Heavenbreaker

Sara Wolf

Publication date: May 21st, 2024
Genre: Science fiction

SYNOPSIS:

Bravery isn’t what you do. It’s what you endure.

The duke of the powerful House Hauteclare is the first to die. With my dagger in his back.

He didn’t see it coming. Didn’t anticipate the bastard daughter who was supposed to die with her mother―on his order. He should have left us with the rest of the Station’s starving, commoner rubbish.

Now there’s nothing left. Just icy-white rage and a need to make House Hauteclare pay. Every damn one of them.

Even if it means riding Heavenbreaker―one of the few enormous machines left over from the War―and jousting against the fiercest nobles in the system.

Each win means another one of my enemies dies. And here, in the cold terror of space, the machine and I move as one, intent on destroying each adversary―even if it’s someone I care about. Even if it’s someone I’m falling for.

Only I’m not alone. Not anymore.

Because there’s something in the machine with me. Something horrifying. Something…more.

And it won’t be stopped.

REVIEW:

This book is deceptively simple at first – once you get into the later half of it the questions really start. I would have loved to read this with book club & who knows – it might be on the table one of these months. I’d love to toss theories around with them – I have several written down in my notes haha. Heavenbreaker for me was an weird enmeshed combination of science fiction and medieval practices – space jousting, noble families, political intrigue/grandstanding/espionage, assassins etc. I would love to see more world-building with how the station works, we got a run-down on the classes of people who live there but not how the station functions (other than the core). It says a lot that the station has been deployed for 400+ years and the humans aboard may not be thriving but they are surviving. I am hoping that Synali and Rain can provide more insight in the next book. I live for details that make the world-building make sense.

I have but one thought, listening to them, and it’s that the wolf only knows how badly the deer suffers when the tiger comes.

Synali is the dominant main character in the book and I enjoyed the underdog narrative she has – she’s ruthless, single-minded (to a fault in several situations) but she also learns from her mistakes most of the book. By the end she had grown immensely and so had the other main characters. Rain’s the only POV that the book could have done without and not had much of an impact on the story as a whole (other than his lineage) – but I think he will have a larger role in the second book. Surprisingly; I didn’t mind the romance arc between Synali & Rax, even though it did lean towards one of my not-so-favorite tropes – “insta-love”. Mirelle’s character felt conveniently naive when it came to the Hauteclare family’s dealings. I feel like she’d be smart enough to figure it out even if they deliberately hid things from her – it was interesting that the only character that adhered to the “knight’s code” was her. I definitely think that there is more going on than just simple revenge and Dravik has more knowledge than what’s been revealed so far.

I will definitely be reading the second book in the series – about which, I only know the name… Hellrunner. A big thank you to Entangled/Red Tower Books for the surprise gifted arc of Heavenbreaker to read & review – all opinions are my own. I can’t wait to see my pre-ordered SE in all its glory either!