Children of Virtue and Vengeance

I gave a four-star rating to "Children of Blood and Bone." This sequel, though, I'm giving only one. It was such a poor follow-up to such a good book, I doubt if I'll read the final third volume when it comes along.
The vengeance of the title was there in spades, along with hatred, guilt, anger, distrust, violence, etc. Virtue was in pretty short supply. There was no love or compassion among any of the characters. Everyone seemed to be angry with, and distrustful of, everyone else. When there was a moment of trust, it quickly dissolved. In addition to the unending unpleasantness, I also took issue with the plot... or I should say, the lack thereof. The plot seemed to be this: The magi are at war with the nobles. Zelie (a magi) and Amari show more (a former noble, now on the side of the magi) develop a plot to wipe out the nobility forever and win the war. Inan, the new king, who actually wants to end the war develops a plot to end it peacefully. Inan's mother plans to wipe out the magi forever in a genocidal sort of way. No matter who, or on which side, gets a plot rolling, it always backfires, leaves everyone even more distrustful of everyone else, and then the all start their next plot. I can't count how many times the story went through this same loop in one way or another. Towards the end, I had trouble keeping track of what was even going on. To be fair to the author, that is probably because my mind wandered while I was reading more than he not explaining events well.
In the first book of the series, I cared about the characters and was interested in what happened to them. In this book, the characters seemed to have all changed for the worse, and I didn't even care what happened to any of them. They all wanted the war to end. I just wanted this book to end. show less

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is the second novel in the Legacy of Orisha trilogy by Tomi Adeyemi.

Content Note: war crimes, genocide, slavery

Plot:
After the King’s death, Zélie, Tzain and Amari have to figure out their next steps. Amari has a claim on the throne, so she hopes that she can reach her mother with the help of mercenary Roën and get her blessing for the coronation. Amari has big plans to finally unite Orisha. But the return of magic has shifted the politics considerably. New maji rebels are determined to tear down the royal family, or what remains of it. There is a new class of magically gifted nobles. And Amari’s claim on the throne might be more tenuous than they all anticipated.

Children of Virtue and Vengeance is show more an excellent continuation of the series and expansion of the world, leaving us with an entirely new direction that I did not expect. It doesn’t shy away from complicating matters and putting its characters, or its readers, through the wringer. I am looking forward to the final novel.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2024/09/01/children-of-virtue-and-vengeance-tomi-adeyemi/ show less

Having brought magic back to Orisha at great personal cost, Zelie and Amari travel with their friends to take on the monarchy. But they soon find Lagos in disarray, Zelie's mother and a group of nobles also have strong magic, and the young people aren't sure they can overthrow her - meanwhile, the maji are mobilizing, and Zelie and Amari find themselves at odds once again fighting for a land they love with disparate goals.

This fantasy series is steeped in Nigerian culture and a blast to read. The characters are well-defined, each convinced they are in the right and you can sympathize with several of them even while tearing your hair out because they can't get along. Kind of sounds like our modern day, doesn't it? I have discovered a new show more pet peeve: when a character declares "I had no choice," and that happens a lot in this book. You always have a choice, make it and convince me that it makes sense for you as a character. That's it. The book started off a little slow for me - though that could have been my choppy reading in the beginning - and picked up tremendously. By the end, I was turning pages furiously and got completely walloped by the cliffhanger. show less

I thought the previous book was a pretty darned good adventure, but this sequel takes it to a whole other level! At the finale of the previous book we are left with magic having returned to Orisha, but our group of heroes have become splintered as betrayals and deaths begin to make their struggles more challenging, so Adeyomi has set us up well to explore the magic system of the world she has built as well as the developing personalities of our main characters. Obviously the draw for most readers of fantasy are the unique worlds that the author creates through their storytelling, but Adeyomi uses this setting in a much more meaningful way to explore the politics of our current world as we see the struggle of minorities to make a place show more for themselves in a world that rejects them. Through the Maji’s struggle for independence and freedom from the rule of the throne we see the flaws in a broken system revealed as power corrupts even those with good intentions, and we see how the pain of loss leads to ever increasing violence on both sides as each is blinded by sorrow and vengeance. What strikes me most about this second story is how much each of our main characters has grown up, as they struggle to wield their power to make a positive difference in Orisha but are seemingly blocked at every turn. Just when we think that one final strike will end the war the story shifts as new truths are revealed and hidden motives come to light. At this point in the saga I wonder if Orisha will be able to find peace and heal itself, as neither side seems able to look past their suspicions and work towards a legitimate solution. We are left with Amari and Zelie trapped on what seems to be a slaver ship moving away from Orisha’s conflict, so we’ll see if removing some players from the game makes any difference or whether they will fight their way out of this latest conflict as well. show less

