Reviewed by EBookObsessed on
While Phoenix Unbound contained its own interesting world building, there is no question that inspiration was taken from the worst of the Roman Empire with emphasis on slavery, rape, sacrifices and blood sports.
TRIGGER WARNING: While it is not graphically violent, both hero and heroine are subjected to rape.
Each Spring the Empire makes an offering to their Gods by sacrificing young women in the Colosseum. They collect a female–old, young, married, mother, it doesn’t matter–from each village in the Empire and they are tied together in a mass pit and burned alive. As if this isn’t tormenting enough, they spend their last night on earth being tossed to the gladiators to be raped before their die.
Every generation, a fire witch is born in the village of Beroe. This power does not descend through one family. It is a random occurrence, but this fire witch takes on the burden of the sacrifice. They not only have the ability to control fire and not burn, but they have the ability to cast illusions. Therefore, she can assume a different appearance each year to fool the Empire. Gilene was born with these abilities and for the last few years, she has sacrified herself for the good of her family and her village. Enduring the rape and the backlash of using that much fire magic at one time. Gilene knows that this is her burden in life, to suffer the sacrifice year after year. She knows she will never marry, who would have her as their wife? The scarring from the burns will increase each year until the next fire witch is old enough to take on the burden, and Gilene will die young, scarred and alone.
This year is different because Gilene is confronted by the Gladius Prime. Azarion can see through Gilene’s illusion magic. He noticed her among the women last year and realized he had seen her the prior year. He knows what Gilene is. Azarion’s people worship the Goddess of Fire, Agna, and her handmaidens who harness fire. He knows that Gilene is an agacin and he needs her illusion magic to help him escape his cage and finally return to his people.
Gilene isn’t the only one to suffer humiliation and pain at the hands of the Empire. For ten years, Azarion has fought as the gladiator in the Empire’s games and as a champion for most of that time he has been forced to service the sadistic Empress. She likes pain as much as pleasure and Azarion would rather fight in the pits than gratify the Empress’s lusts. Azarion was the son of the clan chief who was betrayed by a cousin who beat him unconscious and sold him as a slave to the Empire. He has spent the last year hoping and praying that the fire witch would return again this year, and planning how he would use her to escape.
Azarion blackmails Gilene to help him escape. While she believes her assistance ends when she opens his door, Azarion knows that he will need to backing of the agacin to reclaim his birthright and he kidnaps Gilene after making his escape.
Once freed Gilene and Azarion have to outrun the Empire. Gilene is unhappy being forced into fleeing, but she also knows that if she is caught with Azarion, the Empire won’t bother themselves with the fact that the was abducted. She will quickly go from sacrifice to slave in the Empire and won’t be able to help her village. At least Azarion has promised to return her to her people once she helps him.
As they travel, we get a glimpse of some of Azarion’s guilt for blackmailing a woman who has spent her life being blackmailed by her village (if she doesn’t burn for them, her family members will be sent for the next sacrifices). Gilene doesn’t want to acknowledge that her kidnapper and blackmailer has any good points but once they arrive at his village, she at first begrudingly admits he has good points and comes to admit that even thought she was dragged there, Azarion’s people need him and what a great leader he will be. Yet, when the declares that his first act as chief would be to march his people against the heart of the Empire, Gilene isn’t sure if he is a madman or a brilliant strategist.
I liked how Azarion’s village life was presented and how they, at first grudgingly, acknowledge Gilene and come to cheer her as one of their own, once her fire magic returned and she was able to prove herself as a true agacin.
Their trip from the center of the Empire to the wild plains where Azarion’s village lies was quite an adventure and I like that there was no insta-love. Gilene’s strength and dedication to her people gains Azarion’s regard a lot quicker than Azarion was able to win over Gilene’s, this was a story where love was slowly build upon respect and admiration of character. By the end Gilene was torn between her duty to her family and her love for Azarion and his people.
I got a little nervous about three-quarters into the story since this was book 1 of a series, I was afraid we would be left hanging, but a check of the author’s website shows that this will be a trilogy featuring three different women.
I kept getting interupted so it took me awhile to get through it, but I had it downloaded everywhere and I would even read a few pages on my phone when I could. I definitely enjoyed this story.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- Finished reading
- 16 September, 2018: Reviewed