ARC Review: Champion of Fate by Kendare Blake

“You and I are warriors, Reed. We were made for bloodshed. Made to charge at the sword and see if we can spin away in time.”

Notice: thank you to BookSparks for providing me an advanced reader’s copy of this book. This does not affect my opinion.

Behind every great hero is an Aristene.

Aristene are mythical female warriors, part of a legendary order. Though heroes might be immortalized in stories, it’s the Aristene who guide them to victory. They are the Heromakers.

Ever since she was an orphan taken in by the order, Reed has wanted to be an Aristene. Now, as an initiate, just one challenge stands in her way: she must shepherd her first hero to glory on the battlefield. Succeed, and Reed will take her place beside her sisters. Fail, and she’ll be cast from the only home she’s ever known.

Nothing is going to stop Reed—until she meets her hero. Hestion is fiery and infuriating, but what begins as an alliance becomes more, and as secrets of the order come to light Reed begins to understand what becoming an Aristene may truly cost. Battle looming, she must choose: the order and the life she had planned, or Hestion, and the one she never expected.

Champion begins with the massacre of a river village and the bloodshed and chaos that ensues. From the ruins emerges our main character Reed, who is freshly orphaned and full of hatred. But beneath her ire, a pair of Aristenes named Aster and Veridian can see something in Reed: a mark by the goddess herself—signaling to them that Reed is destined to be much more than an angry orphan. Aster decides to bring Reed and her colt Silco to Atropa, the city of Aristenes, and the story really begins from there.

Champion of Fate piqued my interest in multiple ways. It presents a unique angle on heroes, fate, and glory that I haven’t seen in young adult fantasy. It features an entire cast of female main characters and even the primary deity of this book is a goddess named Kleia Gloria.

Eight years pass after the initial introduction to Reed and a considerable amount of time is spent catching the readers up on what has happened in that time. We learn that Reed is joined by two other girls named Lyonene and Gretchen, and together, the three of them are now Initiates who are posed to become full Aristenes if they can pass their first Hero’s Trial. While there is no shortage of uncertainty and anxiety circulating between the girls as their journeys begin, one thing is certain: to Reed, there is nothing more important than passing this trial.

There are things that I both like and dislike about Champion of Fate. I enjoyed the spin on heroes being “shepherded” to their glory by almost-goddesses. It was nice to see the cooperation and trust form between Initiate and Aristene. I appreciated the found family trope between Aster and Reed as mentor and mentee that was more akin to mother and daughter, as well as the found sisterhood between Reed, Gretchen, and Lyonene. I especially adored the importance of the bond between Aristenes and their Areions—horses with enhanced strength, stamina, and intelligence. In short, I appreciated Champion of Fate because it featured many of my favorite tropes, brought female strength to the forefront of fiction, and introduced a new twist on fate.

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With that being said, I find that my feelings about this title are overall lukewarm. It didn’t completely turn me off at any point, but it also didn’t capture my attention the way I hoped it would. I have three primary criticisms of this installment of the Heromaker series.

The first is that the pacing is so variable. Moments that should have been drawn out and dissected were very sped up; whereas moments that felt unessential to the plot went into excruciating detail. This is especially unfortunate when it comes to the relationship between the Initiates and their Heros. For example, the relationship between Reed and Hestion is arguably the most important relationship of the novel, because if things go wrong Reed fails her trial and the kingdom of Glaucia stands no chance in the impending war. Despite this, it seems like Reed and Hestion just clicked with almost no foundational moments to support the connection. Before we know it, their quick allyship turns into an even quicker, even less substantiated romance.

Call it teenage angst and hormones; chalk it up to invisible string theory and natural chemistry—sure. But in the end, I wanted more from the main relationship of the title. By the end, it felt like romance was largely unneeded and misplaced in this title. The story would have been fine without it.

My other two criticisms of this title are intertwined: #1: Reed is given some major main-character advantages, and #2: that leads to an “unstoppable force” trope that diminishes any stakes. At every turn, we are reminded of a rule that Initiates and Aristenes must follow lest they jeopardize the outcome of the trial. Yet at those same turns, Reed is somehow able to bend or outright break said rules. She is undoubtedly the favorite Initiate of both her mentor and the Elders, and she is given advantage after advantage after advantage. Lyonene even calls her out multiple times for taking unfair advantages, and though Reed internally feels guilty about it, she ultimately accepts them every time.

Granted, there is an explanation for the advantages revealed towards the end of the book (that is a spoiler), but in my opinion, it was unsatisfactory. I often find in fantasy that there is a threshold at which it becomes counterproductive to give a main character too much power. Once that threshold is crossed, all stakes become dampened and the reader’s attention isn’t captured the same because they know the main character is going to be okay. For a book whose whole premise is high stakes, Champion quickly crosses that threshold with Reed once the trial begins and even then some. It even goes so far as endangering other primary characters for Reed’s sake—and even they come out fine in the end despite being faced with nearly insurmountable circumstances.

In all, I wanted more stakes from Champion that I feel was deadened by an unstoppable main character with too many advantages. I also wanted deeper connections between Heroes and Initiates that were supported by more than just the abstract concept of fate or invisible string theory.

Those are my thoughts on the first installment of Kendare Blake’s newest fantasy series called HEROMAKER. Though I have my qualms about this title, I will happily be following the progression of the series and jumping back in with the next installment when it is released!

Happy publishing day to Kendare/CHAMPION OF FATE!