💜🌍 Seek the Traitor’s Son 🌍💜

• Veronica Roth

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘The human heart isn’t a drinking glass, with only so much room for love at any given time. That it’s more like the void of space, infinitely expanding and endlessly strange.’

Elegy Ahn is the youngest child of the Sword of Cedre, an epic warrior tasked with defending Cedre from the constant threat of invasion by their neighbours, the Talusar. Centuries ago, the nation of Talusar was infected by a Fever, a virus that kills approximately half of its victims. The other surviving half, however, are gifted with supernatural powers. The rarest of these gifts is that of precognition, possessed by only ten individuals called the Augurs. When Elegy, perfectly happy with her small role defending her country, is summoned to the Augurs to hear a prophecy that will foretell the part she will play in Cedre’s victory in the war. Except that the Augurs can’t be sure whether the prophecy is meant for Elegy or the ruthless Talusar general Rava Vidar, and one man, the son of a Talusar traitor, is at the forefront of each of their destinies.

This story was nothing like I was expecting. I went in thinking it would be your typical romantic dystopia centring around two people drawn together via a prophecy. Instead, I was met with a world with incredibly complex and detailed worldbuilding and characters that were very much not your average cookie cutter protagonists. Instead Elegy is dealing with a lot of complex emotions about what the prophecy has foretold, not least of them enormous amounts of guilt about her growing feelings for Theren.

The worldbuilding is definitely heavy and it took a while for it to completely click. As much as I loved Elegy and Theren, the side characters did steal the show! Even the baddies were so well-fleshed out and had real and understandable motives for their actions, which I love. We need a Hela spinoff Veronica 🙏

This definitely bordered more on sci-fi than fantasy, I’d say. I feel like the world is really in the mood for sci-fi right now, with the release of Project Hail Mary. Seek the Traitor’s Son scratched that itch – a dying Earth, the human conflict of investing resources into searching for solutions versus finding another home on another planet – but gave it a slight romantic subplot and a religious fervour that drives humanity even further apart.

Like I say, it probably wouldn’t be my first port of call to recommend to strictly a fantasy reader, but if you’re looking to branch out genre-wise, this was a true dystopia with just the right amount of romance sprinkled in. If you’re a fan of Star Wars or Dune (bold comparisons, I know), I think you’d also love this! I just wish the second book was out already so I could dive straight in…

Will you be reading Seek the Traitor’s Son when it releases May 12th? A massive thank you to BookBreak UK for the ARC and for facilitating the fantastic readalong that I partook in 🧡