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The Endsong #2
The Sunforge
Sascha Stronach returns in this queer, Maori-inspired Endsong series about a police officer back from the dead who will stop at nothing to save her city from the evil that threatens to destroy it, perfect for fans of Gideon the Ninth and Black Sun.
The steel city of Radovan is consumed by fire between. Stranded in its harbor is the crew of the Kopek, the survivors of a bioterror attack overseas. But they bear scars: their captain, Sibbi, has gone missing; Yat, their newest Weaver, is fighting for control of her own mind; and their Weaving powers are in a badly weakened state.
To disable the technology that prevents the group from escaping, Sen and Kiada must plot their way through the ruins of the foreign capital, which is patrolled by a hostile militia, using wits alone. But to navigate through Radovan, Kiada will have to rely on her own history with the city—one she shares with a band of misfits dubbed Fort Tomorrow and their leader, Ari, a charismatic thief.
Ari may hold the key not only to saving Radovan from complete annihilation, but the history of their world, which will come into play as the gods begin to unleash destruction on humanity and one another.
The steel city of Radovan is consumed by fire between. Stranded in its harbor is the crew of the Kopek, the survivors of a bioterror attack overseas. But they bear scars: their captain, Sibbi, has gone missing; Yat, their newest Weaver, is fighting for control of her own mind; and their Weaving powers are in a badly weakened state.
To disable the technology that prevents the group from escaping, Sen and Kiada must plot their way through the ruins of the foreign capital, which is patrolled by a hostile militia, using wits alone. But to navigate through Radovan, Kiada will have to rely on her own history with the city—one she shares with a band of misfits dubbed Fort Tomorrow and their leader, Ari, a charismatic thief.
Ari may hold the key not only to saving Radovan from complete annihilation, but the history of their world, which will come into play as the gods begin to unleash destruction on humanity and one another.
330 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 2024
17 people are currently reading
770 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
October 3, 2024
3.5. I like a lot about this series so far - such an interesting world, diverse representation, compelling characters. I also feel like there might be a few too many interesting things going on - time jumps, POV jumps, and aspects to the plot that really complicate the POVs for reasons I won't spoil here... it's a lot.
I think I would've liked this novel a lot better had it included a brief "here's what happened in book 1" or even a list of characters, OR if I had read The Dawnhounds again before starting; reading the two 20-ish months apart definitely impacted my reading experience. This said, I also noted in my review of book 1 that the pacing made me feel like I missed something. There is also way too much I like about this series not to continue, so I'll look forward to book 3 and be sure to come back and read detailed synopses of the first two books before proceeding.
Content warnings: death, war, violence, gun violence, homophobia, medical content, some body horror
I think I would've liked this novel a lot better had it included a brief "here's what happened in book 1" or even a list of characters, OR if I had read The Dawnhounds again before starting; reading the two 20-ish months apart definitely impacted my reading experience. This said, I also noted in my review of book 1 that the pacing made me feel like I missed something. There is also way too much I like about this series not to continue, so I'll look forward to book 3 and be sure to come back and read detailed synopses of the first two books before proceeding.
Content warnings: death, war, violence, gun violence, homophobia, medical content, some body horror
February 2, 2025
hooo boy should I have reread book 1 before reading this HOWEVER I kept going and that’s on me
It boggles the mind that this series hasn’t been eaten up by Gideon fans yet. It has the similar science-fantasy-horror vibes and is also incredibly queer. This one ramped up the horror even more (LOVED), the biotech and world was expanded and is just so cool. This book was also much scarier: it very much speaks to what is happening in the US right now and the deeply horrifying fascist rise to power and terrifying restrictions being placed on trans people.
Anyway I think you all should read this series.
It boggles the mind that this series hasn’t been eaten up by Gideon fans yet. It has the similar science-fantasy-horror vibes and is also incredibly queer. This one ramped up the horror even more (LOVED), the biotech and world was expanded and is just so cool. This book was also much scarier: it very much speaks to what is happening in the US right now and the deeply horrifying fascist rise to power and terrifying restrictions being placed on trans people.
Anyway I think you all should read this series.
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August 7, 2024
You're gonna do great, kid. I know that can be hard to believe, but look back at what you've done already; you've done great, you'll do great. You're not doing great right now, but we both know you're strong enough to change that.
What a beautiful mess.
I'm serious. If you have enjoyed The Locked Tomb for its weird, then you're gonna love The Endsong.
Redemption, world-end, hope, history and throughout it all, epically trans.
We're caught in this, you know, the cascade of history. You can sigh treaties and repaint the fences, but history is still there: not just in books but in living, breathing action
What a beautiful mess.
I'm serious. If you have enjoyed The Locked Tomb for its weird, then you're gonna love The Endsong.
Redemption, world-end, hope, history and throughout it all, epically trans.
We're caught in this, you know, the cascade of history. You can sigh treaties and repaint the fences, but history is still there: not just in books but in living, breathing action
January 7, 2025
I don't know how I'm going to write a review that does this book justice—it's weird and messy and beautiful—but I'll try, because this deserves to find a larger audience.
No spoilers and no plot summary, though, because I don't know where I'd begin. I'm just going to give you a rundown on why I love this book and this series, and pick out some choice excerpts that are emblematic of what you'll get.
The first book, The Dawnhounds , is an unapologeticially Kiwi, post-apocalyptic biopunk queer epic urban sci-fantasy debut written by a trans Māori author that's so fucking good the self-published version WON a Sir Julius Vogel Award.
The Dawnhounds is my go-to recommendation for anyone looking for something that truly reads different from the bulk of traditionally published SFF, something that isn't just a shallow DEI feel-good tickbox read.
The Dawnhounds has incredible fanart by Laya Rose:
The Dawnhounds does a massive left swerve in its final pages, barrelling into The Sunforge which takes EVERYTHING up five notches. Here's the opening:
Yeah, I was hooked.
Where The Dawnhounds had a relatively straightforward linear narrative with limited POVs broken up by periodic descents into interstitials, The Sunforge goes full tilt, nonlinear, kaleidoscopic fever dream from the drop, ping ponging back and forth between multiple concurrent timelines and POVs until everything blurs and melds. (Don't try to count how many; it's not important because it all comes together and you'll just give yourself a headache trying to put them into neat little boxes because they won't fit.)
