A good epic fantasy, gripping and entertaining.
Good character development and world building, a multi-POVs plot that kept me turning pages.
I loved Savage Legion and loved this follow up.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I was given a free copy of Savage Bounty by Matt Wallace (author), Gallery/Saga Press (publisher), and Net Galley to provide an honest review. Savage Bounty is the second in the Savage Rebellions series with Savage Legion as the first book which was published in July 2020. I did not read Savage Legion.

This review will not contain any spoilers.

I would characterize Savage Bounty as epic fantasy with multiple point-of-views, and I want to believe low to no magic.

The world building is interesting, specifically the large city where one of the pov characters is featured. When I read the part of the story that takes place in the city, Mr. Wallace described in a such a way that I felt I was there. I got the sense the city could have been a city in Europe, possibly from the Renaissance or a little bit later. The city was divided into separate and distinct parts. The settings for the story featuring other characters with povs were serviceable and neither detracts nor adds to the story.

The characters are the strongest part of the story. One of the pov characters is a woman who is being held hostage and is manipulated to be a propaganda tool for a group of wealthy people who want poor people to come to rely on the largesse of this group of wealthy people. Another pov character is a leader of a mercenary company who wants to invade the same city where the woman who is being held hostage is operating. The third pov character is the head of the governmental organization that appears to be managing the city. Each of these characters is interesting, compelling, and engaging. The minor characters featured in this story are unique.

The plot of the story is the weakest aspect of the story. As engaging as the characters are in this story, the plot does not move that much forward from the beginning to the end. Mr. Wallace’s writing kept me reading and there are no dead spots in the story, but after I finished, I felt something akin to eating a bag of chips instead of a hearty meal for dinner.

I would recommend Savage Bounty to readers who appreciate strong, well-developed, complex, and engaging characters in a fantasy novel with a secondary world setting.

I rate Savage Bounty 3 stars.

I would like to thank Matt Wallace, Gallery/Saga Press, and Netgalley for the free arc.

Savage Bounty is the second book in Matt Wallace's "Savage Rebellion" epic fantasy series, which began with last year's "Savage Legion" (My review is here). Savage Legion was a revelation last year, an epic fantasy novel with themes of class, empire, colonization, propaganda, and more - weaving these themes in really well in a story that featured 3 really likable point of view characters. Wallace's prior works (outside his award winning podcast) were the very much comedy novellas Sin Du Jour, so I did not expect him to take to serious epic fantasy so well, but Savage Legion absolutely blew me away and I was thrilled when I saw the chance at getting the sequel early.

And Savage Bounty continues the story in this dark world, with its strong characters and themes, but can't quite keep up the momentum of the first book. Our three real POV characters expands to four, but much of their plotlines feel like the book is merely spinning its wheels, without much happening with long term that seems to move the plot forward. And the book ends on a real dark note, which is never really a thing I love. This is not to say the book is bad - Wallace's strong characters and strong writing kept me interested throughout and I devoured this book quite quickly, just that it doesn't quite live up to the high bar of the first one.

Spoilers for Book 1 are below:
-----------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
The Savage Legion was supposed to be Crache's secret weapon - a place to throw the undesirable people of the city into combat for the city's constant expansion, such that Crache's real troops can suffer minimal casualties. But when Evie came into their ranks, seeking the rescue the man she loved, everything changed, and now Evie - with help from peoples of different cultures and histories - leads Savages in a rebellion against Crache, an empire whose promise she now knows to be a lie. But Crache still maintains a tremendous military force and the means to smash Evie's force to pieces...if she can even hold together the disparate groups and interests long enough to get them into another battle.

Meanwhile, Evie's former leader Lexi finds herself held captive by a noble with dreams of regained power, and that noble's mad corrupt Aegin (Cop) enforcer. To stay alive, Lexi may have to assist the noble's cause and preach in his favor...even if to do so would be to betray the people she has always fought for.

