Title: Silverstrupen (~Silver Throat)
Author: Siri Pettersen
Translator (Swedish): Ylva Kempe
Series: Vardari #2
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 425
Published: 2023 (translated 2024), B. Wahlströms
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION

Imagine having stolen the devil from those in power. Robbed them of their source of everlasting life. And started a war, so fuelled by fear and disdain, that you are forced to become what you are hunting.

Juva is scarred for life by the man she liberated. The devil himself, whose blood sustained the eternal lives of the vardari. Now, she is battling unintended consequences: a flood of wolf-sick, a wavering city council and vardari´s desperate feud for the last drops.

Consumed by grief and fury, she is forced to side with dark, fanatical forces. Juva is fighting for everything she holds dear, but soon finds herself on a knife’s edge when she realises that the scar from Gríf cuts far deeper than she had imagined…

• Náklav’s foundation is cracking under a flood of wolf-sick.

• Divine images miraculously reveal the true faces of evil.

• The elite who ran the world are crawling out from the shadows.

• A vardari awaiting death finds a reason to live.

• A fanatical priest opens the doors Drukna

MY REVIEW

Haha, wow, no wonder I couldn’t remember too much about The Iron Wolf before starting this second instalment in Siri Pettersen’s second trilogy, Vardari. It was released 2021 in Swedish which, with my bad reading memory, equals like two decades. It was delayed for almost two years also.

Whenever I grade a book, I always do it with my gut. Sometimes I honestly think that I am not very good at reviewing books because of this. But at the same time, I also believe that the general feeling after reading a book tells you more than if you look at very specific things that might speak differently to different readers. For instance, I love Siri’s world building. For me to love a setting like this, it doesn’t have to be original (even though this definitely is with its Norse roots), it’s all about how it is presented. Sometimes, I get a bit annoyed when the author is trying too much to describe the world by putting new words and things in the story without even a small description of what it means. Some might like that, but I don’t overly much. Siri builds her worlds very detailed but doesn’t do it in an overcomplicated way. It just makes sense, even if it was a bit hard getting into the story again after such a long time waiting (and reading other types of fantasy in between).

The story progresses nicely, it’s hard to put the book down (like with the first one). Things are constantly happening and you always want to continue to find out where this is going. And the ending. I feel that I am repeating myself a little bit after my review of The Iron Wolf, but the ending here was so similar. Not story-wise, but feeling-wise. It was an ending. A really good ending. And on the second to last page, I wasn’t sure what the third book could possibly be about. But then came the last page. Yep, there will definitely be a third book and I am so excited for it to, first of all, be revealed, and secondly be released. Hopefully in 2025 according to her website. But I also totally respect the writing process. Writing is hard and takes time. But please, Siri, hurry up with the final piece in this trilogy 😊.

I think Siri Pettersen could write anything and I would read it as soon as it is released. She is definitely one of my favorite authors! Do I even need to print the grade out in words?

Yeah, FIVE out of five possible!

Title: Järnulven (~The Iron Wolf)
Author: Siri Pettersen
Translator (Swedish): Ylva Kempe
Series: Vardari #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 500
Published: 2020 (translated 2021), B. Wahlströms
My Grade: 5 out of 5

GOODREADS’ DESCRIPTION (translated to English by me)

A young girl is forced to forget that she has seen the devil. A young man betrays his lover to gain eternal life. A mystical clockwork starts ticking again after 600 years of silence. A secret that’s been guarded for generations is about to be revealed.

Juva hates bloodreaders. They are praised because they can see the future, but in reality, they are swindlers who take advantage of people’s fears. Juva’s heritage is of a bloodreader’s family, but she has sworn to never become one of them. But when her family is threatened, she is forced to join the hunt for the bloodreaders’ legacy; a dark secret that once changed the world and will do it again. To survive, she must confront her childhood memory that she has been struggling her whole life to forget – that time when she saw the devil.

The Iron Wolf is a captivating story about blood, desire and obsession. It is the first book of the Vardari trilogy, which takes place in the same universe as the praised series The Raven Rings.

MY REVIEW

After absolutely loving The Raven Rings trilogy, Siri’s debut trilogy, there was no doubt that I would read this as soon as opportunity arose. I try not to read several books at the same time, and with lots of work and other things going on, my reading has been lacking this past year. But I finally finished it and I, as I expected, CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT. I think I read somewhere that it will be released in spring 2022 in Norway. So maybe fall 2022 in Swedish?

I’m sure authors don’t like it when a reader compare her new book with her old ones. But I’ve also realized that that is what makes readers pick up the next book without even knowing what it is about, because they know what to expect. And this was just like that. A new setting, absolutely, a little bit more modern, but kind of hard to tell exactly when in time as well. It’s set in another dimension of the same universe as Odin’s Child and that is perfectly clear at the end of the book. Without spoiling anything, I feel like there is a strong connection between a character in this book and a race of people in Odin’s Child. I even think they might be the same? It might be clearer in the next installment.

What makes it so brilliant? My gut tells me it’s a solid five. But also, the pacing is good, things are always happening. The story starts a little bit quicker this time. I love it when it is not crystal clear who the antagonist is. I feel like we’ve been led to believe it is one through the whole story, but at the end. I’m still not sure if that’s really the case. It’s hard to put the book down. I unfortunately had to almost every night after only a few pages because I fell asleep with it in my hand after too long days at work. But wow, you always want to find out what’s next. And that leaves me to the ending. Yes, it was an ending to this story. But it left so many questions! An ending done right. A new series done right!

I can’t wait for the second book, which hasn’t even gotten a name yet. And I highly recommend people to read this very original fantasy book with roots in the North. I would also recommend reading The Raven Rings before. Even if they are completely stand alone, it’s great to understand certain words and expressions that aren’t explained here, but are in her other series. A solid 5 out of 5 possible.