Fair Rebel

Fourlands #5

by Steph Swainston

The fifth book set in Steph Swainston's unique world. Rarely has a world been so completely imagined and consistent yet open to flights of true fantasy.

In FAIR REBEL we return to the world of the Fourlands, under attack from implacable Insects and guarded by the Circle — 50 immortals, each the best in their chosen profession, each position constantly open to challenge from ordinary men and women. And we return to Jant, the immortal messenger, the only man alive who can fly, addicted to drugs and weakened by his dependence.

The Circle has planned a final, devastating attack on the Insects. It will be costly, but will undo centuries of their advance. But a chance discovery that the vital barrels of gunpowder have been tampered with, largely replaced by sand, leads Jant into a deeply buried and deadly conspiracy. Someone is out to kill all the members of the Circle, and even plans to strike at the Emperor himself. As Jant sets out to expose the conspiracy, he realises that they are willing to do anything to hurt him and those he loves.

Genres: Fantasy, New Weird, Science Fiction, Fiction

335 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 24, 2016

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a great reader of fantasy, especially series rather than one-off tomes like Imajica. Yet I’m hooked on the Fourlands novels, because they’re so distinctively and delightfully odd. Each strikes a perfectly incongruous balance between the fantastically epic (war against giant insects, immortality, winged beings) and the resolutely mundane (crisps, workplace personality clashes, managing a drug problem). The world is ruled by the immortal and mysterious emperor San, who took over two millennia ago when god apparently left. He superintends the fight against huge people-eating insects by means of a meritocratic warrior aristocracy called the Circle. Those admitted to it after winning a contest become immortal, until someone challenges and beats them at their chosen discipline. This might seem like fairly standard fantasy fare, but there is also the surreal twist that the narrator, Jant, is a drug addict and his preferred poison transports him to another reality. The so-called Shift is a world of appealing visual metaphors and plays on words, filled with creatures like vermiforms, flummoxen, the Elephant of Conscience (invisible, but you can feel it), and The Monogoose. (My favourite would have to be the marzipandas.) This intense weirdness is a mere interlude, however, as ‘Fair Rebel’ largely deals with the domestic consequences of a new super-weapon (gunpowder) that has been developed to fight the endless war against giant insects.

Jant is an effective narrator because he is the emperor’s messenger and thus spends most of his time flying around (literally - he has wings), working out what disaster is happening now. In this case, frustration with the inequalities in society spills over into violence that can no longer be channelled into the insect war. The semi-feudal politics and economics of the Fourlands are cleverly explored, as are the implications of introducing new technologies. This is a theme that I haven’t often seen explored so effectively in fantastical fiction: it’s very difficult to keep magical or quasi-magical weaponry in the hands of an elite. What about all the seemingly invisible people who serve that elite? Perhaps they might want some way to redress the balance? Fantasy worlds with rigid hierarchies are boring; social upheaval is much more fun. Although most of the book is from the perspective of Jant, part of the elite, the lower orders also get their chance to speak, which was definitely a good choice. I found the plot very tense and involving, as Swainston is not shy of throwing in sudden catastrophes with lasting consequences. Aha, perhaps that’s the root of my fondness for this series: there’s a sense of history, of society evolving and changing, rather than unconvincing stasis. At the same time, details of language and description give the world colour and depth, while the action and chase scenes are exhilarating. There are plenty of lovely passages in which Jant swoops around and slices up giant insects with a katana.

On the other hand, it has been seven years since the last Fourlands novel, so I couldn’t immediately remember who everyone was or what exactly had previously occurred. There’s a bit of metatextual awkwardness as Jant gives the reader helpful reminders, however this conceit isn’t used very much. There was a somewhat unsubtle Chekov's Gun situation that meant I was anticipating a twist that indeed eventuated. Waiting for the rest of the characters to catch up (or not) was exceedingly tense, though. Also, to put this in the broadest possible non-spoilery terms, I wondered whether the ending would really go there and indeed it did. I hope there will be further dispatches from the Fourlands, as I’m very interested to find out how these latest upheavals play out. And will Jant be able to replace his leather jacket?

