Savage Company

Savage Rebellion #1

by Matt Wallace

The Savages are the greatest weapon the Empire ever forged.They are the ones no one will the poor, the criminal, the indigent. Snatched from the street by the city guard, they are thrown in their thousands at the Empire’s enemies. If they live, they fight again. If they die, there are always more to take their place.And most citizens have never heard of them. Everyone in Crache has their needs met; who would the guards seize? Crache has no enemies and fights in no wars; why would it need an army?Evie is a warrior, charged by a grieving wife to find a lost husband, a man who holds the key to exposing the pressgangs. A man Evie herself once loved.But to find him, she must join him among the missing. To be marked in her blood, to fight in the Empire’s wars, and to find her purpose. To become a Savage.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Adult, LGBT, Queer, Science Fiction Fantasy

512 pages, Paperback

First published July 21, 2020

Reviews

[Rick Riordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this fantasy from Matt Wallace! We are plunged into the world of Crache, a nation once ruled by nobility, but which centuries ago underwent a revolution that put committees and cooperatives ("Gens") in charge of society. Officially, life in Crache is a paradise. Everyone contributes, everyone shares resources. The Aegins keep the peace in the cities. The Planning Cadre comes up with new technologies to make life better. The Gens provide all necessary services. The Skrain warriors wage war against Crache's enemies and expand the nation's borders. There always seems to be some enemy to fight . . .

Unofficially, things are not so rosy. In the Bottoms of the Capital, unwanted masses live in poverty. Many are rounded up for small crimes, or no crimes at all, and are never seen again. When an advocate for the Bottoms, an idealistic lawyer named Brio, starts looking into what happens to these disappeared people, he, too, disappears. This sets in motion multiple vibrations in a web of intrigue that may expose the truth about Crache, or get everyone who knew Brio killed.

We follow alternating narratives: Evie is a mysterious and gifted warrior who intentionally gets herself captured and recruited into the Savage Legion -- where many of the Disappeared end up, to be used as cannon-fodder in the empire's never-ending wars. She is hoping to find out the truth about her old friend and one-time lover Brio. Meanwhile Brio's wife Lexi tries to hold their tiny Gen together and navigate the politics of the Capital to get at the truth, making some deadly enemies in the process. My favorite character is probably Dyeawan, a street urchin who lost the use of her legs as a child. She, too, is scooped up as an undesirable, but her fate is quite different than Evie's. Dyeawan ends up as a servant in the Planning Cadre, where she is quickly recognized as a brilliant prodigy. As Dyeawan rises because of her talents, she begins to learn more secrets of the powers behind Crache, some of which are beyond terrifying.

Wallace does a great job with his world-building. It's sometimes difficult for me to switch between different narrators, because I'll get invested in one story line and don't want to leave it, but each main character was fascinating in her own way, and by the end, I felt close to all of them. Highly recommended -- a fresh, original fantasy with a chilling touch of mystery. I'm only sorry I have to wait for the sequel to find out what happens!

[Rebecca Roanhorse · Rating 4 out of 5]

An epic fantasy with a unique world and smart competent characters. Layers of politics and intrigue that have our heroes challenging their beliefs about their world and seeking to make a better one. Lots of big ideas about political and economic systems mingle with detailed action scenes to make for a strong and often thoughtful story with an all female-led cast. I did miss an emotional connection to the characters. Clearly that's a YMMV opinion, but I found the writing style kept the characters at arm's length and I would have loved to have had them a bit closer, and felt what they were feeling a bit more. Nevertheless, I was entertained. I hope the next in the series complicates things more and has our competent characters fail a bit, as I'd definitely like to see setbacks and how they overcome them. Also, one of my favorite character's motivations ended up being fanaticism/insanity for the sake of a plot twist. Would love to have seen that char as more complicated than that, so let's see what happens in the next book.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Savage Legion
Savage Rebellion #1
By: Matt Wallace
Narrated by: Lameece Issaq

This is an epic adventure with three strong women characters, each with a different strength. One is a warrior that is pretending to be just a common street person that got caught up with everyone else that is used as battle fodder. She is to save a guy she knows and once loved but know is married to someone very important. Someone she promised to return him to. The other woman is disabled. She lives by her brains and wit.

All three are important in this story and I can't wait for the next book. There is a lot of violence, gore, corruption, cruelty, and injustice. I think these women hold the key to change.

I had a bit of trouble getting started in the book but then it just opened up and flew! I felt like I was there at times. I was anger, mad, sad, and worried. There is enough suspense to keep me up tight for sure!

The narrator was really good! No complaints there.

