Hardcover, 496 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Delacorte Press
Rating: ★★★★★
Wow. Just wow. I have been eagerly anticipating the release of Now I Rise since the moment I finished And I Darken last year. It didn't disappoint, if anything it improved upon its predecessor and exceeded my expectations.
In The Conquerer's Saga Kiersten White takes on the very end of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople and changing power in eastern Europe, but with her own twists. Here Vlad Dracul is a young woman named Lada, one of two main characters. The other is Radu, Lada's younger brother.
White gives Lada all the room she needs to be ruthless, brutal and yet also sympathetic. Her wildness cannot be tamed, her desire for Wallachia cannot be quenched, and she will kill or destroy anyone who attempts to part her from either. In a sea of very samey protagonists, Lada stands out; there is nothing she won't sacrifice to rule Wallachia, no brutality too far. Her love affair with Mehmed stagnates too as love falls to the steely strength of their twin ambitions.
Lada's younger brother Radu is a study in contrasts. Though by now he is no stranger to killing battles, Radu remains the clever, soft-hearted boy he once was. His love for Mehmed, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, brings him to Constantinople as a spy. Luckily, Nazira, our beautiful secret lesbian princess and Radu's wife, comes with him. Nazira is a breath of fresh air, for Radu as well as for the reader. She's deeply intelligent, both socially and emotionally, and is a bit like sunshine, really. In Nazira Radu has a friend, one that he can be completely honest with as she knows all his secrets and shares her own with him as well. There are moments where the friendship and affection between them is so strong and pure that you can't help but be protective of them both.
What particularly works about Radu and Lada's alternating viewpoints is that White has created herself an opportunity to not only tell an interesting story, but explore the masculine and feminine through both. Radu's homosexuality is his own not-very-well-kept secret, it is a part of him and leads him places he did not expect. Likewise, Lada's gender, her body itself, means that she must fight twice as hard, be twice as brutal and find new ways to proceed when the doors don't open to her like they would a man. There's a fascinating dichotomy in both of them that draws the reader in, presents the siblings as deep, complex human beings that you empathize with even as you're frustrated with their actions.
Mehmed does not appear nearly as much in this book as the last, sharing only one scene with Lada and two or so with Radu, yet his presence is felt throughout its entirety. Lada and Radu do not share a single scene, yet like Mehmed, each is never far from the other's mind. As such, there is much pontificating on love, friendship, loyalty and country and how each character relates to each other. Even if you don't know the real history that serves as a bedrock in this novel, the taste of tragedy lies beneath the text: Lada will never be content to be a wife, Mehmed will never be content without his empire, and Radu will never be content without the returned love of Mehmed.
Their emotional journeys draw you along as much as Lada killing her way to the role of vaivode of Wallachia and the fall of Constantinople. There's so much contained in Now I Rise that 500 pages felt far too quick and has left me desperately wanting more.
In The Conquerer's Saga Kiersten White takes on the very end of the Byzantine Empire with the fall of Constantinople and changing power in eastern Europe, but with her own twists. Here Vlad Dracul is a young woman named Lada, one of two main characters. The other is Radu, Lada's younger brother.
White gives Lada all the room she needs to be ruthless, brutal and yet also sympathetic. Her wildness cannot be tamed, her desire for Wallachia cannot be quenched, and she will kill or destroy anyone who attempts to part her from either. In a sea of very samey protagonists, Lada stands out; there is nothing she won't sacrifice to rule Wallachia, no brutality too far. Her love affair with Mehmed stagnates too as love falls to the steely strength of their twin ambitions.
Lada's younger brother Radu is a study in contrasts. Though by now he is no stranger to killing battles, Radu remains the clever, soft-hearted boy he once was. His love for Mehmed, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, brings him to Constantinople as a spy. Luckily, Nazira, our beautiful secret lesbian princess and Radu's wife, comes with him. Nazira is a breath of fresh air, for Radu as well as for the reader. She's deeply intelligent, both socially and emotionally, and is a bit like sunshine, really. In Nazira Radu has a friend, one that he can be completely honest with as she knows all his secrets and shares her own with him as well. There are moments where the friendship and affection between them is so strong and pure that you can't help but be protective of them both.
What particularly works about Radu and Lada's alternating viewpoints is that White has created herself an opportunity to not only tell an interesting story, but explore the masculine and feminine through both. Radu's homosexuality is his own not-very-well-kept secret, it is a part of him and leads him places he did not expect. Likewise, Lada's gender, her body itself, means that she must fight twice as hard, be twice as brutal and find new ways to proceed when the doors don't open to her like they would a man. There's a fascinating dichotomy in both of them that draws the reader in, presents the siblings as deep, complex human beings that you empathize with even as you're frustrated with their actions.
Mehmed does not appear nearly as much in this book as the last, sharing only one scene with Lada and two or so with Radu, yet his presence is felt throughout its entirety. Lada and Radu do not share a single scene, yet like Mehmed, each is never far from the other's mind. As such, there is much pontificating on love, friendship, loyalty and country and how each character relates to each other. Even if you don't know the real history that serves as a bedrock in this novel, the taste of tragedy lies beneath the text: Lada will never be content to be a wife, Mehmed will never be content without his empire, and Radu will never be content without the returned love of Mehmed.
Their emotional journeys draw you along as much as Lada killing her way to the role of vaivode of Wallachia and the fall of Constantinople. There's so much contained in Now I Rise that 500 pages felt far too quick and has left me desperately wanting more.
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