*puts on flame-retardant suit*

Ok, I get that people love this book, and the series it forms the center of. I even get *why* they love it. I want to love it, too. It's fantasy, it's epic, it's romantic(sorta), it's written by a black woman, and it's super-duper, Afro-pick with a fist, fufu and plantain, cocoa butter and respect your elders BLACK. Not just Black, Black and *feminine*. Lord knows we need more books and authors like this out here in these spec-fic streets and based on that alone, this got a pre-order and preliminary 3 star rating from me.

However none of that erases the fact that this is a dryly written, 90 chapter, by-the-numbers monstrosity that messily changes POV every 5 pages or so and is full of whiny teenage angst show more that leads to murder, death and mutilation for no real reason except that all the adults who show up are crazy and our POV characters generally have the relationship skills of pounded yam. The book doesn't get genuinely enjoyable to read until the last 20 chapters or so. Up to then I was just struggling through the bad prose thinking DEAR GOD THERE'S GOING TO BE ANOTHER BOOK WHY AND PLEASE STOP ADDING -AIRE TO ALL THE ANIMAL NAMES LIKE THAT'S SPECIAL IT'S JUST ANNOYING AHHHHH...

That said, read this anyway. Game of Thrones has even worse writing, and the land of Orisha will make a *much* better TV show when it happens. Read this, because we need to increase the presence of Africa and black people in our speculative collective consciousness and they don't all have to be genius, they just have to *be*. Then go read N.K. Jemisin, Nnedi Okorafor, Octavia Butler and Nalo Hopkinson because all Black women who are speculative fiction writers need love (and they are geniuses. show less

Writing fiction is hard, which is one reason I haven’t done it. Achieving an attractive balance of character, plot, pacing, description, vocabulary, pathos, prose, and poetry is tough. So I’ll start by saying Tomi Adeyemi is impressive in terms of her skill as a debut novelist. She’s got the gift. I admire it.

You’re right to brace for the other shoe. Adeyemi’s middle child in her “Legacy of Orïsha” trilogy is not quite a misfire, but something’s missing. I’m not the only one who noticed: the first book won a laundry list of awards and thrilled the fans, while the second was nominated for a Goodreads award and discouraged the fans.

The story picks up three weeks after the bloody clash with the monarchy on the mystical show more island of Ilorin. The magic of the gods is back, but not without cost or chaos. Civil war ravages the kingdom of Orïsha as factions wield their new gifts to enforce their will. The throne hangs in the balance.

Adeyemi pushes the lore forward with skill. The origins of bad blood between Kosidán and Maji were always murky, and the future hinges on the secrets of that past. The reconstitution of the Maji clans sheds light on the culture the monarchy tried to exterminate. Adeyemi even resolves a dangling thread involving Zélie's father, in such a way that it both makes sense and contributes to the plot.

For all that, the story is like a merry-go-round of angst. Zélie rages over her dead family and tortured body. Amari frets over how to unite, in her own royal person, the hostile peoples of Orïsha. The ruler of Orïsha, awash in self-hatred, waffles between war and peace. Round and round we go, where the pain stops, nobody knows.

With all that adolescent angst boiling away, the romances feel like a layer of paint slapped on as a concession to YA tropes. Zélie’s brother Tzain, virtually the only level-headed character in the first book, is now a muscled cardboard cutout so Amari has something to do when she isn’t agonizing over the kingdom. Zélie’s love interest is what central casting sent up when the call came down for “Rogue with a Heart of Gold.” He exists mainly so Zélie can burn every chance of happiness.

This ocean of emotion masks a deeper problem: the plot just isn’t that interesting. The issue, I think, is that Adeyemi wrote her first book in a hot rush at the high tide of the Black Lives Matter movement. She channeled her feelings into a fantasy of Black people fighting for lost power in the teeth of systemic oppression built on genocide and racism.

In my opinion, she frontloaded everything she felt, everything she had to say. What comes next is less a passion project and more an exercise in writing: well constructed, logically consistent, and aimless. Adeyemi is a competent author in search of inspiration, and until she finds it, well, here’s a book. show less

It was a bit hard getting back into this world. But the second half moved swiftly. The later chapters had great pacing and lots of action. The main characters are all flawed and there is a sense of impending doom as you see them make one mistake after the other.

The ending is fierce. I guess it's going to be a trilogy?