A Tyranny of Queens

Damn, Saffron! If you, like me, worried how she'd fit in back on Earth after the events of the first book (An Accident of Stars), you'd be right to worry. Remember how when Jill and Eustace got back to Earth from Narnia, they were better able to stand up to bullies? Well, so is Safi ... but that's not what her parents want. So begins Saffron's adventure in clarity and in realizing that adults don't necessarily know what's best for kids. Unfortunately for her, that may include adults in Kena and Veksh. In Veksh, Yena is trying to figure out what in the hell she can do now that Zech and Safi are gone, back in this country that's not really hers, where she doesn't know the ancient customs. Gwen and Luy have a relationship to work on. show more Meanwhile, what's going on with Kadeja? (Hint: It's not good.) And what's going on with history? What if ... never mind; I won't spoil this fine adventure of a book that doesn't shy away from the long-lasting effects of pain, loss, power, and even belief.

(I pre-ordered the book, and my ebook service downloaded it nearly two weeks early. I'm not sorry!) show less

A Tyranny of Queens is the sequel to the portal fantasy novel, An Accident of Stars, and I’m happy to report that I liked it even more than the first book! If queer feminist fantasy sounds at all your thing, I suggest you start reading this series. This is a series that should really be read in order – A Tyranny of Queens picks up almost directly from where An Accident of Stars left off. If you haven’t read the first book, I doubt you’d be able to make sense of this one. Forewarning, this review may contain spoilers for the first book.

In Kena, Gwen is trying to sort things out in the absence of Leoden and figure out why he was imprisoning worldwalkers. Over in Veksh, Yena is trying to get the queens to actually do something show more about Kadeja, but the forces of bureaucracy and politics are against her. Meanwhile, Saffron is dealing with the readjustment to her own world, and it’s not going so well.

I think Saffron’s narrative is one of my favorite parts of A Tyranny of Queens. It probably ties in with why I loved Every Heart a Doorway so much. I’ve rarely read stories that address what it’s like to try and resume a “normal” life in our world after having been on a fantasy adventure. Most skip over it entirely or avoid lots of the difficulties by having no one (i.e. parents) know they were gone. Saffron doesn’t get such an easy treatment. Her parents and friends are treating her like she’s made of glass and at the same time don’t seem to accept that she may be different now. It’s painful and raw and honest. And as much sympathy as I feel for Saffron, I also feel bad for her parents and sister. If one of my family members disappeared for weeks on end I would be terrified. So as frustrated as Saffron is, I can totally understand some of her family’s reactions.

A Tyranny of Queens actually expands the POV cast beyond Saffron, Gwen, and Yena, and let me tell you, this book is so gloriously diverse. Practically everyone in this book is queer and most are POC as well. New characters include an autistic trans boy POV character (Naruet) and a genderfluid supporting character. Naruet managed to make himself one of my favorite characters in the series. He’s just sort of doing his own thing and as no idea about most of the events of last book.

I’ve been seeing some criticism of this series for how its diversity is a “checklist” because the identities aren’t being “explored.” I’m just so tired of this. Queer people have lives outside of being queer, and frankly I’d rather read a fun fantasy adventure than yet another angsty coming out story. Queer characters can exist without five different subplots about their identity, especially in a fantasy world that’s not heteronormative. Like, you know, when you read a book about a straight character and there’s not an entire subplot about them grappling with their heterosexual identity.

The world building of this series remains awesome. It starts to get into the multiple worlds aspect more, and it couldn’t be better! There’s just a hint of science fiction to it that makes for a really great genre combination.

In my review of the first book, I complained that Leoden felt one note. However, A Tyranny of Queens delves more into his character, with excellent results. He actually ended up being one of the most fascinating characters in the series.

A Tyranny of Queens ends the narrative arc established by An Accident of Stars. The ending is solid enough that it could be the end of a duology. But I think there’s going to be more books? I seriously hope so. I would love to read more with these worlds and characters. Regardless, I’ll be sure to read whatever Foz Meadows writes next.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review. show less

This was a great sequel to [An Accident of Stars], satisfyingly resolving a lot of the plot from the first book. I loved Yena's storyline and greater role in this book. It was exciting that an important new character is a trans autistic boy, when so often autistic characters don't get to have any other traits. The big changes and reveal about the world were super cool.

A Tyranny of Queens by Foz Meadows is the sequel to An Accident of Stars, which I reviewed earlier this year, and the concluding volume of the duology. I didn't actually realise it was a duology until I was nearing the end — I had assumed trilogy by default — and I'm still not sure whether I'm ultimately disappointed about that.

This book continues the story of Saffi, Yena, Gwen and friends, following on directly from the events at the end of An Accident of Stars. This is not a book to read if you haven't read the prequel as pretty much all of the story depends on what went before it. In A Tyranny of Queens we follow each of the characters as we find out first what happens next and then how everything wraps up.

That was the thing I show more didn't expect about A Tyranny of Queens. I went into it assuming it was book two of a trilogy and, as I was approaching the climax/end, realised that it was going to wrap up too much of the main plot to leave much for a book three. And then it felt like it was over too quickly, with everything wrapping up a book earlier than I originally expected. This is partly my own fault for not realising this was a duology but it's also an effect that was amplified by the opening of A Tyranny of Queens being a bit slow. I was mostly interested in Saffi's story — initially back on Earth — but more time was spent on what was going on back in Kena, not all of which was as interesting, initially (although it was all ultimately relevant to the overarching plot).

The other thing was, I didn't find the overarching plot across the two books as innovative as I would have liked. Most of the interesting and exceptional elements were in the social worldbuilding (not to say that the physical worldbuilding wasn't also interesting). The overarching plot wasn't boring but kind of didn't go far enough to be really interesting. Part of it was interrogating the portal fantasy premise, but part of it could have dealt at least a little bit with colonial ideas, or at least have given us more of a historical context for , but didn't. The antagonist side of the story was fine, but there just could have been... more.

Basically, I liked this book but I didn't love it. I'm glad I read it because I enjoyed seeing how everything was resolved and what Saffi ultimately decided to do with her life. Also, it kept my interest enough that at no point did I actually put it down to go read something else.

I recommend A Tyranny of Queens to readers who enjoyed An Accident of Stars and I recommend the whole Manifold Worlds series to fans of portal fantasy or readers who like seeing less conventional gender roles and family groupings in their fantasy stories. Indeed, the latter is one of the really strong points of the series. Although I don't expect a direct sequel, I would be more than happy to read more books set in the same universe since there's a lot of scope there to tell a lot of different stories.

4 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

Didn’t realize this was a sequel until I started; a young Australian girl has returned from a magical land that transformed her—she spoke with dragons and became a queen—and her family thinks she’s traumatized from abduction and perhaps assault. As she becomes more convinced that her home is no longer safe for her, the world she left is still in trouble because of a rogue queen seeking to expose the secrets that keep the worlds linked but separate from one another. That part was less interesting to me, which might have been because I missed the first book; the matriarchal culture with lots of multiple-person political marriages that didn’t have to involve sex was interesting, but I never quite got into it.

this one is much better than Accident of Stars; the author is in better control of her material, and both the worldbuilding and the characterization profit thereby.