If you liked the giant mushroom cities and the grub guns and the biowork body enhancements in The Dawnhounds and the general balance of body horror, prepare to add in things like, ferro-cats, and freaky network enmeshed doppler bots, and microwave WMDs, and bioships with magically manipulatable stoma systems equipped with emergency sprinkler systems running on pus.
If you liked how The Dawnhounds pushed the envelope and played with prose and formatting, prepare for even more gloriously weird experimentation in The Sunforge, like page 27 and THE BIT that begins around page 250.
If you were intrigued by the gods and the characters in The Dawnhounds, you're in for a treat: The Sunforge peels their skin and scars back to reveal their guts and nerves and their skeletons aren't what you expect in the BEST way. And yet they remain so relatably, vulnerably, achingly human:
This is not a breezy, heroic, skimmable story; you have to be in the right headspace with the available brainpower to really appreciate what Stronach is trying to do, and doing bloody brilliantly. The Sunforge is heavy and confronting and dark; not grimdark; not dark-for-the-sake-of-dark-isn't-this-shockingly-dark, but dark because the people who exist on the fucked up end of the spectrum of humanity have gone through and done some shit but they're trying their goddamned best anyway.
Also this is the absolute perfect quote to end with:
I reread The Dawnhounds before jumping into The Sunforge and the moment I finished The Sunforge, I wanted to go back to The Dawnhounds and read straight through until I got to the end of The Sunforge again. It's that good.
Thank you, Sascha, for the ARC and I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to finish reading. Congratulations on putting out a stunner of a second book and I can't wait to see what you do with the third!
No spoilers and no plot summary, though, because I don't know where I'd begin. I'm just going to give you a rundown on why I love this book and this series, and pick out some choice excerpts that are emblematic of what you'll get.
The first book, The Dawnhounds , is an unapologeticially Kiwi, post-apocalyptic biopunk queer epic urban sci-fantasy debut written by a trans Māori author that's so fucking good the self-published version WON a Sir Julius Vogel Award.
The Dawnhounds is my go-to recommendation for anyone looking for something that truly reads different from the bulk of traditionally published SFF, something that isn't just a shallow DEI feel-good tickbox read.
The Dawnhounds has incredible fanart by Laya Rose:
The Dawnhounds does a massive left swerve in its final pages, barrelling into The Sunforge which takes EVERYTHING up five notches. Here's the opening:
My daughter is a demon who lives in the forest. Her muscles are lean; her claws are long; her teeth are a broken mass of pulp and enamel. Her fur is a testament written in scars, a dark scrawl in the incomprehensible calligraphy of violence. When she comes for your children, she eats only their softest parts; she tears the tenderness from them as it was torn from her; she takes their stomachs and lungs; she leaves their muscle and bone to fester on the forest floor. My daughter is a poem written in blood. My daughter is a reckoning. My daughter burns like the sun and you will never catch her.
Yeah, I was hooked.
Where The Dawnhounds had a relatively straightforward linear narrative with limited POVs broken up by periodic descents into interstitials, The Sunforge goes full tilt, nonlinear, kaleidoscopic fever dream from the drop, ping ponging back and forth between multiple concurrent timelines and POVs until everything blurs and melds. (Don't try to count how many; it's not important because it all comes together and you'll just give yourself a headache trying to put them into neat little boxes because they won't fit.)
If you liked the giant mushroom cities and the grub guns and the biowork body enhancements in The Dawnhounds and the general balance of body horror, prepare to add in things like, ferro-cats, and freaky network enmeshed doppler bots, and microwave WMDs, and bioships with magically manipulatable stoma systems equipped with emergency sprinkler systems running on pus.
If you liked how The Dawnhounds pushed the envelope and played with prose and formatting, prepare for even more gloriously weird experimentation in The Sunforge, like page 27 and THE BIT that begins around page 250.
If you were intrigued by the gods and the characters in The Dawnhounds, you're in for a treat: The Sunforge peels their skin and scars back to reveal their guts and nerves and their skeletons aren't what you expect in the BEST way. And yet they remain so relatably, vulnerably, achingly human:
“Everything changes, all the time,” she said. “I can’t even trust the ground beneath my feet. I don’t want the world to be certain, but I’d like mine to be. Everything is out of control; I want to be in control of as much of it as I can. I want things to be clear, because even if they’re obvious, if you don’t say them, then they’re only half-real and harder to hold on to. I like answers, because even if they’re not what I want to hear, at least I know where I stand.”
“No,” said [REDACTED], “I’m sorry, that’s bullshit. It doesn’t matter what we say, it matters what we do. Some things are so obvious that you only say them when you’re scared they’re over. If you need it said, it’s because you’re worried it’s not real.”
“Exactly,” said [REDACTED]. “Exactly. How do you get it and not get it at the same time?”
This is not a breezy, heroic, skimmable story; you have to be in the right headspace with the available brainpower to really appreciate what Stronach is trying to do, and doing bloody brilliantly. The Sunforge is heavy and confronting and dark; not grimdark; not dark-for-the-sake-of-dark-isn't-this-shockingly-dark, but dark because the people who exist on the fucked up end of the spectrum of humanity have gone through and done some shit but they're trying their goddamned best anyway.
“...And I don’t need to forgive you. Nobody should forgive you. That’s not the point. I don’t give a damn about whether you’re redeemed—I care about whether you’re still hurting people. You’re not forgiven; you’re just getting started, and it doesn’t matter. Justice, forgiveness, they come when you fix what you broke, and you can’t fix everything you break, not even close, but you’re not staying here, because wallowing is selfish. If you have any fucking integrity, you’ll fix what you can, because the end was never the point, redemption was never the point. Redemption is fucking selfish. We care too much about the soul who inflicted the damage and don’t stop to think about the victims. You’re going to help me save the world, and when you’re done, we’ll still call you a monster, and you’ll be happy with that, because despite all the fucking evil, in the end, you did what you could. ... You’ll never be redeemed, and it doesn’t matter, because the only moral thing left is to act as if you could be. Start with me. It’s easy, I’m right here. Now help me.”
Also this is the absolute perfect quote to end with:
“...I’m not playing your game. You want my help? I give you instead the strongest curse of my people: yeah nah, I’m good.”
