Loved this one and am hopeful there will be more, dont remember the last tim ive been captivated by a novel like this

The Empire Wars by Akana Phenix is an exhilarating and action-packed fantasy that immerses readers in a richly developed world of power struggles and political intrigue. The story follows a diverse cast of characters as they navigate alliances and betrayals amid a backdrop of conflict. Phenix’s vivid world-building and compelling character arcs create a gripping narrative that keeps readers engaged from start to finish. With themes of loyalty, ambition, and resilience, this novel is perfect for fans of epic fantasy looking for a fresh and dynamic read.

I did not know we were publishing first drafts now, because there is no way in the world that was the finished version.

This book suffered deeply from the author having a big imagination but not the skill set to do the story any measure of justice. The first few chapters alone are a great indicator of the flaws to be found in this book that, in the right hands and given more time, could have been a very profound story. Instead we are given a story that bounces all over the place, is rife with massive info dumps and pages of exposition that often say nothing or contradict half the story, and leaves the reader with a hundred questions that are never answered. I read over 400 pages and a) do not know why Coa was in the Hunt to begin with and b) do not understand why the future leader of what is essentially a neo-nazi aryan race empire would marry the most vapid Black girl who has not presented herself with any value. So many things did not make sense and it tanked the story from the first chapter.

I will not be reading the rest of the series.

OMG OMG OMG the empire wars are such a refreshing fantasy that incorporates a fantasy world with political controversy in the world of the great hunt. There were tons of twist and turns and it was truly a heartwretching story in certain parts of the story and it invoked emotions out of me. Truly loved the book and I think everyone should read it.

“The Empire Wars,” by Akana Phoenix

Really interesting book. The slaves fighting in the “great hunt” reminded me of hunger games type of trials but medieval vibes, but the book is post-apocalyptic sort of, which was a cool combo. There are tons of heavy issue topic like genocide and racism and women being less than and abused. I did think the POV’s in each chapter were on the confusing side of the current POV. Other than that, it was good if you like multi POV’s and lots of world building. 3 out of 5 stars.

-Magic
-Genocide
-Multi POV

Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley.

The Empire Wars by Akana Phenix had a lot of potential with its ambitious world-building and complex themes, but it ultimately fell short for me. The story is packed with dystopian elements and touches on important issues like fascism and genocide, but the execution feels underdeveloped. The world is confusing, with too many divisions and unexplained elements, making it hard to keep track of what's happening.

The characters didn't resonate with me either; they felt two-dimensional, and I struggled to connect with their motivations. The competition aspect of the plot, which should have been thrilling, felt chaotic and underwhelming. While the author clearly has passion, the story needed more refinement and depth to really shine.

Overall, The Empire Wars has an interesting premise, but it didn’t quite deliver on its promise. If you're a fan of YA dystopian fiction, you might find some aspects intriguing, but it didn’t capture my interest as much as I had hoped.

Not sure how I feel about this one. I might need to come back to it. The worldbuilding and jumping back and forth made me really confused. The fact the author was in high school when she first wrote this shows. It needs a lot more maturity to write some of the aspects of this book so I think it could use more developmental work.

I think I need to revisit this because I loved the premise and I was incredibly invested in it - but the worldbuilding and the jumping around made this so confusing in the first half that I set it down and didn't pick it back up for a while. By the time I got back to it, I was only half interested in it despite the interesting plot.

This was a weird book to write considering the ongoing genocides all over the world. Also really weird that the author is POC but all her characters are white except for one

Thank you to NetGalley for giving this ARC, and this doesn’t influence my review. This was a very interesting book, the plot was wonderful. I wish it had more romance though, even though the plot kept me hooked long enough. This book is dual-POV, both FMC’s.

