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The Madness Wars #2
Wrath of Madness
The militant forces of Drine march across Tienne, destroying and enslaving all they face. As the last few nobles struggle to organize a resistance, a rich network of merchants declares themselves rulers of Tienne. Warlord Rextur finally catches up with Peter Redfist and his refugee forces to clash in devastating battle. Who will be left to pick up the pieces? Does the ancient nation of Tienne have any hope of survival?
- GenresFantasy
784 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 15, 2020
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57 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 5, 2020
As always, Jesse Teller’s writing takes on the form of brick walls, hard, jagged and a force against nature. Not for those looking for fluffy fantasy, this grit and grime tale is riveting, something one cannot look away from, not that they would want to!
WRATH OF MADNESS has a sinister, dark feel to it, characters at their darkest, their most heinous and cruel as we are taken back into a realm torn by rivalry, war and death. There will also be heroes, tainted, but strong, sometimes too late to prevent events that happen. Magic will be wielded, twisted, stolen and manipulated and through it all, the veil of heavy darkness and constant tension continues page after page in true epic fantasy form as the land of Tienne becomes a brutal battleground between clans, countries and castes.
For those who devour dark fantasy, Jesse Teller’s work is like a feast for the strong of constitution as characters return, battles are waged and a complete disregard for gentile sensibilities run rampant. Engrossing reading, the details are amazing, in depth and mesmerizing!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Jesse Teller! This is my honest and voluntary review.
Series: The Madness Wars - Book 2
Publication Date: April 15, 2020
Publisher: Jesse Teller
Genre: Dark Epic Fantasy
Print Length: 785 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
WRATH OF MADNESS has a sinister, dark feel to it, characters at their darkest, their most heinous and cruel as we are taken back into a realm torn by rivalry, war and death. There will also be heroes, tainted, but strong, sometimes too late to prevent events that happen. Magic will be wielded, twisted, stolen and manipulated and through it all, the veil of heavy darkness and constant tension continues page after page in true epic fantasy form as the land of Tienne becomes a brutal battleground between clans, countries and castes.
For those who devour dark fantasy, Jesse Teller’s work is like a feast for the strong of constitution as characters return, battles are waged and a complete disregard for gentile sensibilities run rampant. Engrossing reading, the details are amazing, in depth and mesmerizing!
I received a complimentary ARC edition from Jesse Teller! This is my honest and voluntary review.
Series: The Madness Wars - Book 2
Publication Date: April 15, 2020
Publisher: Jesse Teller
Genre: Dark Epic Fantasy
Print Length: 785 pages
Available from: Amazon
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com
June 21, 2020
Review now live at Grimdark Magazine.
Wrath of Madness, book 2 of The Madness Wars begins where the first book left off, the conquest driven nation of Drine pushing through on their campaign of conquering the neighboring country of Tienne.
The Madness is out of sorts. Rextur, the warlord general of the Drine forces, has suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of the boy king Peter Redfist. But Rextur hadn’t developed the reputation of being the world’s finest strategist for nothing. He is regrouping and taking another shot at the resisting forces led by Peter and the clans that he has under an unsteady truce.
As with the previously reviewed Onslaught of Madness, this book takes the reader in for the long haul. We get a variety of point of view narratives from players on both sides of the conflict.
Joining Rextur’s POV on the side of Drine are new characters. Strick is an elite soldier, one of the Lunatics, making his way through from the ground level, where he interacts with characters we’ve seen before.
We also get a unique perspective from Cursed, the wife of Treason, who is Rextur’s top general. Through her story we get a picture of the conflict going on within the Drine aristocracy, as the key power elements are shifting, drawing a fine line between God and King.
Saykobar is a mage that we encountered for a short time in Book 1, but he is now featured as a POV character. He has been snared by a demon known as Valkyrie and sent to assist Rextur in his conquest. Her motivations are unknown to Saykobar, and he is constantly trying to find a way around her control.
Tarana is one that the reader might question as to which side she is on. The answer is simply, Tarana is on Tarana’s side. She’s the daughter of a recently defeated warrior lord of Tienne, and she’s very annoyed that her standard of living has been compromised by the invasion. She is a noble lady, and expects to be treated as such. Joining a group of refugees is the utmost trial for Tarana, as they don’t even have a litter to carry her on!
Besides Rextur, we also have a couple returning POV characters, Aaron and Vianne.