I reread The Dawnhounds before jumping into The Sunforge and the moment I finished The Sunforge, I wanted to go back to The Dawnhounds and read straight through until I got to the end of The Sunforge again. It's that good.
Thank you, Sascha, for the ARC and I'm so sorry it's taken me this long to finish reading. Congratulations on putting out a stunner of a second book and I can't wait to see what you do with the third!
October 7, 2024
3.5 still have no idea what is going on but also still kinda love it ??!
September 17, 2024
It takes a while to start, which is hard to imagine if you've only read the start, but oooee does it go some crazy places! I genuinely don't know if I've ever read a book that aimed so god-damned high and very very nearly made it.
Look, I just had no idea what was going on for half the book. Which is fun, and maybe I just needed to pay better attention, but the first half in particular needed a bit more reality and maybe less wild surrealism to earn that 5th star. Still a banger read.
Look, I just had no idea what was going on for half the book. Which is fun, and maybe I just needed to pay better attention, but the first half in particular needed a bit more reality and maybe less wild surrealism to earn that 5th star. Still a banger read.
January 15, 2025
Conflicted about this one. It's really damn rare that a story loses me, but I need a map, a compass, a sextant, an astrolabe, a radar, a chronometer, a GPS, and somebody who knows how to use any of those things to help me, because I'm officially at least a little bit lost. I understand the vague shape of the plot, the characters, the world, and the lore (truly insane amount of lore revealed, the story bows under the weight of all the narrative anvils it's juggling), but the specifics are unfortunately elusive and slightly incoherent. I love a non-linear narrative above all else but this one didn't quite do it for me. When I pick up the third book in this series, it will be because it plays with some awesome ideas, not because I'm overmuch invested in the plot or characters.
July 11, 2024
Another excellent mind-bending adventure! This one got me in my feelings more than the first book. I was more connected to the characters, and why did they have to go through so much pain?!
I thoroughly enjoyed being confused and also learning so much more, what an insanely clever tale that traverses time and space in a unique (to me at least) way! Some unexpected turns were taken and I'm already looking forward to reading book 3!
I thoroughly enjoyed being confused and also learning so much more, what an insanely clever tale that traverses time and space in a unique (to me at least) way! Some unexpected turns were taken and I'm already looking forward to reading book 3!
August 19, 2024
Thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free copy for review.
I felt so much more connected to the characters & their pain. I didn’t expect to tear up but the ending had me I swept up in my emotions. I spent probably 80% of the book being genuinely confused but I believe it’s intentional because it made the ending revelations feel s much more unbelievable. And if I thought the world building was good in the first book, this one is phenomenal. Such a fun, queer read & I really recommend!
I felt so much more connected to the characters & their pain. I didn’t expect to tear up but the ending had me I swept up in my emotions. I spent probably 80% of the book being genuinely confused but I believe it’s intentional because it made the ending revelations feel s much more unbelievable. And if I thought the world building was good in the first book, this one is phenomenal. Such a fun, queer read & I really recommend!
August 3, 2024
MY MIND IS FREAKING BLOWN.
STRONACH, YOU'RE A GENIUS.
RTC!
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~whatever you’re reading, I raise you: Māori-inspired science fantasy
~be watchful for tigers
~who needs linear time anyway?
~don’t fuck with aunts
~drown
:my review of book one!:
Whaaaaaaaaaat just happened?
What???
WHAT?!
That was pretty much my immediate reaction to turning the final page of Sunforge.
WHAT EVEN?!
But it’s so good! I definitely didn’t understand it all and I’m going to need to reread it at LEAST two more times to fully catch and process everything, but – IT’S SO GOOD!
I am fucking stunned at how much Stronach can fit into so few pages. I was a little disappointed when I loaded my arc onto my ereader and saw it didn’t quite hit 300 pages – I like my books chonky, and also, how much story can you really pack into 200+ pages?
A LOT. A WHOLE LOT. A FUCKTON, ONE MIGHT SAY. (That’s a joke that will make sense once you read the book.)
And I should have known that, because Dawnhounds, the first book in this series, was also super short, and yet was IMMENSE on the inside. These are books built like the Tardis – and OH MY, the things you’ll see once you step inside! The places it will take you! SAY GOODBYE TO LINEAR TIME AND YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF SPACE!
I thought (and still think)that Dawnhounds was an amazing sci-fantasy. But Sunforge proves that Stronach is a freaking GENIUS.
We heard a bit about Radovan in Dawnhounds, and it’s the setting of this book – a setting that, at least at first, seems much less weird than Hainak! Hainak was a living city with mushroom houses; Radovan has, you know. Buildings that aren’t alive and people who haven’t modified their bodies with plants! It has a kind of Cold War vibe, except for the androids all over the place. Not too hard to wrap your head around!
Which is fortunate, because everything else is very hard to wrap your head around. You thought Dawnhounds was weird??? Yeah, not so much, it turns out. Sunforge makes Dawnhounds look like white surburbia with 2.5 kids and a dog – and if you’ve read Dawnhounds, that should give you an idea of what kind of oh shit levels of ABSOLUTELY OUT-THEREness we’re dealing with this time around.
I sprinkled it with sugar and ate it up with a SPOON, and my darlings, it is DELICIOUS.
That being said, I have no idea how to sell you on it without MASSIVE spoilers, so.
Hmm.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
STRONACH, YOU'RE A GENIUS.
RTC!
*I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.*
Highlights
~whatever you’re reading, I raise you: Māori-inspired science fantasy
~be watchful for tigers
~who needs linear time anyway?
~don’t fuck with aunts
~drown
:my review of book one!:
Whaaaaaaaaaat just happened?
What???
WHAT?!
That was pretty much my immediate reaction to turning the final page of Sunforge.
WHAT EVEN?!
But it’s so good! I definitely didn’t understand it all and I’m going to need to reread it at LEAST two more times to fully catch and process everything, but – IT’S SO GOOD!
I am fucking stunned at how much Stronach can fit into so few pages. I was a little disappointed when I loaded my arc onto my ereader and saw it didn’t quite hit 300 pages – I like my books chonky, and also, how much story can you really pack into 200+ pages?
A LOT. A WHOLE LOT. A FUCKTON, ONE MIGHT SAY. (That’s a joke that will make sense once you read the book.)