The Empire Wars is one of the most intense books I have read in a while. This book does have trigger warnings and does have quite a bit of gore so please check to see if anything will trigger you. This book has 2 very distinct points of view. With both of the pov’s, you learn more about how the government (the Allied Forces) is corrupt and brainwashed over 300 million people. It has action, forced alliances and forced relationships. There is a magic system but it’s not a main focus and is almost just a little bonus. The premise of the hunt was interesting and it definitely delivered. The island is absolutely horrible and scary. The lengths that the characters would go through to save their family highlights the pain that happens when they fail. I can’t wait to read the next book! Thank you to Blackstone Publishing for the arc through netgalley

I'm so, so sorry to say this--but the book is bad. Really bad. It needed a LOT more developmental editing, and I hope it got it before going to publication; I only got the ARC the day before publication and it took me a couple of days to get through it. I think the problems can be broadly broken into three main categories: the worldbuilding, Coa, and Ife.

The Worldbuilding
This world--which is, I should say, our world makes no sense. Phenix lays out a structure in which, for some reason, every country except the United States and the UK has become some other country entirely, and some random people from the Artic (but NOT indigenous people from the Arctic) called the Allied Forces (who are they allied with? literally no one, it just one big group) have taken over everything except the USA/UK alliance. How did we get to this point? METEORS. Yup. That's the whole explanation. Well, not really. Phenix does a LOT of info dumping in this book, for pages upon pages at a time, but none of it actually makes sense, and every time she tries to explain something, it just makes everything make less sense. Honestly, this book would have been much better suited to a second-world setting, because then she could have just scrapped all of the attempts at "how did we get here" and could have leaned much more on a "this is the way the world is" logic. There is also an attempt at having magic in this book, which isn't super well-done, and also with the exception of one in every eight million people, all magic belongs to indigenous African and Inuit communities (there is much more emphasis on the African magic than the Inuit magic, though the Inuit magic is mentioned in the background of one minor supporting character) which...seems to really lean into the whole "African mysticism" stereotype and seems problematic. (It is worth noting that Ife, our only main character with African origins, does NOT have magical abilities of her own.) A second-world setting could have alleviated some of the "what do you mean there's magic involved here" of the whole book as well. Phenix definitely could have had a second-world setting while still drawing on the horrors of various genocides in our world to make a point.

There's also the whole setup of the Great Hunt, where the Allied Forces send "foreigners" (aka anyone who is not them) into an area to be shot at by AF snipers over seven days, all while the foreigners do Hunger Games-esque things to each other to try to get ahead. Why? Who knows. In this particular iteration of the Great Hunt, the Hunt is taking place on an African island that is...cursed? Hexed? Alive with magic? Unclear. It is a SEVERELY UNDERUTILIZED setting. There is setup that the island can be bargained with after making an appropriate sacrifice; nothing ever comes of this. There is setup that a giant typhoon is going to come and wreak havoc on the place; nothing is ever done with this. The typhoon DOES come, but only in the sense that main character Coa says "Oh it was really bad and took a while to pass," with "a while" being less than 24 hours. The typhoon could have been utilized as really dramatic set-dressing for a final climactic encounter, but no.

Coa
Coa is one of the two main characters, and the one that is introduced first in the book. She is a prisoner in a forced labor camp run by the Allied Forces. She is one of the people being forced to compete in the Great Hunt, and she wants to survive the Great Hunt because if she dies as part of it, her entire family will be executed as well. She can also breathe fire and shoot lightning out of her hands even though she has no apparent connections of any of the communities that have magic in this book.

