I just finished reading The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, by K.S. Villoso.
This is gritty political fantasy in an Asian setting, where the queen of a country that is mostly ruled by its warlords tries to keep all of its factions in check so they don’t have yet another civil war. It’s also a book about a woman trying to reconcile with her husband after they’ve both made some absolutely terrible choices and never talked to each other about them.
I really want to find out what happens next, because I absolutely despise stories where so many problems are caused by people not communicating with each other. Unspoken agreements, and stupid choices because neither side has the same view of what the unspoken agreement is because they never sat down and actually talked about it–I hate that sort of thing, and I really want to find out how it ends, and if the people involved ever come to their fucking senses.
This book is really good, don’t get me wrong. It just hit me in a few sore places on my own psyche.
The plot is deviously twisty, the characters are all delightfully flawed, real people, and the conspiracies, when they are revealed, were foreshadowed wonderfully. People try to rape the main character too often for my liking, but she does kill most of those people herself, in brutal fashion, so take that under advisement for deciding if you want to read it yourself.
The next book is coming in September. I’ve already preordered it. I need to find out how this ends, or at least continues.