Warriorborn: A Cinder Spires Novella

I’ll preface this by saying, you only need to read this if you’re a completionist. Outside of that it’s a good story that leads into the 2nd book of The Cinder Spires series, The Olympian Affair, but it’s not necessary to read it.

Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster is the main character of this novella who has been tasked with retrieving a briefcase from a smaller Colony Spire that has gone radio silent. The twist for Benedict is that his backup on this mission are three criminal Warriorborns that he caught and imprisoned. If the three Warriorborns comply and return back successfully they can be freed from prison.

It’s an action novel where the team of four Warriorborn have to work together to complete this mission but no one likes each other so chaos ensues. The best part about this novel is giving us more information about being a Warriorborn. The prejudice they feel for being inhuman, their violent traits, and their sexual prowess which all gives us a bit of foreshadowing to the following novel.

When I read a novella within a series I tend to like the ones that will take a character we don’t get enough of and get more of a backstory to them. It usually takes place before the series or if the event is between novels it’s its own contained story. This one feels more like the first few chapters of The Olympian Affair but the fact that it’s not tends to make me think it wasn’t good enough to be a part of the novel.

Is it a fun little story that does broaden the world building? Yes, a little bit. Is the writing good? Yes, it is. Do you need to read it? Only if you want to.

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.

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What’s Warriorborn About?

A little time has passed since we met our heroes—training was completed, people have new jobs, promotions were given, the threat of war looms larger, and so on. The status quo, in short, is in flux and everyone’s trying to settle in before things get really messed up.

The mysterious and deadly Warriorborn, Benedict Sorellin-Lancaster, has been promoted to lieutenant—as one example. And, as you can guess from this novella’s title, we will be focused on him. The Spirearch is sending him on a mission to retrieve certain documents that the Spirearch seems to have misplaced at a colony that’s gone radio silent. As backup, Benedict is assigned three other Warriorborn for this mission—deadly criminals put away by Benedict, who will earn freedom in return for their help here. Not exactly a merry band, but they should be enough to tackle most threats they encounter.

But what they find when they arrive at Dependence isn’t what anyone figured, and “most” quite definitely doesn’t mean “all.”

The Development of the Series

There are a couple of notable things about this novella—first of all, we get a great look into the Warriorborn as a whole, not just what we learned about Benedict in The Aeronaut’s Windlass. The Warriorborn was one of the most intriguing concepts from that book, so getting to learn more about them was a treat. That right there is enough to justify the purchase price.

But even better is the little updates we get about many of the primary characters, setting the stage for where they’ll be in The Olympian Affair. I was already eager to dive in—seeing these flashes of their future, and the way that the war is progressing just makes me want to tear into The Olympian Affair.

So, what did I think about Warriorborn?

This was a fast-moving thrill ride. Yeah, there’s some character development and exploration of some of what makes the various characters (particularly the new ones) tick. Butcher knows how to write action—if you’ve read anything by him, you know this. Throw in some clever dialogue, and that’s enough to satisfy me.

The threat that they discover once they get to Dependence is as creepy as you want. The world of The Cinder Spires isn’t a kind world, and it’s hard for humanity (and felinity) in more than one way, as we’re learning now. But as long as there are people like Benedict and the crew of Predator, maybe there’s hope.

Despite this being a bridge between Books 1 and 2 of the series, this wouldn’t make a bad jumping on point—if you like this quick taste of this world, you’ll want to go see how Benedict and the rest got to this point just as much as you’re going to want to see what happens to them next.

In a podcast interview, Butcher described this as “an apology novella,” due to how long it took to get the second book of the series completed. In the eyes of this fan, apology accepted.