And I should have known that, because Dawnhounds, the first book in this series, was also super short, and yet was IMMENSE on the inside. These are books built like the Tardis – and OH MY, the things you’ll see once you step inside! The places it will take you! SAY GOODBYE TO LINEAR TIME AND YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF SPACE!
I thought (and still think)that Dawnhounds was an amazing sci-fantasy. But Sunforge proves that Stronach is a freaking GENIUS.
You want my help? I give you instead the strongest curse of my people: yeah nah, I’m good.”
We heard a bit about Radovan in Dawnhounds, and it’s the setting of this book – a setting that, at least at first, seems much less weird than Hainak! Hainak was a living city with mushroom houses; Radovan has, you know. Buildings that aren’t alive and people who haven’t modified their bodies with plants! It has a kind of Cold War vibe, except for the androids all over the place. Not too hard to wrap your head around!
Which is fortunate, because everything else is very hard to wrap your head around. You thought Dawnhounds was weird??? Yeah, not so much, it turns out. Sunforge makes Dawnhounds look like white surburbia with 2.5 kids and a dog – and if you’ve read Dawnhounds, that should give you an idea of what kind of oh shit levels of ABSOLUTELY OUT-THEREness we’re dealing with this time around.
I sprinkled it with sugar and ate it up with a SPOON, and my darlings, it is DELICIOUS.
“Bury me deep,” he spat, “wrap me in ten shrouds and twelve chains and throw me in the ocean; put my carcass in your largest cannon and fire it at the sun; put as much distance between me and your God as possible, because if you don’t, I will come back as a curse. I swear on my blood and the blood of my people, I will be there when your children are buried; I will be there when their children are buried; I will be there a thousand times over, until the stars lose their fires. I bestow my soul to whichever god or spirit is clever enough to find it; I bestow my curse upon Empire and all her vicious children. Now, hurry up and kill me–I’ve got places to be.”
That being said, I have no idea how to sell you on it without MASSIVE spoilers, so.
Hmm.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
November 1, 2024
okay … okay.
this absolutely went nowhere near where i was expecting it to go after book one but good lord am i happy with where it went.
this book scratched a very particular spot in my brain (the same one that the locked tomb scratches - i’ll get to that) and, while it took about 30-40% to really get going, i was fully locked in once it did. the world turned into something i wasn’t expecting at all, and i want to know everything about it. the non-linear narrative, constantly changing POVs, and unreliable narrators make this a very difficult book to follow, but if you’re like me and a fucky narrative structure is your bag, then this is absolutely for you.
furthermore if you’re a locked tomb enjoyer like me, PLEASE read this series. i cannot urge you enough to please read this series. the similarities between the two are many and i was eating up every word. it’s like stronach took some of my favorite parts of the worldbuilding in tlt, remolded it, made it new again and handed it back to me in the form of the sunforge and i devoured every single word. the reading experience is also very similar to harrow the ninth, wherein you have no fucking idea what’s happening for most of this book and then around 70% through it all clicks into place and hits the ground running. amazing.
(this being said, i should clarify that while the similarities are there, it doesn’t feel like it’s copying the locked tomb at all. the bones are the same shape but the meat is entirely different.)
i also have to shout out the queerness in this book. i probably wouldn’t have liked it as much if it wasn’t so loudly queer. it’s in every choice the characters make and informs who they are as people, and every relationship in this book, platonic or romantic, made me want to cry at least once (i Did cry at that one ari and mārū scene).
this world and the characters feel alive and real, and are allowed to fuck up and be angry and assholes but you just can’t help but love them anyway. yat and kiada are everything, ajat is phenomenal, ari is a great new addition, and sen is sen.
i need book three right now immediately please let me have it now please :)
this absolutely went nowhere near where i was expecting it to go after book one but good lord am i happy with where it went.
this book scratched a very particular spot in my brain (the same one that the locked tomb scratches - i’ll get to that) and, while it took about 30-40% to really get going, i was fully locked in once it did. the world turned into something i wasn’t expecting at all, and i want to know everything about it. the non-linear narrative, constantly changing POVs, and unreliable narrators make this a very difficult book to follow, but if you’re like me and a fucky narrative structure is your bag, then this is absolutely for you.
furthermore if you’re a locked tomb enjoyer like me, PLEASE read this series. i cannot urge you enough to please read this series. the similarities between the two are many and i was eating up every word. it’s like stronach took some of my favorite parts of the worldbuilding in tlt, remolded it, made it new again and handed it back to me in the form of the sunforge and i devoured every single word. the reading experience is also very similar to harrow the ninth, wherein you have no fucking idea what’s happening for most of this book and then around 70% through it all clicks into place and hits the ground running. amazing.
(this being said, i should clarify that while the similarities are there, it doesn’t feel like it’s copying the locked tomb at all. the bones are the same shape but the meat is entirely different.)
i also have to shout out the queerness in this book. i probably wouldn’t have liked it as much if it wasn’t so loudly queer. it’s in every choice the characters make and informs who they are as people, and every relationship in this book, platonic or romantic, made me want to cry at least once (i Did cry at that one ari and mārū scene).
this world and the characters feel alive and real, and are allowed to fuck up and be angry and assholes but you just can’t help but love them anyway. yat and kiada are everything, ajat is phenomenal, ari is a great new addition, and sen is sen.
i need book three right now immediately please let me have it now please :)
July 27, 2024
I love this weird, strange world and the characters that inhabit it. They get even messier in this one and there is a lot more world building and universe building as things are bigger than they seem here. I really enjoyed learning more about the origins of the gods and some of the characters that have been around for a while. Things that made less sense in The Dawnhounds come together a bit more here in The Sungforge.
I feel like I don’t have much more to add about this one versus The Dawnhounds as I feel the same way after reading it. It is not often that a book and its sequel will actually be able to elicit the same emotions, but The Endsong series manages to do just that, which speaks to the consistency of the great writing.
Thank you to @SagaPressBooks for the ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.
I feel like I don’t have much more to add about this one versus The Dawnhounds as I feel the same way after reading it. It is not often that a book and its sequel will actually be able to elicit the same emotions, but The Endsong series manages to do just that, which speaks to the consistency of the great writing.
Thank you to @SagaPressBooks for the ARC of this book. All thoughts are my own.