[Jeffrey E · Rating 5 out of 5]

No surprise - this book is wonderful. Once again, I was entertained from the first page to the very last. What more can you ask for in a book?

[C Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first encountered this series around Xmas 2004. I stumbled across an advance copy in a bookshop and was sold by the cover art. I ended up reading it cover-to-cover that evening and ever since Steph Swainston has been a favorite of mine. In following years I pre-ordered each of her books as they came out and was delighted with the way the world built and the characters developed - I have re-read the books frequently over the years and her prose never gets tired. I was deeply dismayed when she announced her return to teaching, but was happy to have four books to treasure. Then she announced her return I celebrated.

So... I just finished Fair Rebel on the train to work, having started a few days ago. Sadly, unlike when The Year of our War came out I am not a student who can read till 3am, and all I can say is wow.

Everything I loved is back - the prose, the characters, the setting - all of it and more! Now, I did have my concerns about another Castle series book, mainly around how the author was going to bring new energy to the series (given the changes at the end The Modern World) and how new characters were going to be introduced given the series had focused quite closely on 5-6 up to now.

I should not have worried, the changes introduced in this novel, along with a modest but significant time jump forward have opened up a whole new world of potential for this series which I can't wait to see more of. The events in this book (no-spoilers here) were cleverly handled and with the right combination of tension and drama to keep you glued to the pages.

In many ways this book is the first in a new series that re-sets the story for a new series in the Fourlands. In another way its the fourth book of the original trilogy that ends the story of some of the older characters. Its a lovingly and cleverly written bridge from one series to another and I loved every word. I look forward to the next one.

[Jennifer Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 5 star rating might come as a surprise considering the amount of time it took me to finish this fairly short novel. The problem is (aside from my usual excuse of chronic migraines), I read the first 4 books in the series a LONG time ago - sometime before 2016, which is when I started using Goodreads more diligently - so my brain was a bit foggy on details and characters. I should probably have done a reread before diving into this 5th book. Regardless of any minor confusion on my part, the fact remains that this fantasy world is amazing in scope, and also delightfully bizarre. The Fourlands is a fantastic mix of both primitive and modern conventions - a place where gunpowder and rifles are a relatively new discovery/invention, yet items such as sunglasses and jeans/t-shirts exist. A centuries long war against a giant insectoid race spilling into the Fourlands from another dimension, is the main source of conflict throughout the series. I can honestly say I haven’t ever come across anything even remotely like it, which can be a breath of fresh air within the fantasy/sci-fi genre.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

...I did feel Swainston leaves us hanging a bit in the final chapters of the novel. While one part of the story is resolved, a rather large cliffhanger is left to deal with in the next volume. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you, Fair Rebel is a very good read. It is probably the fastest paced of the Castle novels I have read so far. It is one of those books where you just have to read the next volume to see how the story continues. After four novels, many fantasy worlds begin to feel familiar. There clearly is much more to explore in Fourlands though. I eagerly await the next novel to see what else Swainston has in store for us.

Full Random Comments review

[Vít · Rating 5 out of 5]

Po kroku zpět jménem Above the Snowline je Fair Rebel opět plnokrevný návrat do Čtyřzemí a díky za to. Za mě je to výborná věc, moc se mi to líbilo a být tu nějaký šestý díl, hned po něm skočím.
Odehrává se nějakých 15 let po konci Novodobého světa a Eszajové jsou opět v plné práci ve svém věčném souboji s Hmyzem. Z ostrova Tris se ale do Čtyřzemí dostává zajímavá látka, střelný prach, a Kometa Jant naštěstí ví, jak ho používají v Přesunu... takže už chyběl jen krůček k tomu, aby Hmyz poprvé v dějinách drtily dělové koule a kulky z mušket. Vypadá to vážně hodně nadějně, ale střelný prach se dá nejen využít, ale i zneužít, a Eszaje nemají rádi zdaleka všichni obyvatelé Čtyřzemí.
Když se něco může podělat, tak se to podělá, pravil starý Murphy, a Jant by určitě souhlasil.

