Son of the Poison Rose by Jonathan Maberry Narrator: Ray Porter
Series: Kagen the Damned #2
Published by MacMillan Audio on January 10, 2023
Genres: Science Fiction Fantasy
Length: 25 hours, 55 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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The Silver Empire is in ruins. War is in the wind. Kagen and his allies are on the run from the Witch-king. Wild magic is running rampant everywhere. Spies and secret cabals plot from the shadows of golden thrones.
Kagen Vale is the most wanted man in the world, with a death sentence on his head and a reward for himādead or aliveāthat would tempt a saint.
The Witch-king has new allies who bring a terrible weaponāa cursed disease that drives people into a murderous rage. If the disease is allowed to spread, the whole of the West will tear itself apart.
In order to build an army of resistance fighters and unearth magical weapons of his own, Kagen and his friends have to survive attacks and storms at sea, brave the haunted wastelands of the snowy north, fight their way across the deadly Cathedral Mountains, and rediscover a lost city filled with cannibal warriors, old ghosts, and monsters from other worlds. Along with his reckless adventurer brothers, Kagen races against time to save more than the old empireā¦ if he fails the world will be drenched in a tsunami of bloodshed and horror.
Son of the Poison Rose is the secondĀ book in the Grimdark series, Kagen the Damned.Ā Ā Our story picks up soon after the events of the first book and the thwarted coronation of the Witch King.Ā Kagen, Tuke and Filia are on the run and enemy number ones of the new Yellow Empire.Ā They alone have cast some doubts into the hearts of rulers of the other lands and may be the only reason the Witch King finds himself on the verge of war.
I am going to be one of the few who liked this book more than the first and that is probably because it felt like there was more world and character building moments than in the first book.Ā In Kagen the Damned,Ā I struggled a little because the start of the book was one big battle and then there was Kagen’s depression after failing the seedlings and becoming damned.Ā In Son of the Poison Rose, Kagen is still Damned and has a cause to save the two children he saw at the Witch King’s palace, two of the seedlings that did survive and the Witch King is pawning them off as his own children.Ā To even hope to win this fight, he will need some new allies and to build an entire army.
With the help of Tuke, Filia and Mother Frey he has a path that might just work, but it means traveling into the treacherous jungles where a race of cannibals live to search for some mystic tombs that may hold the key to the Witch Kings undoing.Ā There will me many trials along the way and some great moments as Kagen becomes ‘the hero’ of this story.Ā His gods may have turned their back on him but there is something brewing within him and I could see how he was changing from a guy trained to kill and protect, to an actual hero who might be the lynch pin to saving an entire world from the Witch King and his tender mercies.
The Witch King is a cruel master and he proves it ever more in this book.Ā He has called forth beings long asleep to his cause and as they start showing up to the court they bring with them both wonders and horrors.Ā In an attempt to consolidate his power, he will unleash an unspeakable plague on the people to further his ambitions.Ā Using his underlings the Witch King will do horrific things.
Kestral was one of his most prized advisors and underlings.Ā The Witch King has given her a task that is almost impossible and will probably kill her.Ā She is to find Kagen’s blood in the hall and create a deadly razor night to hunt him.Ā As she works to her task, we see how it changes a few of the Witch King’s other trusted underlings and might sow some distrust as to the safety of their positions too.Ā The arrival of the Prince of Games to court adds all new kinds of trouble as he bring chaos with him where ever he goes.
There are some other small side stories happening.Ā The largest is with Ryssa, grieving the loss of her lover and new initiate into the faith of the Dreaming God.Ā She is becoming something.Ā Named the Widow, she will have a larger part to play in the overall story it seems.
The pacing in Son of the Poison Rose worked better for me since it was a little more steady overall.Ā With the PoV shifts and the format of the chapters, I felt like the book moved along at a good pace while opening up the work even more to the reader and building on the original story.Ā Jonathan Maberry also did a great job of reminding the reader what happened in the first book without doing an official recap.Ā It had been a little over a year and a half since I read it and I was able to be reminded of the most important parts of the first book while staying engrossed in this one.
The cast of characters is large, but each PoV is important to the overall story.Ā I specifically liked the chapters with the Twins in them.Ā Held at the palace, told by the Witch King, he is their father and forced to be other children, I liked their small rebellions and how they are fighting back in their own ways.Ā As the reader seeing all the PoVs helped build all of the characters even more as they are not all good or all bad but just working most of their own agenda’s.Ā Lady Kestral, for instance, won my appreciation and her twist was very interesting to the overall scope of the book.
This is going to work well for people who are fans of Grim Dark and complex fantasy novels.Ā There are a lot of moving parts, morally gray characters and interesting plot lines.Ā I’m so excited to actually see the Dragon in the next book and find how our tale will conclude.
Narration:
Ray PorterĀ is a fantastic narrator with a huge collection of titles in his catalog.Ā For me he is always a win with a rich voice, fantastic diction and pacing of words along with enough variation on voices to carry a story with this many characters.Ā Ā I’ve never had a bad experience with any book he has narrated and I think he brings a lot of depth to this role.Ā I’m sure that listening to his performance of the second book added to my enjoyment of the overall story.
Listen to a clip: HERE
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I haven’t read the first one, but this sounds like a great fantasy series.
The first one was a slower start for me, but that could have been because I was reading it with my eyes instead of listening to the story. Still as grimdark epic fantasy goes this has been a great series.
Love that cover!!
So cool right!!! I also think it is really pretty.
I loved Maberry’s Rot & Ruin series. Haven’t tried any others though. Glad to hear you’re enjoying this one!