Review by _khush_p -- We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko

_khush_p · Post by **_khush_p** » 03 Feb 2021, 10:50

[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 the We are Voulhire series. In the first book, Galen Bray was a refugee from the Land of Princes, trying to make a living in the town of Magnum Caelum. Now, Galen, teamed up with his two friends, Rowan and Demetrius, is trying to bring more inflow of iron in their city, to help the dying business. They head over to the city of Virko, to plea to the King to grow the flow of iron. However, having agreed to Galen’s request, the sickly King lays a condition in front of them. Here onwards, the trio of Galen, Rowan and Demetrius discover never imagined truths and facts about the King’s son and the city.

Matthew Tysz, in this book, has introduced readers to a heavy load of magic and thrill. When compared to the first book, this book focuses mainly on the city of Virko. There is more use of magic and many detailed descriptions of assault. I must mention that this book is on another level of intensity, especially when compared to the previous one. Various new characters are being introduced, which the book revolves around. A number of characters from the previous book make an appearance too, which acts as a connection between both the books.

While reading this book, I mainly enjoyed the way it was written. Matthew Tysz is an excellent writer and he never fails to make a show of it. A phrase from the book; “The sky was still red from the dawn when soldiers of the king's army marched ceremoniously under the billowing black smoke of Virko's factories,” is a perfect example of Tysz’s writing skills. I must say that the writer uses complicated words, like- eccentric, picturesque, benign, etc. Some readers can find it unappealing to refer to a dictionary several times while reading. For me, the book was very intense, but I loved when Galen’s part came up. It was light, hearty and funny, unlike the rest of the book. The book switches a lot between first-person point of view and third-person point of view. This serves a great purpose of narrating the story, but can be confusing to some. The book serves satisfactory character development along with a good pace. Tysz has maintained a healthy balance between dialogues and descriptions which makes the book more engaging.

There are a number of things that I did not like about this book. The book contains gory assault scenes with detailed descriptions. There are a lot of instances where sexual assault is mentioned. There is relatively more violence, which can be triggering or offending to some readers. The book only has male leading characters, the female gender is only mentioned when describing some unhappy happenings. There are also mentions of conflicting political and religious views. The writer has used vulgar language in a lot of places, which again can offend some readers. All of these make the plot more intense than required.

Keeping in mind the above points, I rate this book a 4 out of 4 stars. We Are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko can turn out to be very conflicting or a very beautiful read, it fully depends on the reader. I personally enjoyed it; the pros outweighed the cons for me. I would have to be very careful to recommend this book to anyone. Fantasy lovers who don’t mind gore and assault can give this book a go. It won’t disappoint.

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We are Voulhire: The Fires of Virko
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