The Rise of the Iliri: Volumes 1-3 by Auryn HadleyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazing Fantasy With Strong Female Protagonist
I originally read these books as individual volumes and fell in love with Sal and the Black Blades. When the latest book came out I decided to re-read the books to enjoy the build up once again. This box set was a great way of doing that, as it keeps the story flowing. These first three volumes work brilliantly as a set because they follow seamlessly into each other and end at a distinct pause in the story.
Sal is a purebred Iliri female, possibly one of the last. This race is often enslaved in the CFC, the land where she was born. There is very little excuse needed to conscript Iliri into the army, where they are still treated as slaves. Sal was conscripted into the army two years ago and as soon as she got promoted she applied to join any Elite Unit she could. She was finally given a chance to join the Black Blades, the best of the best. When she arrived she discovered that Iliri were hiding a lot from the outside world; their culture, their strength and their abilities. As a dominant purebred female Iliri she draws men to her and the Black Blades are the first people to make her believe this could be a good thing.
Sal was raised by humans and as such has no knowledge of the Iliri culture or language and her time with the Black Blades teaches her a lot, not only about her people, but about herself too. She grows stronger and helps tie the Black Blades tighter together, something that can only get them noticed and not always for good reasons.
This author is superb at world building. She weaves together clever strands of culture, history, geography and language together to craft a complete world in which the plot and characters can stand. Not only does she do this for one country, but several. Then on top of phenomenal world building, she crafts characters that we can bond with immediately, not just because we like them but because we can understand them. There are not just one or two characters created to bond with this in this series, but dozens of them of several different races. Then the plot, which glides along, forcing you to turn one more page even as your eyes start to close at 2am. I am unable to stop reading these books until forced to by the outside world or the end is reached. I get so wrapped up in Sal’s adventures I can never seem to pull myself away. As you might expect from an author who carefully constructs a complex world, the plot is flawlessly built, with politics, army tactics and social interactions all building on each other.
I cannot rate this book highly enough. If you like fantasy books, or strong female characters of any kind, I would be very very surprised if you didn't love this as much as I did.
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