Aaron the Marked is now known as the Demon, one of the chiefs of the Nation of Three led by Peter Redfist. He’s tasted war and he’s good at it, and though he is held in the highest esteem by his boy king, he still feels that he is inadequate for the task. A boy himself, he’ll do anything asked of him by Peter, without question, and Peter is counting on him to be quite the Champion.
Vianne is the Lady of Stonage, ruling in the place of her recently assassinated fiancé Brom Colmax. She’s been accepted by her new people as their ruler, and fully intends to wed Brom regardless to the fact that he’s been murdered. She’s the Porcelain Witch, of course, and she has a way. Beyond this, Vianne also has some family matters back home in Prox which will prove to be even more challenging than marrying dead men.
As the individual stories of these people play out in different parts of the nation of Tienne, the reader gets a real variance in perspective within the scope of this conflict. The events don’t seem connected at first, but as we venture through the narrative, we see how they come together by the end of this volume.
There is a lot going on, and it is often confusing as to what exactly, but I learned to stick with it and see it through, knowing that we’ll get a payoff in the end. It might not be a happy ending, but the reader is indeed rewarded for staying on course. While the book feels rather long at times, by the end I felt that there should have been more, and that I am eager to see what happens in the next volume.
Wrath of Madness, book 2 of The Madness Wars begins where the first book left off, the conquest driven nation of Drine pushing through on their campaign of conquering the neighboring country of Tienne.
The Madness is out of sorts. Rextur, the warlord general of the Drine forces, has suffered a surprising defeat at the hands of the boy king Peter Redfist. But Rextur hadn’t developed the reputation of being the world’s finest strategist for nothing. He is regrouping and taking another shot at the resisting forces led by Peter and the clans that he has under an unsteady truce.
As with the previously reviewed Onslaught of Madness, this book takes the reader in for the long haul. We get a variety of point of view narratives from players on both sides of the conflict.
Joining Rextur’s POV on the side of Drine are new characters. Strick is an elite soldier, one of the Lunatics, making his way through from the ground level, where he interacts with characters we’ve seen before.
We also get a unique perspective from Cursed, the wife of Treason, who is Rextur’s top general. Through her story we get a picture of the conflict going on within the Drine aristocracy, as the key power elements are shifting, drawing a fine line between God and King.
Saykobar is a mage that we encountered for a short time in Book 1, but he is now featured as a POV character. He has been snared by a demon known as Valkyrie and sent to assist Rextur in his conquest. Her motivations are unknown to Saykobar, and he is constantly trying to find a way around her control.
Tarana is one that the reader might question as to which side she is on. The answer is simply, Tarana is on Tarana’s side. She’s the daughter of a recently defeated warrior lord of Tienne, and she’s very annoyed that her standard of living has been compromised by the invasion. She is a noble lady, and expects to be treated as such. Joining a group of refugees is the utmost trial for Tarana, as they don’t even have a litter to carry her on!
Besides Rextur, we also have a couple returning POV characters, Aaron and Vianne.
Aaron the Marked is now known as the Demon, one of the chiefs of the Nation of Three led by Peter Redfist. He’s tasted war and he’s good at it, and though he is held in the highest esteem by his boy king, he still feels that he is inadequate for the task. A boy himself, he’ll do anything asked of him by Peter, without question, and Peter is counting on him to be quite the Champion.
Vianne is the Lady of Stonage, ruling in the place of her recently assassinated fiancé Brom Colmax. She’s been accepted by her new people as their ruler, and fully intends to wed Brom regardless to the fact that he’s been murdered. She’s the Porcelain Witch, of course, and she has a way. Beyond this, Vianne also has some family matters back home in Prox which will prove to be even more challenging than marrying dead men.
As the individual stories of these people play out in different parts of the nation of Tienne, the reader gets a real variance in perspective within the scope of this conflict. The events don’t seem connected at first, but as we venture through the narrative, we see how they come together by the end of this volume.
There is a lot going on, and it is often confusing as to what exactly, but I learned to stick with it and see it through, knowing that we’ll get a payoff in the end. It might not be a happy ending, but the reader is indeed rewarded for staying on course. While the book feels rather long at times, by the end I felt that there should have been more, and that I am eager to see what happens in the next volume.
April 27, 2020
Find this review at Forever Lost in Literature!