[Maraya21 (The Reading Dragon)]

➡ If it’s not too soon to ask, can you please provide an out-of-context quote from the book to get readers pumped to read Savage Legion?

“Do you know what the most dangerous thing in the world is, Slider?”

“The alley between Wan’s butcher shop and the gambling parlor in the Bottoms?”

Ku the wind dragon begins puffing air in short bursts through the spiky tubes on his back.

From the way Edger’s shoulders rises and fall, she realizes this is the way he laughs out loud.

“That may very well be the most dangerous place you know,” he says, “but what, in your unusually vast observation, is the most dangerous thing?”

“I don’t know. A really, really big sword?”

Again, that reedy puffing “laughter.”

“You are as funny as you are wise beyond your years, but no. The most dangerous thing in the world is a story.”

Dyeawan is immediately intrigued.

“Which story?” she asks right away.

“The kind of story in which people believe utterly. The kind of story they believe in so fiercely they’ll leave their lives in the mud to protect it. You see, Slider, people do not fight for nations or rulers or causes or even land they believe to be theirs by some imagined right, not really. They fight for stories, about heroes and gods and long past ancestors who were one or the other or both. So, you have to be very careful which stories are told to the people.”

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I have no idea why the synopsis doesn't tell you that this is a book with multiple POVs. There are three, to be exact. So when I read that one woman/warrior was about to infiltrate the Savage Legion to find the man she loved and more (which is a great premise to me), I had a clear vision in my head and I thought that what I was listening to was the same woman but it wasn't. One of the POVs is actually the wife of the man while the warrior is more of an old love.

The titles of each chapter (on my audible app, at least) didn't have the name of the POVs so I was left confused and disoriented for a little while unfortunately. By the time I cleared up my confusion, this book didn't manage to hold my attention for long. I was a little bored and kept drifting off and overall, I'm sorry to say that this book didn't impact me like I hoped it would.

(Thank you for letting me read and review an ARC) Psst, yes I listened to the audiobook because I was late reviewing it and I wanted to catch up! The audio is the best way for me to do that.

[Jordan (Forever Lost in Literature) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hoped that this would be good, but I didn't expect to love it half as much as I did! This was such a new and inventive epic fantasy, I am already anxiously waiting for the sequel. I highly recommend this one, full review to come soon!

Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!

Savage Legion is one of the most pleasant surprises of 2020 thus far! I was excited to read Savage Legion and I knew it had a ton of promise, but I had absolutely no idea that I would be hooked almost immediately and that I would love this book even half as much as I ended up.

Savage Legion switches between three main POV segments. The first follows Evie, a woman who seems undaunted by most things she faces in life and sticks firmly to any task she is given--sometimes with a bit of ruthlessness to it, but mostly just because she's extremely efficient and loyal to what she has been tasked to do. Evie's story begins when she is taken to jail one night and transported to the military front the next day where she becomes a part of the Savage Legion, a group of people who have similarly broken the law and are now being utilized as diversions in battles. This Legion is essentially out first on the battle lines in order to provide a distraction before the trained military arrives. It's both brutal and ingenious at the same time, and I think this setup provided a lot of really interesting possibilities for the plot. (There are also 'blood coins' as a part of this process, an idea that I found particularly interesting, and of course a bit gruesome). Evie's chapters were easily some of the most exciting because you never really knew exactly what was going to happen, and as the story progressed things began to get more and more intense in ways that made it hard for me to stop reading.

The next person we follow is Lexie, a young woman who is learning how to navigate life as the sole remaining member of her family's Gens after her husband--who had been acting as the public defender for the faction of society that they represent (the lowest of the factions)--goes missing. His whereabouts are unknown, as is whether or not he is even alive, and Lexie must navigate the 'political' landscape on her own while trying to earn the respect of those around her, as well as carefully investigate her husband's disappearance--all while everyone seems to be working against her. I really appreciated Lexie's determination and how she overcomes her fears and uncertainties in order to do what she feels is best for the people she represents, as well as for herself and her husband. She is aided by her bodyguard Taru, who has labeled themselves as Undeclared, meaning that they are non-binary. This world seems to have mixed opinions of the Undeclared, with some finding them 'confusing' and others being perfectly accepting (much like in our own world), and I thought it was a great inclusion on Wallace's part to add a bit more experience and considerations to the book. I also really loved watching Lexie and Taru's relationship develop in this book as each started to have to trust and become more comfortable with the other over the course of the book's events.

