The League Series—A Sherrilyn Kenyon Redux

Having enjoyed most of the other books in Sherrilyn Kenyon’s bibliography, I was very excited to find out that St. Martin’s was re-publishing three of her early books as they were intended to be: a cohesive series. The edits Kenyon made to all three have really polished the books into a great series, but it was the third book, Born of Ice (originally published as Paradise City) that benefited most, in my opinion.

Series Background

In the Ichidian Universe, various races and governments coexist and interact, united under an Alliance whose justice is handled by The League: a team of assassins and military forces. But, like all governments, the League has become corrupt, and their greatest assassin turns his back on the league, becoming Public Enemy Number One. Thus we find ourselves in Born of Night (originally Born of the Night), following Nykyrian Quikiades as he battles his past and tries to open himself up to his future. We meet his team of assassins, smugglers and mercenaries and follow them as they try to help the universe while saving their own hides—especially since they each have a lot of personal enemies.

The third book of the series, Born of Ice focuses on Devin Wade Kell, son of C. I. Syn and Shahara Dagan, the protagonists of book two (Born of Fire/Born in Fire). Set about 25-30 years after the previous two books, Devin has taken after his godfather Nykirian and defected from the League after he finds himself morally opposed to their heavy-handed tactics against rebels and refugees. Now he smuggles meds and food across the galaxy, but finds himself in need of a mechanic. And, since it’s not Kenyon without a woman, we have Alix, a slave trying to run from her past who has mechanical know-how from years on her father’s ship.

What are the differences?

Across the board, a lot of proper nouns have changed to unify the books into a single universe. For the most part, major characters retain their name from whichever book they were most prominent in (although Shahara is a notable exception—she retains her name from Born of the Night). Small nuances of the characters have also been changed, giving them more depth across the board, consistent with Kenyon’s more recent writing. I can’t attest to the plot of the original Born in Fire as I’ve been unable to find a copy, but the overall plots of the other two books seem pretty consistent as well.

Of the three, the original print of Born of Ice lacked the most from not having a series to back it up. The major antagonists were especially weak, and the story just felt a little thin. But the rewrite, with the power of the previous two books behind it, really allowed Kenyon to tie together a much more elaborate world, and a cast of characters we have a history with. Building on that, she was able to really pull in the full weight of the Sentella’s history and enemies in the universe to provide a much more interesting back story for both Alix and Devin. Having read the stories of Devin’s parents and of Nykirian and Kiara, the familial ties are far more meaningful, and the back story wasn’t as shallow as it was in Paradise City.

I was especially enamored with the inclusion of Vik II, a humanoid reprogramming of Syn’s mecha from Born of Fire as part of Devin’s crew. He and Omari, Devin’s adopted son, helped to flesh out Devin’s character as well as provide us with more of the Sentella family that I, at least, have grown to love.

My one gripe? The quick, neat resolution of Syn and Paden’s (his estranged son) relationship. Sure, it’s romance first and foremost, and that usually entails everyone being happy in the end, but this mending of bridges seemed out of the blue and deserved more attention than it was given if it was to happen, considering Paden’s shunning of Syn was some 40 years in the making.

There’s one final rewrite coming out—a republishing of the short story “Fire and Ice” in her anthology In Other Worlds slated for June 2010. Set more or less concurrently with Born of Ice, it focuses on one of Nykyrian and Kiara’s sons, Adron who made an appearance in the (new to the rewrite) prologue of Born of Ice.

And the best news of all? From the upcoming books list on her Web site, it looks like Kenyon has plans to continue the series! “Callien’s Story” is apparently slated for Apr 4th, 2011.