Review: The Prince Without Sorrow: Obsidian Throne, Book 1 by Maithree Wijesekara

The Prince Without Sorrow: Obsidian Throne, Book 1 by Maithree Wijesekara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.  In full transparency, I borrowed the audiobook from my local library after publication date and listened to the audiobook while following along with the ARC.

This is the first book in a trilogy and follows Shakti, a witch whose order follows pacifist teachings, but when the emperor orders her village and everyone she loves brutally murdered she breaks that code.  Shakti seeks revenge with a curse upon the emperor, but as with all magic it takes an unexpected turn she never expected.  She seeks to overthrow the new emperor from within, but she has also discovered new abilities that will either aid her cause or get her killed.  Our second point of view is from the emperor's son Ashoka who practices pacifist ways, despite his father being a violent tyrant.  His siblings follow his father's tactics and Ashoka is shunned for his peaceful ways.  When Emperor Adil unexpectedly dies, Ashoka must not only find his way under his brother's rule, but he seeks to make changes within the empire by bargaining with his brother and sister for power.  

Shakti and Ashoka's paths only briefly cross despite their goals being similar.  They both want to save the witches from persecution and violence.  They both want the the new emperor to rule with a more peace minded approach, but they both are going to have to break some rules to get to their desired outcomes.  I enjoyed the magic and the lore woven into the story and look forward to seeing how that evolves over the rest of the series.  I also look forward to seeing where Shakti's revenge arc and Ashoka's pacifist takeover arc take them.   There is clearly alot more story to be told.  

This book poses quite a few questions about morals, politics, and societal norms.  Many of the characters are set in their ways one way or the other, so discussion about change is often not well met or leads no where.  I'm expecting as our main characters continue on their chosen paths, we will see these questions and conversations come up again and our characters will begin to sway the masses to their causes, but this book feels more like it is setting the stage for more to come.  I can't tell if they will aid each other in the future or become enemies, but I look forward to finding out as the story continues.

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