" "Tell me a dream, little love."

My dream is to go back in time and decide to never pick up my most anticipated read of the year. Sabaa Tahir, I EXPECTED BETTER FROM YOU 😭

You know it's bad when i couldn't find a single sentence worthy of annotation. For the sake of this review, i had to sneak out little strings of sentences from amidst irrelevant conversations.

You cannot write a spin off of one of the best fantasy series to ever exist, and not expect the readers to compare them both. The Ember Quartet is an electrifying masterpiece that grips you from the very first page. Its characters, flawed and complex, the mesmerizing world building, its emotional depth and its exploration of power, oppression, and the choices that define us, tackling themes like loyalty, sacrifice and struggle for freedom, its all so so so beautiful- BREATHE THIS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A REVIEW FOR AN EMBER IN THE ASHES!

The Ember Quartet is not just another series that you read and rave about; it's a life lesson. Laia's humanity, Elias's selflessness, Helene's loyalty; these characters teach you a lot. "The Heir" failed to capture it all. The characters had little depth and Tahir couldn't properly capture their motivations and complexity. This book felt like a big distorted dream. The emotions were all over the place, the relationships lacking depth or believability, and the world building not as immersive as its predecessor.

Once the plot starts making sense, the plot twist becomes clear and predictable, diminishing the impact of the story's surprises and reducing the suspense that is often integral to an epic fantasy.

These are the disappointments that i faced, but the major problem I had with this book is AIZ. oh dear we have a long rant incoming, buckle up. I'll mark the spoilers wherever necessary.

�� PLOT AND CHARACTERS

"The Heir" focuses on three different characters navigating through their hardships-

»» ZACHARIUS MARCUS LIVIUS AQUILLAS FARRAR a.k.a QUIL

"I remember, and I mourn, and I rage at myself and then I vow to have vengeance."

The Heir to the Martial Empire. Helene Aquilla's, now The Empress, nephew. Raised by Tribe Saif, he loathes being a king and does not want to pick up the mantle when his aunt steps down. He and the people of the Empire, along with Laia and Elias are troubled by a vicious killer roaming their grounds, shredding apart their innocent children, one of whom was Laia and Elias youngest son, Ruh. On one unfortunate night of Rathana, the army of Kegar, led by their remorseless and heartless Tel Illasi, bombed the districts of The Empire. Quil, his cousin Ariella, along with Elias Venturias's son- Sufiyan Venturias, had to flee the country on Helene's orders looking for "a thing" that their now Blood Shrike, Tas possesses, in order to stop this war. On their journey to Ankana, they come across an outcast - Sirsha Westerling.

"Grief is a strange beast. Some battle it, their souls scarred from its abuse. Some bury it, and live life waiting for it to reemerge. And some tread water, the grief a weight about their necks. Every reminder makes the weight heavier." She turned halfway, her face in profile. "You and I tread water, nephew. And I would not see you drown."

»» SIRSHA WESTERLING

Love was pain. Love was hurt and betrayal. But it was also the reason she stood here, battling a creature of ancient and unrelenting hunger, instead of on a ship a few hundred miles away. Love was why for the first time since her family cast her out, Sirsha didn't feel alone.

A Jaduna Tracker, who with the help of the four elements of earth- air, water, wind and earth can track the trails of various entities. Shunned by her society for an inhuman act of killing thousands of her own people, she is a wanderer who is not allowed to use her magic to track people who possess magic, The Karjad, although she can still track magicless creatures. One day she stumbles across Elias Venturias, who hires her to catch the killer of his son. They vow an oath and Sirsha must fulfill her duties at any cost, if she doesn't want her oath magic to drive her to insanity. Set on the path to kill this killer, she meets Quil and his gang and grows an attachment to them, and a deep love for Quil.

»» AIZ BET-DAFRA

Here we go. DEEP BREATHS. IN AND OUT IN AND OUT.

"Aiz bet-Dafra, you are a daughter of the evening star. You are not meant to be caged. Despair is death. Crush it. Stoke your rage instead. Escape. Kill the pretender. Take our people home."

THIS BITCH- Aiz, sorry I forgot her name is Aiz and not "this bitch". *deep breath* . Aiz is an orphan living in the Dafra slum of Kegar, the southern continent. Kegar is ruled by three triarchs- each one possessing a different power to smith. Clan Oona: bloodsmithing; Clan Ghaz: mindsmithing; Clan Hiwa: windsmithing.

Kegari's have long stopped producing their own food and thus the Sail pilots wing across the northern mountains to drop bombs on foreign villages. The waiting Kegari army would steal grain and goods to send home and survive the season.

