Furyborn (Empirium Trilogy, #1)

by Claire Legrand

The stunningly original, must-read fantasy of 2018 follows two fiercely independent young women, centuries apart, who hold the power to save their world…or doom it.

When assassins ambush her best friend, the crown prince, Rielle Dardenne risks everything to save him, exposing her ability to perform all seven kinds of elemental magic. The only people who should possess this extraordinary power are a pair of prophesied queens: a queen of light and salvation and a queen of blood and destruction. To prove she is the Sun Queen, Rielle must endure seven trials to test her magic. If she fails, she will be executed…unless the trials kill her first.

A thousand years later, the legend of Queen Rielle is a mere fairy tale to bounty hunter Eliana Ferracora. When the Undying Empire conquered her kingdom, she embraced violence to keep her family alive. Now, she believes herself untouchable–until her mother vanishes without a trace, along with countless other women in their city. To find her, Eliana joins a rebel captain on a dangerous mission and discovers that the evil at the heart of the empire is more terrible than she ever imagined.

As Rielle and Eliana fight in a cosmic war that spans millennia, their stories intersect, and the shocking connections between them ultimately determine the fate of their world—and of each other.

• ISBN10: 1492656623
• ISBN13: 9781492656623
• Publish Date: 22 May 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 9 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Sourcebooks Fire
• Format: Hardcover (Deckle Edge)
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[kalventure]

"Some say the queen was frightened in her last moments but I like to think that she was angry."

3.5 stars WOW. [b:Furyborn|34323570|Furyborn (Empirium, #1)|Claire Legrand|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1512678373s/34323570.jpg|55385235] drew me immediately into a story that spans one thousand years in a world where angels do not have humanity's best interests at heart and prophesy is coming true.

Furyborn is set in the mythical world of Aritas and is told from two points of view in an alternating narrative:
--Rielle is a queen of years past in a time where magic was rare. Those that could wield used castings and could only control one element... Rielle needs nothing but her anger to wield all seven. When she is forced to make her abilities known to save someone else, she undergoes trials to prove herself.
--Eliana is a bounty hunter in Ventera 1,000 years later, serving the Undying Empire to protect her family. She has a unique ability that no one but her brother knows about. Magic isn't a thing anymore, and she lives in a world where the legends of Rielle are looked upon as myth rather than history. When she gets an assignment for the Empire, things get a lot more complicated.
--(Okay three POVs if you count 8 year old Simon in the opening chapter)--Simon is a marque, the product of an angel and human. Marques have special abilities but must live in secret.

“Two Queens will rise.
One of blood. One of light.”

I really love narratives that begin with "the end;" where something happens and then it flashes back in time so you can trace the events to led to that moment. When done well this is an incredibly powerful tool, and it is executed nicely here but left me wanting for more. This is a fast-paced and action filled tale that builds its own mythos and puts a spin on the "angelic nature" of angels. I had a tough time putting it down, even though I got a bit lost in some of the action scenes! Nearly every chapter ended with a cliffhanger (ugh!), and while I found myself annoyed at times with the shifting perspectives I did not find it necessarily difficult to follow.

The worldbuilding on the surface is incredibly interesting: religious, political, magical and social components are all alluded to as the story progresses; however, I do feel that a lot of the worldbuilding was sacrificed for action-packed fight scenes (which I started skimming about halfway through). Plot developments were easy to guess but not in a way that felt annoyingly cliche and obvious, and overall I was ravenous to piece more together. Unfortunately I am a bit disappointed that two important historical things never are explained, and that gap lessened my reading experience for me. If I am being honest with myself, it's likely because I was invested in the romance between Audric and Rielle... and I wanted more answers there. 💘💘💘 It is worth noting that there are a couple of tasteful sex scenes, which I personally don't associate with YA, but consent is well depicted here and I think that is sososo important.

Because the book starts with the end (and a new beginning), as the reader you know where the story is going. You know which MC is which queen in the first pages of the book but the mystery is in the journey they take to get there. There is still so much story to tell here and I look forward to learning more about what happened with Rielle in those 2 years, as well as what happens in the future for Eliana.

ARC provided via Netgalley by the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, in exchange for my honest review. Quotes taken from an uncorrected proof and are subject to change upon publication.