Wrath of Madness proves to be yet another strong offering from Jesse Teller and I continue to have such a great time reading his work. This is the second book in the The Madness Wars series and a follow-up to Onslaught of Madness, which was an ambitious beginning to a really dark and exciting new epic fantasy series. Also, just as a side note, the cover design for The Madness Wars books so far are stunning--the covers for these two books fit so well together and the coloring really reflects the atmosphere of the stories.
Wrath of Madness is another hefty book (but really, we tend to expect that from epic fantasy!) that throws you right back into this dark and intriguing world. I'm going to adopt my oft-used manner of not using too many details in this review since it's part of a series so as to avoid inadvertent spoilers of previous books (or book, in this case). I also hope this review doesn't sound too repetitive from my previous one, but I feel just as positively about this one as I did the first, and a lot of the qualities of the first are consistent with this one, although we definitely get to explore even more in this book, which is always a plus.
Teller really does excel in the world-building aspects of his fantasies, and his continuation in this book is no exception. There's something that feels very authentic and immersive, as well as both complex and simple at the same time--I can follow along well with different components, but I never feel overwhelmed and lost, which is something is important to me with these big epic fantasy novels.
I similarly still really enjoyed all of the different POVs and storylines that we get to follow in this book, all of the characters have such unique personalities and I find myself actively engaged in just about all of them. Some of the characters are ones that you both love and hate, who have some harsh personalities or backgrounds, but that still manage to draw you in. For me, that's always the mark of a good writer when they can make you feel connected and interested in a character no matter whether they are 'good,' 'bad,' or anything in middle--which most of these characters seem to be!
Wrath of Madness is a dark and intense book and there are constantly a lot of high stakes things happening that make it hard to put this story down. The battles are extreme and fairly epic in scope and I found intrigue from both sides of the general conflicts, which is always a positive in adding great dynamics and a compelling narrative.
Overall, I've given Wrath of Madness four stars! This is such a dark and adventurous sequel, I highly recommend it to any epic fantasy fans--though be sure to read book one, Onslaught of Madness, first!
Wrath of Madness proves to be yet another strong offering from Jesse Teller and I continue to have such a great time reading his work. This is the second book in the The Madness Wars series and a follow-up to Onslaught of Madness, which was an ambitious beginning to a really dark and exciting new epic fantasy series. Also, just as a side note, the cover design for The Madness Wars books so far are stunning--the covers for these two books fit so well together and the coloring really reflects the atmosphere of the stories.
Wrath of Madness is another hefty book (but really, we tend to expect that from epic fantasy!) that throws you right back into this dark and intriguing world. I'm going to adopt my oft-used manner of not using too many details in this review since it's part of a series so as to avoid inadvertent spoilers of previous books (or book, in this case). I also hope this review doesn't sound too repetitive from my previous one, but I feel just as positively about this one as I did the first, and a lot of the qualities of the first are consistent with this one, although we definitely get to explore even more in this book, which is always a plus.
Teller really does excel in the world-building aspects of his fantasies, and his continuation in this book is no exception. There's something that feels very authentic and immersive, as well as both complex and simple at the same time--I can follow along well with different components, but I never feel overwhelmed and lost, which is something is important to me with these big epic fantasy novels.
I similarly still really enjoyed all of the different POVs and storylines that we get to follow in this book, all of the characters have such unique personalities and I find myself actively engaged in just about all of them. Some of the characters are ones that you both love and hate, who have some harsh personalities or backgrounds, but that still manage to draw you in. For me, that's always the mark of a good writer when they can make you feel connected and interested in a character no matter whether they are 'good,' 'bad,' or anything in middle--which most of these characters seem to be!
Wrath of Madness is a dark and intense book and there are constantly a lot of high stakes things happening that make it hard to put this story down. The battles are extreme and fairly epic in scope and I found intrigue from both sides of the general conflicts, which is always a positive in adding great dynamics and a compelling narrative.
Overall, I've given Wrath of Madness four stars! This is such a dark and adventurous sequel, I highly recommend it to any epic fantasy fans--though be sure to read book one, Onslaught of Madness, first!
July 26, 2020
I highly recommend the next installment in the Madness Wars. I stayed up well past bed-time to read through a thrilling conclusion to this book, and can't wait to see how things develop in the next book.
Full review here: https://amjusticeauthor.blog/2020/07/...
Full review here: https://amjusticeauthor.blog/2020/07/...
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews