Savage Legion (Savage Rebellion #1)

Not gonna lie…I wasn\’t overly enthusiastic about the book given it\’s promotional blurb. I expected D&D swordsy barbarian questy stuff without much story. Boy, was I wrong. Oh, that\’s part of it, but there\’s so much more. In fact, most of the story and characters can be described that way. Lexi is a diplomat\’s wife…but so much more. Evie is a savage warrior…but so much more. Dyeawan works for the Planning Council…and so much more. Etc. The characters are multi-layered and realistic, not just the cookie cutter archetypes you see in a lot of epic fantasy. Characters are key to a strong series The other important point is the world building. It\’s so hard to build a world in epic fantasy that shows more than the microscope of the quest. Sure, the badlands of Country X have all these monsters and battles, but what is life like in the city? Matt Wallace creates a country almost like Pern. It has a history, a past that can be referred to that has the benefit of helping understand the present and build to the future. Also, you get the perspective of not just the questors, you get common folk, police, craftsmen, politicians. There\’s so much to say about it and typical of the first book in a series, our characters complete an arc in this book that leads to their stories in the next, and i for one cannot WAIT to see where it goes.

Savage Legion stands on top of giants in its take on Epic Fantasy. . You can definitely see the similarities to modern works, such as Game of Thrones , Baru Cormorant, and The Burnings . But you can also see the direct lineage of works such as Stackpole\’s Dark Glory War, Marco\’s Tyrants and Kings, and other \”the world is at war\” type sagas. Wallace puts his own take on The Orphan Prodigy, The Mysterious Warrior, and The Missing Family Member, that feels fresh and familiar all at once. There are things that I fully expect to see in every Matt Wallace work. You got your knife fights, you got your characters that mean well but do bad things because that\’s what they know how to do, you got your bad guys who believe they are the good guys, and you have your serious world building. An entire castle made from one piece of stone? awesome. Blood coins? Awesome. Seeing an ant as a nation\’s symbol, and then slowly being fed why it makes so much sense? Awesome. I very much hope there will be a sequel.

I picked this book based on the description. The storyline sounded intriguing and a good adventure escape. However the book is told along 3 plot lines for 3 different characters in different situations. I was hooked on Evies story which is what was advertised. Unfortunately her story feels episodic because of the other plots. Also, there were several contrived moments for her that seemed like attempts to move her story along quicker because she get less page time. The author is a skilled wordsmith and storyteller. This plot just doesnt succeed.

As a long time fan of Matt\’s Sin Du Jour stories I was curious to see how he would approach a more \”traditional\” fantasy story. This first of a series did not disappoint. For those of you who haven\’t read Mr. Wallace or might be hesitant to invest your time and money, let me make a few crude comparisons. If you enjoy the plotting, pacing and humour of a Scalzi, this is for you. If you enjoy Game of Thrones but want characters that you can actually root for, this is for you. If you enjoy the careful world building of the Name if the Wind, here is another vibrant universe to explore. Most importantly, if you want delicately constructed, never boring battles and combat description, there is no other place to find what Matt has to offer here.

This is the book I\’ve looking forward to for over a year! It\’s the best fantasy book I\’ve ever read! It\’s so good I actually bought a copy and I\’m giving it to someone else (I\’ve never done that). So, if you\’re looking for something to read: Wallace is a trained fighter and that comes through. He\’s also a poet and the language of his writing isn\’t just gripping, but often beautiful! And it\’s doing what Art does best, participating in the modern cultural dialogue in a meaningful way!

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