Coa's story makes no sense from the start. We NEVER find out how she ended up in this labor camp. Early on it seems like there is going to be a bit of a dual timeline for Coa, with the Great Hunt story taking up the "present" portion and a "how did we get here" timeline for the past, but that ends pretty quickly with Coa and her adoptive family deciding they want to run away from Hallowell, their native country, for the United States. We never see them actually enact this plan or find out how they got caught by the Allied Forces and end up in a labor camp off the coast of Africa (which part of Africa is never specified, just that it's tropical). Note that I said Coa's ADOPTIVE family. This is a big plot hole. I am a big proponent of found family stories, but it doesn't work here because Coa's ENTIRE STATED MOTIVATION for the entire book is that if she dies, her family will be killed. However, there is no indication of how the AF would ACTUALLY KNOW they are her family. She's literally asked if she has family early on by the AF, she says no, and they believe her. There is mention of DNA tracking being how they enforce family kill orders, but Coa's family is not biologically related to her, and so that won't work. So how does her being in the Great Hunt actually endanger them? Also, she says they'll all be killed if she dies but she literally starts off the book by telling a soldier to kill her, she doesn't care, which doesn't really set her up as a smart person to root for throughout the book. And then at the end, she's saying she's ready to die during the Great Hunt, apparently forgetting her entire stated motivation of protecting her family. She never, ever makes a single smart or strategic decision. Ever. Also, her magic (breathing fire and shooting lightning from her hands) supposedly comes at the cost of burning her lungs and throat, and will eventually kill her. I say "supposedly" because she uses her magic at various points in the book with none of these consequences. They don't show up until about 80% of the way through, when it heightens the drama in one specific encounter for them to show up. All the other instances, she walks away from her magic usage with no consequences of it at all.

Ife
Ife, at first blush, seems to hold more promise than Coa as a character. She is Makarian, which is one of the made-up countries in Africa and the only one that has magic. But Ife doesn't have magic. She is also a princess, and is married to Maximus Stormbane, who is the heir to the Allied Forces. How did Ife end up here? WE NEVER FIND OUT. She says her own family hates her for not having magic and TRIED TO KILL HER until she ran away TO THE ARCTIC (where, as a reminder, EVERYONE WOULD WANT TO KILL HER TOO FOR NOT BEING ARCTIC HERSELF), and then she apparently...lived in the wilderness for three years until she randomly turned up at a Makarian embassy and got married to Maximus? Absolute nonsense. Logic? Fleshed-out backstory? Never heard of it. Ife supposedly married Maximus because she intends to assassinate him and wanted the insider access being his wife would give her. Ife never, at any point in this entire book, makes any move to kill Maximus OR to prepare to kill him, in any way, which ultimately renders her entire character as kind of pointless. I kept waiting for her to DO something...but she never did.

Final Thoughts
Phenix states in the author's note section that she wrote her first draft of the book when she was a sophomore in high school...and honestly, I think that explains a lot. This very much reads like a book that was written by a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old. She tries to tackle topics like genocide that her writing just doesn't have the maturity to do well. Let's be honest; would most of us want the world to read something we wrote in high school? PROBABLY NOT, because it was more than likely REALLY BAD. This is not a knock against Phenix specifically, but just that teenagers are generally not amazing novelists because they haven't had the time to develop the skills that go into writing a really great novel. A really good developmental editor could have helped with this, with giving the book structure, cleaning up the worldbuilding, and solidifying character motivations and actions, but despite an editor being listed and thanked, it really does not feel like that high-touch development happened. I kept reading even though I wanted to DNF early on because I kept thinking that SURELY there was going to be some twist or reveal that was going to make everything click together, but that just never happened. I have no interest in reading further books in this series after how bad this one was, but hopefully by the time Phenix gets to her next story, whatever that may be, she will have the experience and maturity to draft a stronger story to start with, and the editorial support to make sure it truly shines. I wish her the best.

Okay this is such a hard book to rate. And to review, but at least in the review I can more easily explain stuff. Look- this is not a perfect book by any stretch of the imagination (we'll get to that). There were times I was about to throw the thing across the room and call it quits. But then... there were also times I was completely captivated by the story, and would have bit you if you tried to take it from me. So let's just say it's... an experience.

For a brief summary: Coa, girl from island nation now forced into slavery, has been sent to the Great Hunt which is really just Hunger Games on crack. If she dies, her whole family dies. She doesn't even have any actual family so Idk how that works, but... it's fine. Bad stuff will happen. Princess Ife, who is from an African country and/or region that may or may not exist today. She is married to Corporal Baddie of the Arctic Asshat Army. He's the son of General Extra Baddie, Leader of the Arctic, and Ife thinks she can use her position in their inner circle to help save the world. We get to read from both of their perspectives.

I usually lead with the good parts, but in this case, the good parts came later, so I am going to start with the stuff I had trouble with.