May 24, 2025
My response to this novel was diametrically the opposite of the first book in the trilogy (hopefully). "Dawnhounds" easily passed the "50-page Rule," and then ended (at least for me), on a rather confused note, as I was trying to figure out the nature of Stronach's world, and what was really going on.
In "The Sunforge," despite some well-wrought passages, one spends the first fifty-pages or so in that continuing state of confusion, with a large dollop of flash-back plot "structure" on top, and the whole confection was simply not working for me.
Forced to skip to the end to see if I wanted to continue with this work, I finally got what I really wanted; a clear explanation of the nature of Stronach's setting and what the higher conflict in play really is. This made the flashback structure seem much more appropriate. I still think the shallowness of most of the characters is the weakest portion of this story, but I'm now interested to see how Stronach sticks the landing.
Actual rating: 3.5.
In "The Sunforge," despite some well-wrought passages, one spends the first fifty-pages or so in that continuing state of confusion, with a large dollop of flash-back plot "structure" on top, and the whole confection was simply not working for me.
Forced to skip to the end to see if I wanted to continue with this work, I finally got what I really wanted; a clear explanation of the nature of Stronach's setting and what the higher conflict in play really is. This made the flashback structure seem much more appropriate. I still think the shallowness of most of the characters is the weakest portion of this story, but I'm now interested to see how Stronach sticks the landing.
Actual rating: 3.5.
September 11, 2024
Ok, so I picked this up from the library without having read the first book and holy shit was it awesome! The Dawnhounds just jumped to the top of my TBR. Even without having read the first book in the series this queer fantasy is one of my favorites for the year. The characters were interesting, the world-building was superb, the action, the romantic subplots, the weird ass metaphysics? All top notch, excellently executed and loads of fun. Actually pretty excited I still have the first book in the series to read, though I probably wouldn't recommend reading it out of order if you have a low tolerance for chaos and learning about a universe on the fly. I'll be anxiously awaiting the third and final book.
August 20, 2025
Definitely captivating!
I feel like you’re unsure exactly what is happening in this story at times but you’re still down either way. This book is so loudly queer, more than the first even, and full of that found family of ragtag weirdos energy that I love. The story is told in different points of view and different time periods even, but comes back to the overarching fight our main character is fighting. The action was high, the relationships interwoven, and the Maori sci-fi/fantasy aspects are very striking.
The fight against fascist powers with community (and a little ancient being magic), the honestly horrific scenes at times, and the humorous connection at other times all worked for me. So much to this story that just feels really well developed, even when it's confusing.
I will say I got lost in the sauce once or twice during this story, but it quickly pulled me back in, and now I’m ready for wherever the next one takes me (whenever that gets published!!!).
I feel like you’re unsure exactly what is happening in this story at times but you’re still down either way. This book is so loudly queer, more than the first even, and full of that found family of ragtag weirdos energy that I love. The story is told in different points of view and different time periods even, but comes back to the overarching fight our main character is fighting. The action was high, the relationships interwoven, and the Maori sci-fi/fantasy aspects are very striking.
The fight against fascist powers with community (and a little ancient being magic), the honestly horrific scenes at times, and the humorous connection at other times all worked for me. So much to this story that just feels really well developed, even when it's confusing.
I will say I got lost in the sauce once or twice during this story, but it quickly pulled me back in, and now I’m ready for wherever the next one takes me (whenever that gets published!!!).
November 15, 2024
if you're a reader who enjoys any of the following, please do yourself a favor and read The Dawnhounds and The Sunforge by Sascha Stronach:
- sff with blending of magic and science
- ragtag team fighting against empire
- found family
- actual redemption arcs, not that "one final good deed" trope
- a team working together to be stronger than the sum of individuals
- a chapter (in Sunforge) that, to me, perfectly describes the all-consuming horror, hopelessness, and monotony of depression / dysphoria
- sff with blending of magic and science
- ragtag team fighting against empire
- found family
- actual redemption arcs, not that "one final good deed" trope
- a team working together to be stronger than the sum of individuals
- a chapter (in Sunforge) that, to me, perfectly describes the all-consuming horror, hopelessness, and monotony of depression / dysphoria
Read
August 10, 2024Happy Pub Day!
Thank you @SagaPressBooks #SagaSaysCrew for the free book!
This was a mind bender and it had me questioning what was happening more often than not. This Queer AF story picks up from book 1, The Dawnhounds, and sweeps you away in the world building and adventure. There's magic, pirates, gods, and a world in flames. We're introduced to new characters and jump between multiple timelines. I'm planning on a re-read to catch everything I didn't the first time through.
Thank you @SagaPressBooks #SagaSaysCrew for the free book!
This was a mind bender and it had me questioning what was happening more often than not. This Queer AF story picks up from book 1, The Dawnhounds, and sweeps you away in the world building and adventure. There's magic, pirates, gods, and a world in flames. We're introduced to new characters and jump between multiple timelines. I'm planning on a re-read to catch everything I didn't the first time through.
August 23, 2024
Full review to come
February 26, 2025
I'm not sure I have a single (1) clue what's going on but it's such a fascinating puzzle of a story with so much cool world building and I want to see the ending?
September 12, 2024
I want to like this series but I just can’t get into it. Perhaps I’ll try again.
July 3, 2025
3.75
i think i liked the dawnhounds more than the sunforge, but i think that's because this book is a Big Brain Book and it asked more brainpower from me than i currently have. still, i really enjoy stronach's world and i look forward to rereading!
i think i liked the dawnhounds more than the sunforge, but i think that's because this book is a Big Brain Book and it asked more brainpower from me than i currently have. still, i really enjoy stronach's world and i look forward to rereading!
August 21, 2024
"My daughter is a demon who lives in the forest... My daughter is a reckoning. My daughter burns like the sun and you will never catch her.
This is a full brainpower book. Full stop.
I think that my rating will go up over time and as I can read further in the series, but I have to admit that I was just along for the ride on this first read-through and my overall enjoyment was a 3-3.5/5. (It didn't help that I had a physical arc, but several names and tenses and chapter headers were different in the final version which I simultaneously listened to on audio.)
This reminds me in a lot of truly excellent ways of Harrow the Ninth and The Old Guard-- which are franchises that I love. But man does it get confusing when you're not only jumping timelines and perspective shifts but also multiple people might be in a given body at any one time.