And in the Planning Cadre, Dyeawan has taken over Edgar's position as head of the Planners, the individuals behind Crache's decision making. She intends to change the course of the Empire onto a path that will benefit those like herself, those who were left behind, born in poverty, and given up for dead. But the conservative Planners in the Cadre are disinclined to even the smallest changes, and another former disciple of Edgar has her own plans for how things should move forward, and is not willing to defer to Dyeawan like she might have their former mentor.

The fate of Crache may fall in the hands of Evie, Dyeawan, and Lexi....but their own fates may be out of their control, and mere survival, nevertheless positive change, will not be easy.....
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Like Savage Legion, Savage Bounty is told from a rotating sequence of viewpoints - Dyeawan, Lexi, Evie, and now, a new addition, Lexi's former Undeclared (non-binary) bodyguard, Taru. Each character is in a different place within Crache or its outskirts, each dealing with the issues of the Empire, and those who have plans for the Empire, in their own ways. And again, all of these characters are extremely likable, from Dyeawan's hope to use her brilliance to convert Crache's resources to being used to help all its people, to Evie's attempts to bring forth a group of rebels together from different backgrounds without losing people or ideas she cares about, to Lexi's attempt to deal with a seemingly crazy noble who plans to take the Empire back to an older seemingly worse era, to Taru's attempts to deal with being oppressed as a new member of the Savages. It's a likable cast in a dark dark world.

And I mean dark, with serious underlying themes. So Evie discovers not only that the city they're besieging belonged last to her lover's conquered people....but that it belonged to various other conquered people before them, so whose land is it really? So Lexi deals with being caught between the current corruption of Crache, which leaves the poor and weak for dead and is unconcerned with openly talking about "indoctrinating" people, and a noble woman who intends to use Lexi's connection to the poor to raise up a rebellion in favor of the nobility....using those struggling people as tools instead of just ignoring them. With Dyeawan, she discovers that being brilliant and in charge isn't enough to change an Empire, where inertia and those used to the old ways will resist even the smallest shifts. And Taru finds that even those who have survived an Empire's incursions and sympathize with those rebelling aren't very happy to leave their homes and fight for others' sakes. These themes and ideas aren't done as well as book 1, but they're still strong concepts that guide the plot here throughout.

It's a shame that so much of the actual plot here feels like the book is spinning its wheels. Dyeawan's plotline in particular just feels like an excuse to have her not have an impact on everything outside of the Planners' Cadre, with her plotline featuring revelations that are honestly kind of disappointing and a conflict for control before she even gets a chance to make a difference, which just results in her being practically in the same position at the end of this book as in the beginning. Lexi's conflict between two powers results in her always being reactive instead of proactive, and I just kept waiting for her to actually make a choice and do something, even if her plot was strong in themes. Taru is the shortest plotline, and you know from the beginning that he's going to wind up meeting up with Evie in some respect....and he barely gets there at the end, so it just feels like we're killing time. Even Evie's plotline dances around a big military conflict for the entire book until the very end, which just frustrated me to some extent, although her plotline at least featured a good amount of character development and themes to make it worthwhile.

And then there's the ending, which wow - did I mention how this series (which I can't imagine finishes in just one more book) is dark? Because wow, is this a grim ending for our characters, after the book decides to move them all forward. This doesn't mean the ending is in any way bad - it's just very brutal and not in a way that's necessarily powerful in its themes, but in a way that forms a dire cliffhanger for practically everyone. It's the type of ending I usually dislike and that usually drives me away from series, but Wallace has done enough here with the characters to keep me invested for one more book. But uh fair warning - whereas book 1 ended with two characters in moments of "triumph", grim as they were, that is not what you're getting here.

Matt Wallace does it again! As always the world building is phenomenal. In Savage Bounty the reader gets an even deeper look into the inner workings of Crache: from the power struggles in the planning cadre, to the unease in the bottoms, to the ex-savage's rebellion - everything is beautifully explained. Wallace provides plenty of details to bring the reader farther into the world of Crache while still maintaining a comfortable pace.

