Queen Tsiora is a young and unproven leader, so her willingness to ignore the caste system of the Omehi people is making her a lot of enemies. She prefers to name the most capable people to key roles and that includes Tau, who has been named Queen's champion even though he is a lesser. Decisions like that have sparked a rebellion as the Noble caste resists her changes and offers up her sister as the "true queen." This would be problem enough for any ruler, but it is happening at a time when the Omehi people are about to be attacked by a stronger enemy, so fighting amongst themselves is only going to result in their ultimate doom. This dire scenario is bad for the Omehi people, but it is an opportunity for Tau. This infighting provides him a path to the revenge he seeks against Abasi Odili, the Noble who killed his father. Abasi is leading the rebellion in order to maintain the status quo that gives him a permanent advantage over lessers like Tau, and therefore Queen Tsiora has ordered Tau to kill him. That will be no easy task but Tau is ready to sacrifice everything, and everyone, to make it happen.
Book One, The Rage of Dragons, did an excellent job setting up Tau's origin story and now we experience the resulting devastation of the fires that wrought his need for vengeance. This book is full of death, betrayal, and all around darkness as wars are fought on the grand and individual scale. It's a dark story that moves at a decent pace but be cautious of rooting for a happy ending because there is little happiness to be found here. Even if you consider Tau and Tsiora as the "good guys" in this story, they do terrible things and they could easily be the villains in any another book. That being the case, I still found myself rooting for Tau to get his revenge so that perhaps the end could justify the means. This one started with hope being in short supply but it ends with even less available so be sure your in the right mindset before starting this one. I eagerly await the next book and cling to the slim hope that a ray of light will at some point penetrate all of the darkness.
Prentice Onayemi remains the perfect narrator for the audiobook version and I can't imagine anyone better for the job.