Bookworm Speaks!- The Empress Games by Rhonda Mason
Bookworm Speaks!
The Empress Game
The Empress Game Trilogy Book 1
by Rhonda Mason
Acquired: Barnes and Nobel Booksellers
Series: The Empress Game Trilogy
Paperback: 352 Pages
Publisher: Titan Books
Language: English
Subject: Fiction
*****
The Story: One seat on the intergalactic Sakien Empire’s supreme ruling body, the Council of Seven, remains unfilled: that of the Empress Apparent. The seat isn’t won by votes or marriage. It’s won in a tournament of ritualized combat. Now the tournament, the Empress Game, has been called and the women of the empire will stop at nothing to secure political domination for their homeworlds. Kayla Reunimon, a supreme fighter, is called by a mysterious stranger to battle it out in the arena.
The battle for political power isn’t contained by the tournament’s ring, however. The empire’s elite gather to forge, strengthen or betray alliances in a dance that will determine the fate of the empire for a generation. With the empire wracked by a rising nanovirus plague and stretched thin by an ill-advised planet-wide occupation of Ordoch in enemy territory, everything rests on the woman who rises to the top.
The Review: This book kicks butt.
Both literally and figuratively.
This book breaks cliches and does a great job all the while.
Ever since the release of the Hunger Games, contests to win the throne, have become a mainstay. In here, it is done in such a way that it stands on its own. Princesses have long been pieces to be fought over by the usually male protagonist. Here…the pieces play themselves. The female heirs have to battle for their right to rule, no preened and perfect ladies here and no post apocalypse either.
Its unique setting and style sets this book apart from a lot of other books. The Space Opera aspect most of all, but it is actually rather downplayed as most of the action takes place on the home planet of the Empress Games. It still works though.
Kayla is about as far from preened as you can get. She is the lost heiress to a planet that was conquered by the very empire she is fighting for. This may sound familiar but it actually is written in such a way that you find sympathizing with both sides of the coin.
That is one of the main themes of the entire book: There really can be a good reason for anything and it is a very slippery slope. The trick is knowing where your line is.
She is a strong fighter but that is not the only good thing about her. She is determined to survive and protect her frail younger brother. In a lot of other stuff the opposite scenario is the case and kudos to the author.
But Kayla has to more than just fight. She has to travel the less direct, but no less lethal arena of politics. She has to balance on a knife’s edge trying to be two people at once. It gets even more complicated near the end.
Unfortunately, while this book breaks a lot of cliches, it also props up a few cliches that add to this book’s detriment.
First of all, the romance. Granted, the romance in this book is not unbearable and does not come to light until fairly late in the story, but it is in there and follows a certain path which is a large blow to this books rating.
What made Bookworm pickup this book was the fact that it starred a tough-as-nails female protagonist which is something popular media desperately needs. This book is a step forward, also a step back by the fact that Kayla winds up in bed with the main male character. It is not just any male character, its the one that she started out hating for getting her into this mess. We have seen a lot of that before and it doesn’t make that much sense. Why would someone fall in love with someone they considered an enemy? More importantly, it reflects a wider trend that is ultimately detrimental to the strong female protagonists: that she needs a man to get by, that all she needed was a little attention from the opposite sex to become the hero she needs to be. That’s not a very progressive way of thinking. What keeps the book from being put down is that it is not central to the bulk of the book and it’s fairly realistic. It would have been better if Kayla had fallen in love with another male (or female) character, not the ‘bad boy’ that she first meets.
Not every story needs a romantic angle in it.
Another thing not every story needs is its story following a familiar pattern.
***WARNING!!! Slight Spoilers Ahead***
In the latter half of the story, Kayla gets betrayed. While the author does a good job in making it a surprise, it is something to be expected in a story like this. Also, the ending is somewhat familiar as well. Neither of these things are poorly written. As a matter of fact, there is no clear good or bad side which is great.
***Spoilers End***
Final Verdict: The Empress Game is compelling debut novel with unique story and compelling female protagonist. The fact that it fell into some of the cliches of the genre and its somewhat predictable storyline kept from achieving a full five ranking.
Four Sai out of Five
****
Comments
Post a Comment