“Secrets are often liabilities, but sometimes they are power.”
Now, the prologue to The Revenant of Surolifia is probably one of the strongest and most “oh shit” openings I have read in ages, and it instantly had me hooked. On the one hand, I absolutely loved that for me, but on the other hand I also have to admit that I think the book set the bar a little too high for itself because after the timeskip I kept waiting for the story to hit that same level again, and it never quite did for me. Not because it got bad, because it absolutely did not, but because this story turned out to be a lot different in tone than what I had anticipated.
I mean, between the promise of magical bank heists, cons, blackmail, hidden identities, uncertain loyalties, and the hilariously disastrous pitch of ‘two emotionally constipated idiots working against each other toward the same goal because they can’t get their shit together, and a much more competent young woman who singlehandedly saves the country because she has had enough of their moping’, I had somehow convinced myself The Revenant of Surolifia was going to be a dark yet fun romp with a lot of wit and cheek, when in reality this thing is unapologetically complex, serious, and filled with enough political factions, schemes, and proper nouns to cause temporary spiritual exhaustion (thank all that is holy for a glossary on the author’s website). Which you might love or you might hate, and I honestly still do not quite know where I fall on that spectrum.
See, there is no denying that Florence Chien’s sheer ambition and imagination are truly awe-inspiring, and I think the Guy Gavriel Kay-esque lush prose, rich atmosphere, and strong thematic core of The Last Revenant of Surolifia absolutely shine. The baroque-inspired setting felt immersive, decadent, and oppressive in the best possible way to me, and I loved the morally messy exploration of identity, colonisation, oppression, diplomacy, and the cost of rebellion. The whole arcane science vibe with the mind-manipulating noumenmancy and material-altering phenomancy magic also had me completely enamoured, especially because Chien weaves it so masterfully into every single aspect and layer of the narrative that it quickly proves to be so much more than ‘just a cool flashy dual magic system’.
However, there was just a certain je ne sais quoi missing for me to fully get invested in the characters and stakes of the story, and I thought the dynamic between my stubborn colonel Lucas and my fugitive pickpocket prince Faye had so much more potential (though not in a romantic sense, before anyone starts projecting AO3 tags onto this review). See, these messy men are absolutely drenched in trauma, secrets, guilt, grief, and emotional repression as they are both forced to hide their silver-eyed identity from their abusive colonizers, and yet I felt like I was frustratedly staring at all their hurt and turmoil through a beautifully crafted stained glass window instead of actually feeling it. A lot of the complexity and weight lies in events prior to the start of the story, and I just kept waiting for the book to dig deeper into their backstories and emotional messiness instead of repeating the same thoughts over and over.
I do have to say that my dangerously ambitious merchant’s daughter Elsa actually completely stole the show for me as the third POV character, and I loved how she quickly proved herself to be almost the only person in The Revenant of Surolifia with anything resembling competence or emotional stability. Sure, she might have taken even more focus away from the emotional core with Lucas and Faye, but I honestly did not mind because she just kicks ass and completely won me over. I really enjoyed how she brought some of the more romantic vibes into the narrative that I thought I was gonna get elsewhere, and her journey to prove her worth was truly a wild emotional rollercoaster.
Ultimately, I truly came to appreciate and enjoy The Revenant of Surolifia after some adjustment of expectations on my part, and I loved how it all wrapped up with such a bold, brutal, and beautifully bittersweet ending that was exactly the kind of emotional gutpunch I was wanting from this story all along. It’s an ambitious, messy, politically dense, occasionally frustrating, but undeniably impressive standalone debut, and I highly recommend it if you like the kind of political fantasy that demands a lot of brainpower, but which absolutely rewards you for your patience by the end.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are my own. The Revenant of Surolifia is scheduled for release on 7 July 2026.