I'm definitely looking forward to the next installment, but I think I'm gonna need a notebook the next time I sit down to read this (or to read the analysis of someone much smarter than me so I can truly grasp what's happening).
Thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free copy for review.
September 24, 2024
I liked Stronach's The Dawnhounds. The Sunforge, dissatisfied with merely being liked, grabs the reader by the throat and hauls her into a descent into darkness and grief, into a rich and complex narrative about the death of our world and the looming death of another, about fascism destroying everything it touches and leaving only suffering in its wake, about queer survival in spite of everything, about finding and killing god.
The Dawnhounds was set in a biopunk city—the Sunforge is instead set in a schizotech dieselpunk city with a microwave beam weapon of mass destruction searing the streets, robots run amok, and an nuclear reactor beneath the city about to go critical. Everything is having a bad time or is dead. Fascists are swarming up from the subway tunnels and our cast of queers are just trying to survive. The Dawnhounds had trans, gay, and lesbian characters, but the Sunforge increased the thing, with raw explorations of trans love and trauma, explored both literally through its trans characters and metaphorically through its cis heroines wrestling with another, inhuman self locked away in their skulls that they are terrified to release.
I re-read The Dawnhounds immediately after The Sunforge and I see now how the books fit together, puzzle pieces clicking one into the other to former the larger story of the Endsong series. The Dawnhounds convinced me Stronach is an author to keep an eye on. With The Sunforge I am now certain I am going to read everything she writes. I can hardly wait for book 3.
The Dawnhounds was set in a biopunk city—the Sunforge is instead set in a schizotech dieselpunk city with a microwave beam weapon of mass destruction searing the streets, robots run amok, and an nuclear reactor beneath the city about to go critical. Everything is having a bad time or is dead. Fascists are swarming up from the subway tunnels and our cast of queers are just trying to survive. The Dawnhounds had trans, gay, and lesbian characters, but the Sunforge increased the thing, with raw explorations of trans love and trauma, explored both literally through its trans characters and metaphorically through its cis heroines wrestling with another, inhuman self locked away in their skulls that they are terrified to release.
I re-read The Dawnhounds immediately after The Sunforge and I see now how the books fit together, puzzle pieces clicking one into the other to former the larger story of the Endsong series. The Dawnhounds convinced me Stronach is an author to keep an eye on. With The Sunforge I am now certain I am going to read everything she writes. I can hardly wait for book 3.
November 6, 2024
I'm reading an advance copy.
I understand why this was published as it checks all the boxes--high concept, DEI author hitting all of the checkboxes, "badass" women characters--but what I ask is do we really need this published? It's a fine series of interesting-sounding sentences that have been strung together, but there is neither meaning nor coherence behind them.
There is no sense of place. Characters appear in each chapter, throw witty one-liners out, threaten violence over nothing (hint: strong people don't commit violence over minor annoyances; that is the trait of a weak person who wants to be perceived as strong), strut about, and the chapter closes. All of this takes place in a vacuum. The narrative never establishes a sense of place, and for a book that relies so heavily on having an interesting setting as the promise that will draw in readers, that's like buying a lemon of a car.
There is no sense of time. The narrative jumps around year to year for no reason. Because scenes are written so in medias res they already have a rushed, stilted, disorienting effect. The chapters are so short that there is hardly time to establish or develop anything before rushing off to the next place, which might be a year in time difference and following an entirely different character.
There is no sense of character. All the characters talk, think, and act exactly the same--this try-hard, wannabe-tough, recently-published-YA-derived character of a boiled armchair tough guy written by a terminally online twitter-addicted man/woman/they-child. If not for the names being different I would have no way to tell these "characters" apart. They all read like they were written by someone who very much wants the Six of Crows audience and enjoyed Hunger Games when they were a teenager. There is a stark inhumanity, a complete dearth of nuance or intimacy, no sense of gesture or mannerism or personality.
So if this novel is just a string of sentences that check the "high concept" box that agents want because the publishing industry thinks this is the way to hold a reader's attention, if it's a carefully constructed work of formula designed with profitability first and foremost, if it was built like being crafted in a mechanist's press instead of detailed by a human hand, what is the point of writing it? It's exactly the same as any other book on the shelf next to it. The lack of human touch is astonishing. Perhaps they have an algorithm that pops these out, because I've read five flavors of this same exact novel in the past year.
As it's an advance copy I'll ignore the myriad of typos. You're welcome. I understand this must have been rushed out at top speed to capture the lingering remnants of the fading womanchild YA market. Is it bad? No. It's too bland to even call bad. It has about as much insight and soul as a tourism souvenir from a gift shop. "B-but, it has an image from Maori culture screen-printed on the bulk unisex T-shirt, that makes it authentic!"
It's ghastly how many of these thoroughly mediocre works are pushed out in recent years. When was the last time you read a novel that left an impression, that meant anything? It's been a while for the industry, and I expect we'll be waiting another five years for something worth the time investment. Reading should be more than passing one's eyes across sentences.
I understand why this was published as it checks all the boxes--high concept, DEI author hitting all of the checkboxes, "badass" women characters--but what I ask is do we really need this published? It's a fine series of interesting-sounding sentences that have been strung together, but there is neither meaning nor coherence behind them.
There is no sense of place. Characters appear in each chapter, throw witty one-liners out, threaten violence over nothing (hint: strong people don't commit violence over minor annoyances; that is the trait of a weak person who wants to be perceived as strong), strut about, and the chapter closes. All of this takes place in a vacuum. The narrative never establishes a sense of place, and for a book that relies so heavily on having an interesting setting as the promise that will draw in readers, that's like buying a lemon of a car.
There is no sense of time. The narrative jumps around year to year for no reason. Because scenes are written so in medias res they already have a rushed, stilted, disorienting effect. The chapters are so short that there is hardly time to establish or develop anything before rushing off to the next place, which might be a year in time difference and following an entirely different character.
There is no sense of character. All the characters talk, think, and act exactly the same--this try-hard, wannabe-tough, recently-published-YA-derived character of a boiled armchair tough guy written by a terminally online twitter-addicted man/woman/they-child. If not for the names being different I would have no way to tell these "characters" apart. They all read like they were written by someone who very much wants the Six of Crows audience and enjoyed Hunger Games when they were a teenager. There is a stark inhumanity, a complete dearth of nuance or intimacy, no sense of gesture or mannerism or personality.
