Darkness and light are eternal opposites but also forces that only truly exist thanks to the presence of the other. After all, what is darkness, without light to put it in? What is light without the dark to illuminate? These questions of balance and power run throughout Thea Guanzon’s deliciously entertaining fantasy debut, The Hurricane Wars, one of the buzziest genre titles of the year—and one that is sure to delight “romantasy” fans everywhere.
Set in a lush, Southeast Asian-inspired world, the story mixes complex high fantasy elements with familiar romance tropes and displays the sort of muscular emotional dexterity that can only come from an author who’s spent some significant time writing in transformative fandom spaces. With plenty of political intrigue, a vivid magical system largely inspired by weather and themes that touch on everything from imperialism and conquest to sacrifice and duty. (It’s also a banger of a love story, particularly if opposites attract, enemies to lovers, or marriages of convenience are your specific weaknesses when it comes to tropes. Or if you were a Reylo shipper, as the novel’s lead characters clearly owe more than a bit to the popular Star Wars duo.)
As the story begins, the titular Hurricane Wars have been raging for over a decade, as the powerful Night Empire steadily advances and claims territory from neighboring kingdoms, including the Sardovian Allfold. Talasyn is an orphan foot soldier in the Sardovian army, who has no knowledge of her family and who has been fighting against the Night Empire since one of their massive stormships destroyed her orphanage (and the town it was in, to boot). She’s also hiding a dangerous secret—she’s a Lightweaver and possesses a rare, nearly extinct ability to control light magic. This makes her one of the few who might be able to stand against the Shadow-wielding forces of the enemy, particularly the handsome Prince Alaric, the powerful heir to the Night Emperor and general of his army.
In a last-ditch attempt to hone her own power, Talasyn is sent on a covert mission to the neutral kingdom of Nenevar, which has never chosen a side in the ongoing conflict. There, she must try to access a Light Sever—a breach in the world where her particular brand of magic is strongest, a connection point that could help her learn more about how to control and use her abilities. As this trip unfolds, Talasyn not only discovers she’s the long-lost heir to the Nenevaran throne but that her light magic—when mixed with Alaric’s shadow abilities—may be the key to averting a deadly global disaster. But that’s only possible if the two work together, which may be something of a challenge considering that they’ve tried to kill one another more than once.
As Talasyn works to learn more about her homeland’s heritage, the strange magic and advanced technology they command, and the family she never knew, she becomes increasingly embroiled in diplomatic intrigue—especially when her grandmother the queen forges a treaty with the Night Empire that requires her to marry Alaric and become the Empress of the very people who’ve systematically destroyed everything she loved.
The Hurricane Wars treads familiar ground throughout much of its story, and none of the narrative beats will surprise readers who read regularly in the fantasy romance subgenre all that much. But as Guanzon deftly adapts many of the genre’s best elements to suit her own purposes, she makes sure to color both her protagonists in shades of grey and keep the political element of the story’s central romance at the forefront. Alaric and Talasyn’s unexpected attraction is difficult for them both to navigate precisely because they each have so many competing loyalties and influences, as well as very different and often ideas about war, conquest, and the longtale fallout from the conflict they’ve spent most of their lives fighting. Can they find common ground? That’s a question only the rest of the book—and possibly the series—will be able to answer, but Guanzon treats both as equals and the story’s frequently switching perspectives allow us to see how each is influencing the other, both personally and diplomatically.
The early chapters of The Hurricane Wars drop readers into a world that feels fully formed, with its own history, conflicts, and competing cultures. That the story shifts specifically to Alaric and Talasyn’s relationship does mean the world building in the back half of the novel loses some of its depth, as the book increasingly focuses on the specifics of their growing bond (and frequent clashes) rather than the larger world in which that bond takes place. (I’d love to know more about the Dawn islands, for example, the history of the Night Kingdom itself, or the small realm of Lightweavers who tried to bring it down. Here’s hoping we go back to that in Book 2.)
In fact, The Hurricane Wars is only briefly concerned with the specific battles of its titular conflict. Most of the actual fighting moves from the battlefield to the negotiating table fairly early on in the novel, a move that means this isn’t a story so much about the Hurricane Wars but about what comes after them, and the world they leave in their wake. (I would have really liked to see some more of the war itself, though, as well as the feared stormships we see so little of.) But the questions that linger are important ones—will the fighting ever truly be over for people like Talasyn and the other Sardovians, who’ve lost so much to the Night Kingdom? Can the Night Emperor be trusted to be happy with what his kingdom has already won? And what does the future look like for Talasyn, Alaric, and the people of their respective nations, who have spent years suffering through devastation and destruction and now must carve out new lives for themselves? Those sorts of questions are what sequels are for, obviously. (And that mean I will be counting the day until Book 2.)
The Hurricane Wars is available now.
Lacy Baugher Milas is the Books Editor at Paste Magazine, but loves nerding out about all sorts of pop culture. You can find her on Twitter @LacyMB