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Chelsea Harper
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Wake of the Phoenix (Artifice of Power Saga Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Chelsea Harper (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 14 ratings
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War Hero. Thiefmaster's apprentice. Traitors. Every title comes with a price.

Arkaen is a gods-damned saint. He sacrificed his childhood innocence fighting for the beleaguered rebellion in a civil war and relinquished a comfortable life with the man he loves to reclaim his place as high lord from corrupt nobles. Now, a hidden enemy is manipulating his lower lords into talk of rebellion, including the powerful Rogue Baron who is slowly swaying the city into questioning every move Arkaen makes.

With the help of his near-omniscient lover's gift of foresight, Arkaen finds a potential ally in Niamsha, a reluctant thief trying to pay for her brother’s education. But Niamsha owes an insurmountable debt to the mysterious leader of her thieves guild and failing to pay means death—for her entire family. When her guild leader demands she join forces with the Rogue Baron himself, she finds herself caught in a political battle beyond her skills. Torn between protecting her family and following her conscience, Niamsha doesn't know who to trust.

If Arkaen can win Niamsha's loyalty, he might just prevent a second civil war and the destruction of everything he fought to protect. Or he might get them all killed.
Previous page
  1. Book 1 of 1
    Artifice of Power Saga
  2. Print length
    309 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publication date
    September 28, 2021
  6. File size
    3513 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B097P48858
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chelsea Harper (September 28, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 28, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3513 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 309 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars 14 ratings

About the author

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Chelsea Harper

Chelsea Harper

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Chelsea Harper is the author and publisher of Wake of the Phoenix, book one of the Artifice of Power Saga. She lives in Colorado with her husband, daughter, two dogs, one cat, and countless imaginary friends. When she isn’t writing she enjoys games, from World of Warcraft to Elder Scrolls to tabletop RPGs and even the occasional board game.

Customer reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
3.9 out of 5
14 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

bterrik
5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting new book with a lot of promise
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
I enjoyed the characters and their complex motivations and challenges set within a new, original world.

Though the story is self-contained, I hope we'll get more with these characters. I'm curious to see where they go next!
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Briana Urban
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2022
Verified Purchase
Wake of the Phoenix is a really interesting fantasy! The world building is good and the characters were interesting. I liked Arkaen and Niamsha, and the dynamic between Arkaen and Lasha. I don't always love lots of political undertones in fantasy, but the political implications and dynamics were handled well. It was a little slow at times but the overall pace was good and kept my attention. I really enjoyed this fantasy and world, and I'm interested to read more in it.
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Jessica Belmont
4.0 out of 5 stars Wake of the Phoenix
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2022
Some readers like slow pace, other readers don’t. I am a reader who enjoys well-written books regardless of the pace and that is what we have here! Wake of the Phoenix by Chelsea Harper is political, high fantasy with beautiful world building and deeply developed characters.

I’m a huge fan of high fantasy. This is a four person POV story which does take a little time to get used to. However, the characters are very well written and their POVs are necessary to the story. I.love morally gray characters. It is more intriguing to me to read about decisions that leave me a little frustrated than to get what I want, every time. It makes for a more compelling read because every action has a consensus.

The main love story is beautiful and deep. The implications and secrecy of their relationship because of the fact that it is two men is very clear. This brings more tension to the story and gives the reader so many emotions to deal with while watching everything unfold. The romance aspect was probably my favorite.

If you’re a fan of high fantasy and understand the pacing can sometimes be slow, I think Wake of the Phoenix is worth checking out. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Thank you to R&R Book Tours for the free review copy. All opinions are my own and unbiased.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Good world building/political intrique
Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2021
Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this book.

This was good! A little bit of a slow burn, so might take some time to get into. I will definitely be looking out for the next book!
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Bailey Hummel
3.0 out of 5 stars Not particularly original
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2021
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy; they're by far my favorite genres. Since I do read in this area a lot, I think I get bored of old ideas super fast when they pop up in new releases.

Before I get to my main point, I think a lot of readers will like this story as it has themes that are super topical and a reasonably interesting plot/characters.