And lastly we follow Dyeawan (aka Slider), an at-present homeless woman whose legs were crushed when she was a girl and who ingeniously gets around by a makeshift wheelchair of sorts in which she can slide around to get places (hence the name 'Slider'). Slider is first introduced on the same night that Evie gets hauled off to jail, but instead of being taken to aid the military in the Savage Legion, Slider is instead whisked off to an unknown place where she works with other scholars under the leadership of a man named Edgar to build and invent new devices, ideas, buildings, etc. for the empire. Slider was one of my favorite POVs to follow because I found the entire premise of where she was and what everyone there was doing so fascinating and full of ideas to explore. I won't say too much about it because I think a lot of it hinges on the experience of discovering for yourself, but Wallace excelled in developing this part of the story and introducing some really neat engineering concepts and executions, as well as introduced us to a lot of really varied and compelling side characters that I really would have loved to spend even more time with. I really enjoyed hearing about what everyone was working on and how Slider was tested for her own skills and fit in with everyone.

I thought the pacing of Savage Legion was spot on. I've seen a few reviews mention that the pacing felt a bit slow, but I really don't see that from my reading experience. Lexie's chapters were the slowest of the three, but they still had some compelling plot developments and crucial worldbuilding included that I loved learning about. There was a great balance of action, plotting, and character development, and I found myself particularly enjoying the latter two in this book as well, as things just continued to get more and more sinister as the story progressed. There's also a great amount of social commentary present in Savage Legion that felt both timely and compelling. It wasn't done in an overhanded way, but it provided some strong thematic backdrops for a lot of what occurs in this sort of dystopian-esque landscape that is slowly unveiled over the course of the story.

Lastly, I really loved Wallace's worldbuilding, as it seemed to have the perfect blend of complexity and variety, as well as being conveyed in a manner that didn't leave me feeling lost or confused. I actually felt as those I understood this world thoroughly by the end of the book, but there are still plenty of things that I want to explore more and learn more about in future installments. I think that there is a lot of potential in these books for the world to keep expanding outward, both physically and with cultural/etc. developments, and I truly cannot wait to see what's next in this series/trilogy!

Overall, this was an easy (yet unexpected in the best way!) five stars from me! I am a new Matt Wallace fan and I intend to check out some of his backlist titles while I anxious await the next installment in the Savage Rebellion series!

[C.L. Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read this year. I loved the characters, I loved the take on the world and the idea of utopia. All of my favorite particular catnip. I you like smart fantasy, this is one for you.

[Elena Linville-Abdo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stars: 3 out of 5.

While I mostly liked this book, it didn't wow me like some other fantasy books I read this year.

I think the reason for that is that I had too many questions about the worldbuilding that were never answered. Crache is a fascinating concept, but if you start digging a little deeper into it, you realize that it doesn't work.

Try as I may, I couldn't picture this country. Cities are mentioned, but never truly explored apart from the parts of one city where the Gens live and the Bottoms, where the poor, the beggars, the infirm, and the "useless" eke a pitiful existence. What about the people in the middle? What about the simple citizens? They are mentioned once in passing. How do they live? How do they make a living? If you have to form a Gen to do any kind of trade in Crache, then what do the simple citizens subsist on? Are they allowed to work? Or do they just exist on some kind of universal income and do nothing?

The second problem for me was the whole concept of the Savage Legion. "Brutal. Efficient. Unstoppable." is what the blurb says. I would have to disagree with the last two statements. There is no way an army assembled from the dregs of society, barely trained, equipped with broken weapons and almost no armor can be efficient. Yes, they can overwhelm some opponents with their sheer numbers, but there is a limit to that as well. The Roman Legions have proven that organization and training trump sheer numbers any day of the week. Legionnaires conquered most of Europe, even though their numbers were much smaller than the Visigoths that opposed them. But they were professional soldiers, skilled, trained, and better equipped.

With the Savage Legion, we are talking about half-starved and often infirm people who had never fought a battle in their life before. Who are just thrown into the fray as cannon fodder. Any well organized army would make quick work of them.

Finally, the multiple POVs do this book a disservice, in my opinion. They are too distant from each other. I understand that the author wanted to show different aspects of Crache through the experiences of these three women, but as a result, all three stories feel broken and disjointed. As soon as we are immersed in one story and the tension is mounting to some kind of resolution, the next chapter switches to another story. Tension - killed. We try to pick up the thread of that story again and decide whether we care or not. And as soon as we start caring for that story again, the POV switches one more time.

The problem with multiple POVs in this book is also that none of the stories have a resolution. I understand that there is a sequel, but there should be at least some emotional pay off at the end of book 1. A reward for following the story so far, of sorts. Some kind of win for the protagonists. Here, the story just... stops. Well, all three stories just kind of stop in the middle.

To me that is rather frustrating, and it doesn't make me want to pick up the next book, even though I already have it on my kindle. But I might give it a go just to see if I get more answers to all my questions.

[Andreas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Synopsis: A politician's got lost in the secretive world of a superficially happy state. Behind the curtains, there are ugly ghettos, and a police state with hidden dictatorial rulers. The three main characters find their way through the impenetrable surface in different angles:

See that armed girl on the cover? Red and fiery is Evie's part, just like the cover indicates. She is a drunk brawler forced into the eponymous Savage Legion, cannon fodder in the battles for the expansion of the country.

Lexie represents the upper society in a Council of States. Her husband is missing in action, and her House is endangered of being shut down. She needs to counter the political maneuvers and wants to find her husband.

Slider nearly found her way into the Savage Legion, as she was grabbed from the city's slums. Lucky for her, the crippled girl was put into service of a cloister filled with inventors. They find that she's too intelligent for messenger services and put her under a few tests to find out where she's really good at.

After a longer while, the three threads start to interleave.

Review: "Hugo Award Winner" is a true statement, but shouldn't be confused with novel awards - Mark Wallace has got one for Best Fancast, i.e. best non-professional audio/video periodical devoted to SF&F. The author is well connected and loved in fandom but that has nothing to say of his qualities as an author.

Having said that, I nearly DNFed the book after some 25%, as I started to skip half pages. I was too confused and even bored by the novel, couldn't relate to the characters. Usually, that ends in a DNF, but this book is the rare exception, as it made an astonishing comeback with my reading attention. Somehow, it started to get interesting, and from 50% onwards, I was in a reading flow and didn't stop.

Evie's scenes dive deeply into military fantasy. The fighting descriptions are very detailed, and the author doesn't hold back with guts&bloods&brains dangling from opponents' remains. If you like some splatter, there it is. At least, the author spares us pornographic scenes, the rare sexual encounters are far more reluctant than the fights, and that is a blessing; I'd call this a mild romance suspension.

Chapters with Lexie concentrate on the Urban and social criticism - police state vs. underclass, and a kind of Council of States. It doesn't go very far there, and the whole construction with the rulers behind the secretive police state isn't very believable.

Slider's chapters are funny with all their innovations and tests. They fulfill a classic trope of trainee going through stages. But it took a very long exposition, after which it takes a harsh short cut and took different turns. The outcome didn't work for me.

There are a couple of interesting side characters. The only one I didn't understand was Lexie's husband who got a prominent role as a motivation for the whole book, but was given a shallow place in the background only. His relation with other actors was slippery and didn't come to fruition, and I had to scratch my head where I should place him. Maybe he's up for a more prominent and interesting part in the second volume?

One other support character, Lexie's bodyguard Taru, fills a shallow LBGT+ role: an impressive fighter is challenged at every police inspection, as they are "Undeclared", i.e. non-binary gender, which is frowned upon in the oppressive state. I understood this role quite well after the first or second iteration, but could have lived without more repetitions of challenging calls and explanations.

An additional thing that I noted were the awesome, hillarious chapter titles: "The Mourning After" indicates Evie's hangover, followed by "The Knight Before". Most titles don't give much away but are funny in retrospective.

I love it when first books in a series are kind of standalone, when they close most of their threads, don't have cliffhangers, and open up in complete different ways for the next volume. This start of the series "Savage Rebellion" hasn't got that quality, and it is very clear that it asks for reading the next - yet unnamed - volume.

In summary, the novel has its problems with pacing. But I really enjoyed the second half and I'm glad that the book took its chance to persuade me and suck me in again. Recommended for fans of gory military action fighting for an oppressive country. Just give the story a while to unfold its treasures.

[Stanislas Sodonon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book.
I will put it in the Grimdark category.

Audiobook narration was skillfully done. No complaints there.

An interesting choice, using present tense narration. Hadn't seen that since Broken Earth. And it works quite well, to be honest. Gives the story a "news at it happens" flavour that I appreciated, with the additional benefit of making the use of past tense more "meaningful" as a flashback device. Very clever.
I like the different POVs we have running. Each depicts a very well-rounded personae. Motivations are still a work in process (except Lexi), but I'm confident we will get there.

I do have some gripes.

The first is with the Kraisian expansion. It's being overemphasized but under-explained, leaving me confused as to the practicality of the antagonist master plan. I don't like vague ominous stuff, and this one seemed particularly vaporous, in a world that is rather well-grounded.

The second one is the soft-reset of a POV character two-thirds into the book. I didn't appreciate that. Their POV brought no plot advancement.

And that's mostly it.

I liked this book. I'm off to find the next volume.

[Lukasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It feels more like three blended novellas blended than a typical multi-POV epic fantasy. Dyewan's, a disabled but ingenious girl, story was my favorite. It's rare to see authors proving their characters' ingenuity instead of just making claims, and Wallace succeeded at it.

The book contains too many POVs to my liking, and it uses omniscient-like narration I'm not sure I enjoy. Other than that, it's interesting, violent, and gory, but also clever.

It's scorching hot outside and I don't feel like writing a longer review at the moment. Safe to say it's an interesting book, worth a try, but far from perfect.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy epic fantasy, pick this one up!

Reading Savage Legion, (thankfully this is book #1 so there will be more!), by Matt Wallace, I can see how this gifted author has won the Hugo award!

Female leads, dark secrets, underdogs, and soldiers/warriors who are considered 'expendable', all add up to a fascinating story and incredible ride.

Once I started, I couldn't put this one down! I can't wait for more in this series and more from Matt Wallace!
Highly recommend!

[lady h · Rating 3 out of 5]

“A ruler is a target. A bureaucracy, on the other hand, is an endless forest in which the discontent lose both their way and their will to rebel, with nowhere and no one to focus their ire upon. We give them no direction, no bull's-eye for any anger or frustration or malice they may harbor against the state.”

I think the best word to describe this book is interesting. It's got a lot of big ideas it's intent on exploring, and it does so with aplomb. It doesn't so much subvert tropes as it breaks them apart and examines them, giving space to things that in epic fantasy tend to be hidden in the background.

We follow three main characters. There is Evie, who has gotten herself conscripted into the Savage Rebellion for a very specific purpose. There is Lexi, an upper-class (inasmuch as class exists in this society, which it very much does, even if the society does not want to admit to that) woman and Gen leader (kind of like a Guild?) whose husband has gone missing; she finds herself thrust into a position of power and leadership. Finally, there is Dyeawan, a disabled and brilliant teenage girl taken from the streets and sent off to a strange island.

There are many things to like about Savage Legion. The writing is very careful and elegant, if sometimes a bit overwrought; it's certainly very suitable for fantasy, though. The ideas being explored here are, as I said, very interesting: the book wants to dig deep at how empire and capitalism function, on a very practical scale. There's a lot of subtle and overt parallels to the modern-day United States, and to neoliberal capitalism in general, which is not something I've seen often in fantasy. Nonbinary people exist (they are called "Undeclared"), and there are two nonbinary characters with very significant roles. The final fifty pages, when hammers start dropping and major information is revealed and characters (particularly Dyeawan) make some pretty jaw-dropping decisions, are fantastic.

Unfortunately, as is often the case with fantasy series that don't really need to be series, 90% of this book felt like setup, and that 90% could easily have been summarized or rewritten to make this a more engaging and less predictable novel. As it is, we plod along with the characters with zero suspense or curiosity. Like I said, the final few pages had some cool reveals, but those should have come at the midpoint of the book, not at the very end, because so much of this book felt like filler. It's all just so expected; I could see the plot threads of this book to their ends from the very first page of the book. Also, there's no magic system that I could see, which was disappointing.

I also struggled to connect to the characters, especially Lexi, who is framed as utterly perfect. She's smart, good-hearted, fair, kind, spunky, and can handle herself in a fight. She's...a complete cliche. I have no idea what to make of her. Evie was more likable but similarly unflawed. Dyeawan is the most multi-faceted and interesting of the three, but I still struggled to find in her tangible flaws. Maybe this is just a personal thing, as I've gotten so used to grimdark fantasies with morally gray characters, but I just wish that these characters felt a bit more human, especially when the writing is so very formal that it threatens to sometimes make things feel stiff. Honestly, the side characters, especially Sirach, Daian, Spud-Bar, and Taru, were far more interesting.

Still, overall I would say I enjoyed this novel a lot, and I may even pick up the sequel. I like the writing and am intrigued enough by Dyeawan's arc to follow her along.

[The Girl with the Sagittarius Tattoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third - actually, probably the first half - is a slog of infodumping and worldbuilding. Once Wallace gets all that out of the way the story is really good, with swerves that are surprising and rewarding.

Three main storylines: Evie's, who is conscripted into a totally expendable infantry force called the Savage Legion. She was hauled to jail for drunk-and-disorderly, and upon waking finds herself indentured to the military for a minimum of 100 battles. There's also Lexie. In this world each Gen, or family of the gentry, is tasked with a responsibility relating to public welfare. Lexie's family legally defends those without an influential family to advocate for them. Lexie's husband Brio was the top defender, and now he's gone missing... Finally there's Slider, a homeless orphan of about 13 whose legs were crushed under a cart when she was small. She's taken in by a kindly group of scholars led by a mysterious man named Edgar. Edgar gives her a safe home, hot meals, and only asks that she contribute by doing errands. After Slider builds a simple, ingenius invention, she is submitted for a series of tests, each more challenging and dangerous than the last. Somebody clearly thinks Slider is capable of great things - if only she lives long enough to reach her potential.

As I said, the slow start eventually gives way to a rather excellent fantasy novel. Hopefully the sequel will forego painting so much background and jump right into the action.

[J.C.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

When the big bad is a faceless bureaucracy instead of an evil sorceror and the the main characters are almost all female or non-binary you know you're not in for a typical ride. This story is grimdark adjacent, with a dark setting but enough hopefulness to fall outside that genre. It's a no-to-low magic secondary world that's great fun with lovely characters you'll quickly root for.
The action scenes are quite good, visceral with real consequences. The political and social points made by the book are a bit on the nose, which may or may not work for you. If you're a fan of exploitative imperialist policies, rampant consumerism, ableism, sexism, and the far side of right wing politics, you might be triggered by this book.

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Source* Publisher
*Genre* Epic Fantasy
*Rating* 3.5-4

*Thoughts*

Savage Legion is the first installment in author Matt Wallace's Savage Rebellion new epic fantasy trilogy. The story itself is set in a fictional place called Crache. Crache was once a nation led by nobility like England. But, centuries ago, the nation underwent a revolution that put committees and cooperatives ("Gens") in charge of society. Everyone is supposed to contribute and share resources. The Aegins keep the peace. The Planning Cadre comes up with new technologies. The Gens provide all necessary services. But nothing is a good as it seems.

*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*

https://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/20...

[Constanze Scheib · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The most dangerous thing in the world is a story.”
5 stars are not enough! It’s been a long time, since a fantasy-novel got me that invested.
“Savage Legion” tackles ableism, poverty, privilege, gender, and corruption, while entertaining us with a lot of action and humour. I can’t tell you enough, how much I fell in love with the three female main characters. Evie is fierce, Dyeawan highly intelligent and Lexi resilient. Their journeys are breathtaking. I can’t wait for the next book in the series. Matt Wallace got me hooked!

[Glen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a goodreads drawing.

A fantasy novel that focuses on all the wrong things. There's an evil empire with a corrupt government, and an enemy, but the book is focused on Speaking Truth to Power and the sexuality of one character than what the novel is supposed to be about.

Millennials might dig it.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had some good twists at the end which I appreciated. Overall disliked the ending is just setup for book 2 I also don’t really care about the world or people so like why would I read the second one. Shame

[Devyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Savage Legion is one of those books that is interesting enough to put in the time to finish reading but not interesting enough to have me frothing for the sequel.

That said.... the only thing- and I mean the only thing that could of possibly convinced me to continue reading this series is if something happened to my favorite character Taru....

And something did.

So, if I randomly come across the second book, I'm going to read it (for Taru's sake) but I'm not going to actively search it out.

[Evelyn]

Review on blog!

[Susan Beamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is kind of a longish book and the perfect start for a trilogy or longer. The blurb on the back would make you think this is a military story, with battles and tactics. Hold your horses, that's only part of it. You will not believe what else is waiting for you.
We have Evie, who has another name. She is conscripted into the Savage Legion so she can find someone who is missing. He partly plays the trophy of the quest several people are on. But don't pay him much attention now.
We also have Dyeawan. She is a young woman who grew up in an area of the capital city called the Bottom. It's basically a slum where people who don't fit the definition of a useful citizen try to live. People in the Bottom seem to have nothing but more children. When Dyeawan was young, she had an accident that crushed her legs. She was picked up during a conscription raid for the Legion, but her useless legs kept her out. Instead she is taken to the Planning center for the entire country. This center is a place that only the people who live and work in it are aware of.
We also have Lexi, a woman who runs a Gen which is a general company or corporation that has a franchise to do a thing, provide a service or produce a good, for the population at large. Lexi's Gen provides what we would call lawyer services to the poor in the Bottom.
All three of these women provide 1/3 of the story. Their stories weave round each other. At first, I wasn't sure what they or their tales had to do with each other. The book is structured so that we see each woman in alternating (by three) chapters. I said at the start that is wasn't a military story. There is a war, but it's really not a war that we would understand as war. There are no news reports from the front to the citizens at large. There is also a lot of politics in this book.
The country all three women live in is called Crache. Schools, where there are schools, teach a strange sort of history. Crache was formed when the population rose up against the nobles and royalty. Hereditary accumulations of wealth and power were outlawed and the Gen system was put in place. Call them nobles, call them the 1%, groups of people will try to acquire and keep wealth and power. After a while, the bigger Gens were all related and the family system reemerged. Like I said, the book tries to hide the politics but it's there.
I like my science fiction. This one is a stellar example of the "what if". What if the power structure tried to hide itself within a system of organizations, agencies, and companies? How would it keep power? What would be the dangers and troubles it could face? I really like how this book is suggesting answers to those questions and more.

[Anj✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Wallace’s Savage Legion is the first book in his epic fantasy series, Savage Rebellion. An inventive fantasy with brilliant fight scenes, diverse and inclusive characters, and intricately done world-building.

Set in Crache, a utopian government led by nobility before a revolution took place and the Gen system was introduced where everyone contributes resources. Everything looks good in Crache but in reality, there is rot and corruption in the government and the secret police are keeping the citizens ignorant.

We follow the story of three women: Evie, a drunken brawler who was forced into the Savage legion, a ragtag group considered expendable in battles. Evie’s POV is the most exciting; this is where the action happens. Gore everywhere. The fight scenes are incredibly done and detailed.
Next is Lexi, a leader of a Gen that is helping the poor living at The Bottom. Her husband is presumed dead or treasonous and her House is being forced to shut down. We follow her as she navigates the politics in Crache.
Lastly, Dyeawan, a crippled girl taken from the street to work behind the scenes for a secret society filled with inventors. She’s given a wheelchair and started working as a messenger until they discovered that she’s too intelligent for it and put her to test to find what she’s good at.

I wasn’t invested when I started Savage Legion, the first part was dragging. The world-building was slow and it took a bit of time to understand things. The story did pick up halfway, things started to get interesting and I just can’t stop reading. Matt Wallace is an amazing storyteller, his prose is gripping and elegant. It’s easy to visualize the scenes and the world he crafted is complex and intricately done. I can’t wait to start book 2!
I highly recommend it for fans of Game of Thrones and The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

Thank you, Matt Wallace, Gallery Books, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Savage Legion.

[Gregg Buford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure what this about but from the title I thought it was some type of military fantasy. It is that I think but it is certainly more than that. The political aspects of this are enough to have you debating the wrongs and rights of the system and trying to figure out how this system really works. I kept thinking of it as bureaucratic dictatorship. Some people also will enjoy figuring out what cultures this book is based on maybe. I can see the comparisons of this world's government with governments of the world present and past in real life. I didn't really feel invested in any of the characters but they were not badly written or anything just didn't connect with them. They need time to grow on you and more depth given to them. On a second read that could happen and certainly want to see how they progress in future books. The combat was written rather simple and straight forward I think and I liked that. It could have done with a little a more detail in certain combat scenes but not every one of them. I am of course trying not to go to in depth as I want to describe more things about this book but I don't want to spoil anything for someone who will read this book.. I think people will enjoy the pacing, action and the characters in this book but it may not be for everyone's taste. I almost want to start reading again but I just finished so will just wait a few months and read it again or wait until the next in the series comes out before reading it again.

[Brian Mcclain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story follows three characters in a world with a good deal of complexity in it's building. Evie finds herself in the titular Legion, fighting among a group supposed to be comprised of those who've broken laws repaying society, but is it? She's got a few secrets and is more than she seems, but that won't matter if she ends up dead. She has ties to Lexie, someone whose navigating life with her husband gone, presumed dead or treasonous. Finally we have Slider whose real name is long and escapes me, she's a clever paraplegic taken from the streets to work behind the scenes for shadowy but not all bad characters.

In true fashion these are connected but not directly yet so this story mostly sets up their disparate situations on the same world and we watch as they get deeper in their particular scenarios. Slider's POV is probably my favorite as she exists in an interesting area of the world beyond normal rules and interacting with some very interesting characters. Evie's life is a dichotomy between the fighting scenes and the scenes of celebration with her and the Savages. Lexies is a bit of a let down as living in "polite society" doesn't hold a candle to the other two, but it feels like her situation is getting more interesting as life goes on.

I'm certainly interested to see where things lead and how these characters in their different situations come together as the series continues. This was a solid introduction and has set the stage for a lot to come.

