Broken Throne – Victoria Aveyard

Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Broken Throne by Victoria Aveyard is a collection of short stories, histories, and maps of the world that we have grown to know from the Red Queen series. It consists of two previously published novellas, Queen Song and Steel Scars, which I skipped because I had read them before. The nicest part about this collection was the fact that it answered some questions that the series had previously left unanswered and gave us some much-needed world development, which I appreciated.

The first new novella was World Behind, which features two characters that had nothing to do with the main plot of the story and wanted nothing to do with the war between Silvers and Reds. It gave us perspectives from different people that brought a new dimension to the world. It takes place during the final book in the series, War Storm, and follows a Silver princess and a Red keelboat captain as she tries to escape a brutal future with her intended. Ashe, the captain, went through a lot of personality/character development changes in a short period of time which felt a little too extreme. Other than that, it was an interesting but unnecessary story.

The second new novella was Iron Heart, which features two characters that we are familiar with – Evangeline and Elane. It was nice to be able to see characters that we know fairly well trying to adjust to life in Montfort, new statuses, and their futures together. It felt real because there were good moments and bad ones. This story was able to give Evangeline a more substantial character arc and conclusion to her story than War Storm had – since it focused more on Cal, Maven, and Mare’s tales. I loved getting to see her character growth and development continue in this novel as she struggles to figure out who she is.

The fourth new novella is Fire Light, which features Cal and Mare. We all knew that we wouldn’t be able to bring this world to a close without another story. They were both able to grow throughout the Red Queen series and become different people than when we first met them in book one. We are finally able to have closure between the two of them, for better or worse. I won’t spoil the ending. You’ll just have to read it and find out for yourself.

The final new novella is Fare Well, which felt both familiar and new. It shows the scene where Cal visits Maven, but from Maven’s point of view so we get to experience his headspace at the end. It was heart wrenching to see him struggle with his true personality and what his mother had done to him. The story then moves forward to the time after his death and we watch Cal dealing with the loss of his brother.

The maps and histories included with this collection helped to bring some much-needed world development. It was really nice to understand how the world came to be the way it was, how the magic system developed and what happened after the events of War Storm. Overall, I felt that it was a well thought out collection that generally added to the series.

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