Redemption's Blade

An excellent first novel in the “After the War” shared world series from Solaris Books. Author Adrian Tchaikovsky introduces us to a fantasy world where the big battles are over, the great Evil has been defeated and....what next? This is a tale of aftermath, of a world trying to put itself back together after ten years of brutal warfare. And as for the heroes who defeated the big baddie.....what now for them? Does a world need heroes when all it wants is to heal?

Tchaikovsky's heroine, Celestaine, helped to defeat The Kinslayer, one of the immortal Guardians who roam the world, with the help of two of the Yorughan sent to torture and kill her. Now she seeks to make amends for what The Kinslayer did to the noble Aethani, winged humanoids of great sophistication who were brutally cast down, wings clipped, their lands destroyed. She and her companions seek the Kinslayer's crown, to use its power to heal the Aethani. But someone else also seeks it and so begins a long chase through the broken world into the Unredeemed Lands where nightmare creatures still roam the earth.

There are brutal action scenes alongside moments of real humour and deep philosophical questions about the nature of war, of vengeance, of the cost of peace and the sacrifices to be made to remake a world.

Above all, its a great read. The pace is swift, the characters well drawn and the dialogue well written. The next book is by Justina Robson and carries on the story with new characters and settings, so I look forward to reading that one too. I hope Tchaikovsky returns to this tale at some point though, because he's really very good at this.

Recommended.

This is a story about what happens after a war. How people cope, how they try to get back to normal, and how they move on.
The Kinslayer and his armies of Yorughan killed everything. Anything in their path was crushed or corrupted. He made magical abominations and released them on the world. He did unspeakable things.
And then he was killed.
Celestaine and her two Yorughan companions are three of the heroes that had a hand in his death. Now, she wants to right one of the many wrongs committed by the Kinslayer. He chained the Aethani and forced them into his mines. But not before he cut their wings off. Now, Celestaine and company are searching for magical artifacts that could help them get their wings back.
Along the way, she sees what a toll the war took on the world and wonders if anything will ever be the same again.
This book was pretty good. I thought it was slow in spots though. The way it was written kind of made me feel like I was missing something, like a first book. Other than that I thought it was pretty good. I will definitely check out more from this author.
I received a copy from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.