Aiz is a windsmith but she's very weak at it. Therefore she grows bitter of her dearest friend, and a potential lover, Cero when his windsmithing abilities secures him a position as a rich and flourishing pilot of sails under the fleet commander: Tiral bet-Hiwa, son of the windsmith triarch, Hiwa. Tiral is a cruel upper class brat who loves flaunting his power and killing innocent lower class Snipes just for the fun of it. He, once, burned down Aiz's orphanage and only her and Cero could come out of it alive. Triarchs conscript the parents of these lower class slum residers, leaving them orphans at a young age.

There's a prophecy that follows- "In our hour of greatest need, Mother Div will return in the body of Tel Ilessi, the Holy Vessel. And Tel Ilessi shall deliver us back to the homeland from whence we fed so long ago. Mother Div left Kegar to her three children."

Therefore, Aiz wishes to kill Tiral and possibly overthrow the Triarchy, free Mother Div so that they can return to their homeland and free themselves from this tryanny and starvation.

-spoiler begins-

But she fails at killing Tiral and gets herself locked into the dark chambers of Kegar prison: The Tohr. There she, with the help of the book she stole from Tiral, connects her to the voice of Mother Div, who guides her out of the prison and towards Tribe Saif where she meets Laia. Aiz is now set on a trail to free Mother Div. While nomading with Tribe Saif and hunting the ninth sacred tale (she seeks Laia for answers as the book that connected her to Mother Div was written by Laia of Serra), Aiz meets Quil and they fall in love. Well, atleast Quil falls in love with her, Aiz was just taking advantage to gather information. Aiz also befriends Elias's and Laia's child- Ruh. After Elias knows her truth, she runs away along with Ruh and enters the forbidden ground of Owa Khel: the empty. There she frees an evil vicious creature, disguising as Mother Div and chains herself to it. Div feeds on young children and in return supplies Aiz with endless power. Its first victim unfortunately happens to be Ruh, who was present there at that time. In this way, Aiz trades her humanity for power.

The moment we get to know that Aiz's chapters were set on the past, it becomes pretty obvious that she is the killer. And after that, all that big revelation falls flat. It didn't take long after that for her chapters to annoy me. This woman is insufferable. Like okay wannabe Helene Aquilla, we get it! You kill innocent children to save your own ass, you bomb other's homes and slaughter other's children to save your own from starving - AND STILL FAIL AT IT - LIKE PLEASE! THIS SLUM RAT IS NOT EVEN WORTHY OF TOUCHING HELENE'S HAIR forget being her- tHe eMPrEsS wiLL unDeRStaNd mY sAcRiFicEs bcz sHe aLsO diD iT aT hEr tiME- STFU PLEASE AND THANKYOU.

"It is one thing to take from among foreign populations, Div," Aiz said. “I mourn the innocent, but they are not my people. Their leaders have long known the Kegari are starving and done nothing to aid us. I do know our people. They have suffered enough."

ZIP THAT VICTIM CARD AND DIE 🥰🥰

Aiz after rotting in jail, battered and tossed around like a rag doll, sneaking away, living at tribe saif's mercy like a beggar, betraying and killing her own people and the ones she loved, all for kegaris- AND STILL LIVING IN SLUM BAHAHAHAHA. and then this bitch wandered why Quil was not being understanding and rather hated her more.



and not this bitch calling Quil naive, hopeful and weak THE IRONY YOUR HONOUR.

all in all, i'm sad that she didn't die. Sufiyan should have done a better job :-/

»» QUIL x SIRSHA

bro stole her pins because he likes how annoyed she looks when she can't find them. "it's sweet." he says😭

"Sirsha." He caught her gaze and held her tight. "Your eyes look like you're saying goodbye. Come back. Be here with me."



Come what may, they would be reunited. He would love her if she let him, give over his body if she demanded it, be the home he knew she longed for. He would find her. He needed to find her.



Tahir, for the love of god learn how to write happy endings :)

»» QUIL x ILAR a.k.a AIZ

we'll pretend this never existed GOODBYE.

»» SUFIYAN x ARIELLA

i'm starving for their crumbs Tahir WE BETTER GET LOADS OF THEM IN THE NEXT BOOK!! although i'm a taaad bit offended that Elias's son is not the main character but it's okay 🤗🤗

ALSO, WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?????? SIRSHA IS NOW CHAINED TO DIV!?!? DAFUCK 😃 ALSO HOW ARE AIZ AND CERO STILL ALIVE?😃 SUFIYAN YOU HAD ONE FUCKING JOB!! 💢

-spoiler ends-

In conclusion, this book couldn't exceed its predecessor's expectations.

Huge thankyou to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and Sabaa Tahir for the advance reader's edition. All opinions are my own!"

Ayush Ranka is currently reading The Left Hand of Darkness

Uma started reading Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution