[Book Review] A Tide of Black Steel (Age of Wrath 1) — Anthony Ryan
In the Age of Wrath, Trust Only the Steel in Your Hand!
Immerse yourself in the violent, bloodthirsty, and bitingly cunning first novel A Tide of Black Steel in the Age of Wrath series by Anthony Ryan.
The first novel in a brand new trilogy aptly dubbed Age of Wrath, kicks off with A Tide of Black Steel. This new series is set in the same world as Ryan’s fantastic grimdark Covenant of Steel trilogy. Set a few decades after the events of the conclusion of The Traitor, A Tide of Black Steel focuses on the Ascarlian people, undisputedly ruled with an iron fist by the Sister Queens for centuries. Until now.
When a mysterious rival force emerges at the islands and inflicts wanton violence, decimating entire villages of the Ascarlian people, the Sister Queens’ rule is called into question. The Age of Wrath is now upon us!
A Tide of Black Steel is presented to us through five different POV characters, each bringing their flavor to add to the overall grittiness of the world. The siblings Thera Blackspear and Felnir Redtooth could not be more different from each other, Thera being the blade of the Sister Queens, with cold fury enforcing the Queen’s Justice across the kingdoms. In contrast, her brother, Felnir sticks to the shadows. A pirate mercenary with a dark checkered past, he is bound into service to the Queens, albeit from the shadows of their spy network. We also have Ruhlin, introduced as a cowardly fisherman, but possesses magical blood, which triggered by rage changes him into a feral berserker with near invulnerable skin and inhuman strength and maniacal ferocity. Rounding out the characters is the young scribe Elvine, who pursues her own Covenant faith in secret, is drawn into the intrigue and set on a quest with Felnir, testing her faith, resolve, and intellect.
A Tide of Black Steel is unapologetic in its dark grit. There is plenty of blood and gore, violence both physical, mental, and emotional, with plenty of action both in your face and from the shadows. Each character brings an almost self-contained tale of their own with many fleshed-out side characters, locations, and action set pieces. While, Felnir and Elvine are in the same adventure party, having individual POV chapters allows us to delve into their character arcs more, and the events are deeper and more rewarding because of it. Their path crosses with Felnir’s sister Thera, however briefly, but even with minimal interactions and time spent together, Ryan creates enough intrigue that the reader involuntarily fills in the gaps with their headcanon about events before the story. Very few authors can create compelling characters in their own right, and fewer that enrich each other giving both their arcs and the overall plot more depth. In contrast, Ruhlin’s tale, while disjointed from the others, has its ups and downs. A novel with heavy Norse parallels with a berserker character would be easy to stereotype, but Ryan gives Ruhlin’s arc a unique twist, with yet another cast of engaging side characters with their mystique.
The pacing of the novel is gripping yet gives us time to breathe and look around as the characters travel between locations, with plenty of action setpieces which feel like side-quests in a videogame. I thoroughly enjoyed the references to the events in Covenant of Steel trilogy and particularly liked that those events are considered historical texts in this new series. While the Ascarlians have a minor role to play in that series, they are front and center in this series, and the choice to set a new series from their perspective is a thing of genius. While some of the tie-ins with the Covenant series veered toward cheesily heavy-handed, these elements check all my boxes for a great book. I found myself constantly engaged with the individual plotlines, and more importantly, the characters develop and navigate their way towards bigger plot checkpoints.
My only gripe with A Tide of Black Steel is that it does not set up an overarching series plot from the get-go. Even a third into the book, I found myself asking “This is extremely cool, but what is this book about?”. While other first entries in trilogies set up their worldplot in the first few chapters, A Tide of Black Steel goes the route of allowing smaller plotlines to take precedence and let the big picture slowly coalesce. While Covenant of Steel was quicker to establish the grand plot, the smaller sections and the excellent worldbuilding and character work made that series a must-read. In a similar vein, while I don't think the major plotline of a rival, big bad ancient Ascarlian force invading the lands of the Sister Queens is a very new or unique idea, I believe that it is the character work and the minor plot beats that will make Age of Wrath a series to be added to the grimdark greats.
I am an ardent GrimDark fanatic, and anything Norse-themed is an easy sell. Along with the Bloodsworn series (John Gwynne), we truly are spoiled by Norsedark books! Even so, A Tide of Black Steel could have fallen flat in the hands of a different author. Anthony Ryan hit a home run with this book, and has skyrocketed to among my favorites this year. I cannot wait to see the winding road paved with righteous violence this series takes. If this novel is anything to go by, it will be tons of blood and fun. Sign me up!
