Broken Throne: A Red Queen Collection

Broken Throne is a collection of six short stories from the Red Queen universe, two of which we've already seen in the Cruel Crown collection, and an assortment of extracts provided from Julian Jacos; these largely comprise of family trees, timelines, extracts from propaganda, maps, interviews, journal extracts and scribblings from Julian throughout.Each of the stories adds weight to the wider series - something a lot of anthologies struggle to pull off entirely - and each focuses on a particular character or duo. The inner musings of Julian and various extracts from him were unusual and felt wasteful and out of place. Aside from a really stunning family tree and an interesting timeline of events, the extracts serve purely as messy recaps of the events of the previous four books. I do think they look really nice, the random scribblings are fun and different, but they felt pointless because they added very little, if anything, to our current understanding of things.Queen Song is the first of the two duplicate stories within this collection, showcasing the life of Coriane before she marries the King, her internal struggles with mental health and the torture she was subjected to at the hands of Elara. There are few spoilers within, and the story is pretty good, giving interesting insight into a character we see very little of in the wider series and adding weight to the relationships between Julian, Sara, Coriane and Elara. 4/5 stars.Steel Scars centres on Farley taking command of a mission and sharing intelligence via coded communications with her general, most of which are of the usual snarky and rebellious nature readers have come to expect from Diane Farley. Whilst this is pretty interesting it was also quite repetitive due to the format of the communications as transcripts, and equally didn't feel as compelling as a standard narrative. It does however provide a behind-the-scenes kind of look at the moment Shade and Farley meet and this felt authentic and really well played out. 3/5 stars.World Behind was easily the most compelling of the stories within this collection. It introduces Ashe, a Red and captain of a commuting boat, and Lyrisa, a Silver on the run and hoping to buy her way onto his boat. I adored this story and both of the characters captured entirely different but equally useful perspectives. Whilst Ashe wants to mind his own business, isn't fond of Silvers and lives a relatively humble life, Lyrisa really showcases how the glamorised nature of the Silvers is perhaps not all it would seem. She's also a fun insight into an ability not portrayed terribly often within the wider series. Alongside this is a healthy dose of mystery about her purpose on board and this resulted in a total page turner. 5/5 stars.Iron Heart felt very much like War Storm. Evangeline and Elane have alternating chapters, much like the alternating chapters of World Behind, but neither of them are especially captivating within this story. It takes place following the events of War Storm, with some focus on Elane and Evangeline's relationship (but nothing much more than we'd already seen previously) and considering if Ptolemus and Evangeline might abdicate their right to the throne. Whilst I wasn't especially interested by any of the characters, the political intrigue is really high in this story, with some important events taking place which reshape the future of the characters. Despite really liking Evangeline prior to this, I found her a little flat here. 4/5 stars.Fire Light is the highly anticipated reunion between Cal and Mare following the close of the series and honestly it was probably the most disappointing story of the bunch. Neither Cal or Mare were characters I felt significant connections with; they both have very similar narrative voices which can make their interactions quite wooden. But more so than this, their eventual reunion was limited, superficial and didn't really have much impact aside from a predictable, albeit satisfying, conclusion to the cliffhanger of War Storm. 3/5 stars.Farewell was brief but very clever. Aveyard does a fantastic job again of letting us into the head of a monster whilst still managing to humanise them; Maven is every piece the horrific mask he wears for his brother but this also captures his vulnerabilities. This is also told in alternating perspectives between Cal and Maven to highlight their toxic relationship - it left me wondering if Maven's story could have ended differently and what that might have looked like. 3/5 stars.Despite some of the stories packing less punch than others, Victoria Aveyard's writing has only gotten better and this collection is a perfect example of that - and of why Red Queen was so good! I absolutely love this world, I find Aveyard's ideas really fun to read and her attention to detail is incredible - a perfect combination of intelligent, compelling and thorough prose, the likes of which encompass genuinely good fantasy writing. This world, the kingdoms, house and rules make for an incredible read and it was so nice just to be back with the Reds for one last time.

If you love the Red Queen series (which you should) this book is a must read.I already had Cruel Crown which features Queen Song and Steel Scars, so I skipped over these stories as I had recently read them.Without spoiling it, you get to check back in with a few favourite characters and there is also a story from two new POV’s which I enjoyed. It also covers the history of the Red Queen world and fleshed our the Royal Line of Norta which I loved and found very interesting.

This book really does tie up all the lose ends that were in the series. After all the ending to the last book left me feeling a little disappointed. There are 6 short stories within this book, that include before, present and after. With also some notes throughout.

Fast delivery and came in good condition, I’m happy with this item!Edit: I enjoyed this book however I was hoping for more on Cal and Mares story. Other than that it was a great book!

Beautiful book!!!