From Australia with Love: Trudi Canavan’s Millennium’s Rule Trilogy is Fantasy Gold

Canavan’s latest fantasy series is called the Millennium’s Rule—the second installment, Angel of Storms, was just released—and it’s easily the most ambitious project she has ever attempted. Set in a universe where magic-wielding sorcerers can create pathways to a multitude of different worlds, Canavan’s tale (begun in 2014’s Thief’s Magic) is tantalizingly constructed: like a multidimensional puzzle. Focusing on the lives of seemingly mundane characters like Rielle, a young lady who helps her parents with their dyeworks business, and Tyen, a history student, Canavan slowly reveals the jaw-dropping wonders of a meticulously detailed, richly described universe through their actions. Rielle has the rare ability to see Stain, the absence of magic, but in her patriarchal world any interaction with magic is forbidden. It’s for the Angels to use, and no one else. Tyen, on the other hand, lives in a world where magic is perceived very differently. When he finds a sentient magic book, he embarks on a quest to somehow free the woman, Vella, from the ancient tome.
Angel of Storms continues the stories of Rielle and Tyen as Canavan leads her characters in surprising directions. After living a relatively peaceful life for the last five years, Rielle is visited by an Angel and invited to reside with a group of artisans in a celestial realm—but her trip leads her somewhere very different. Tyen is teaching mechanical magic at a prestigious school. But when the Raen—“the ruler of all worlds”—returns to his realm after disappearing 20 years earlier, Tyen’s world is turned upside down.

The series hook is the mystery that exists at the edges of the overarching story. How are Tyen and Rielle’s storylines connected? What is the nature of magic? And how is it ultimately significant in this universe?
Canavan’s biggest strength is her immersive style. Her descriptive abilities are simply sublime; readers will find the worlds she explores vividly illustrated and fully realized. It’s a “stay-up-all-night-until-your-eyes-bleed” kind of read.
Angel of Storms is the middle installment of a trilogy, so there is no real satisfying ending. The conclusion is more of a respite, and will you hanging off the proverbial cliff until next year, when the last installment (tentatively entitled Successor’s Promise) will be published.