Children of Anguish and Anarchy by Tomi AdeyemiMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
What do you do when your characters have the powers of literal Gods in book two of a three book series? What do you do when your heroes have succeeded in dethroning the villains of the first two books, and overthrowing the corrupt government? How do characters full of hate for the ruling class, bring their divided country together?
There is only one thing you can do. Up the stakes and wipe the slate clean by introducing a bigger badder bad guy!
Children of Anguish and Anarchy is the third book in the series. If you haven't already please check out my reviews for the other two books, Children of Blood and Bones, and Children of Virtue and Vengeance.
In this third book in the series Zelie, Inan, Tzain and Amari are captured moments before they complete the overturning of the Orishan government. They’ve succeeded in destroying the royal palace, and bringing the Queen Nehanda to her knees. They can almost taste victory! Then boom!
To those who were not playing close attention to the foreshadowing, this turn comes out of nowhere. Adeyemi almost completely cloaked this rising dagger in the background of Books One and Two only showing it’s glimmer in a few short throwaway lines that could be anything.
Your clues were:
1. Maji have been going missing. We blamed the royal family for this but the royals don’t know what’s happening.
2. The king doesn’t take hostages. Throughout the both books the King and Queen kills maji on sight. No one was arrested. Not even in Zelie’s parents. Even Prince Inan is afraid of being killed if his father finds out that he is a Connector.
3. The secret conversations Roen has with traitorous men after Zelie saved his life, reveals that they’ve been working with a darker force whose pays them well. We overhear this conversation through Zelie’s POV, but it’s masked by romantic tension as well as the possibility of Roen being a bad dude.
4. Where did the majacite come from? It was used as chains in book one and gas in book two. It was a surprise to even Amari when the Queen hits them with this gas that kills maji instantly. But who mines the stuff? What is the source? Is it new weird metal from a distant land?
All of this and various statements made by Inan about his father, was to foreshadow that there was a bigger threat out there somewhere. Something was coming that no one is paying attention to because of all the fighting between the maji and royals. A new villain that the royal family would attend to once they squashed the maki. A foe that is worse than Amari’s parents, because he has the love and support of his entire nation to back him up.
King Baldyr - rides at the head of the Skull warriors, a fleet of fair skinned men with blue eyes, and chestnut colored hair that read like Vikings. White people have entered our African fantasy, and they have powers and witches of their own. Each man is a huge, barrel chested, muscular tank.They feed off of blood magic, have enchanted steel weapons that bring about a berserker state when blood is shed. They ride armored bears the way the Orisha ride big armored cats, and they invade on ships powered by engines of fire, instead of wind like the Orisha. They’ve been looking for Zelie’s heart this whole time.
In the midst of her victory, Zelie and her army of maji are gassed by powered majacite, and taken hostage by the bronze Skulls onto ships made of steel. They are poisoned until they loose their magic and held hostage aboard these ships for months. Zelie is forced to wear a majacite crown that permanently cuts her off from Oya’s blessing. And that is where the story opens.
The Skulls care nothing about the bodies of their maji captives. They are dismissive of their health and needs as if they are not even living breathing beings. The maki are treated as if they are little more than fruit to be harvested, eaten, and their mutilated bodies tossed overboard when everything good has been devoured. The Skulls don’t even care about Zelie, it’s her heart they are after. Her’s is one of two hearts strong enough to contain the power of the the magical stones King Baldere needs to make himself into a God.
Baldere underestimate’s Zellie’s strength and cunning. She escapes his capture, along with her friends. She uses this strange, foreign magic Baldere has forced upon her to seek out the second girl the Skulls are searching for - a priestesses apprentice from the distant land of New Gaia, named Me’e. With the help of the New Gaian people, Zelie learns to control her new powers, while morning the loss of the magic she shared with her mother and her Goddess.
We later learn that King Baldere is able to control Zelle’s magic - both her old and new powers - as he uses her as conduit for his own purposes. How will she free herself? How will she regain control of her will and her reconnect to the source of her own magic? To her ancestry? How will she defeat this mortal king before he becomes a God?
Even deeper Spoilers Ahead!
What I loved
This book was beautiful! The descriptions of the places, the powers, the people.
I loved the introduction of the Vikings into this beautiful world, as a consequence for the in fighting happening on Orisha. The Viking, or in this case The Skulls, are a united front capable of so much damage but until now their conquest has been stealthy and nuanced. They are secure behind their leader, and their leader is supported by the these dark and terrible Germanic witches. It’s some really creepy stuff - especially after being with the Orisha for two books.
I loved seeing other lands in this fantastic world! The cold dark stony Scandinavian tribes of the Baldeirik, and the wild blues and greens of New Gaia are an amazing contrast to each other as well as Orisha. And visiting those places made Orisha feel like it was as much my home as that of the main characters. I’m left longing for the main characters to return to it.
I admire Adeyemi’s us of this paralleling of history. For those who don’t know - at the beginning of the Trans Atlanta Slave Trade many Africans were at war with each other in their own langs. Tribes were fighting among themselves in disputes over land and resources - as many cultures do. And like many cultures, African warriors often took hostages or slaves from the loosing side. Mercenaries kidnapping women, children, and the elderly and forcing them into indentured servitude of other tribes was not uncommon.
The Invading whites took advantage of this situation and battered with both sides, and with mercenaries, in these conflicts. Europeans traded for captives in exchanges more betters weapons. These guns and bombs created more captives and opened up land that the whites were able to move onto as a consequence. In this way, a divided Africa was concurred and it’s very people were fed to an enemy nation and sailed away to far off lands were they could never escape.
