Review by RobinBennet -- We are Voulhire: The Fires of V...

MariaLivaniou · Post by **MariaLivaniou** » 08 Oct 2020, 14:47

[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko" by Matthew Tysz.]

4 out of 4 stars

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We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko is the second book of a fantasy series by Matthew Tysz. The story continues right where we left off, with everyone in the kingdom of Voulhire shaken up and in mourning by the tragic turn of events in the town of Hillport.

As the people try to recover, the city of Virko, the heart of Voulhire's economy, is faced with a sudden shift in power as the founder of this great city, Lord Hrelek, lies sick and dying, leaving behind his son. But he is not nearly as innocent as he appears to be.

While the town of Virko is in political turmoil, Galen, still struggling to adjust to his new life and leave behind his painful past in the land of the princes, finds himself with his two companions in Virko. There is darkness clouding the town. The kingdom of Voulhire has taken a dark turn as betrayal has taken root in the hearts of its people, but there are far worse terrors hiding in plain sight, ready to immerge from the dark. Will our heroes be ready to face them?

As I mentioned before, the story picks up where we left off in the first book of We are Voulhire. Straight from the beginning, we were thrown right in the middle of the action. The first scene was violent and harsh, but it was just what we needed to get engrossed in the story.

While I was reading this book, I noticed that it got a lot darker as we moved forward. There are a lot of violent, disturbing, and graphic scenes. Some of them involved sensitive topics such as rape, torture, and amputation. I definitely don’t recommend this book to young readers. There were also several sexual references and many instances of profanity but no erotic scenes throughout the book.

Some readers may get offended by the writing style of Matthew Tysz, but I believe that every little thing in this book was necessary for the storyline. It was interesting to see how the once-mighty Kingdom of Voulhire, the one that was supposed to be entering a golden age, is now crumbling in pieces. Our story has reached its darkest point, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Matthew uses the first point of view for the adventures of Galen Bray, our ignorant little refugee, but for the rest of the characters, the third point of view. This technique created a nice atmosphere throughout the book as we got to meet brand-new characters and see different parts of Voulhire, all the while not losing track of the story.

What was a welcome surprise was the fact that Matthew seemed to be way more in sync with his characters in this book. We could see their motives and desires much more clearly. We got to see them grow and change through the hardships they endured. Their complexity, loose morality, and the fact that no person in that book was pure evil or pure good made it much more believable and very captivating.

The main trio of the story: Galen, Rowan, and Demetrius, presented an interesting dynamic to the plot. Rowan is a witty and sarcastic person that almost touches the limits of narcissistic. Demetrius is more of a keeping to himself kind of guy, but he is quite smart, and his personality often clashes with Rowan’s. And lastly, we have Galen, an innocent and ignorant young man, but that is a little hard to believe considering that he is a refugee from a place that has known nothing but war for many years. We know that life in the land of the princes is hell on earth, and not a lot of people survive there. And yet our main character did. Maybe he was damn lucky, or it was something else, but I know one thing for sure: you should never trust a survivor until you learn what he had to do to survive.

In the first book of the series, we learned about the physical and the magical world of Voulhire, Cosmos, and Caromentis. This time around, we got introduced to the spiritual world of Voulhire, Alitheia. What caught my eye from the beginning was the fact that Alitheia means truth in the Greek language. I am not sure if that was done on purpose or not, but it took the meaning of the spirit world into a whole other level.

A major part of the story focuses on faith and the religion that they practice in Voulhire, Destinism. It is a belief which states that, while free will is quite real, every person is placed on earth to do exactly what God knows they will do, thus befitting His divine plan by the free will of His children, the good ones and the bad. Even so, I don’t think anyone would be offended as it is a fictional manifestation solely for the purposes of the book.

To my extended knowledge, I didn’t come across any major typos or grammatical errors, so I would say that the book was exceptionally edited.

The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that every single part of the story was portrayed exclusively by men. There are nearly eight main characters in this book, and not even one of them is female. The only female characters that we got to see briefly were only there as passive pawns in the schemes of men. But that may be on purpose in order to serve some part of the story later on, which is why I didn’t retract any stars off my rating.

Overall, I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. I enjoyed every minute of it. It is an action-packed book full of twists and turns that you never see coming. It is a little dark themed, but I like a little darkness once in a while. I recommend it with no second thoughts to all the fantasy lovers out there.

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We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
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HanElizabeth397 · Post by **HanElizabeth397** » 10 Oct 2020, 07:07

I'm really gutted that I read book four in this series first because now I feel like I know what's going to happen in the first three! It's a shame because I really liked the fourth book and from your review I'm sure I'd have liked the third too! Maybe I'll have to go back and read them all anyway. Thanks for the review

MariaLivaniou · Post by **MariaLivaniou** » 12 Oct 2020, 08:07

You know I almost made the same mistake, but you should really pick them up from the beginning. Even if you know what's gonna happen, you don't know exactly how it happens, and so far they are totally worth it. Thank you for your comment

Justine Ocsebio · Post by **Justine Ocsebio** » 12 Oct 2020, 08:55

The lack of female characters is a major issue of mine in this series as well. Thanks for your very thorough and well-written review.

MariaLivaniou · Post by **MariaLivaniou** » 12 Oct 2020, 09:07

Thank you for commenting. Though, I did read a post which said that there are female leads that play major parts in the story later in the books. I guess we will just have to wait and see.