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[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
2.5*

I kind of thought that the problems I had with this book might be "just me". Then I read some other reviews from people who felt similarly, so now maybe it's not just me? Anyway, my deal was this: I found the story interesting, but I also found it quite cumbersome. I feel like it was very well written, and I think that a ton of thought went into building this story. As it jumps from past to present, and between two main characters' points of view, there's a lot happening.

And for me, this is also kind of the problem. See, while I was impressed by the story, I was also wholly overwhelmed. It was kind of hard work, and when I read, I want to be entertained and not feeling like I had to keep a damn spreadsheet just to know what was going on. It was very slow going for me, which in part was because it is a longer book. But it wasn't just the length, it was just very taxing to read. Trying to keep all the characters in two timelines straight, the magical elements, the world building, there was a lot to take in.

I also don't know if it was a great decision to start the way it did. The prologue tells the reader what the fate of one of the characters is from the start, and it made the stakes feel a little lower for me. I did enjoy the characters, though I don't know that I enjoyed them quite enough to make up for the slowness/difficulty.

Will I Read the Next Book? I'm torn. On one hand... I don't want to. But on the other, I am a little curious? Let's leave it as a "perhaps, let's wait and see".

Bottom Line: The story has a lot of appealing elements, but I was too overwhelmed (and a little bored) most of the time to be fully immersed. 

[Cocktails and Books]

4.5 Cocktails

It took me a bit to get used to the POV flipping between the two characters, but I ended up adoring this book. The story of Rielle/Audric and Eliana/Simon, weaved past and current, takes readers on an amazing journey. I loved that I didn't know who was friend or foe and if what was happening in the current time could really be impacted by what had happened in the past. Claire Legrand had me completely mesmerized and I can't wait to see what happens next. Long live the Queen!

[liz089]

I received this ARC from my Fairyloot supscription, super awesome !!

Lately there have been a lot of new YA Fantasy novels that are just not good enough. Not original enough, too predictable, too boring...

But this one, this one is better.

Yes it is not perfect, there are some things that are still predictable and over-used. But I really enjoyed this one. It felt very refreshing and new, I really appreciated the world-building, it was very interesting how it all came together and I feel it has a good plot, a strong plot for the beginning of a trilogy.

I also liked both main characters, and found it very interesting to read both their stories, even though they do not happen at the same time, and we already know how Rielle's story will end. Normally one is much more interesting then the other (at least in my experience), but this time I enjoyed them equally and had no preference. Maybe... Eliana a little bit more because we do not know what will happen to her ? But I found it also very interesting to read about Rielle and am curious what else will happen to her, to make her turn on her own people.

This is most definitely a series I will continue and am very curious how it will progress.. Downside ?? I have to wait very long for the next one haha XD

[Stephanie]

Meh.

[cornerfolds]

If you had asked me at the beginning of 2018 what my most anticipated books were, Furyborn would've been in the top 5! I was lucky enough to end up with an ARC of this book pretty early and started reading it straight away... so why did it take until after the publication date to finish it? I don't think it's exaggerating to call this one of my biggest disappointments of the year.

Clocking in at over 500 pages and encompassing two different stories, 1000 years apart, Furyborn is just too much. It tries to be too much, while simultaneously not being enough. There are two protagonists in this story, as promised on the front cover - two queens will rise. Unfortunately, neither of these queens were written in a way that made me care much about them, a common theme throughout this book.

Rielle is the first queen, the one who lives in a medieval(ish) world where angels and magic, known as the Empirium, are reality. She has always known she could control all the elements and must prove that she has mastered them in order to be confirmed as the Sun Queen. She has a bit of a love triangle going on with the prince she grew up with (who happens to be betrothed) and another individual, who I can't say too much about. If I had to pick one of the main characters to care about, it would be Rielle, although I really don't know enough about her to have strong feelings either way, even after 500+ pages. It's a bit shocking to realize how little is really dished out over the course of such a massive book, to be honest.