The way the Skulls have been sneaking into Orisha for two books, and have been working with mercenaries to spirit away the magical members of Orisha is an amazing plot twist. This may also explain the superior weapons and armors the royal family used to keep the maji in check when they themselves had no magic - also how the Queen suddenly had even more powerful weapons just in time to keep the power when the maji got their magic back.
I also admire how Adeyemi was able to make the Skulls a real legitimate and masculine threat without once using sexual abuse of the female protagonist. King Baldere is scary without being a pervert, because he doesn’t see the captives as human. They are livestock to him, to be used for his purposes and discarded when he’s done with them. And that makes him even scarier.
What I liked
The pacing - it was fast paced and may have shaken me had I been reading it. But with my Audible subscription I was able to keep up with the what felt like a very fast progression of time - especially around travel. Though Zelie and the team spend months on the King Baldere’s ship, it takes them days to find in New Gaia. Inan makes it back to Orisha at about the same time, it seems, and they all start preparing for the Blood Moon.
This does not drag the story. It’s interesting to see the different ways the characters need to be healed, and straightened. It’s amazing to observe how they’ve all matured in this third book. During this time they are able to form relationships and bonds so tight I wonder if some of them will be able to return to their homes.
Zelie’s character has changed. She’s gone from a wild kid desperate to survive one book one, to a teacher and protector in book two, and now this weather worn solider who’s down growing stronger. Book One Zelle would never have been able to forgive Amari. But book Three Zelie loves Amarie despite everything - and they finally stop fighting.
I believe Book Three is the first time we see anything from Tzain’s POV. His moment of finding the source of his true strength is one of the few times a book as actually made me cry. I commend this novelist for not giving in to the temptation of having Tzain and Amari become an item again. It’s makes total since that he’d forgive her but still never be able to be with her as he was before. Sometimes bonds are broken and can never be repaired the same way again.
Amari not being willing to use her magic for most of this book makes total since after what she did with it last time. And the way she heals feels so much like a moment of writer’s instincts. I wonder if Adeyemi was as surprised as the readers were by Amari’s new lover. Though unexpected, the choice seemed right and a fitting conclusion to Amari’s character arch.
Inan finally uses his God given powers to be a jerk to the right people for a change! His level of desperation never lessens but at least he finally, at the end, finds a purpose and good use for his tactical skill as a strategist. He finally stops fighting himself. Allows himself to be devoted to Zelie and her cause and finds cohesion in helping her. His end is not sad to me. I’m glad he’s finally gets a chance to do what he’d promised he do for three books.
What I disliked:
The ending. Most of the complaints about this novel are because of the open ended conclusion. There is no closure! There are far too many questions left unanswered.
The story ends as soon as King Baldere is defeated. Ok, and?
Is Zelie a God now? A high priestess of Oya? What? (Though the scene of her taking down Baldere is insane!)
Does Tzain just go back to being a fisherman’s son after all that - because he’s not dating the princess anymore. But he can pull an ax out of his chest, so that’s cool. But now what?
Does Amari go to live in New Gaia now with her new love?
Does she get to a new position there? Does she give up her throne and friendships in Orisha for good?
Is the hierophant even allowed to have a lover?
And who’s in charge of Orisha now? They fought for two books to overthrow the royal family, but Queen Nehanda is still alive and, as far as we know, the titans only listen to her - assuming she survived the battle.
Under Inan the titans and the maji were brought together to defeat King Baldere; without Inan to broker the continued peace who will? Is the battle between the royals and the maji water under the bridge now? Does she get to on ruling? Or will the maji make Zelie their queen?
King Baldere is defeated, but he is a part of a distant culture of people who don’t seem as though they take defeat well. It is not clear why Baldere was chosen to be the new God. Zelie sees in her visions of him that he wasn’t a prince. He was poor child taken from his mother and raised to be a warrior. He was a cog in a machine - a very important golden cog - not irreplaceable. I get the feeling the witches were more of a threat than the King was.
I assume Roen died off screen some place but will Zelie’s heart connection with him come back? Or the fact that she has Inan’s breath?
Is this all just set up for Adeyemi to continue the series beyond three books?
It bugs me to have so much left unanswered at the end of a three book arch without explanation. The Epilogue could have easily given a great deal of closure. It’s like going to a three hour movie and seeing “To Be Continued” at the end. Frustrating.
I just want to know how THIS story ends for THESE characters. I’ve spent a few years with them. I’ve watched them grow up. I’ve watched them fight, make up, believe in themselves, give into despair. They’ve made me laugh, cry and jump for joy. I want to know how they go on to live their lives.
If this is all set up for a fourth book, or for the series to continue on and on, I’m not sure I will follow because I don’t like to be baited and without having a satisfactory ending in sight.
Conclusion: Overall I loved this book! It was a fantastic conclusion the series. It raised the stakes in a way I never expected and maintained this theme of unity throughout all three book. Book One was for the team of Zelie, and Tzain to work together with the tyrant king’s daughter to bringing back magic. Book Two was for these three young heroes to form an army to work together to defeat their oppressors. And Book Three was for these older, and wiser heroes to work even harder to bring their divided country together to defeat an even bigger threat from another place.
I think the world building was beautiful, the drama was real and captivating. The magical system was fascinating and well maintained throughout the entire series.
The only thing that bothers me honestly is the lack of closure at the end. A better ending would have raised these stars of all around. I’ve been following the fate of Orisha for three books. I’d really love to have seen how the place faired a few years out.
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed this please check out my other posts below.
This is been an excellent book series and I’ve enjoyed the ride ride over all! If you enjoyed the Children of Blood and Bone series by Tomi Adeyemi here are some other books I bet you’ll enjoy:
Monstress. - Marjoie Liu Sana Takeda
Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - Amos Tutuola
The Court of Thorns and Roses - by Sarah J Maas
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