[Caroline Mersey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a huge fan of Steph Swainston ever since her first Castle novel. She's one of the freshest and most interesting voices in contemporary fantasy fiction. So I was hugely excited to receive a review copy of her newest novel, Fair Rebel from Gollancz. And it exceeded all of my expectations, speaking to me in the way only a small and rare number of books do. .

Fair Rebel is the fifth Castle novel, building on the stories told in the previous novels. For all that it stands alone as a self-contained piece, I wouldn't recommend reading it without having read the others. For those of you not familiar with Swainston's Castle novels, she's created a multi-racial place called the Fourlands, peopled by diverse races. The world faces a significant threat, from invading giant Insects. For millenia they have been mindlessly eating and destroying, slowly expanding their territory. But the Insects are just the backdrop Swainston uses to explore what are normally much smaller stories , focused around a group of immortals: the Eszai. Chosen by the Emperor San, they are each the best in their fifty fields, brought together to lead the battle against the Insects that has become the driving force and agenda for the Fourlands ever since the Insects first arrived. An individual Eszai can be replaced if killed, or if beaten in a fair Challenge by another individual. Swainston's first person protagonist is Jant, who holds the title of Comet, the Emperor's messenger. He is not your traditional fantasy hero: he is a drug addict and an outsider. The child of rape, his father was one of the privileged, winged (but flightless) Awians, his mother was one of the Rhydanne, a mountain people designed to live at high altitude. That makes Jant the only person who can fly.

In Fair Rebel, terrorism comes to the Fourlands. Swainston's portrayal draws on a very British experience of terrorism (the terrorists use a cell structure and tactics familiar to anyone who has lived through the UK's experience of Northern Ireland-related terrorism). But the terrorism in this book is also startlingly contemporary, playing on the narrative of privilege, prejudice and inequality that Swainston has built into the Fourlands. The bombers are drawn from a disenfranchised group who have suffered from social exclusion and poverty. Fourlands society relies on the systematic exploitation of their labour, and there is significant prejudice against them.

Swainston's depiction of terrorism feels real and authentic. The violence is terrifying, horrific and arbitrary. It is aimed at toppling the Castle and the structures that support it. But it is a self-destructive backlash. In its anger at the exploitative structures in society it risks destroying the only mechanisms in place to keep at bay the existential threat of the Insects, with their society-destroying potential. In doing so, Fair Rebel asks whether those doing the right thing can ever do so with legitimacy if it is done without listening to or engaging with the concerns of the disenfranchised at the margins of society.

But Fair Rebel also asks us to reflect on the role of art and culture in society. They can be used to inspire the best and the worst in people, showing the impact of the rejection of talented musician Swallow's repeated requests to join the Eszai. If we set aside the very things we are fighting to protect, is our struggle worthwhile at all?

[Silvio Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fourlands series is back from hiatus, and I'm dismayed how little attention it seems to be drawing - so few libraries have it that when I requested it by ILL, mine just bought it instead. It's now the Year of Our War 2040, fifteen years out from the chronologically previous book. In the meantime someone's invented gunpowder. So the Circle of Immortals has a new plan to kill Insects by herding them with cannons and rifle fire and blowing them up with a giant bomb. The musician Swallow is dead, apparently by suicide out of frustration at Emperor San refusing to make her immortal, but Jant Comet suspects foul play. Then, just when the bomb is about to be set off, it turns out that a third of its gunpowder is missing. Things go downhill for the Circle from there. Fourlands geography and politics remain as vivid as ever, and the exploration of the downsides of meritocracy is if anything sharper. In terms of the plot arc of the series, more serious things happen in this volume than any so far. The only thing marring it is the context in which it puts LGBT characters - in the series so far they've shown up once as absolutely evil, once as complicatedly evil, and once as apparently good but barely mentioned in passing. I hope this isn't a pattern that will continue to the end of the series.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exhilarating return to the Fourlands. Swainston's prose, above all else, continues to astound me. There is one scene in particular, an explosion viewed from underwater, that was just stunning. I also really liked that somehow Jant has become the responsible one, and Saker is a little wild. Who could have seem that coming! (Definitely not Jant). I await the next book with great anticipation.

[Niall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I write about my reading because, in the end, I don't understand it. I can make arguments about it, and most of the time can convince myself with them, but every now and then I am defeated by the alchemical reaction that takes place between book and reader. Case in point: the last two novels that I read. Both of them are secondary-world fantasy novels; both of them are sequels; both of them are by authors I admire; both of them are political; both of them are literary; both of them are the sort of thing I like. Yet I struggled through every page of the first -- this, after bouncing off it so hard in an earlier attempt to read it that I set aside two days of my Christmas holiday to re-read (and re-enjoy!) its predecessor as a run-up, as well as giving myself the time to take copious notes -- whereas I was sucked into the second and found myself stealing a few pages here and there during the work day. And I don't really understand why my reactions were so different, why that first novel never became more than words on a page, disconnected, distant. I can talk (and I'm going to) about why I enjoyed Steph Swainston's Fair Rebel so thoroughly; but why there was such a difference between my reaction to that and the other remains mysterious.

So: I love the tone of the Castle novels, the wit of them, the feel of them. Primarily narrated by Jant Shira, Messenger to the Emperor of the Fourlands, one of a Circle of immortals maintained by said Emperor as defence against mindless insects invading from another dimension, they are at the same time both crisp with the pleasures of adventure fantasy, the battles and intrigues and pyrotechnic set-pieces, and also constantly wrong-footing, destabilising, cheeky. They are gloriously anachronistic in everything from their set-dressing -- jeans and t-shirts alongside longbows and catapults -- to their language -- as a minor example, in Fair Rebel, one of the Circle describes their training regime as one of "marginal gains", echoing the language of contemporary elite sport. The Castle novels are, increasingly, playful with their own narrative, on the one hand making a feature out of the impossibility of Jant's narration -- it's not just that it's unclear how or when he is recounting these events, it's that it is clear that he is speaking directly to us, today, in our world: House of Cards eat your heart out -- while on the other more often passing the mic to other voices, not always sympatico with Jant's take on the world. If there is a hint of the greatest-hits to Fair Rebel's structure -- a battle against the insects, an interlude at sea, an audience with the Emperor -- it is excusable as a reintroduction to the world after years away; and excusable, too, because it is all done with such vigorous elan.

Not that that's all there is to it. Above and beyond the stylistic pleasures of Swainston's writing, for me, is the intellectual pleasure of her thinking. I'm tempted to suggest that all of the Castle novels are, at their core, about time: the passing of it, the manipulation of it, the transcending of it, the inequality of it. (Reading the novel either side of the new year, in that brief moment when our perceptions of time momentarily pause and then reset, may have heightened this belief.) Swainston uses her immortals in a manner not dissimilar to that in which someone like Kim Stanley Robinson deploys magic life-extension treatments in the Mars trilogy, to provide a consistent connection to a society changing over the timescale on which societies change, decades and centuries -- but not just as observers, as participants implicated in those changes, and changed by them in turn. And because the external reality of the Fourlands has been thought-through as obsessively as it evidently has, from its geology to its economics, many of the changes that occur offer the snap-click pleasure of good extrapolation, more familiar from science fiction than fantasy. It is a beautiful laboratory -- at times it feels like a generation starship -- one of the most worked-out thought-experiment venues you're likely to come across in contemporary writing.

Contemporary, and yet at the same time, not. Time reveals imperfections, as well. For someone who remembers blasting through The Year of Our War in 2004, and considering it to be one of the freshest, most distinctive, most urgent novels of that year, it's a little disconcerting to read Fair Rebel and find that some of the strategies it employs have now, in their turn, become a little stale. Case in point: the racial dynamics of the Fourlands. In 2004, it seemed radical to invent new humanoid races -- the winged awians, the extremeophile rhydanne -- in place of elves and orcs, with their fixed ethics and widely-agreed unfortunate metaphoric connotations, and to use those new races as the basis of your group politics. In 2017, I find myself looking in vain for evidence of ethnic variation within those groups, and especially within the book's human population. There are solid in-world reasons for the lack, perhaps: the Fourlands is small, about the size of Spain and France combined I think, with no contact with other lands, and no major climatic variation. And it may be that I am forgetting some mentions in the earlier volumes; and there are certainly other faultlines within the races of the Fourlands, most notably class distinctions of many kinds in many directions, and that's hardly an overdone topic in fantasy. But at the very least it's hard to imagine that an author of Swainston's politics beginning a series today would not address the issue, and at most I think I could argue that her approach makes some of Fair Rebel's politics (which involve an enemy-within who are described in terms reminiscent of the contemporary zero-hours precariat, but who come from the only example of a marked subgroup we have encountered) less successful than they might otherwise be.

To return from politics to style (insofar as that is possible), Swainston's constancy also throws into relief the shifting sands of genre fashion. It's hard for me not to read the latest installment of a series launched as the proof that New Weird was really a thing in the context of Jonathan McCalmont's recent exploration of how and why the New Weird failed, and how some of its central rhetoric about the value of blurring genre boundaries has become a kind of default praise, a cheap sophistication. That is a part of what Swainston is doing, but it's not what's most interesting about it, to the point where, in 2017, Swainston seems to stand almost alone, no longer New Weird but not quite anything else either. The frustrating thing is that while she may now be on her way to the completion of a story-cycle that will be primarily seen as one of those odd orphaned extraordinary sidebars in the history of fantastika, it's not that hard to imagine a universe in which she achieves astonishing commercial success. (I keep thinking her novels could easily be adapted as a Battlestar Galactica-style Syfy series.) I don't know if I can explain how or why the various parts I've described above become such a compelling whole for me -- why they allow me to forgive flaws that might stop me short in another book -- but I find it almost impossible to imagine that the trick wouldn't work for a very large number of other readers. May Swainston write and be published for long enough for them to find her books.

***

A footnote for those who want to find more now: at the end of last year, Swainston also published two tiny volumes with a tiny small press, Air & Nothingness. Both are Castle books. The first, Wrought Gothic and Other Scenes, is a selection of place-sketches, exercises in colour and worldbuilding that fill in a few gaps. The second, Aftermath, is an excerpt from the start of the next novel, and a litmus test for whether you will be a long-term Steph Swainston reader might be whether the thought of reading a lawyer and an economist debate the likely implications of the explosive events of Fair Rebel fills you with joy, or not. Aftermath also includes some useful ancillary material, including a timeline of Fourlands history, maps, a list of titles within the Circle and who has held them at different times, and so on. Both books are also beautiful artifacts: if you are tempted by them, I don't think they will disappoint.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

My first introduction to the Fourlands was a good seven years ago now, in a book large enough to take someone’s head off. The blurb read as if all my favourite disparate plot characteristics had been forged into one enormous vat of excellence. Immortals, a winged messenger, drug fuelled crossings to wildly strange parallel worlds. Thankfully, it was as good as I had hoped.

Skip forward eight years and we have a book that I did not think was coming. “Fair Rebel’ is the fifth instalment in the Fourlands series, the story of a land being slowly destroyed by a wave of unrelenting, world-eating insects. Without giving too much away about the plot of the initial trilogy, because I think you should probably go and read that first, fifteen years have passed since an onslaught that stemmed the tide of insects, even if only for a little while. The Circle, a coterie of the very best militarists that the Fourlands has to offer, gifted immortality for as long as they remain ‘the greatest’, are planning a staggering assault on the insects far to the North, using their new secret weapon, gunpowder. Obviously, this does not all entirely go to plan.

One of my favourite things about these books has always been the voice of our protagonist, the immortal Messenger, Jant. Fate gave him fully functioning wings in a world where, for most, they’ve become little more than vestigial. The Jant of the original trilogy spent more time in the drug jettisoned worlds of the shift than in the Fourlands, but he seems more tempered in ‘Fair Rebel’, maybe a little more aware of just what they have to lose if he takes his eye from the ball. His relationships are firmer, truer, he seems more reluctant to disappear from them than the immortal of fifteen years ago. It raises a lot of questions about humanity and what happens to our humanity if immortality intercedes.

There was, however, one big elephant in the room for me when I was reading this book. The word ‘gypsy’ is used liberally throughout. I’m pretty sure it was used critically (well, semi-critically), indeed in the book the ethnic group that it’s used for and their persecution is a huge story theme. It’s just difficult when you’re physically wincing every time you see the word. You’ve just got to question whether it was necessary to use such a loaded word in text. I mean, it’s a fantasy world, just come up with a fancy fantasy word. Likewise, the plotline, which obviously had some basis in world events and the current post-Brexit bigotry we’re encountering, wasn’t handled as delicately as it needed to be. I’m not sure whether we’re all still a little bit tender for narratives about domestic terrorism, especially when coupled with a loaded use of the word ‘gypsy’. Swainston’s books have always dealt in the more fringe realms of fantasy; sex, drugs and death, and were probably never really for people who like ‘happy go lucky’ books, but there are definitely parts of this plot that came up as a big question mark for me.

So it was a bit of an up and down experience for me. I love the character of Jant, I love being back in the world and the depth and detail of Swainston’s work, I’m just not sure that the plotline worked and I ended up a little bit worried that it might even be offensive to some readers. I felt like in places it was trying to make a point but then never really made it. Is this supposed to be a book about terrorism? If you want to have a discussion about the broad painting of marginalised ethnic groups as ‘bad’ or ‘evil’ purely due to the actions of a few then why is this book about white people? It’s either an allegory for the treatment of actual Romani people or an allegory for the treatment of the Muslim community in the world at the moment, it can’t be both, and it felt a little bit like a weird, mind-mashing mix of the two.

So, my recommendation at the moment is to read the first three books. I’m not quite sure where this book sits with me. I enjoyed it when I was reading it, but thinking about it and writing this review I started to realise just how uncomfortable I’d been with the way some of the plot points were handled. I’ll be interested to see how the next book continues the story, but I’m disappointed with the way that this one unfolded.

Many thanks to Gollancz and Netgalley for a copy in return for an honest review.

Originally posted at Moon Magister Reviews.

[Adrian · Rating 4 out of 5]

The shift and the insects are back! It may have been a long gap, but I'm very happy to pick this up, and it's so distinctive a series, you can easily remember where you were.

I enjoyed this, but I left not 100% convinced that the story was the best fit for the world of the Fourlands. On the one hand, I really liked the interaction between Jant and the old and new Lightnings (this is set after Modern World, you need to read that first). And the concept of an immortal elite who have to balance a war waged in centuries against keeping the peace in a world where life is hard and short is effectively done, more so than in the other books. Plus the new characters were all really strong additions to the cast. On the other hand, while it's been a long time since I read the last ones, the shift seemed more a convenient way of introducing new plot ideas than I remember it being before, rather than an integral part of the world. Which is a bit of a shame, as it's one of my favourite parts of this series.

Overall I'd still recommend it, as this is one of the most interesting series in fantasy, and the characters are so compelling. But I do wonder if the author is maybe ready to start a new series in another world?

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most gripping book I've ever read. As time passes I think the fourlands/castle books are probably my favourite books. Any series getting to a fifth book could get a little staid or loose it's lustre. In this book Steph Swainston shows she's not going to let this happen here!

I'm talking around it but basically I had to read the second half of this book close to continuously. It managed a level of film like tension which I have never really encountered in a book. The affection I have for this setting and these characters meant I was very invested in them, and when Swainston chose to whip the rug from under my feet I certainly felt it.

After this I had to order the short run mini novella she wrote about the moments after this book and i WILL be pre-ordering the hell out of the next book the second that it's announced.

