** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

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Ground of Insurrection (Wizard Wars #1) by Mell Eight
★★★★★
64 Pages
POV: 3rd person, one character
Content Warning: mild violence


Wow! I've been a fan of Mell Eight for a while, and this book just proves what a brilliant author they are. From the characterisation, and the worldbuilding, to the plotting, everything was perfect.

I fell in love with Ruse early on, almost from page one. It was inevitable. He was such an intriguing character, with an obvious secret, who was clearly more than he first appeared, yet I couldn't quite figure out what that was. Not until the big reveal after the halfway mark that stunned me but was so perfect for the story. The moment Mesic entered the story, I was able to feel their chemistry with each other, even when they weren't on page together.

The attention to detail, description and worldbuilding was astounding. That bears repeating. There are so few authors who can have this level of worldbuilding, that feels so natural and familiar, in so few pages. It's not an easy skill. But this felt easy. I immediately felt like I was already a part of this world, that I knew it well and didn't have any trouble figuring out the dynamics or how it functioned. Yet, with each new revelation, a new piece of the puzzle was formed that only strengthened the plotting, the world and the characters. Each small piece of the plot had a purpose and came together to create a full picture.

Brilliant worldbuilding. Excellent characterisation. Perfect plotting and pace, amazing attention to detail, description and chemistry between the central couple. And, bonus, all of the twists and turns were so well plotted and cleverly delivered that there isn't a single thing about this story I didn't love. A solid favourite, a future re-read, and I wish I could get it in paperback, too.

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Favourite Quotes

“Losing Ruse while at least knowing he was alive and well somewhere in the world was far better than losing Ruse to the permanency of death.”

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Life on the prairie isn't easy, especially since the prairie has a habit of eating people it doesn't like. Ruse knows the dangers, but there's so much more to the prairie than death.

The nearby country of Ammet, however, only sees an exploitable resource to be conquered. Caught between the political machinations of Ammet and his love for the prairie, Ruse can only hope he doesn't wind up killed by one or the other.

I honestly hesitated on the rating because the imagination behind the concept of Ground of Insurrection is just incredible.  There have been sentient planets, yes.  Sentient plants.  But here you have a sentient eco system, one that came about via a mage war.  A sentient prairie that once was a man. Mind blowing stuff.

My mind went all over the place with questions that quite frankly the author never answered.  How?   What?  As in I wanted to know exactly what it feels like to be a prairie! One that gobbles up people mind you for sustenance among other things. The adjustments to life, mind, everything that had to have taken.  There's the book I kept thinking....

But nope.  We get Ruse as a storyteller. One of the convict's sent to the Prairie from Ammet as a part of the city's survive or die program.  True, Ruse has his own secrets and each small village of criminals is interesting on its own.  That would be small towns that grew as the killers, perverts, thieves...one by one...started to figure out how to survive and come together long  enough to form a village structure.

The dynamics at work within such a village are fascinating too, especially the ease at which they each accept what other societies find horrifically unacceptable:  the serial killer who continues to kill leaving bodies of the unwary to be deposed of at dawn, the psychopaths, the thieves, all working together, in a criminal harmony.

Mell Eight has other elements at  work.  Espionage, treason, assassination, and more plotting than I was honestly interested in.  No.  My focus was on the Prairie, his existence, his beginning, and how the others started to interact with him.

He is a 5 star creation in my books.  The rest almost suffers next to him.

In fact, the ending brought up so many  questions and opened up a bunch of holes in the narrative for me.  The villagers starting orchards for one thing.  Orchards are the very bane of prairies.  Any  woody plant it because its the first stages of a forest.  The very introduction of something that could mean the end of such a ecosystem seemed all wrong.  Surely Ruse and the settlers/villagers would have come up with a substitute for apples and tree grown produce?

And yes, that other ending left me unsatisfied because I still had so many unanswered questions to begin with and now had more.  It wasn't until I looked at the title on Goodreads that I understood that this was to be a part of a series.  Still....

Magnificent creation.  And I definitely need more.  So I can handle a little frustration if I    finally get the answers I'm looking for...in book 2.  Hang in there with me and check it it.

Cover art:  Natasha Snow.  Perfect cover.  Just love it.

ynopsis: There was a great wizard war, and people lost their magic as a result of the misuse of power. There are two warring settlements that want to claim the prairie between them for themselves. Ammet has a high population of prisoners, and feather than risk the valuable wizards, the prisoners have been sent out to the prairie to start settlements that Ammet can eventually claim. The prairie, however, is sentient, and is strict about who it lets live.
Someone who figured out how to talk to the prairie is Ruse, and he organizes things between the 6 towns on the prairie. Ruse knows the end game that Ammet has planned, but he has plans of his own.

What I liked: the world building. Ruse was an complex character, and figuring out where exactly he fit in with the people in his town took up quite a bit of the story. His relationship with the prairie was another thing that made him a little hard to pigeon hole.

What I didn't like: there really wasn't a lot of story. Most of the focus was on the set up and keeping Ruse's secrets from the reader.

Overall impression: not an entirely filling story, more of an outline. Told in 3rd person POV from Ruse's POV.

*I received a copy through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review