We Ride the Storm by Devin Madson

War built the Kisian Empire and war will tear it down. Caught in a foreign war, Captain Rah e'Torin and his exiled warriors will have to fight or die. Their honour code is all they have left until orders from within stress them to breaking point, and the very bonds that hold them together will be ripped apart.

Originally self published it is obvious to see why this series was picked up and rereleased by a major publishing house. We Ride The Storm follows 3 very different POV characters: A princess of dubious lineage, an exiled horse nomad and an assassin/prostitute. All three POVs are written in the first person but all three provide distinct voices and characters. Some of these characters first seem a bit tropey but they are so well written that they are never irritating. Princess Miko, for example, is effectively a princess in name only. Everyone knows she is not the legitimate daughter of the emperor so she is constantly fighting to survive. Princess characters are often irritating to read, but Miko is intriguing and extremely likeable in her driven style. Rah e'Torin, the horse lord, elevates the noble savage idea to an extreme. He comes from a culture where the only way to honor the dead is to remove decapitate them to release their spirit - a brutal idea to everyone else, but one that to him is the only right thing to do. Finally Cassandra, the assassin, uses her position as a prostitute to great effect to get close to people wit their guard down.

Devin has a really nice prose style, easy to read yet engaging and interesting. The pacing in this book is also brilliant, with a nice series of excitements and lulls building in a gradual crescendo towards the finale. The last 100 pages or so are super intense.

Overall a fantastic book that deserves the plaudits it has got and I cannot wait to return for book 2

Full audiobook review here- https://youtu.be/PYj4jOIMvxI

Deep and stretching high fantasy filled with backstabbing quest for the throne, a strangely possessed assassin, and an indigenous tribesman weave together in this captivating tale.

Perfect for RR Martin's (or Gwynne's) fans, with excellent political fuckery and civil war (Princess Miko POV), very good coming of age epic/military adventures (Captain Rah POV) and, unfortunately, also pretty bad assasin-thief crap (Cassandra the posessed prostitute POV).
The sum is very captivating, still, and even though the author can't really write battles, she is amazing at character development (again, not you, Cassandra, but yes, Miko and Rah).
I am diving straight into book 2 and found myself a new must follow author!

This is one of those times I wish I knew how to write captivating reviews ??? Devin Madson deserves more praise and attention.

I am not usually a fan of big fantasy trilogies based on war between clans, but We Ride The Storm is so much more than that. It's character driven more so than plot driven. The 3 character POVs are intriguing, easy to fall for. They are the lead of their own grueling journey, but Madson weaves these three so beautifully together to present a very compelling world. It was difficult to put the book down. And I need to know more!

The prose is unique and delightful. Raw and brutal.

My only negative is that I felt the ending of book 1 did not have enough resolution for me. Fearing the second book will follow the same recipe I'll postpone it until the third and final book is published.