I came across Morgan Rice's Of Crowns and Glory series when I decided to test out how dedicated I could be to reading ebooks on Google Play before deciding whether or not I'd get a Kindle by looking at free books in the former's library. Amongst those that came up was the first book in the series, Slave, Warrior, Queen - if you look for Rice's books on whichever ebook store, you'll find that the first book in every one of her series is free. I have every intention of reading the rest of the first books in all her series and continuing from there if I find myself interested. The free book got me in but the story made me stay for the remaining 7 books in this 8 book series.
The book follows a varied cast of characters from multiple perspectives, the most important of them being the 18-year-old Ceres (the blurbs all mention her as 17 but she turns 18 at the beginning of the first book and at least a year passes by the end of the final book, excluding the Epilogue). The daughter of a blacksmith, she has always been fascinated by the combatlords in the famed Stade of the city she lives in, Delos, where a competition called The Killings is held almost every week in which the nobles and royals who own the fighters decide at the end of every fight whether it will end in death or mercifully. But Delos is a cruel place, part of an empire that runs on punishing innocent civilians as long as it makes the nobility more comfortable, rich and entertained - except for one, Prince Thanos who looks down on the way the nobles act and treat the people, wishing he could do more to help the growing rebellion in the city. It is when these two characters cross paths that the story truly begins.
The setting of the book is a standard fantasy setting so it's always a challenge for any author in this genre to make the story and characters stand out and feel different - and I think Rice achieves that with the main arc of the books being a fight against multiple threats of dictatorial rulers. Though the main antagonist of each book shifts with the story, none are forced in at the last second or appear out of nowhere. In the first book, the main enemy is the Empire ruled from Delos itself but as the books go on it becomes individuals within the Empire and eventually the threat of other kingdoms and their rulers who are slowly introduced before they become a real and genuine threat.
Though the threat that each ruler and kingdom represents is more or less the same, they are distinct in the reasons why they are like that - the Empire is a threat because its cruelty feeds the greed of the nobles whereas another kingdom that is introduced from the fourth book runs on slavery and murder just for the sake of satisfying the rulers' twisted pleasures. Each prince or king or emperor poses uniquely dangerous threats that there is a different sense of unease for each one of what they could do, even when they use the same methods of intimidation or ruthlessness in their ruling. And that's what keeps the story compelling, it doesn't feel like there are 8 books just so there's enough space for the main characters' personal stories and developments, there are 8 books because the characters go through all of that alongside the face of their fight changing and shifting with every battle won or lost.
The main characters' stories - that being Ceres, Thanos, Stephania and even Lucious - at the start read more like YA novels, which they are initially. But don't let that stop you if you rarely read books for that target audience - the characters mature and change in a way most YA characters don't. Many of these characters show a certain resilience and willpower you don't see in many main characters, either in YA or adult fantasy. They retain their own personalities and drive to achieve their goals with every obstacle and their outlook barely changes, it only matures. The series starts as more of a YA fantasy book but quickly progresses into themes that are more akin to grimdark fantasy (one of my favourite fantasy genres). An apt comparison would probably be Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle meets George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.
In terms of the female leads, Ceres and Stephania are some of the best I've seen. The books are written in multiple points of view and these two are at the centre of it from the first book all the way to the last. These two characters, whether you love them or hate them, have the strongest willpower and are the most resilient in the series. The two of them experience many triumphs as well as losses in the course of the books but they are never deterred. Ceres is a brilliant example of a character that figures out who they are throughout the course of the story and grows into someone who becomes increasingly committed to her belief in the rebellion and cares about people she doesn't know just as much as she cares about her own family and friends. She becomes quite a powerful character and though there are challenges that push her backwards, no matter how dire the situation she finds herself in is she doesn't lose the conviction that things will work out. Even if she is led to believe she has lost everything, she does not lose her will to keep fighting no matter who tries to break her or how. Which is a trait she shares with Stephania, no matter how much they hate each other.
