Book Review: A Quiet Vengeance by Tim Hardie

I am so glad I took this recommendation off my friends’ favorite reads of 2023 list!

I wanted to save my fantasy reads and reviews for Wyrd & Wonder, and I’m glad I did because hopefully I can get some more eyes on Tim Hardie. Welcome to my Road Less Travelled (underrated books) entry! How have I never heard of this author? I freaking LOVED A Quiet Vengeance. It was the perfect book recommendation for me

Anyway, let’s take a quick look at the book and then I’ll share my thoughts.

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Bookish Quick Facts:

• Title: A Quiet Vengeance
• Series: Samarak Tales #1
• Author: Tim Hardie
• Published: Self, 2023
• Length: 373 pages
• Recommended: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ for fans of character focused, political fantasy in a Middle Eastern-ish setting

Here’s the Synopsis:

Nimsah is an abandoned child living on the streets of Bengarath, surviving on her wits as part of a criminal gang in the City of Tents, home to the dispossessed. Dojan is the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Fujareen, enjoying a life of luxury in Bengarath Palace. Their lives are brought together as the threat of war looms in the neighbouring city state of Kandarah. However, Dojan and Nimsah share a secret, one that will set in motion a chain of events leading to vengeance.

– _{From Am*zon}

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My Thoughts

I think the most important part of this review is to say that regardless of genre or trad or indie, A Quiet Vengeance is one of my favorite reads this year.

Zamil Akhtar and Rati Mehrotra, among others, got me tuned into fantasy set in Middle Eastern based worlds. I love it and think the tribes, dress, culture, markets, cities, deserts, sea voyages, etc, set up a great type of fantasy world that is refreshingly different than European/Medieval based fantasy.

That said – all of these things factor beautifully into Hardie’s rich new world. I loved touring Bengarath from the palace to the docks to the market and The Tent City. Kandarah with it’s high spires and architectural wonders and tribes in deep conflict with each other. There was so much conflict to stay interested in and you never knew where the next betrayal was coming from.

The characters are also insanely well developed, whether they are main or side I feel like I know their personalities and motivations. I could feel the mood in the rooms with them.

One of my favorite aspects is the lack of romance. I’m so sick of romance being shoved into every single book whether it works or not, and this is just SO REFRESHING to have a male and female MC that just respect each other as business partners and possibly friends.

I just like the characters too. Dojan is a pretty typical Crown Prince who doesn’t care too much about his role until something happens to spark the fire under him. I like that he became thoughtful and more of a negotiator than anything else, looking for nonviolent paths.

Nimsah… Sigh, what are we going to do with Nimsah? She (and Dojan) are products of their pasts except they took away two very different messages from their shared experience. I like that women in general can be high-ranking military and banking officers in this world as well.

I love intensely political and scheming books with all the stabby backstabbing. A Quiet Vengeance has so much of this in it’s plot. It’s equal parts political, coming of age, new alliances, and sets up so many potential springboarding points for future books in the series.

The last point to make is how well the dual timelines worked here. Past and future coming together works really well with thrillers but I don’t see it so much in the fantasy genre. At first it was hard to connect the timelines but after things start coming together it made the book hard to put down.

My only even slight qualm was how hard it was to keep all the proper names apart for the first third of the book. Lots of military titles and new things made it hard at first, but there’s an index to help.

Overall- I just plain liked the book. It’s an easy read with a lot to think about. The prose doesn’t weigh you down while sucking you into the world and it’s very refreshing overall.

I can’t wait to see what else Hardie has written and what he writes next! He is definitely a super underrated author and I’m hoping everyone checks him out!