Review by PriyankaBeeput -- We are Voulhire: The Fires o...
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- Latest Review: We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko by Matthew Tysz
Review by PriyankaBeeput -- We are Voulhire: The Fires o...
[Following is a volunteer review of "We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko" by Matthew Tysz.]
We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko is author Matthew Tysz’s second entry in his “We are Voulhire” series. The book opens to a more tumultuous Voulhire, with the once-thriving city facing a major shift in its landscape. In this book, the city of Virko is introduced and explored.
Virko is the economic hub of Voulhire, and Tysz does an incredible job bringing the city to life. As with the previous book in the series, the author seems to enjoy building the world in which characters exist. Whilst reading, the city of Virko seemed to have developed its own personality, with its duality of imagery—the city has an abundance of industry such as factories lining its streets, but also features an air of opulence whenever Virko’s upper-class feature.
As with the previous novel, Tysz uses a host of characters and altering perspectives as tools through which the novel’s plot reveals itself. He manages to execute the task of keeping the reader hooked by slowly feeding them information through the different characters and building suspense as the reader eagerly awaits for the moment when all the threads finally come together.
Galen Bray, who began his story in the first book, once again features. Magnum Caelum, the town in which Galen resides, is in desperate need of iron, and in classic fantasy-style, Galen sets out on a quest to Virko in search of some. As I alluded to, ‘the quest’ is a common trope of fantasy literature, but just because a book features a very popular trope it doesn’t mean that the author was creatively lazy nor does it take away from the book's overall quality. Tysz used Galen’s need for something to explore his character further and allowed the reader to get a better understanding of the character by seeing the decisions Galen makes in order to reach his ultimate goal.
Another major plot point surrounds the character of Lord Venden Hrelek and his son, Hans Hrelek. Lord Venden seeks to make Virko an independent and capitalistic state. The deteriorating Lord’s dream is made complicated by the dark forces that linger over the city. It is here that Galen's story connects with that of the Lord’s as Galen is tasked to help the Lord Venden in exchange for iron. I mentioned that Tysz did a great job expanding Galen’s character in this book, yet I have to say that I personally enjoyed reading the chapters that focused on Lord Venden and Hans Hrelek the most. Lord Venden is power-hungry and callous, yet due to his position in the fight against the book's greater evil, I found myself passively supporting him and I thoroughly enjoy when characters can make me do that. As for Hans, he is a character shrouded in mystery and so much of what made the book a page-turner for me had to do with Hans and his intentions. From the first mention of Hans you are never quite sure what to make of him, you see signs and hope that he is a better man than his father, but you also can’t help but feel there could be something a little sinister about him and that’s the beauty of that character.
I don’t have anything particularly negative to say about this book. As with the last book, the author does the rather unusual thing of switching between first-person and third-person, this could be jarring to some, but I found that it didn’t bother me enough to take away from the overall reading experience.
I would have to rate We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko 4 out of 4 stars. As mentioned Tysz creates a superb world that truly captivated me as a reader. The author has also managed to create new and compelling characters as well as give greater depth to existing ones. It is because of that that I gave this book a full star rating and would not hesitate to recommend it to those who enjoyed the previous book. This book is definitely meant for an adult audience so I would recommend that new readers be aware that this book includes quite a lot of profanity and other mature elements, but aside from that warning, I think that this book will be enjoyed by many fans of fantasy stories.
******
We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko is author Matthew Tysz’s second entry in his “We are Voulhire” series. The book opens to a more tumultuous Voulhire, with the once-thriving city facing a major shift in its landscape. In this book, the city of Virko is introduced and explored.
Virko is the economic hub of Voulhire, and Tysz does an incredible job bringing the city to life. As with the previous book in the series, the author seems to enjoy building the world in which characters exist. Whilst reading, the city of Virko seemed to have developed its own personality, with its duality of imagery—the city has an abundance of industry such as factories lining its streets, but also features an air of opulence whenever Virko’s upper-class feature.
As with the previous novel, Tysz uses a host of characters and altering perspectives as tools through which the novel’s plot reveals itself. He manages to execute the task of keeping the reader hooked by slowly feeding them information through the different characters and building suspense as the reader eagerly awaits for the moment when all the threads finally come together.
Galen Bray, who began his story in the first book, once again features. Magnum Caelum, the town in which Galen resides, is in desperate need of iron, and in classic fantasy-style, Galen sets out on a quest to Virko in search of some. As I alluded to, ‘the quest’ is a common trope of fantasy literature, but just because a book features a very popular trope it doesn’t mean that the author was creatively lazy nor does it take away from the book's overall quality. Tysz used Galen’s need for something to explore his character further and allowed the reader to get a better understanding of the character by seeing the decisions Galen makes in order to reach his ultimate goal.
Another major plot point surrounds the character of Lord Venden Hrelek and his son, Hans Hrelek. Lord Venden seeks to make Virko an independent and capitalistic state. The deteriorating Lord’s dream is made complicated by the dark forces that linger over the city. It is here that Galen's story connects with that of the Lord’s as Galen is tasked to help the Lord Venden in exchange for iron. I mentioned that Tysz did a great job expanding Galen’s character in this book, yet I have to say that I personally enjoyed reading the chapters that focused on Lord Venden and Hans Hrelek the most. Lord Venden is power-hungry and callous, yet due to his position in the fight against the book's greater evil, I found myself passively supporting him and I thoroughly enjoy when characters can make me do that. As for Hans, he is a character shrouded in mystery and so much of what made the book a page-turner for me had to do with Hans and his intentions. From the first mention of Hans you are never quite sure what to make of him, you see signs and hope that he is a better man than his father, but you also can’t help but feel there could be something a little sinister about him and that’s the beauty of that character.
I don’t have anything particularly negative to say about this book. As with the last book, the author does the rather unusual thing of switching between first-person and third-person, this could be jarring to some, but I found that it didn’t bother me enough to take away from the overall reading experience.
I would have to rate We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko 4 out of 4 stars. As mentioned Tysz creates a superb world that truly captivated me as a reader. The author has also managed to create new and compelling characters as well as give greater depth to existing ones. It is because of that that I gave this book a full star rating and would not hesitate to recommend it to those who enjoyed the previous book. This book is definitely meant for an adult audience so I would recommend that new readers be aware that this book includes quite a lot of profanity and other mature elements, but aside from that warning, I think that this book will be enjoyed by many fans of fantasy stories.
******
We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko by Matthew Tysz