►I don't get this world. At all, really. Like- you have your baddies, who in my head were like... if the cast of Frozen and Nazis had redneck babies? Or something? They claim to be "genetically superior" (which we all know baddies love to do, in fiction and in the real world). But then there is talk of them coming from all different places around the world so... which is it? And you might think that your typical Scandinavian folk would fit the bill, but you'd be really wrong because they don't like those guys either. Except for a few that they do. I have no idea. Most countries are gone but then not really, but maybe yes? And I think there is a country that is made up? Or maybe it fell off of the continental US? It claims to be a Florida-Louisiana sort of mix, but with mountains? I mean, if you told me we finally lobbed off Florida in the future, I wouldn't fight it, but that doesn't appear to be the situation. Then something about an asteroid comes into play and I guess asteroids explain all the new countries and groups and stuff, but not actually. In my head when I didn't understand how some random island popped into existence, I filled the gap with "Because Asteroids™" and it allowed me some peace. Until they started telling me that volcanic air dust let people live for three or more centuries, that is just silly.

►The political system, as you may have gathered, is confusing as well. And there is so much of it! This probably ties into the worldbuilding too but whatever. At some point, the characters just start ratting off random leaders of places that hadn't been mentioned. After one such tangent, I wrote in my Kindle "I thought... you know what nevermind" and just gave up. There are a ton of different factions at play, but it is very hard to keep track of them because, well, you can't even fully figure out where they come from, frankly.

►Holy contradictions! Legit in one line, Ife says someone is upset about being deaf: "Thorsten’s at the age where he desperately hopes he’ll recover his hearing, since the war obliterated...". Then not two sentences later she says "Above all, he loves being deaf." Um. Ma'am. I don't think that makes sense. Then like- one minute Coa is legit telling people to kill her already, and in the very next breath says she's ready to fight and kill everyone for her siblings. Who aren't her siblings, but that's a whole other Oprah. There's just a lot of that, and I hope some of it is worked out in editing.

But here's the weird part: despite the whole debacle, I actually... kind of liked the damn thing? And when I say "kind of", I mean "give me the sequel immediately I need answers". Idk what that says about me as a reader, but alas. Parts of it really worked! Like...

►Genocide and slavery are bad. I mean this should go without saying, but apparently a lot of people need this message. And boy, does this book deliver! Not only in the story, but I thought it was cool that the author used examples of real genocide and hate crimes to illustrate the point further. So from a commentary perspective, it delivered.

►I really felt for the characters, and even though they were at times contradictory, I quite liked them. Look- it's impossible to not feel bad for them, because they're literally being attempted-murdered through the whole book. And even before the killing rampages began, things were pretty awful for Coa.

►It is dark. Maybe akin to a train wreck that you can't look away from, I could not put this book down. I had to know what happened. (Well- after I got past the first quarter in which I was in danger of throwing things.)

►I was just completely invested in the outcome. Look, some things you just can't explain. And for better or for worse, by the time I got about a quarter of the way through, I was hooked. Don't get me wrong, I still found the inconsistencies and world building fully baffling. I just didn't quite care as much.

►Along the same lines, it was just very engaging. A lot was happening, and it was very twisty and exciting. And sure, a lot of the twists were very... (view spoiler) but honestly that probably helped me like it more. And, I did not see most of the twists coming. Whether that is because they were extra twisty or because nothing makes sense I won't ever know, but suffice it to say, I was entertained.

Bottom Line: I cannot objectively give this more than three and a half stars, but the subjective part of me who was hooked refuses to give it any less. Do with that what you will.

I had a really hard time following along with this story. It was very confusing and I felt like I couldn't wrap my head around the world building. There were just too many divisions, languages, sectors, and without a map to reference, it was really difficult to visualize everything going on. There was a lot of information dumping and useless information that I didn't really care about. I would have liked more dialogue and romance aspects rather than unnecessary details. The characters all fell flat to me, I felt like I hardly understood them, which made me not care about them. If I had to pick my favorite characters I would choose Bray (who presumably dies and only got to know in the last 20% of the story), Kateri (who we really don't know anything about), and Czarina (who again, we only get a brief glimpse of). I unfortunately did not care for Coa, Hazen, Ife, or Maximus/Rainer. There were so many characters that you can't really get attached to any of them because you only get the surface level of who they are and their motivations. The "competition" was very underwhelming as well, considering we only know about 10 out of the 75 contestants, we don't even know what exactly happens if they win, why outside (tourists) people can interfere and why there are so many different types of snipers.

Overall, the story just has way too much going on for me to be able to accurately follow everything going on, the characters were 2 dimensional and I honestly didn't care what happened to them, and I was disappointed in the chaos surrounding the competition and the fact that we don't understand half of what is going on or the purpose behind it.

WOW. this book was loaded. it was a little slow to start but what fantasy isn’t? you have to set the scene, and shortly after the drama began. i thought this book provided an interesting storyline to the years old pattern of genocide & oppression. what made it most entertaining was it’s main aspect of “The Great Hunt” that was very Hunger Games-esque. i liked the dual storylines of both female main characters and their own struggles on opposite sides of the fence— one watching the Hunt, one participating in it. side characters were also given detailed storylines that fit so well into the plot. this was a very entertaining, and at times heartbreaking, but above all a very, very good read.

I legitimately sat and stared into space for a good hour after I finished this. It has so many twists and turns and turns it blew my mind.

It explores genocide openly and rawly but digestible to an audience who may not find it a comfortable topic.

I loved it so much, it brought me back to when I first read hunger games.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Blackstone publishing for the eARC.

“Zero time remaining. You may begin hunting.”

The Empire Wars, the first book in Akina Phenix’s breakout series, follows two girls as they attempt to survive the Allied Force, a nationalist government well into their mission of taking over the world. Coa Rangecroft grew up wild, learning to survive with little and less before she and her family were captured and placed in a labor camp run by the military. Ife Størmbane, former princess of the now decimated Makarian civilization, has married the infamous Sniper General. Tensions rise as the annual Great Hunt looms, a gruesome show in which foreigners are forced to fight for their lives amongst seventy five others, all while being hunted down by the Empire’s most prized snipers. The punishment for dying is the execution of one’s entire family. While Coa attempts to survive against desperate participants on a hostile island, Ife must masquerade as a patriotic citizen amongst people who hate her very existence.

Akana Phenix has created a world that delves into genocides, focusing on the fortitude of individual victims that are caught in the crossfire of a hostile government that only cares for power. The dual perspectives of Coa and Ife allow for insight into greatly different sides of the macabre actions of the Allied Force, against both their own people and foreigners. Coa and Ife fight for the people they care about yet the circumstances of their lives are totally estranged, not only in their pasts but also in their current situations. Coa fights to live another day, while Ife’s attentions are focused on avenging her family. Both are horrified by the Great Hunt and the atrocities involved but on different sides of the chaos and with different roles in society. I found myself fascinated by the portrayal of these characters, their contrasting roles—one has magic but lacks a position of power, while the other has the right position but no magic of her own. The presence of magic was not something I was expecting, but I was delighted to read how Phenix incorporated this magic system into a story with high dystopian elements and characters desperate to survive. Akana Phenix has designed a complex world with tantalizing twists that build in intensity and don’t stop until the very last word.

Holy moly how do I start this review? First of all, I’ll just describe it as if The Hunger Games were on steroids and if Katniss was totally down for war crimes like in The Poppy War. This book is not for the faint of heart and readers should really heed the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book. Okay, on to the review! 🫡

The story is set in a distant future where the world is taken over by the Allied Force who subjects all conquered countries to forced labor and genocide. I was slightly confused as to who the Allied Force are other than Arctic people (but not the indigenous people), but when you accept that they’re just a cold group of people hell bent on showing people how superior they are, it gets easier. ❄️

The two main POVs are Coa, a young woman surviving in a forced labor camp, and Ife, another young woman who is married to the second highest person in command. Coa reminds me of Katniss in a way that she is trying to survive in a world that’s set out to see her lose. She’s cautious and doesn’t trust anyone easily, but at times I thought she was a bit too naive for someone in her situation. I really enjoyed Ife’s character since it reminds me of Rin and how she tries to survive in an incredibly toxic environment. I can’t say more on her since it would be a spoiler, but I did find myself looking forward to her POV most often. 🦴

