaknesses worth noting. First is that there are a couple moments throughout the story when it feels as if Amalia is primarily being pulled along by the narrative. She’s being saved by others or otherwise feels like she lacks real agency. Thankfully those scenes are few and don’t rob the narrative of its tension, but it was frustrating to see the titular heir being…well…quite compliant at times. There’s also a sort-of love triangle in this novel. Normally I despise love triangles. In this novel, however, I didn’t particularly mind it. Unfortunately, the reason I didn’t mind it is because I don’t feel much romantic tension between Amalia and either of her potential love interests in this novel. I could sort of care less who she ends up with, and to me a romance ought to feel more important—or at least I ought to feel more invested in it—than that.

The Defiant Heir has all of the deep world building, fascinating magic, and wonderfully realized character that made the first book in Caruso’s Swords and Fire series so gripping. It even manages to up the ante in all three of those areas while continuing to tell an incredibly personal story. If you love character driven fantasy and haven’t started this series yet, you should correct that!

9/10

4.5/5 stars.

5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing