A disappointing follow-up to Fall of the Elves, this book proves and is a reminder that second book syndrome is (unfortunately) a thing. Rise of a Queen does not live up to its predecessor and falls flat. Yes, this book continues to build on the beautiful, breathless lore from the first book. Unfortunately, it is not enough to save this book from the glaring issues such as awkward and languid pacing, nonsense fillers, ridiculous dialogue, and characters with no other purpose aside from making Zariah look more interesting. Silly scenes would ruin the tension. Oh, how that irked me beyond measure. Then there’s the lack of diversity, along with there are questionable attitudes and dialogue towards humans by the “superior” elves.
Please note: there’s spoilers because I have to discuss a few things.
Title: Rise of a Queen
Author: Alexis Samson
Publisher: Kindle
Publication Date: 27th November 2020
TW/CW: Violence.
Synopsis: THE BELOW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOOK 1
The elves have returned to a broken world, and it’s up to Zariah to fix it.
After the struggle to reclaim their freedom, they now have a fighting chance against the ragtok. The key to victory lies in the ancient magic Zariah and Rana share, but war looms on the horizon, threatening the fractured foundations they live on.
When the humans petition the elves for aid, Zariah prepares her armies to march. As dark forces linger in the shadows and whispers of a traitor begin to circle, Zariah finds herself unable to trust what few allies she has.
With sinister warnings haunting her dreams and human politics filling her waking hours, Zariah flings herself into a risky mission in her quest to restore peace.
StoryGraph | Goodreads | Amazon
I reviewed the first book, Fall of the Elves, back in 2019 after Alexis reached out to me. Around November 2020, she emailed me again, asking if I could read and review the second book. Of course, I said yes because I adored the first book.
Table of Contents
But this?
Rise of a Queen is a passable and dull sequel that does not live up to its predecessor, filled with moments that made me uncomfortable.
To be frank? I was not too fond of this book. Yeah, I really didn’t like it. I would have honestly DNF’d it and moved on to another book, but I was already invested in this world and wanted to know how things went.
Despite the issues that plagued the first book, I truly enjoyed it. Fall of the Elves had tickled that good ol’ nostalgia within me and reminded me of books/random stories I used to read as a kid. The lore shined through, and I felt a connection with Tessa as she reminded me of my favorite historical figure, Empress Elisabeth of Austria. I thought that the characters — well, mostly Tessa really — were super exciting and fleshed out.
I didn’t get any of that with this book. If anything, there were aspects that straight up made me apprehensive and uncomfortable.
Let’s get technical.
The pacing was an atrocity. I mentioned in my previous review for the first book that the pacing wasn’t that great. While the first book was an easy read, Samson did not evenly distribute action. Thus, the book felt longer than a book of similar size.
Rise of a Queen’s pacing felt worse. There were a ton of scenes that not only broke the tension but were unnecessary. Rather than have a steady and consistent pace with action spread out uniformly, we get traveling scenes (which are essentially loading screens) along with scenes of Zariah’s elves friends and Rana mocking her for whatever reason.
I echo Rana’s sentiments that they were taking too long.
And then there’s the fact that during the time, our group of heroes was traveling? Nothing happened to the other kingdoms. It felt like while the party traveled and screen loaded, Samson paused everything else.
At least when I have my character in AC Valhalla (and Origins + Odyssey) ride her horse from one location to the next, I can stare at the pretty scenery and maybe encounter side quests or random soldiers I can fight. Basically? There’s action.
Here there’s nothing. I wonder if this book was necessary.
Do you mean to tell me that these evil ragtoks didn’t do anything substantial? Excuses me? Where’s the destruction? Where is this war? How am I supposed to be terrified of these creatures if there’s no on-page proof of their cruelty? I’m not asking for torture or outright violence against humans. But there was too much telling and not enough showing.
I didn’t feel scared for these characters. There was no reason to be worried for them. There wasn’t any real conflict that would have me concerned for their lives.
The only thing I really enjoyed was the lore.
I love worldbuilding and lore in books. I adore it when authors continue to flesh out/reveal more about the world their characters live in as the story progresses. It is always fun to read and discover new things with these characters.
Thankfully, the lore continued to shine here. We have mysteries and new things to uncover. I enjoyed the idea that maybe what our characters believe as fact may not be real.
Now, is this world diverse? Not at all.
Rise of a Queen is very much a European-inspired fantasy. Now, that’s not a bad thing! I will not deny that European history and its mythos are a treasure trove for inspiration. If Germanic mythology or European history inspires your writing, then so be it! But this book is oh so very white.
So if you’re looking for a book with a diverse cast/world, this is not it. Yes, there were characters that popped up that have darker skin color. But everyone else is white. And look, context is everything. This leads me to my next points.
There are things in this book that made me uncomfortable.
There are those smaller instances that made me arch my brow. But the following truly had me feeling uneasy.
Humans vs. elves
Samson presents humans as weak, sexist, and idiots. Meanwhile, she portrays the elves as the “superior” race who obviously know better than humans because the elves are so powerful and open-minded.
A lot of Zariah’s thoughts/dialogue basically went, “We are sooooo much better than the humans because (insert reason here). #ElvesFTW!”
Are there many books out there where the non-humans had a superiority complex over humans (and, of course, vice versa)? Yes! I’m playing a video game right now that has these godlike humanoids hold themselves above their human creations (who eventually revolt against them). It’s absolutely a thing, and usually, I wouldn’t mind seeing it in fiction.
However, I want it done with nuance and lots of examination of why such thinking is disgusting.
The issue is how Samson presents humans. There’s no nuance to their portrayal in Rise of a Queen. Sure, there are a ton of problems with human society. But here we’re shown elves as “good, great, fantastic omg let me be an elf” while humans have little to no redeeming qualities.
And every time we see humans? Either they’re in utter awe at the elves, or they’re scorning them. Humans become one-dimensional and forced to stand on sides — either they’re with the elves or against them. Oh, and those humans that have any semblance of doubt about the elves? Naughty, naughty humans who have no right to be doubtful of a mythical race.
Furthermore, there’s how Zariah treats the humans.
When she gets treated poorly, she lashes out. When human monarchs attempt to (rightfully) enforce their sovereignty, she threatens to take her army away. And then when said human monarchs (or any human really) even try to disagree, she has Rana to basically terrify them into agreeing. Oh, that’s if she doesn’t use her powers.
Zariah scoffs at human traditions/societal norms, yet demands respect simply because she is an elf. Politics? Forget about it. She won’t play the game or try to even be diplomatic.
There’s a scene where the humans want to have a ball in Zariah and Torren’s honor and Zariah refuses. She expects the human monarchs to respect her. She won’t play by their rules.
It’s like when Americans barge into other countries and refuse to follow customs, respect the people, and demand that everyone bend to their wishes.
Here’s the thing!
Zariah isn’t an ordinary human; she’s an elf.
Specifically, she’s the Elven Queen who has magical powers and rules over a mythical people that have not been seen in generations. Oh, and she has a dragon! Friends I repeat, she has a dragon. With one word, she can unleash her dragon. She can command her army to abandon the humans and leave them to rot.
She knows it and she uses it against the humans. Respect Zariah or face her wrath (and Rana’s wrath).
This is not how you earn respect.
It’s understandable for humans to be afraid, angry, and doing what they can to assert their power/sovereignty. Remember, these mythical creatures disappeared, and now? They’re demanding that they be at the head of the table and that it’s their way or the highway.
It would be like if the US disappeared off the face of the earth for a few centuries, came back, and then demanded that they become a world leader again and run the show. Additionally, while they insist on being at the head of the table, they’re also in control of the only nuclear power sources in the world. Oh, and they insist on playing the “hero” when they’re acting like tyrannical assholes holding safety over peoples’ heads.
Messiah complex, much? Tyrannical much?
Now, I want to contrast human portrayal with how the elves are presented
There continues to be that fairytale/mythical aspect with the elves and elvish culture. Everything about them feels too ideal and flawless. We get to see their flaws with humans because Rise of a Queen shoves in our faces. The book constantly reminds us humans are not as progressive as elves.
And then there’s Zariah’s attitude!
Like I said before: Zariah’s dialogue/thoughts are filled with her constantly extolling elven society while also putting down humans. She had a speech where she essentially said how much better they were as elves because they don’t need to seek glory or something like that.
But they had to fight! After all, who would save these silly, helpless humans?
Quite frankly? That part made me gag.
It is such self-righteous bullshit and coupled with everything else? I felt so uncomfortable because it honestly reminded me of how people here from the US talk.
Did Samson intend to show us just how naive and foolish Zariah is to place elves on a pedestal? That our dear protagonist is blinded to her people’s faults? I doubt it. But, if that was the intention here in Rise of the Elves, it was a total failure.
It’s one thing to have elves be these mythical, exemplary race when said elves are dead and gone. But it’s another thing to have them here in the flesh without any imperfection with constant reminders of how much better they are than humans.
Even worse is that we never really get to see how elven society works now compared to human society. Instead, we got travel scenes that were essentially boring loading screens and Zariah stomping her feet.
Honestly, everything felt unbalanced.
This is a consistent theme throughout Rise of a Queen. It’s so strange because from what I remember? These characters felt far more balanced and fleshed out in the first book. Here though? Characters existed simply to make Zariah (and the elves) look good. Humans were constantly dumbed down just to make the elves look good. But even our elven characters fell flat. What was their point?
Then, there’s the bigger issue.
Diversity? Lacking. And when it’s shown? Well, it’s less than satisfactory.
It’s bad.
Again, I have no problems with books that are predominately European-based/inspired. While I would very much prefer to read books with a diverse cast of characters, I don’t mind reading books that are predominantly very European-based/inspired.
However, this lack of diversity bothers me because of how Rise of a Queen presents certain characters.
Like I mentioned in the section before, context matters. Just because you have some “representation” doesn’t mean it’s good. We do meet a group of humans who happen to have a darker complexion than the rest of the characters we’ve met so far. Who are these people based on? Are they based on Arabs, North Africans, Turks? Or are they southern European? I don’t know.
What I do know?
It’s this group of humans who are enslaved by the ragtok.
I’m sorry, but what? So the only dark-skinned characters in the book have been enslaved by monstrous creatures? And not only that, these same characters have to be rescued by our all-white cast with our main character who loves to praise elves for being better than humans?
Yeah, no thanks.
I’m tired of POC being tossed to the sidelines, only to be bought out as victims who need to be saved by white characters.
It’s 2021. Can authors please stop doing this? You don’t get a gold star for adding a sprinkle of color to your all-white books—no pats on your back and, indeed, no praise. We aren’t just there for you guys to use as background characters and victims in your books.
Representation matters, but shitty rep is just as bad as no rep at all.
Final Word?
I give Rise of a Queen 2.5 stars with a C- grade. Yes, I wanted to love this book. God, I tried so hard to love this book. Heck! When I finished it, I told myself I need to take some time and space to think. But I can’t do it.
I probably won’t be continuing on with this series. It’s a shame because I did enjoy the first book. The world and lore captives me and gave me so much nostalgia. But ultimately, these are not enough to save this book.
I can’t recommend this book. There are so many fantasy books out there that are better written. Should you decide to give this book a try, let me know!
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