[Matt Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't quite sure what to expect given the blurbs on this book. I really thought it was going to be another grimdark fantasy series. This book defied my expectations though. Don't get me wrong, it's plenty violent and dark. Savage Legion doesn't wallow in nihilistic violence. It's not glorifying one man's ability to conquer destiny through sheer animalistic willpower. Instead, the story is a study of the systematic violence and depredations a society practices on it's own people simply to maintain the status quo. The story focuses on folks who are marginalized, victimized, and demonized by society. Savage Legion is the story of how they choose, not so much simply to fight back, but to try and make a better society for everyone. Don't worry. This isn't some dry treatise. There's tons of action and even romance. If you weren't looking for it, you might not even notice the deeper dialogue that permeates the entire story. So read it for fun, but appreciate it for what it's showing us about ourselves.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goddamn.

This book has a bunch of things I don't normally like, including an insane body toll, an ending where everything is dark, literal eugenics, betrayals, a utopia gone wrong, but I'm here pounding my clipboard on the table, agitating for NEXT BOOK. I am happy to report that Matt Wallace, who is very decent on twitter, has not betrayed me with this book.

It looses a star because it pulled the plot point of a seemingly reasonable person who makes some very good points that we like turns out to be "mad" and possibly a serial killer, not once, but twice. That's really my only quibble though. This book knew what it was about, told me what it was going to do with the opening and the cover, and then hit that target right on.

[Brinley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. So many of the books that promise "savage" actions fall short. This book definitely met its promised savagery. Because of that, some people may find it overly gory, but I really liked the dimension it added to the characters, it made the story feel so much more desperate. (in a good way) I also love the cover on this book. It's really pretty, and looks amazing on my bookshelf.

This book had a ton of characters. Sometimes that can be a problem, but I found every character in this compelling. At the beginning of this book, Dyeawan was interesting, but not overly. At the end, I'm desperate to learn more about her and her plans. (I have absolutely no idea how to say her name though...) I also really liked Evie. Her chapters were always my favorite, partly because I loved her ruthlessness. She got things done, and really kept the plot moving. Lexie was ok, but I can definitely see how she'll play a big part in the next book.

This book had amazing diversity. One of our main characters (Dyeawan) was disabled, but she was so much more than that. The author did a great job of giving her a personality outside of her disability, and didn't make her disability a reason to pity her. We also have a character known as an Undeclared, which are neither gender, and go by they/them. Although this definitely confused me at times as it would say "they're over there" and I had to figure out who the they was, it was interesting. Finally, I'm pretty sure that our main character is a lesbian. (maybe)

The ending of this definitely surprised me. So many of our characters took actions that I wasn't expecting, and it really sets up well for the next book. I would definitely recommend this!

I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

[Amy Braun · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true epic that promises a wild saga to come! There are so many unique and thrilling moments in this story. There are unique characters, strong women, betrayal, a rich world, and intense combat scenes. I thought the ending was fantastic and would love to know what happens next!

The story primarily follows three different characters, all of whom have their own distinct voices and conspiracies to unravel. Evie is a strong character who keeps finding herself in positions she didn't expect, but adapting to them with strength and courage. Lexi is smart, big-hearted, and willing to do anything for her people. Dyeawan had my favorite plot line, as she unwound a huge conspiracy and turned everything on its head. All this said, Taru is my favorite character. A loyal badass who never lets anyone stand in their way, I want to see more of them!

The book focuses heavily on action and set-up and wold-building in the beginning. There were some explanations that took a while to understand, at least for me, though they were well written. The battles and intense and bloody, and Wallace does not hold back.

I was a huge fan of the twists and surprises near the end. I fully understood what the stakes were and how dire things had become for the heroes, and wanted to know what happened to them next.

This is a great book for fans of epic war/battle fantasy. The heroes are strong, the characters diverse, the action visceral, and the writing solid. Go check it out!

[Alaina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Savage Legion was an interesting introduction to the Savage Rebellion series. In this, you will sort of follow three points of views. Sort of because you don't really know who is talking until it's too late. Or maybe that's just how I felt? For example, we get chapter titles but not who is talking or who it's about. It was definitely annoying and kind of frustrating at times.

Then I got the book and that didn't even help either. So, yeah, I suffered a little trying to figure out who was speaking when and by the time I figured it out, I just tried to enjoy the rest of what was happening. Some of what happened was interesting. Unfortunately, the entire book didn't hold my attention because of being confused for so long. I'm secretly hoping that the next book will make more sense to me. If not, then I will suffer slightly.

In the end, it was an okay book with lots of potential to be better. A little excited to see what will happen next for everyone involved.