Review: Under An Azure Sky by Wil Chan
Blurb:
"Love. Loss. Redemption."
Elysia Dayne is a renowned hero, mercenary, and monster slayer famed for killing a dragon in single combat. At least, that's how the bards tell it. However, there was a time when she thought that dragons were beautiful.
The jaded sword master accepts a job along the unforgiving borderlands to rescue Princess Isabella Solemaine, a prisoner of goblins in the Black Fort. With meticulous planning, nothing can possibly go wrong...
It goes wrong, pitching the pair into a sprawling wilderness. Short of supplies, they have to fend for themselves and each other. Can love blossom under such harsh conditions?
Meanwhile, a group of Niemirian raiders led by their psychotic leader, Varya, are dedicated to hunting down and killing the princess and her protector.
Join Elysia as she traverses an ugly yet beautiful world, exploring the nature of the human condition. The precarious nature of her present is finely balanced, interwoven with a past timeline where a young Elysia faces dangers of a different kind.
What is she ultimately willing to sacrifice? An emotional journey fraught with action, and suspense.
Review:
This is my first full length read of the year, and one that lies a bit outside my normal reading comfort zone. Despite all that, this book certainly delivered. Under an Azure Sky by Wil Chan is a fantasy novel with a touch of romance, a touch of dragons, and a whole lot of adventure, so what’s not to love? Well, I’m not a big romance reader (I once bought Fourth Wing because I saw dragons and thought it might be cool. Needless to say, I did not read it when realizing what it was about. Though be not afraid, reader, for many of the other site members have convinced me to read it anyways, lol). I also prefer 3rd person POV, so for a book written in 1st person present, I had my work cut out for me.
And I beat it (I don’t think that's an ample explanation or articulation, but oh well). The story starts with Elysia, a young woman from the tranquil village of Dayne. Here, we have two different timelines, which is something I continuously love reading, as many may know already. The first is in the present, where we follow a journey of princess-rescuing from goblins (awesome) and other ne'er do wells. The second timeline is more of an origin story, detailing how Elysia went from her younger, happy-go-lucky self, to the legend that she’s turned into today.
I was far more intrigued in the origin story, if I must say, largely because I’m not a big romance reader, which is a main driver of the main plot. That is not to say I dislike the main plot, rather, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I just liked the origin story more.
And so, we start with Elysia invading a goblin fortress with the armor of a goblin knight, shoving some vile concoction down her throat to give her a more masculine voice, and busting out a princess. Well, the princess more or less does it herself, and then the journey begins! They leave to rendezvous with the man paying for the princess’ rescue and then marriage, but they’re waylaid on the road, and must run off to safety.
As that happens, in the origin story we learn of how Elysia’s fabled heroic cult-following comes from—dragon slaying. Well, not immediately. At first, we learn of her fascination with dragons, owing to the one roosting just beyond a cliff at the edge of Dayne village. But one fateful day arrives and lo’, men. Yeah, that’s really it. Men come in to kill the dragon (because of course they do) and fail (again, because of course they do). This results in the dragon getting angered and flying away to—yup, you guessed it—burn Dayne to the ground. Not everyone dies, but Elysia’s family does, and so she is labeled a witch.
But something strange happens. Elysia lives through the fire. In fact, the fire actually heals her. Torn between being sacrificed as a witch and running away, a third option presents itself, go with the man responsible for the dragon-aggravation. She chooses the third, and vows to kill the man, something hinted at in the main story multiple times.
Now, all this happens fairly quickly, and to explain more is to spoil and I try not to do that. One of the reasons I enjoyed the origin story so much is because it was short, sweet, and concise, while it felt like some of the main story dragged a bit or could have used some cutting.
All this seems very nitpicky, doesn’t it? For that I apologize. I enjoyed it, honest! But my own personal preferences kept rearing their ugly head, which has led me down this road.
However, the writing was quite good. I enjoyed the descriptions of scenery, the extensive worldbuilding Wil put into this, the dialogue, and a lot of the internal conflict. I can’t speak on how realistic or unrealistic the romance was, though, because I have little to no experience reading it. So make your own conclusions there, but it wrapped itself up rather nicely, or seems like it has, since this story continues on in the next couple books.
That’s another thing. The ending???? Crazy, unexpected, what the ?$&@ happened? Alas, if only I could read books at the speed of light, then you’d be seeing reviews of the next books right after this one.
Quintessential fantasy with goblins, dragons, ridiculous quests, and everything else you might want, with a touch of romance for anybody of that persuasion, Under an Azure Sky was an enjoyable read from cover to cover. Even to me, who stepped way outside my comfort zone.
