Review: The Wingspan of Treason by L.N. Bayen
Blurb:
Invelmar. A great kingdom boasting unrivalled peace and a brutal grip over the known world. A kingdom built with blood.
Former Invelmari prince Klaus surrendered everything to it. Now he’s fleeing a shattering betrayal and wondering why his parents want to kill him.
Neighbouring Derinda – a once-magnificent realm devastated by Invelmar’s damming of its mighty river – may offer Klaus a new life mapping distant roads. But feuding Derinda makes poor refuge for a fugitive mapmaker, and there’s no peace from his questions here. Questions about who his real family are. Questions about the sentient particles awakening in Derinda’s desert, intent on unearthing the devastating secret buried in its sands…
Because this desert wind is thick with poets and pirates, shamans and spaewives, and the answers are far worse than Klaus could have imagined. His loyalties to his beloved home are fast unravelling, and the desert clamours for a trial of Invelmar’s crimes. But can he separate vengeance from justice?
Does he even want to?
TRUTH IS A KNIFE. LOYALTY’S A CAGE. NO ONE IS INNOCENT.
Review:
WOW.
Sometimes a single word could get the point across easier than an entire essay about the book ever could, so if you wanted to stop there just know it’s a much shorter review but will end the same; WOW.
This book was an actual masterpiece, one that will stick with me a long time. Which works out well, since it’s only the 1st in the planned series. I was looking forward to this for a long, long time. Back when I was just “Pete” on twitter (never X), and not the absolutely LEGENDARY reviewer I am today (a mere 5 months later), I asked for an ARC copy as soon as I saw the cover and after a few weeks of waiting, it arrived! At first, I was worried that my anticipation would fade as I read; what if I didn’t like it as much as I thought? Would I be obligated to read it, just because? Thankfully, the answer is a resounding no, and…WOW.
The book starts off with 3 of our POV characters Klaus, Verdi and Arik leaving their northern homeland of Invelmar aside. Klaus, an Intelligencer, was in line to become the next ruler but his sister tipped him off that he may not be a true heir, and the 3 made a dash for “safety” into the neighboring realm of Derinda. To the south, it’s a brutal and unforgiving place, where deserts and dunes make up the landscape and water becomes more valuable than gold. As they travel, we get into the minds of each of the 3. Verdi, Klaus’ servant and Erik, a loyal soldier, and each POV is so incredibly well thought out and given a voice of their own, it never drags the story down at all.
As the story expands, we encounter more characters; both main and side characters and all of them play integral parts to the accompanying story. I think the way in which LN wrote her characters, and the world itself, is by far the most dazzling part of the book. Clocking in at over 600 pages, it’s a slower paced adventure, but it makes up for it with some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever come across. It’s on par with Rothfuss, Hobb, and the rest of those authors we know and love, who write like poetry. Every word, every sentence, every paragraph; it flows so wonderfully together, it feels like this has been passed down from generation to generation, finely tuned and when you close your eyes you could feel the world she’s written as if it were in front of you. I’m truly not even exaggerating, each word felt absolutely perfect, and like it was placed there without a second thought.
Following along with the characters, it becomes evident that not everything in Derinda is what it seems on the surface; there are wars between clans, pirates that are attacking caravans, and a prophet that was foretold who struggles with that revelation. I’m not going to go into details and spoil things; you’ll just have to read it for yourself and experience the journey firsthand. But as the plot goes deeper and deeper into a world where every step you take can matter, the tension builds and builds, and erupts into a climax that leaves you wanting more. Which, thankfully we will be getting. Cause I mean…WOW.
Besides the prose, one of the most relatable and enjoyable parts of the book were the characters. There are A LOT, just to get that out of the way. Even the ones we don’t spend a lot of time with can take up a few chapters, but Bayen does an incredible job at making them fully fleshed out, with their personalities, thoughts, fears and desires written out beautifully. Even our main 3; each one of them takes up a different voice for the reader to follow, and helps to get key points of the story across.
Another aspect I thought that was incredibly well done was the way in which flashbacks were written. In a story this big, full of this much history, it would be very easy to just throw an info dump into a chapter and be like “well, there ya go” and move on with the story. But that doesn’t happen here, and it made me realize just how many times I’ve seen flashbacks in other stories and can potentially gloss over it. These were written out in a way that actually brought what was currently happening to life; if a character like Klaus was reflecting on the journey so far and how he used his abilities as an Intelligencer in present day, the flashback would be to an important thing he learned while still in training, before snapping back to the current story. It was a great way of not just moving the story along, but showing how the past had helped shape his character, and it made reading them that much more interesting.
The history, which was incredibly rich, also never felt overwhelming. The Sturmsinger Chain, from which the series takes its name, is based on the king of Invelmar after the Second Redrawing (you’ll read about it) and the chain relates to the way in which all of the noble houses take turns in succession to the crown. This makes each of them strong in their own ways, since being the weak link would break the chain and lead to revolts, revolutions and just a whole lot of things rulers don’t want to deal with. It’s a way of keeping them all on even ground, which I thought was a very interesting take, and a nice reprisal from the typical “the kingdom shall pass to my FIRSTBORN SON” like we so often see.
As you can see by now, I can go on and on with the praise for this book; it was really that amazing. Whatever you think a score would be based on this review, add 1 to it and it still wouldn’t do it justice. It’s so obvious that Bayen poured her heart and soul into the story, the experiences were written out with such thought, care and heart that it leaps off the page and into the real world. I mean really, what else is there to say but-
WOW.