Normally when a book has multiple POVs it is difficult to be invested in all of them; however, that is not the case with Savage Bounty. Evie, Dyeawan, and Lexi all had compelling storylines that make you not want to put the book down so you can find out what happens next. Throughout the book there is this slow build of tension that leaves the reader yearning for the point when all three storylines intersect. Fingers crossed it happens in the final installment!

Savage Bounty ended with some mighty cliffhangers. While I don't love cliffhangers, I'm glad that Matt Wallace decided to leave the fates of our beloved characters hanging in the balance because it means that these particular storylines will get the attention that they deserve in the next book. I'd much rather have to wait for the third book than have these plots rushed through in the second.

Overall, I enjoyed Savage Bounty so, so much. I'm honestly a bit sad that the next book will will be that last because I'm not ready to leave this world or these characters. If political fantasy, I highly suggest you check out Savage Legion & Savage Bounty.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher of this book for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review. A strong sequel to a strong series. Review to follow on Goodreads.

A bit late with this one my apology!! All blames on me because this book was good! Not the most original take on the fantasy genre, but well done, engaging, good action and interesting worldbuilding. If you love fantasy, this will make you have a good reading time

I tore through the first book and couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. I did find that the second novel didn’t move as fast as the first and halfway through the book I struggled to remain interested as it jumped between the three POVs. One advantage of this kind of storytelling style is that it allows the reader to see the plot happening on a grander scale and see how actions made by one party eventually affect the others. But at times it feels like I’m reading three seperate books and I’ve just been forced to put book 3 down just as it was getting interesting and read book 2 from wherever it left off and figure out how all these events intertwine. That said, what a cliffhanger of an ending!

Savage Bounty
by Matt Wallace
Gallery Books

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read this book. I really enjoyed the first book with the epic battle, strong female roles, and plenty of action. This book may have had action and females but it didn't seem like the book was advancing the story. All the gals seemed stuck! It was interesting with the bizarre plants and the dreadful ending. I just didn't like it near as well as book one. Maybe there will be a reason in book 3.

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC copy of this book available to me.

This, the second book in a trilogy, keeps up the fine pace set in the latter half of the previous book. The story is told from the points of view of four different characters, and each engaging in their own way. We have one dealing directly with political challenges, two dealing with primarily physical challenges, and one with mental challenges. I'm just hoping that the author can find some way to bring these four together in the final book in this series.

Savage Bounty by Matt Wallace is an incredible story, so action packed and engaging, it kept me on my toes every single page.

I read this thinking it was a standalone, but BOY was I wrong. Thankfully I was able to snag a copy of the first book (and flew through it) to get to this story. I enjoyed this, but not as much as the first. I feel like this fell into the "second book syndrome" where this was building up to something big but I personally feel like nothing too much happened.

Nevertheless, if you enjoyed the first one I recommend picking this up because we get to know more about the main characters, which I LOVED.

I'm consistently shocked by some of the books that end up as 'Read Now' on NetGalley. This is definitely one of them. I was under the impression that the first novel in the series, Savage Legion was a hit, it was certainly a great read. So why would the publisher make the sequel available as a Read Now title? An expression comes to mind, something about not looking a gifted horse in the mouth... I digress! Back to what's important: Should you read this book? Absolutely! Savage Bounty allows Mr. Wallace more room to breath. Which translates to a much more polished story. The world building and character arcs were top notch and should be enough on their own to silence all the haters out there. While the story is fast paced and exploding with action, it's also smart, funny, thoughtful, and a bit of a tearjerker at times. More to come closer to publication date (I need to discuss that ending with someone, like now!). Pre order this one, it's that good!

A really great epic fantasy story with great worldbuilding and characters you can fall in love with. It is set in a very unique way, and I especially liked the political aspect of the story. It's a stunning sequel to the first book.