Stephania is the kind of person you can definitely describe as someone who is getting back on the horse before she's even hit the ground. She is cunning in a way you don't often see in many antagonists. Where Ceres' achieves her goals through the use of the powers she develops, Stephania does so with the secrets and bribes she is skilled in accumulating - those are her weapons of choice. And even when she loses, she starts thinking of another way she can turn things around, whose secrets or allegiance she can use next, she moves on from one pursuit to another without breaking a sweat when the former does not work out. We get to her most brutal trial in the seventh book where her failing is in more than just words and influence - it's the moment where I thought the books had truly turned to a grimdark setting. Even when you think she'll finally be broken, she'll finally admit defeat, she gets back up and returns to her revenge. And you wonder what kind of person does it take to still be so ruthless and dedicated to revenge after the kind of torment she went through just then. Stephania thrives on her quest for vengeance against those who have wronged her but it is also what ultimately leads to her very fitting end.
Sartes, Ceres' younger brother, is likely the most optimistic and hopeful characters in the book. He's also the youngest, having started as just shy of his fourteenth birthday in the first book. Here you see a character who is sure of himself and knows that his skill is not in fighting or being a blacksmith like his father - he finds that his most important asset is how quickly he thinks on his feet and that he can be quite innovative when it comes to the hurdles they face and others follow him because of it. Though Ceres and Thanos never break entirely and still retain some semblance of hope within them, the fight has made them a little bit cynical - but never Sartes. He's a shining beacon of hope that I think represents every rebel fighter that fights in the rebellion. He knows he's not the best fighter, he knows that a lot of people could die in this fight including himself but he never lets that make him think the future is bleak or forget that he still has skills that can help in other ways.
Despite being 8 books long, the series also doesn't feel like it drags because Rice fits in a lot of story into books that don't even reach 200 pages, they're about half the length each of a regular fantasy novel that usually averages around 400-500 pages. She fits in just as much story if not more at times. And she has the skill to carry it off really well, nothing feels rushed or too packed but there's still so much in there that however quick it is for you to read, you still get enough movement in story to feel satisfied. It's very rich without feeling overstuffed and by doing this, Rice manages to achieve a balance of not filling the books with chapters and scenes that the book could have done without. Where other fantasy books might have a lot of training or the journey packed in making it longer, she cuts it out where it isn't necessary and so the result you have is that nothing stagnates at any point. Each book didn't take more than 4 hours for me so I usually read one across two or three days depending on how much time I gave myself to read in the evenings.
The ending is pretty good, every loose end is pretty well tied up, every character ends up more or less where they deserve to be based on who they were and what they did throughout the course of the books. There is one parenthood detail that isn't tied up by the end but seems quite inconsequential with how everything else plays out but there is also an ominous note from one significant but barely present character right at the end and it feels like the story of this world could just be at its end or it could eventually be returned to. That is of course all up to Morgan Rice.
Reasons to Recommend:
- Classic fantasy with some YA and grimdark elements, and its own unique story
- A quick and immersive fantasy read
- Characters that are constantly developing yet staying true to themselves
- Multiple antagonists that are as well developed as the protagonists
- Reading from multiple points of view on all sides of a conflict
My ratings as they are on Goodreads are as follows:
Slave, Warrior, Queen 4/5
Rogue, Prisoner, Princess 4/5
Knight, Heir, Prince 5/5
Rebel, Pawn, King 5/5
Soldier, Brother, Sorcerer 3/5
Hero, Traitor, Daughter 4/5
Ruler, Rival, Exile 5/5
Victor, Vanquished, Son 5/5
Averaged out, that's basically a 7.5/10 overall but I think as a whole I'd give it 8.5/10. There were moments where the story just wasn't as enjoyable or as interesting as it could have been which is where I rated them lower or some of the 4/5 were where I just didn't enjoy a particular characters chapters. I haven't read a lot of self-published books but this is probably the best I have read. I look forward to reading more of her books.
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