Book: Heir of Prophecy by Analeigh Sbrana
Reviewed by Rallie X
Rating: 4.5/5
๐ธโโ โ๐๐ง๐๐๐จ - ๐๐๐๐ง ๐ค๐ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ฎ, out August 25th!
Thanks to Harper Voyager and to NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book, this review is my own opinion.
TL,DR: The hype is right; Audra is the best; magic is a finite resource and the fae are out here recreating the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and doing Manifest Destiny.
I mean the first thing I have to say is that yes, I think ๐๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ค๐บ is worth the hype it's getting! By the time I finished the first third of the book I got the sense that this could be the next Big Thing; this here is one hot piece of dark academia that both felt fresh and inventive as well as fitting so comfortably within the genre that it should appeal to people who love dark academia specifically as well as people who like dark romantasy in general (you want hot demons? We got hot demons here!). This isn't just "magic academy and there's competitions", this is "deeply thought out magical world and part of the story takes place at an academy where there is a competition" and that difference is really important in making ๐๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ค๐บ its own special thing.
The book begins with our main character, Audra, at a protest against femicide - we're introduced to a cold and gritty world where the cops don't do shit to protect people (and people don't really expect them to), where survival means working together in community. And that is Audra to a T, somebody who doesn't trust authority and will do anything to help those around her who she sees as needing protection. It isn't cheaply done, either; Analeigh Sbrana really takes the time to build out a backstory for Audra while taking us through a slice-of-life normal day for the young woman. And then the fae show up.
The fae ravaging of Khavea is a harrowing reproduction of the early Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, from the violence of their extraction to transportation in the belly of ships to the stripping of identity when the kidnapped humans arrive and are measured, categorized, and shuffled off to the academy-prison where they are basically cannon-fodder-in-waiting. Sbrana's description of the ships especially could've come straight out of slave memoirs. The prophecy the fae of Zenaida are so concerned with is manifest destiny in another guise.
The characters were for the most part pretty compelling, Audra is fantastic and Sbrana nails the "chosen one? couldn't be me" vibe of someone reluctant to accept that there might in fact be a prophecy or two guiding her future. The core posse is a great crew, their interactions felt so natural - I especially love that Sbrana made hair care a labor of mutual love and friendship for Wilder and Audra as two Black women in this place of danger so far from home - and Audra's rivalry with Noel constantly had me cracking up, like that man is terrible and a little too good at everything but also deeply, deeply stupid (poor little rich boy, abducted with all the poors). As much as I love Audra and her friends, Zhaire is kind of cringey and maybe a little too close to trope. Like we've seen this dude plenty before and it's hard not to roll your eyes when the same "but oh gosh she's so great and I'm falling for her" routine comes up. At least he didn't give her a terrible nickname, that would have taken it way over the top (Heiress is fine, it's literally what she is, so like. It isn't goofy).
Incra and incramancy is like exactly my jam when it comes to magic; sigil-based magic where will and intent are just as important as skill (if your drawing is incorrect it's not going to work, it doesn't matter how strong your willpower is). It's also perfect for a setting in which our main girl is a hypercompetitive perfectionist trying to keep not just herself but her friends safe from an untimely demise. And I loved that magic itself is treated as a natural resource - incra and incramancy are how it's channeled, but magic is something latent to the world yet also finite .
Audra had never known a society not rife with social and economic disparities. Why would the existence of magic make this one any different?
Magic as a finite natural resource is one of my favorite story foundations, because it makes fantasy tangible in uncomfortable ways that we need to contend with in our own fractured world. I liked that there are no "good guys" (but definitely there's some Not Good Guys o_o) and that ideology is at play on all sides. Fae Manifest Destiny and demonkind's fight for survival, with these poor abducted humans stuck in the middle as pawns in a war that they'd never even heard of a month ago. And I love that Audra isn't stupid about any of it - she knows that the fae have an agenda and regularly reminds herself not to fall for their propaganda, and she knows not to trust the first hot guy who shows up in her dreams saying "hey you should come join us instead actually" (sorry Zhaire, you have to try a little harder).
I'm looking forward to learning more about the demon side of things in the next book because it seems like we only scratched the surface and there's clearly so much going on that Sbrana (rightly) doesn't want us to know yet! I cannot wait for the sequel, like I NEED MORE and I need it now! Sbrana curses us (gifts us) with the kind of cliffhanger that makes the waiting exciting rather than infuriating and you love to see it. Momentum cliffhangers will always trump rug-pull cliffhangers and I'll just be here rattling the bars of my enclosure waiting for whatever comes next!
Thatโs what it means to be brave; to be scared, so scared that you can hardly breathe or thinkโ but I want you to fight anyway, my gift, fight whatever it is that scares you so. Fight it despite your fear.
โSay no to treason: Suspect your friend may be the Heir? Tell your opinante or a trusted scholar right away!โ