Book Review: Azheek The Rising

The book itself can almost be split perfectly down the middle as two parts of the same overall story. In the first half we focus on Chester, Aven and Veraion as they run down Baraduhr (masked humans seeking and kill or capture Azheeks) and make their way to Sontar Ivel, the heart of Ianar. While there our champions take part in a world-renowned tournament in hopes to find answers to the mysteries surrounding Azheek disappearances occurring each year at the event. This section of the book allows the reader an authentic look at the group dynamic between the main players as they play off one another and bond in friendship as they gradually become familiar with one another, to people they cannot live without.

The second half of the book deepens the world in terms of culture, plot and lets the reader know there is so much more at stake here than the first 250 pages let on. The Baraduhr have been stealing and harvesting Azheeks to obtain their powers for themselves, and the God’s are not happy about it. Chester and her new family find themselves caught in the middle of political corruption and are in danger becoming victims themselves. Will they be able to raise an army and protect the ones they have come to love?

I loved so many things about this book, starting with the characters. Every one of these characters challenge a societal norm in some way. I loved every one of them for different reasons, even those who only played a small role. A few favourites were Aven, the Warsought, a powerful creature which can (and does) tear bodies limb from limb with ferocity who loves wearing bright colours and learning about flowers in human form. We had Zaiera, a tall, muscular woman of colour wielding a blacksmiths hammer, creating the best armour money could buy, and who could forget Nobaru, the carefree, sexually open Adonis who is nothing but kind and respectful to his peers. These characters (at least to me) were such a celebration of the people around us in the real world, no matter the colour of skin, body sizes and cultural backgrounds and it was so engaging to watch them shine in their own ways.

Which leads me to the impressive amount of social commentary Azheek the Rising let’s shine through the pages without it taking away from the enjoyment of the story itself. The commentary this book lends itself too is less about huge philosophical conversations we see so often in the SFF genre and really homes in on some more everyday aspects of life that are just as important to question yet are rarely discussed in this way. The one that shone out to me the most was how we treat youth and beauty or people in their “prime”. How those who have not found a partner or “Ilis” must remain young and beautiful until they too are bonded to someone for life, whether that be sexually, romantically, or platonically.

In relation to the elements of the epic and dark fantasy tale which lies inside these pages, the magic system and battle scenes were absolute knock outs. The Azheeks wield the elements, water, air, earth and fire. We get to see each of these in play in a multitude of ways. King is not afraid to show you just how this magic works. There were a number of times when reading one of the many battle scenes in this book where I thought “damn, would not have thought of that” as a use for a particular element. Speaking of the battle scenes, they were EPIC! The use of bodies and magic as weapons as well as some skilfully crafted horror elements, created fast paced, high stakes action.

Azheek the Rising also did an excellent job with pacing, slowing down when the reader needed to take in character or slice of life information and speeding up to make the heart pace quicken.

The few criticisms I have are an overuse of certain words and phrases, sometimes battles would get a little repetitive with a similar action for example and the word gargantuan was used A LOT. There were a few times were convenient events took place to get to the next plot point but in the end .. I didn’t care, because this book offered so much more than just your everyday fantasy and I devoured it.