Amarah
L.L. McNeil
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‘This treasure’ll make us richer than any Goldstone. All the sky pirates in Estoria, Val Sharis, heck, in all of Linaria would be on their way here if they knew where here was.’
With rampaging dragons and marauding Arillians dominating Linaria’s skies, Amarah’s quest for vengeance against the one who took everything from her seems almost impossible.
When a treasure hunt with a former ally leads to the discovery of a lost Varkain artefact, she’s plunged into the middle of an ancient war between Sevastos dragons, Varkain blood magic, and those who crave these powers for themselves.
Amarah wanted revenge. What she uncovers will change the face of Linaria forever.
Amarah is the 3rd book in a series that I have loved so far. Both Moroda and Palom brought positives to the table, but I was ready for Amarah to pick up the pace and move towards an overarching storyline and goal.
Fortunately, Amarah really packs a punch and we start to see all the moving pieces shifting towards the final goal. The pace of Amarah seems much faster than Palom and each of the point of view characters seems to be heading towards maybe not the same goal, but a goal which may or may not bring them back together. Whilst these aren’t all the same goal, we do see elements which are linking each of these stories, and I won’t be surprised if in the next book it brings everyone back together for at least a few scenes.
I found Palom kept our characters on separate diverging paths, but we’re finally on the move forward to a convergence. I feel like this is something that will make Moroda very happy as we see our favourite characters deciding on the right path. Overall all the characters develop even more in this story, although some more than others.
The best part of the book was definitely Amarah. She’s a kick ass sky pirate and I’ve been waiting for her book since I read Moroda (Sorry Palom!). I feel like out of Amarah, Morgen, Isa, Palom and even Sapora – Amarah has grown the most since book 1. We’ve seen her struggle through the loss of Moroda, and then the loss of some other things (no spoilers!) and these really change her perspective. Even after she’s been at home with the other pirates, I find she’s distinctly different as her morals expand due to inside and outside influences.
Sapora is ruling, but has a lot of internal conflict in his court because he’s only half Varkain. However, his control over the dragon he’s acquired gives him the fear factor to continue ruling. Especially as it’s sleeping in his back garden basically. Sapora’s main storyline is him trying to find the magical Arks which will allow him to gain even more power and keep control of his kingdom. His storyline definitely helped us understand what was happening in other areas of the world, however he had limited character development compared to the others.
Isa is a great princess for her people, but she’s unsure who her true people should be. I adore her storyline as it’s so close to Sapora’s but Isa is really trying to grow and help other people. She’s given up trying to prove herself to others, as she’s seen it’s no use. The clear distinction that Sapora looks like Varkain and Isa looks like a Ittalan shows that the way they’ve been treated has changed them as people but in very different ways.
Morgen is still hiding from Sapora, but finds a new mission as he seeks out Topeko as a teacher. This was maybe my favourite storyline as I love magic systems. We didn’t really learn much when we were with Topeko in Moroda, but here we get to watch as Morgen tries to be an apprentice. I’m excited to see how Morgen goes forward in the next book because he’s basically done his Karate Kid training sequence and he’s ready to kick ass.
The world building continues in Amarah and builds upon what we know from Palom and Moroda. Like I mentioned before, I loved the magic system and how different races can wield magic differently. We also get to visit new places, with many different climates and cultures. The home of Amarah is very different to her childhood home where Morgen visits, and again very different to the castle Sapora and Isa inhabit.
Throughout all of the character development and mini storylines for each of them, we always have the threat of Aciel and Jato still. Strange things are happening around where Aciel is entombed. People are jumping off bridges, and acting strange and it’s only getting worse. This helped bring some tension to the book, and builds up this threat ready for the next story. However, there’s not really a main antagonist that I can pick out of this book.
The Arks are also something that I didn’t realise were vitally important to the story until it was mentioned a few times by different characters, so this also brought a lot of excitement as we wonder who will find each of them.
Overall I just really loved Amarah (both the book and character of course) and I’m excited for the next book from L.L. McNeil!
Positives of Amarah
- Character Development
- World Building
- Excitement for next book
Negatives of Amarah
- Sapora’s character development
- Lack of villain presence
I received Amarah by L.L. McNeil from the publisher. This is an unbiased and honest review
