Proclaimer by Megan Schaulis Review

 

Wow! Proclaimer by Megan Schaulis was an awesome conclusion to the Susa Chronicles duology. I loved the first book! The author had left us on quite the cliff hanger and I was greatly anticipating the release of Proclaimer. Oh my goodness did this book excede my expectations. 

(Just a warning if you haven't read book one, there are some spoilers in my review for the first book)

This duology is a dystopian retelling of the story of Esther from the Bible. In the first book Novalise, aka Astra, fights her way through multiple challenges and against many nano-tech Enhanced women, to become the Chief Protector to King Zadien, a man she is falling in love with. However, as the first book ends, the king announces his decree to eliminate all the Alphanites, the believers in the one true God, a religion that has been outlawed since his grandparents' time. A group who is believed to be responsible for his own father's murder. What he doesn't know is that he is being lied to on multiple fronts. One of his chief staff members has ulterior motives and is manipulating him. Additionally his Chief Protector is hiding her identity as an Alphanite. And of course, he is falling in love with her as well, so you know there are going to be feelings of betrayal at some point in the story. Will their relationship be able to overcome the lies and deceit? What will it take to bring about the truth of the council member's betrayal?  Will Novalise end up having to betray the man she loves to bring about truth? Needing to know the answers to these questions kept me scrolling through pages into the early morning. 

I loved the relationship between King Zadien and Novalise and was rooting for them to overcome the obstacles in their way. I loved the very real, personal relationship that Novalise had with God. In these books Alpha actually spoke to Novalise and some others in their minds. And they were able to reply, have a real converstaion. But even then He didn't give them all the answers. They still had to trust that He knew what was best and choose to do His will, even when it looked like what He wanted them to do didn't really make sense from their point of view. Novalise had the closest relationship with Alpha, and even she questioned what she was being told to do and would try to do things her way, or the way of others who were advising her. The story is a great example of learning to put one's trust in God. 

I found the way the future world was described quite intriguing, though a bit unclear at times. The future technology was interesting to read about, and a bit scary to think about at times. But I don't really want to give any details that would spoil the discovery as you read the story. 

If you know the story of Esther from the Bible, it is really cool to notice all the parallels, and you can sort of anticipate what might be coming in the story. And wonder how the author is going to work things into a future, dystopian world. I think she did a wonderful, believable job. I'm just sad that this was only a duology. Because I love these characters and would love to read more about what happens to them in the future. Thankfully the author did a perfect job wrapping things up, and not leaving anything hanging. 

As a warning, there is a battle and talk of murder, and we discover some disturbing things about what happens to rejected Enhanced women. Human trafficking is brought up. However, when it comes to the relationship between King Zadien and Novalise there is nothing beyond kissing.

Proclaimer is definitely a book I highly recommend. Just make sure to read book one first. 

I received an e-copy of this book through as a member of the review team and was not required to write a favorable review. These are my own honest thoughts.