To be clear: I like this book.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gunpowder has come to the Fourlands, courtesy of an arrogant but brilliant ex-artist fro the newly acquired island. So now there are muskets and rifles and massive traps packed with enough explosive power to wipe out waves of Insects. Or it would, if at the last minute it wasn't discovered that most of the gunpowder has been stolen. This causes horrible problems at the front, but that's nothing compared to the havoc that ensues when the thieves out the gunpowder to uses of their own. Terrorism has come to the Fourlands.

Brilliant, thrilling, horrifying breakneck action as an ossified social order acting as bulwark against an existential external threat comes under attack from centuries of built-up anger and resentment, harnessed by one driven genius consumed with hatred and a desire for revenge. But surely no-one could or would threaten the Emperor himself?

[Ry Herman · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of things I very much appreciated about this entry in the Fourlands series -- it explores class and power issues that are often left unexamined in fantasy literature, and it shakes up the status quo in a way that leaves bedrock premises of the series hanging in doubt. However, it was very hard for me to get past the fact that the plot depended on the both the main villain being near-omnisciently clever and the protagonists, particularly at the very end, acting like dimwits. I probably would have accepted one or the other, but both at once ended up making the plot seem contrived. But even though this one was flawed, I'll undoubtedly still read the next book in the series when it comes out.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this took me nearly two years to read!
Fortunately, that's not because of the book's qualities, but rather a severe lack of fiction-reading time.
A surprising late entry into the Fourlands series, it's a complex fantasy novel with some cataclysmic impacts on the in-universe of the Fourlands. Not going to give any of the plot away apart from that.
Since this came out in 2016, I've a feeling it's unfortunately the last Fourlands novel given the author's publishing cadence, with seven years between this and the previous book.
I really hope I'm wrong and Steph Swainston drops another installment on us, this series is a favourite of mine.

[Gray Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome back, Steph Swainston! We've missed you. The writing was absolutely amazing and the story was riveting (though I guessed who the villain was pretty early in). It was so good to spend time with these characters again. I hope there's more to come.

[Mr J James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoy

I like this series and it felt nice to revisit this universe. The other books all surprised me in some way. Whilst I enjoyed this book it felt kike it was mostly setting up for the next book in the series.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is extremely rare for a series to get better and better with each novel. Fair Rebel is such an exciting and smart progression for what was a very tight trilogy (setting aside the prequel for the sake of discussing progression). I cannot wait for book 6. I cannot recommend this series enough.

[Harun · Rating 4 out of 5]

It had been some time so I had to read through the original trilogy again. No regrets, Fourlands is still one of the most captivating weird settings, and Steph still rocks. We just need more books.

[Magnus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tjong i medaljongen vad bra!

[Lauren Newson]

3.5

[Benj · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cracking final book in the Fourlands series. It seems a shame that Swainston doesn't seem to have written anything since, since she is an original and compelling author.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Glad there has to be one more book someday to tie things up. Glad the author starts to maaayyybe lean into some answers. And, only one shoehorned sex scene!

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new Fourlands novel! I thought I was going to race through this but considering how this book might never have been, I decided to pace myself. In the end, I'm glad I did, because the intensity of the proceedings was brought to a series of bearable bruises rather than the full-on back-alley battering it could have been, all at once. And yet, I still feel I need time to work out what happened. Jant remains my favourite fuck-up, but even he had barely a moment to himself that wasn't interupted by being burned or blasted to bits or witnessing it happen to someone else. A lot of healing is required. For all of us.

[Elen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jag var så rädd för att denna fortsättning skulle vara dålig, att Steph Swainston inte skulle kunna komma med något nytt och lyckas få liv i en historia som hon knöt ihop ordentligt i förra boken (för tio år sedan!). Men hon lyckades och jag är så oerhört glad för att jag fått återvända till the Fourlands och fått bli lite tonårskär i Jant igen. Åh, vad jag gillar den här skumma serien!

[Nic Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book in the series so far Steph Swainstone's writing is really evolving throughout the five books and while I have enjoyed all of the books this was really gripping. Interesting plot twists, some fantastic action and battles and an ending which I hope was a setup for the next book.