There’s more I wish I could say, but I’d be spoiling the whole book at that point. It’s brutal and really demonstrates how humanity can literally be its own worse enemy and repeat history. I do think it would’ve done a bit better as an adult series instead of pitched as older YA/NA, but that’s also because I’m still thinking unhinged teens is a bit of a stretch. But those last three chapters . . . 🤯

Big thank you goes out to Blackstone Publishing and NetGalley for accepting my request to read this in exchange for an honest review. And a shout out goes to the author, Phenix, for creating a KILLER (literal and figurative) debut! ❤️

Publication date: August 6!

Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️

Thank you Netgalley/Blackstone Publishing for the eARC!

I've heard whispers that the YA dystopian trend is starting to lift its head once more, and as it's been a genre that I've always been interested in--and how it's often reflective of modern times through a future lens--I was looking forward to dig into THE EMPIRE WARS. This book dealt with a lot of modern issues that circle the news cycle lately (fascism, genocide, etc--and good, these things NEED to be spoken about ) although I felt as though the author lacked the interiority to understand them--or, at the very least, to be able to adapt these topics in a way that was both informative and engaging. Ultimately, everything this book does, or tries to do, THE HUNGER GAMES simply does better.

The two stars are for a) attempting to disentangle these issues, though I believe that they failed, and b) a decent writing style, if not a bit childish at times. I also believe that the author is genuine and passionate, and there were still times when reading where I could grasp where they were coming from, even if it was implemented in a way that I did not feel was well written.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

The Empire Wars by Akana Phenix is a first person dual-POV YA fantasy dystopia that takes place in an alternative future of Earth. Coa is a former feral child who agrees to take part in the Great Hunt in order to guarantee her family's safety for a year. Ife is the teenage bride of the Great Sniper General of the Allied Forces and has been secretly working against him for years.

Hunger Games and Battle Royale serve as strong inspiration here as Akana Phenix melds the idea of teens forced into a deadly competition and willing witnesses with the reality of child soldiers and genocide. The Allied Forces take their sons at the age of six and meld them into machines that can't even cry and buy into more extreme versions of current ideas of toxic masculinity, such as ice cream being for children. Genocide comes up often, particularly in Ife’s chapters as her people have been slaughtered by the Forces and she witnessed the assassination of her own grandfather, the former king of the Makari-African people. The Allied Forces subscribe to ideas of blood purity and empires and subjugate those they conquer to forced labor or experimentation. Real world genocides are occasionally brought up and Phenix is unafraid of drawing direct parallels where applicable.

The fantasy elements come in more with orun, magical abilities that were only known to the Makari-African people for centuries. Ife, the granddaughter of a Makari-African king, doesn't have magic but Coa does. While it's not explained yet why Coa has fire abilities, given her description and that she was abandoned as a child, it seems likely that she is of Makari ancestry. Orun abilities are elemental with fire and water-types, but also include sun-based magic that can be turned dark is a user is born during an eclipse.

The relationship between Ife and Maximus is one of the most interesting parts. Ife is playing him, making him believe she loves him and is too innocent to truly understand the weight of marrying her grandfather's murderer. She's very good at playing up the idea of a silly teenage girl who only cares about clothes, make-up and having a good time to the point that everyone seems to believe that's exactly who she is all while she's doing what she can to set-up chess pieces to help her bring the Allied Forces down. Maximus, however, seems to genuinely care about Ife and would do anything for her. Given that the Allied Forces’ main goal is stamp out foreigners and to achieve blood purity and Maximus is extremely high-ranked, it's a subverted set-up of the enemies-to-lovers trope that seems to be played straight on Maximus’ part.

Content warning for strong themes of genocide, colonization, racism, and xenophobia

I would recommend this to fans of Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, readers of YA dystopia that want a bit more fantasy mixed in, and those looking for a book that discusses genocide from a dystopian angle.