In this city, money might be power, but true legitimacy comes from public spectacle.[loc. 2521]
Finale of the Burnished City trilogy, following Notorious Sorcerer and Shadow Baron. After the changes that swept through Bezim at the climax of Shadow Baron, Siyon Velo -- the Sorcerer, the Alchemist, the Power of the Mundane -- is lying low, blamed for the turmoil and upheaval ... and for the monsters converging on the City, drawn by the power he's unleashed. Meanwhile, Anahid is settling into her role as Lady Sable, and watching her little sister Zagiri attempt to overthrow the azatani, the ruling class, from her position of privilege.
If the first novel focussed on Siyon and the second on Anahid, this is very much Zagiri's story. She's not always a great judge of character, and wanting more power for the common folk of Bezim is an admirable goal that nevertheless attracts some shady individuals. Zagiri's impetuous nature and her bravi love of risk bring her, via tribulations major and minor, to a public duel at the Hippodrome. But even Zagiri can be upstaged...
Rebel Blade catches up all the threads of the previous novels and weaves them into epic. (Nearly all the threads: a couple of minor characters vanished without trace.) There are treacheries great and small, surprise reveals of identity, and Establishment figures rejecting their roles. And there is happiness, sometimes in surprising forms, for our three protagonists. I loved the revolutionary vibes, the notebooks, the determination to maintain masks literal and metaphorical: I loved the varied careers open to women, and the resolutions of old pain.
And of course I now want to reread the whole series, from Siyon's first impossible act...
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK Publication Date is 03 December 2024.
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