So if this novel is just a string of sentences that check the "high concept" box that agents want because the publishing industry thinks this is the way to hold a reader's attention, if it's a carefully constructed work of formula designed with profitability first and foremost, if it was built like being crafted in a mechanist's press instead of detailed by a human hand, what is the point of writing it? It's exactly the same as any other book on the shelf next to it. The lack of human touch is astonishing. Perhaps they have an algorithm that pops these out, because I've read five flavors of this same exact novel in the past year.
As it's an advance copy I'll ignore the myriad of typos. You're welcome. I understand this must have been rushed out at top speed to capture the lingering remnants of the fading womanchild YA market. Is it bad? No. It's too bland to even call bad. It has about as much insight and soul as a tourism souvenir from a gift shop. "B-but, it has an image from Maori culture screen-printed on the bulk unisex T-shirt, that makes it authentic!"
It's ghastly how many of these thoroughly mediocre works are pushed out in recent years. When was the last time you read a novel that left an impression, that meant anything? It's been a while for the industry, and I expect we'll be waiting another five years for something worth the time investment. Reading should be more than passing one's eyes across sentences.
May 14, 2025
3.5
One of the top reviews of this says that the reader thought they'd have liked this better if there had been a recap of Book 1 at the start, but as someone who just reread the first book before jumping into this, I don't think that helped.
The Dawnhounds takes place in a biopunk post-apocalyptic city where there's mushroom buildings and guns that run on grubs. In that book we hear a little bit about Radovan, which is where the majority of this book takes place and the vibe is much more techno-Cold War. And where The Dawnhounds has a central mystery at the core of the plot, this is more spy thriller adjacent with some weird time/multiverse stuff thrown in. To be completely honest, I was lost for the majority of the book and just vibing with the weird world and super queer cast, which is a lot of what happened the first time I read The Dawnhounds too. Which might sound like I didn't like this, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm very much looking forward to a reread and the next book because I have full faith in Sascha Stronach to pull it all together to make a series that I love with so much reread potential.
If you liked the weirdness of Gideon the Ninth and the plant horror/mystery of The Tainted Cup then I absolutely recommend you try this series, starting with The Dawnhounds. Another comp that didn't work quite as well for me is Metal from Heaven but there are a lot of similarities in thematic messaging and unique storytelling between that and this series.
I will say that the audiobook changed narrators between The Dawnhounds and The Sunforge and while I didn't dislike the narrator of this (Janaye Henry), I adored Anna Coddington's narration of The Dawnhounds.
One of the top reviews of this says that the reader thought they'd have liked this better if there had been a recap of Book 1 at the start, but as someone who just reread the first book before jumping into this, I don't think that helped.
The Dawnhounds takes place in a biopunk post-apocalyptic city where there's mushroom buildings and guns that run on grubs. In that book we hear a little bit about Radovan, which is where the majority of this book takes place and the vibe is much more techno-Cold War. And where The Dawnhounds has a central mystery at the core of the plot, this is more spy thriller adjacent with some weird time/multiverse stuff thrown in. To be completely honest, I was lost for the majority of the book and just vibing with the weird world and super queer cast, which is a lot of what happened the first time I read The Dawnhounds too. Which might sound like I didn't like this, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I'm very much looking forward to a reread and the next book because I have full faith in Sascha Stronach to pull it all together to make a series that I love with so much reread potential.
If you liked the weirdness of Gideon the Ninth and the plant horror/mystery of The Tainted Cup then I absolutely recommend you try this series, starting with The Dawnhounds. Another comp that didn't work quite as well for me is Metal from Heaven but there are a lot of similarities in thematic messaging and unique storytelling between that and this series.
I will say that the audiobook changed narrators between The Dawnhounds and The Sunforge and while I didn't dislike the narrator of this (Janaye Henry), I adored Anna Coddington's narration of The Dawnhounds.
July 15, 2024
4/5 Stars
Thank you to Saga Press for sending me an arc to read.
I dove right into this one after finishing the Dawnhounds and I absolutely love this series so far. This is one of the most diverse science fiction books I have read and I loved how the author managed to have trans characters and talk about what we can assume is hormone replacement. While book 1 was very queer and had a lot of lgbtq+ characters this one had a lot of trans characters on top of all the queer characters and it was amazingly done. I love the maori inspiration for the world and this series has changed how I think of science fiction.
I love the ensemble casts of this series and I truly enjoy all of the characters. I do think this one a bit a more confusing than book 1 but in an intentional way that was still enjoyable. We follow most of the same characters from book 1 but add in some more from the new portion of the world we are in. I think this one does suffer a tiny bit from middle book syndrome but not enough to be unenjoyable just it did feel like it was at times just setting up for the last book. I do 100% plan on reading book 3 whenever I either get an arc or it releases as I can’t wait to see how this series ends.
We get to see more of the magic system in this book and it was really fun to explore. It is god based magic which is always a favorite of mine and it was fascinating how it worked and how it was used in both good and bad ways. I enjoyed learning also about how the world got to where it is and we see glimpses of the past which help flesh out our world a bit more.
I do recommend this series if you are looking for one of the queerest books I have ever personally read and I think this series also is a decent starting point if you want to get into Science fiction. I really didn’t think I liked science fiction before this series but I think I just hadn’t found the right ones yet.
Thank you to Saga Press for sending me an arc to read.
I dove right into this one after finishing the Dawnhounds and I absolutely love this series so far. This is one of the most diverse science fiction books I have read and I loved how the author managed to have trans characters and talk about what we can assume is hormone replacement. While book 1 was very queer and had a lot of lgbtq+ characters this one had a lot of trans characters on top of all the queer characters and it was amazingly done. I love the maori inspiration for the world and this series has changed how I think of science fiction.
I love the ensemble casts of this series and I truly enjoy all of the characters. I do think this one a bit a more confusing than book 1 but in an intentional way that was still enjoyable. We follow most of the same characters from book 1 but add in some more from the new portion of the world we are in. I think this one does suffer a tiny bit from middle book syndrome but not enough to be unenjoyable just it did feel like it was at times just setting up for the last book. I do 100% plan on reading book 3 whenever I either get an arc or it releases as I can’t wait to see how this series ends.