That said, I didn't really enjoy it because the worldbuilding felt like something I've read so many times before and this book just didn't bring enough new ideas to the table for me.
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Chad Barnard
4.0 out of 5 stars Great beginning to a Story!
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2021
This one took me a few chapters to really get going on it. But by midway through I was really sinking my teeth into it. I ended up devouring the last 35% in almost a single sitting today. Overall I really liked the world the author is putting together and most of the relationships. Being honest, the ending of this one knocked it down half a star for me. I think it was still a solid finish and overall read but the way things twisted and turned it started to feel like many of the characters were more naïve rather than other characters just being that good a deceit. I still enjoyed this one enough to purchase a copy for my home library once it's released. The copy I had my hands on for this read was an eARC from NetGalley. I'll be interested to see where the story goes from here and what the author does in the future as well.
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John Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars It is an amazing book written by an exceptional author.
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2022
I loved the whole book especially Arkaen
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Anna Mosoyan
2.0 out of 5 stars Ambitious Fantasy Debut
Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2021
Wake of the Phoenix tells the story of an ensemble of characters—members of nobility of the Laisian empire and its commoners, as they maneuver through court politics and intrigue, while trying to pursue their own selfish goals.
I have to say I was largely disappointed by this book and ended up giving it a 2.5 stars rating rounded down to 2. I want to preface this review by clarifying that my ratings usually depend on the level of my enjoyment. In case of Wake of the Phoenix, there were so many elements that seemed very appealing to me: a politics-heavy epic fantasy story that also features gay leads(something we don't see often enough in this genre), so I was very excited to read this; however, I found myself very bored for the vast majority of the book. Thus, as much as I can appreciate certain elements of the book, I still was unable to enjoy it or be entertained by it.
Some aspects of the book are truly great—the politics and the worldbuilding of this book are very fleshed out and intricate. It's obvious that the author put great effort and care into developing the elements of lore and culture of this world. I liked the convoluted nature of the court, the constant game of chess between the members of the nobility, in fact, the aristocracy and its games were the most interesting aspect of the book.
However, in terms of its other components—characters, plot, pacing—this book falls quite short. I couldn't get attached to any of the characters, and even the romantic relationship between Kaen and Lasha or the sibling bond between Niamsha and her brother didn't feel compelling enough to get invested. All the characters seemed too preoccupied with the court intrigue and politicking and that led to almost every character, with the exception of Saylina, feeling too dry. I wanted to care about the forbidden romance, I wanted to care for Niamsha's devotion to her brother, but the information overload on the page and lack of characterization made it quite challenging.
Some characters were downright frustrating; Arkaen in particular seemed quite useless for the most part of the book—he was there to just mingle around, uninterested in court politics or alliances, simply existing there. Lasha, albeit being the most interesting of the bunch, was often frustrating because we simply didn't have enough information about him to understand what was going on. The way he used magic also was left underexplored; however, knowing this is the first book in a series I assume the author will expand on both his character and his abilities in future books. Saylina was the only character I actually liked—she was politically savvy and seemed genuine enough to be somewhat likeable. Overall, the characters were not interesting or compelling enough—they all felt dull.
The dullness of the characters and the moderate pace of the book made this read very slow. It took me ages to get through the first half of the book, and though the second half was a bit smoother, I simply wasn’t interested enough to care. I think this book needed a few rounds of edits, because the writing at times was quite tedious and concentrated too much on the environment rather than the characters and their internal and external conflicts.
I wasn't the biggest fan of homophobia being such a prominent element of the worldbuilding, but that is simply a personal preference—I always choose fantasy worlds where being queer is considered normal over anything else. Another aspect that bugged me somewhat was how the Torsdell commoners were portrayed—the casual mention of rape, the accent and dialect the author chose to use here weren't exactly my cup of tea.
Overall, I really hope that we will see more epic fantasy with queer leads, but this book, due to its slow pace, wordy writing and uncompelling characters, simply was not for me.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader's copy of Wake of the Phoenix.
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Top reviews from other countries

jaxen ara
3.0 out of 5 stars Morally grey epic fantasy!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
First things first: gay main characters in a fantasy novel! I love to see it, I loved their relationship, and they threw my emotions off of a cliff.

It was a very complex plot told through multi-POV, and every single character was morally grey!
Also, I love a good political novel, and this was that! It tackled the class structures, societal expectations, the politics of war… and having so many morally ambiguous characters really explored the different sides to each fight.

The writing style is very information-heavy, and I found myself reading a few pages over and over so I could absorb the information.
But as I got further into the novel, I got more used to the style and found it easier to read.
And the accent writing bothered me a bit, but that’s almost always the case for me.

Overall, this book was a journey. It had both ups and downs, but I’m looking forward to reading the next book!
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