Battleaxe (also known as The Wayfarer Redemption)

by Sara Douglass

Reviewed by Ruby

Axis, the bastard son of Princess Rivkah, head of the elite Axe-Wielders, is heading north with his troops. At the far end of Achar is Gorkenfort, a fort currently held by the heir to the throne, Axis’ half brother, Borneheld. Gorkenfort is under siege by demons that seem to be born out of winter itself.

As he and his warriors make their way to Gorkenfort, Axis comes in contact with three people that will change his life forever. Faraday, his brother’s betrothed who he falls in love with and she him, and 2 priests that are much more than they appear. They open his eyes to the world of the ‘Fobidden’- the ancient races that the Achariets drove out of their lands thousands of years ago - and to the even older prophecy that could bring about the end of all three races if Axis cannot find a way to unite them before it is too late.

Within the first few chapters I knew I wasn’t going to like this book and I was right. I kept reading because the main plot was somewhat interesting and different, but it soon became very generic and dull. You have your handsome, angsty, male protagonist, your typical patriarchal monarchy and your omnipresent religion that have been lying to people forever. Then there are the ‘Forbidden’, the supposedly terrible creatures that, in reality are just people demonized by religious propaganda. There is a generic bad guy with magic powers who wants to destroy the world for generic reasons. There are flat, wooden secondary characters that can easily be identified as ‘helpful to protagonist’ and ‘obstacle for protagonist’. And, of course we can’t forget the ever present and generic love triangle.

This love triangle is worse than most because, as far as I can tell, Axis and Faraday are terrible together. Faraday basically makes up most of her conclusions about Axis, because we see them being contradicted within a few pages, and only falls for him because he isn’t Borneheld. I have no idea how Axis fell in love with her. I mean she did say one nice thing about his mother that one time they had an actual conversation. That’s what they are basing their undying love on. If they had – I don’t know - actually spoken to each other instead of him just snapping at her every time he got annoyed, maybe I could possibly believe that they loved each other. But since her internal monologue about him is all made up crap and his internal monologue about her is practically non-existent (even when he thought she was dead) I can’t see how the reader is supposed to be cheering for them. Then there’s the whole ‘Faraday has to marry Borneheld so he doesn’t get jealous and kill Axis before he can fulfill his destiny’ thing. Because that’s awesome.

And that brings me to the worst part of the book. It is so sexist it is unbelievable. There were times I was appalled by what was written, one sentence near the beginning comes to mind that was so terrible I had to reread it a few times because I was sure I had read it wrong. And what made it that much worse was the flippant tone it was said in. I was actually shocked that a woman wrote this book- but then again women wrote 50 Shades of Gray and Twilight, the epitome of romanticizing abusive relationships, so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised.

I have no idea why I continued reading this book. Stubbornness I guess, or maybe I just wanted to see how bad it could get

Grade: F