The Warring States

The Warring States by Aidan Harte, The Wave Trilogy #2

After the rout at Rasenna, Concord faces enemies on all fronts, and nobody believes that the last surviving Apprentice is equal to these crises – but Torbidda didn’t become Apprentice by letting himself be manipulated.

While Sofia is struggling to understand her miraculous pregnancy, the City of Towers grows wealthy. But it’s not long before the people of Rasenna start arguing again, and as the city falls apart once more, Sofia realises she must escape Etruria to save her baby.

When prophecy leads her to another cesspit of treachery, the decadent Crusader kingdom of Oltremare, Sofia begins to despair, for this time she can see no way out…

The Warring States is the second book in The Wave Trilogy written by Aidan Harte, the first book in the series, Irenicon, saw its release in 2012. I only read Irenicon recently but was very impressed by how Aidan Harte had written up his debut. Irenicon left the series on a open ending with enough storyline possibilities to be picked up in its sequel. There was however one big twist in the end that I wasn’t expecting…

The story in The Warring States picks up two years prior to the events in Irenicon, with the introduction of a new character to the series. Torbidda. Introduced as a young boy that is signing up to the engineer’s guild in Concord. Since Irenicon left only one of the main protagonists standing, Sofia, I was curious if she would be the sole focus of the rest of the series or that another important character would be introduced. The introduction to Torbidda’s character was done with enough time and effort, the first 100 pages of the book focused on setting Torbidda’s character just right. Likewise Sofia and Giovanni’s characters, Aidan Harte created a solid entry with Torbidda. It was good to see the inner workings of the Engineers, how they went about and actually how brutal the selection process and how tough it is to climb up in the ranks is. This isn’t for the weak, in order to climb up the ranks you have to know how to fend for yourself and take control in your own hands. No wonder that the engineers are so cold-hearted. Moreover by the creation of Torbidda’s character I knew he would be destined for more, he excels in everything he does. And when he learns what the ultimate destiny is of the Apprentices… this really promises something for the final instalment of The Wace Trilogy, those last two sentences of the book really did it for me.

Next to Torbidda, Sofia still makes up a large part of the story. Her storyline picks up in the second part of the book that takes place one year after the events in Irenicon. In the first book there was a strong political division in Rasenna and Sofia’s heritage forced her in some tight corners. Now after the siege, everything seems to have settled down and Rasenna is growing prosperous again. Aidan Harte firstly invests a lot of time to show how the events are now shaping Rasenna itself, all the daily life but also introducing several secondary characters that further play part on the storyline. However certain events start to create a new wedge amongst the people of Rasenna and makes Sofia’s live perilous the longer she stays in Rasenna. She puts her mind on the prophecy which takes her to the Crusader Kingdom of Oltremare. Sofia’s character is really strong and determined, she always want to please everyone and sees the good in everyone, but she is constantly put down or worked against, if I were her I would have given up long ago and just picked up my things and left.

Irenicon introduced us to a very rich world. An alternate version of Europa, where Christ was killed as a baby by Herod. The kingdom that reigns supreme is Concord and there engineers had set their mind on taking over Rassena. Overall the story in Irenicon was quite self contained and took for the majority of the time place in Rasenna with a few trips to Concord. Even though the story only took place in these two places, Aidan Harte neatly managed to create a interesting world by introducing a lot of other things to the story like the engineers guild, the river itself, wave technology and water style. It was impressive. In The Warring States, Aidan Harte takes his imagined world even further. Not containing this story only in Concord and Rasenna, I checked out the maps in the beginning of the book and just knew that I would be in for a treat. Aidan Harte reveals a lot more of his alternate version of Europa, letting Sofia visit other places in Eturia and involving a whole other continent Oltramare and The Kingdom of Akka.

The introduction of these different places doesn’t come rushed or sudden, they are crucial to the storyline itself, just like the characters these places are given their own introductions. Like I briefly recaptured above, the essence of the alternate world that Aidan Harte introduces to us is a land where Christ was killed as a baby and there is a new “prophecy” at hand in Sofia. This trek of Sofia to the other places is combined with the integral part of the re-imagined biblical references. In The Warring States itself, Aidan Harte uses the quotations out of the book of “The Gospel According to St. Barabbas” that tells the story of Mary. These quotations really worked to give a lot more depth to the story and revealing a lot more of its history. Next to these quotations, there are excerpts out of certain books that tell more about the history of certain towns and places that are being visited in The Warring States. Combining all these elements; the broadening of the world by visiting different places, more imagining of the alternate history and revealing the history of several places all worked their wonders and broadened the promise of The Wave Trilogy once more.

The Warring States is twice as impressive as Irenicon. What Aidan Harte managed to put down in his debut now comes to fruition in The Warring States. Take the alternate Europa alone, integrating a new prophecy into it is a magnificent feat alone. I have to give Aidan Harte full praise to his world building capabilities, all the elements that he involves in his imagined universe will leave you gaping, it really is that rich and worked out in the details, I can only imagine what kind of daunting task this must have been. However the characters do not falter at all in this universe, both Torbidda and Sofia are shown in a similarly way, that ensures they come out on top of it all. I might have hard times to get into the theme of Irenicon, I didn’t feel this at all in The Warring States. The way that Aidan Harte writes his story and how he invests his time in producing the right setting for the story and characters is really something that I have come to enjoy. Taking this story one step at a time and showing that much of the world really fits into this impressively imagine world. The Wave Trilogy is set to be concluded in Spira Mirabilis. I’ll make sure keep an eye out on this one.

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On another note: Irenicon has been shortlisted for The Gemmel Awards in the category of Morningstar for best debut/newcomer to fantasy. Read all about it on the Jo Fletcher Blog  here. There is also a handy link which allows you to cast your vote!  

Irenicon was Aiden Harte's debut, it's impressive and ambitious on many fronts,