We get to see more of the magic system in this book and it was really fun to explore. It is god based magic which is always a favorite of mine and it was fascinating how it worked and how it was used in both good and bad ways. I enjoyed learning also about how the world got to where it is and we see glimpses of the past which help flesh out our world a bit more.
I do recommend this series if you are looking for one of the queerest books I have ever personally read and I think this series also is a decent starting point if you want to get into Science fiction. I really didn’t think I liked science fiction before this series but I think I just hadn’t found the right ones yet.
June 29, 2025
The Sunforge picks up the threads of the Endsong trilogy in a city literally burning down, picking up a pirate crew stranded in Radovan’s smoldering harbor. Stronach’s gift is in blending high-stakes politics, indigenous-inspired myth, and punkish aesthetics—all so crisply that the consequence of gods poking around feels inevitable and dangerous .
Kiada and Yat remain compelling throughlines: Yat’s psychological trauma from resurrection and Kiada’s uneasy return to a city that holds both her freedom and its cage make them feel urgent and vulnerable. Their emotional depth grounds all the weirdness. Secondary characters—like the charismatic thief Ari and the ragged guerrillas of Vuruhi—bring urgency and moral tension to the core crew .
World-building gets the spotlight. Radovan is rendered with panicked texture: ash-choked skies, desperate militias, sabotage-tech that feels like a malfunctioning prophecy. But the same richness also trips the plot a bit. Shifting timelines and POVs add cinematic layering, but occasionally blur tension into complexity .
What dazzles: the mythos—Maori-inflected gods, biopunk living ships, divine entanglements—feels effortlessly queer and radical. You don’t just read mythology here; you live inside its fractures. This is where Stronach’s vision soars . But that same worldliness sometimes feels too big, too dense. A moment or two feels lost to world-building at the expense of forward momentum.
In truth, The Sunforge earns its ambition. It’s less cozy fantasy and more cosmic pressure cooker. The ending delivers satisfying payoff and leaves you eager for the trilogy’s final crescendo . There are structural choices that jostle the emotional core—but overall, this is a weird, thrilling ride worth taking.
Kiada and Yat remain compelling throughlines: Yat’s psychological trauma from resurrection and Kiada’s uneasy return to a city that holds both her freedom and its cage make them feel urgent and vulnerable. Their emotional depth grounds all the weirdness. Secondary characters—like the charismatic thief Ari and the ragged guerrillas of Vuruhi—bring urgency and moral tension to the core crew .
World-building gets the spotlight. Radovan is rendered with panicked texture: ash-choked skies, desperate militias, sabotage-tech that feels like a malfunctioning prophecy. But the same richness also trips the plot a bit. Shifting timelines and POVs add cinematic layering, but occasionally blur tension into complexity .
What dazzles: the mythos—Maori-inflected gods, biopunk living ships, divine entanglements—feels effortlessly queer and radical. You don’t just read mythology here; you live inside its fractures. This is where Stronach’s vision soars . But that same worldliness sometimes feels too big, too dense. A moment or two feels lost to world-building at the expense of forward momentum.
In truth, The Sunforge earns its ambition. It’s less cozy fantasy and more cosmic pressure cooker. The ending delivers satisfying payoff and leaves you eager for the trilogy’s final crescendo . There are structural choices that jostle the emotional core—but overall, this is a weird, thrilling ride worth taking.
September 11, 2025
Ugh, I did not enjoy reading this book. It is a mess of characters and mangled plots. Reading the first book in the series, The Dawnhounds, only barely prepared me for this one. Despite the fact that I only read the first book about month ago, I had the damnedest time trying to cognitively get from the end of that book to this one. The timelines jump all over the place, new characters are introduced, and most of the chapters are so short, I wasn’t able to sit with any one plotline long enough for it to stick in my head. The end has big flashback reveals that help piece together the world building, but it was too little too late. I wanted to DNF this book so many times in the five days it took to read it. I’m glad I kept with it though because now I can give an honest review. This book is a 2025 Lambda Literary Award nominee. If I was voting, it wouldn’t have been on my shortlist.
Come visit my blog for the full review…
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Come visit my blog for the full review…
https://itstartedwiththehugos.blogspo...
December 19, 2024
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy of this!
I’m not going to say I truly understood what was going on in this book because I do think that’d be a lie. When the third book is announced, I want to do a reread of both The Dawnhounds and The Sunforge and hopefully I’ll pick up more on a second read.
What I did love, however, was the writing and the in-depth look at more characters. The POV changes and flashbacks were confusing, sure, but also some of my favorite parts of this book. I love how detailed every part of the world this takes place in is, and the constant thread of not only resistance but trying to make a life where queer and trans people can experience pockets of joy too.
I’m definitely interested to see where things end up for book 3, especially with the various gods.
I’m not going to say I truly understood what was going on in this book because I do think that’d be a lie. When the third book is announced, I want to do a reread of both The Dawnhounds and The Sunforge and hopefully I’ll pick up more on a second read.
What I did love, however, was the writing and the in-depth look at more characters. The POV changes and flashbacks were confusing, sure, but also some of my favorite parts of this book. I love how detailed every part of the world this takes place in is, and the constant thread of not only resistance but trying to make a life where queer and trans people can experience pockets of joy too.
I’m definitely interested to see where things end up for book 3, especially with the various gods.
March 15, 2025
I really wanted to give this book a higher rating, but it’s simply doing too much. It feels like the author wrote the first book, then came up with a whole different idea for a new series and tried to just shove it into the one that had already started. Both are great ideas, but the disjoint of putting them together is a disservice to each.
The cool biotech world and the mad god were amazing set up and more than enough to carry this series. Cut out all the real world stuff, cut out the multiverse stuff, and tell those stories in other books where they have time to breath! The ideas of colonization and empire can come accross without the necessity of real world examples just like the policing themes came accross in the first.
Nevertheless there’s so many great pieces here I’ll certainly read more from Sascha as they hopefully find a better balance in future work!
The cool biotech world and the mad god were amazing set up and more than enough to carry this series. Cut out all the real world stuff, cut out the multiverse stuff, and tell those stories in other books where they have time to breath! The ideas of colonization and empire can come accross without the necessity of real world examples just like the policing themes came accross in the first.
Nevertheless there’s so many great pieces here I’ll certainly read more from Sascha as they hopefully find a better balance in future work!
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