#Review - Bright Ruin by Vic James #Fantasy #Dystopian

Series: Dark Gifts (#3)
Format: E-Galley, 416 pages
Release Date: October 9, 2018
Publisher: Del Rey
Source: NetGalley
Genre: Fantasy / Contemporary

As the dystopian trilogy that began with Gilded Cage and Tarnished City concludes, the people of Britain rise up against their magically gifted masters. They must break the system—or be broken. 

MAGIC RUINS. WE RISE.

The rules are simple, the system cruel: the lower classes must give ten years in service to Britain’s powerfully gifted rulers. With one uprising crushed by the glittering elite, commoners and aristocrats alike now take sides for a final confrontation.

At the center of it all are two ordinary siblings: Abi Hadley and her brother, Luke. Each has reason to hate the ruling Jardine family. Abi was once their servant—and now seeks revenge for a terrible wrong. Luke was imprisoned on their whim—but his only hope may be an alliance with the youngest and most powerful of the clan, the cold and inscrutable Silyen Jardine.

Staking everything to end a bright and shining tyranny, Abi, Luke, and Silyen find themselves bound by a single destiny. Their actions will change their fates—and change everything. But at a cost almost too terrible to contemplate.

What price would you pay for freedom?

Story Locale: Modern-day England

 

Bright Ruin is the third and final installment in author Vic James' Dark Gifts trilogy. The Dark Gifts trilogy is a character driven series filled with upstairs/downstairs drama, historical intrigue, teen rebellion, and romantic angst, while being set to the background of a captivatingly dystopian Britain. This is a world where three countries, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the Confederate States of America have individuals called Equals. 

Equals are those who were born with Skills that makes them superior to normal humans. Skills are an ability, origin, unknown, manifesting in a very small fraction of the population & passed down thru bloodlines. Some skills are universal like restoration, healing, alteration, persuasion, perception, and infliction. Whatever the Skill a person has, they dominate life in England and elsewhere. They even have their own parliament called the House of Light.

Equals control everything: wealth, politics, power—and you. If you’re not one of the ultimate one-percenters—the magical elite—you owe them ten years of service. Do those years when you’re old, and you’ll never get through them. Do them young, and you’ll never get over them. Bright Ruin picks up right where Tarnished City left off. This is a series features revolving narratives from Abigail & Luke Hadley, Silyen & Gavar Jardine, as well as Gavar's wife Bouda Matravers, who I consider one of the villains of the series itself.

It's fair to say my favorite character is Abi. She's the one who talked her family into doing their slavedays together. She's the one who was betrayed by someone she thought she could trust, and was nearly killed in the previous installment after finding a calling. She's the one who has found friends, and allies among those like Midsummer Zelston who want to see the slavedays ended, and a free election where the people have say in what happens to their lives. 

Meanwhile, there's her brother Luke, who has literally gone through one incomprehensible situation to the next from being taken away from his family, to being mind controlled into killing someone, to being condemned, and given away to a psycho who has already torn out the skills of one of Abi's allies. Luke is now somehow allied with Silyen to save his friend Coira. Silyen hungers for the forgotten skill of the legendary Wonder King who Luke apparently saw while he was captive in a Scottish castle. 

It's fair to say the friendship and whatever happens at the end of this book between Luke and Silyen is the most curious part of the story. It is unexpected, and not necessarily a thing that anyone would see coming. The other most unexpected relationship is between Abi and Gavar Jardine. Having saved Abi's life in the previous installment, Gavar becomes his own character. He's really not the arrogant, temperamental, intimidating, womanizer that Abi first discovered. He's tired of his family. He is tired of Bouda's political shenanigans. He is also very protective of his daughter who has charmed Abi's little sister Daisy who is also a huge fan of Gavar.

Now the What the hell just happened moment of the story. Nope I won't tell you what happened. I will say that it is brutally twisted and not in a good way. What really happened? Are we just supposed to use our own imagination to figure out what happened? I am also one of those reviewers who found the whole story line with the King, Silyen and Luke, as well as Dog, very odd. Which lead to the ending which I also have issues with. I am also one of those reviewers who really didn't much care for Bouda. It's not fair what happens to certain characters, while she sits/sleeps around and gets what she wants whenever she wants.

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