Steel Crow Saga by Paul Krueger is a tour de force of character development. This novel will make you fall in love with the characters Krueger has crafted and make you ache for them as they learn how their world is changing and how that necessitates that they themselves become different. All of this is set against a beautifully imagined Asian-inspired secondary world.

Steel Crow Saga is set in a secondary world with technology similar to our own, though before cell phones or the internet. We have references to television shows, we see automobiles, highways, and firearms. But all of this is integrated so well with the magic system that everything feels natural and real. Speaking of the magic, it’s another thing that shines in Krueger’s novel. It reminds me a little of the magic system in Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series, but with a much more contemporary vibe, and also significantly more complexity once we see magic beyond shadepacting. Actually, that’s one of the especially fun things about the magic, each culture has a different take on magic, though each of these ways of doing magic feel similar enough that it makes sense they are all part of the same world. That’s a difficult balance to strike, and Krueger manages it perfectly. As fun as the setting and magic are, what sets this novel above so many others is the strength of the characters. Tala is a soldier bent on revenge who is tasked with protecting the man who represents everything she has grown to hate. Jimuro is a prince whose country is in ruins, having paid the price for their own arrogance and expansionism years earlier. He doesn’t know if he’ll measure up to his ancestors. Xiulan desires a different world, but she still holds many deep-seated hatreds. Lee is a criminal who has learned never to trust, and yet she finds herself in situations where trust might be the only way forward. There is a moment, about a third of the way in, where an important event happens that just gripped me and from that point on the characters refused to let go. That’s the thing about this novel, the characters really grow on you. By a third of the way in I was engaged, by the half way point I was loving it, and by the final third of the book the characters are just wonderful. Memorable, real, making plenty of mistakes but learning from them and in doing so learning a great deal about themselves and having to confront the reality of their world and their place in it. Krueger has managed to build a story that transforms the four viewpoint characters slowly, bit by bit, right before your eyes. The read is incredibly satisfying because of that character development. That development isn’t only surface level, by the way. We’re talking about deep seated fears and prejudices. It’s a truly impressive bit of art that Krueger has given us. One might argue that the book is, at some level, about the hatred that is bred over years of wrong treatment, pain, and racism on all sides. It’s heartrending, and yet it feels like this is exactly the sort of story we need to read if we’re ever to understand ourselves and those who are other to us.

I don’t have much to criticize in Steel Crow Saga. It’s fair to say that the book has a slow start. The first quarter or so feels particularly slow. But I can’t be overly critical of this, because I see what Krueger is doing. He’s building up these characters. He’s giving us something special, and that requires that things be built up bit by bit. For those who abhor or have no patience with slow starts, this may be a difficult book. Beyond the slow start, there isn’t much to criticize at all.

The character development in Steel Crow Saga is nothing short of masterful. The slower start is absolutely worth it because of what the author is building. Fans of character stories and Asian-inspired settings will find a plethora of elements to enjoy, but all fantasy fans will find an authentic world with characters who overcome achingly real struggles.

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