Episode 13: When good books have unsatisfying endings
In this our second book club episode, Fable and the Verbivore dive into the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. Our discussion covers the novella Cruel Crown as well as her four novels: Red Queen, Glass Sword, King’s Cage, and War Storm. There is an additional book of novellas that was recently published under the name of Broken Throne. Please note that this episode does not cover those additional stories.
The Red Queen series follows the story of Mare Barrow, who is of the serving class known as red bloods, as she is unexpectedly thrust into a game of survival within the cutthroat world of the reigning silver blood’s royal court. The world of Norta is harsh, and everyone is scheming to further their own agendas and protect their own existence. Filled with characters that have supernatural abilities and complex loyalties, as well as a rebellion on the horizon, this story is a wild ride of betrayal and conflict.
There are many compelling elements we enjoyed within this series including the ever-changing power dynamics of the characters with supernatural abilities, believable and complicated relationships, and well-crafted tension and court intrigues that keep expanding over time.
As part of our conversation, we dissect story elements ranging from the fascinating premise, well designed action sequences, and a stunning plot twist. We also discuss some choices made by the author, where we recognize the intention of the artform, but the outcome did not connect with us as readers. We also discuss the possibility of this story being made into a movie, and what we hope that medium could do for this narrative.
If you haven’t read these books, we do get into plot points and several outcomes of given character arcs, so listen at your own discretion and feel free to skip this if you plan to read these books in the future.
If you have read the Red Queen series, we hope you enjoy our convervation about what made us continue to read through hundreds of pages of this world and as we attempt to unpack a quadrilogy of books.
Keep reading, and writing, and putting yourself out there!
Into the woods,
Fable & The Verbivore
Notes:
The Verbivore mentions Red Queen series author Victoria Aveyard educational background as a screen writer as part of the introduction. She graduated from the U. of Southern California Screenwriting program.
The Verbivore’s sister Lisa is the one that recommended the Red Queen novel. The other series of books we reference that she recommended is the Winner’s Trilogy from Marie Rutkoski.
The research that the Verbivore did on the Red Queen map lead to discover that Victoria Aveyard is a map enthusiast. Here is a link to the map and another link to some background information on it’s creation:
Red Quen map - https://www.epicreads.com/blog/red-queen-has-a-new-map-and-its-flawless/
Victoria Aveyard map background information - https://victoriaaveyard.com/2016/10/new-map-of-the-red-queen-world/
The two novellas that Fable and The Verbivore references in their conversation are titled Steel Scars and Queen Song. These stories further explore the characters of Farley who is a leader within the Red Dawn rebellion, and Cal’s mother Queen Coriane who is only mentioned in passing in the novels. Both of these stories give additional context for the conflicts within the first Red Queen novel.
The Verbivore mentioned that she believes that the movie is still going forward. Here is the latest on that front:
Books Mentioned:
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard
Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard
King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard
War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard
The Winner’s Curse by Marie Rutkoski
Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)