We Ride the Storm by Devin Manson (Mini Review)

In the Asian-inspired land of Kisia, three lives fight to make sense of new and shifting roles. Exiled Captain Rah e’Torin seeks to protect his soldiers and his herd when they are captured and put into servitude. The assassin Cassandra takes a job that unwittingly puts her in the midst of the greed of desperate power grabbers. And the cloistered Princess Miko is caught between her birth, the kingdom, and her own aspirations. A series of deceptions and shifting secrets takes the empire to war and the three must contend with the dueling themes of politics, greed, family, and survival.

The narrative is told in first-person POV, so there is not much explanation of past actions. The characters’ sights are set on what is right in front of them: the now. One doesn’t usually recall past events in logical step-by-step order. While it is authentic and realistic, it takes a couple go-arounds of the narration cycle to understand the world and the terminology. And a reading of Madson’s earlier Vengeance Trilogy would probable help.

I do believe that this is fantasy fan’s book. Meaning that you will find everything you like about the genre: great cultures of empires and war, dramatic battles and swordplay,  likable and detestable characters, and the full range of human emotions.

Overall, We Ride the Storm is complex enough to hold secrets, but not too entangled to make reading a chore.