The second queen is Eliana, an assassin who has some mysterious magical powers, but nothing near the level of Rielle, who is now just a story, along with angels and the Empirium. She runs into someone who she is unable to best, the Wolf, and is taken along with her brother to assist him in a mission. I didn't hate Eliana, but again, I didn't feel like I knew much about her. She also had some romance drama, although hers consisted of very quickly jumping from one love interest to another. At least there wasn't a love triangle, I guess?

The biggest issue with this book, as I've already mentioned, is that there isn't enough information, although how that's possible with a 500+ page book is beyond me. Furyborn jumps from action sequence to action sequence without giving the reader much actual information about the characters and the world, and the action itself quickly becomes repetitive. Rielle has to complete trials and we get a rinse and repeat of every single one. There are no stakes because we already know based on the prologue that she won't die. Although each trial attempts to make itself thrilling, and the first couple were, they quickly get old. Similarly, Eliana's chapters are a sequence of dumb decisions, fighting, and running.

This lack of information also applies to the world. Although the two worlds could be differentiated, they could really only be told apart by the fact that people believe in magic in one and don't in the other. There is no real description of the elemental magic, although the author did include a nifty chart in the back of the book, which feels a bit lazy. It would've added a lot more to the story if the elements Rielle was mastering had actually be explained instead of being plopped in a glossary. I also didn't feel like the difference between the different levels(???) of angels were explained well enough. Overall, there was just SO MUCH information that could've been given if this book had been written a bit differently.

Of course, when the characters and world aren't nearly well-defined enough, it isn't shocking that the plot also had its issues. By which I mean, what even was the plot? It seems that there's this grand thread tying both these girls stories together, but what is it? I get that both are supposed to be magical queens, but why are these stories told together? They don't flow together at all and each chapter took me completely out of the other character's story. There was once where the chapters got choppy as each character was going through a (particularly exciting?) action scene, but the two didn't have any cohesion whatsoever. It's just a very bizarre choice when two stories don't seem to have any overlap.

I'm no writer, and this isn't my story to tell, but as a reader, I think this story could've been saved had it been split into two books, with each one being better fleshed out. This really is two books spun together for a reason I can't fathom. Had book one been Rielle's story, with more world building and less repetitive action, and book two been focused on Eliana, I know I would have enjoyed it much more. I feel like there is a good story in this book somewhere, and I truly hope Claire Legrand is able to flesh it out more in book two of this trilogy, although I doubt I'll be reading it.

Actual Rating: 1.5 stars

[Leigha]

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Two women come to terms with their destinies in this young adult epic fantasy novel.

So Claire Legrand’s Furyborn completely blew me away. I devoured this book in a 24 hour period. It’s about two powerful young women, Rielle and Eliana, coming to terms with themselves and their circumstances. Each chapter seamlessly alternates between their very different perspectives. Honestly, it should be a hot mess – the constant hopping between time periods, characters, and mythology. And yet, the novel’s charm is the ability to immerse yourself into each story equally. If you enjoy magic, bad ass women, and political intrigue, you will most likely enjoy this story.

The preface took away some of my enjoyment as it reveals the connection between Rielle and Eliana. My hope is the preface is deleted from the final copy. Context clues within the story provides ample foreshadowing to their connection. Additionally, the antagonists needed more development. Despite those minor issues, I just fell in love with the characters and setting. I’m dying to get my hands on the next book in the series!

tl;dr An action-packed epic fantasy with two tenacious female characters.

[Ashley]

REALLY cool story! That's definitely the best part of this book. I love the two timelines and how they connect. That part was fantastic. I also love how the prologue shows you what happens, then the story backs up a bit and shows you how that came about.

I removed a star because the ending lost me a little, mostly how Simon just totally changed into a different person. He starts out being kind of dark, aloof, and dangerous. Then at the end he's totally mushy. It's almost like he has no sense of self anymore, he's just blindly devoted. That dangerous, merciless killer that I adored from the first half was totally gone.

This is a really cool story though:

- Betrayals.
- Mystery.
- Forbidden love.
- Bounty hunters.
- Magic, angels, and war.

Mostly I think I loved reading about Rielle. I love how she clearly was a good person, but had this huge struggle with an angel kind of pulling her to the dark side. It's almost a bit Star Wars-y, like a Jedi being tricked and manipulated into falling to the dark side.