Heir by Sabaa Tahir

This guest review is from Crystal Anne! Crystal Anne with An E comes to us from a sunny clime, but prefers to remain a pale indoor cat. She enjoys reading, cross-stitching something nerdy, going to see live music, and playing video games. She works as an autism consultant by day, got a degree in information science for fun, and currently serves on her local library advisory board.

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So…

What a year this month has been. I cannot speak for everyone, but I doubt that I am the only one that has been bouncing off books left and right since November 5th, 2024. I’m told constant stress is bad for the brain, and it gets compounded when one of my major stress relief activities (reading, naturally) is then negatively impacted.

I’ve only gotten two books to stick in the weeks (months? What is time anyway?) since then. The first was No Ordinary Duchess ( A | BN | K | AB ) by Elizabeth Hoyt. That one stuck because my brain normally craves historical romance when I’m sick or sad or both at the same time. The second one was Heir by Sabaa Tahir.

I was already a fan of Tahir’s from her An Ember In the Ashes trilogy. If you are unfamiliar with those books, they involve a group of young people resisting and rising up against a tyrannical regime, and are somewhat loosely based on ancient Rome (also there are jinn, because why not?). They’re excellent, and violent, and they don’t pull their punches.

Much of the same can be said about Heir, which is set in the same world, and gives us some of the children of the characters from An Ember In the Ashes. In this one, a new evil has arisen, and a mysterious nation from across the sea has mounted an invasion.

That invasion, naturally, is predicated on two things.

The first is the rise of a leader who inspires fanatical devotion in their followers, who are then willing to commit atrocities in that leader’s name. That leader takes power by demonstrating abilities that could be construed as miraculous, ruthlessly throttles dissent, and assumes the mantle of a messianic figure from that society’s primary religion.

The second reason for the invasion is the fact that the invaded nation has access to resources the invaders need, and they have decided that they will have those resources, whatever the cost.

Yeah, cannot imagine why this is a book that stuck, she said sarcastically.

Against this backdrop are three main characters: Quil, the titular heir to the throne (and a reluctant one), Sirsha, a magical “tracker” who has been exiled from her clan, and Aiz, a young woman who belongs to the lowest class in her society and sets out on a mission to free and save her people. Most of the chapters are told from one of their perspectives. A few other characters receive viewpoint chapters as well, but these three characters have the majority.

This book is well-written, engaging, and exciting. However, I think that the primary reason that my brain accepted this book is that this narrative echoes quite a lot of what we are experiencing in our present day, both domestically and internationally. It is hard to look at the type of leaders in this book, and not see some disquieting parallels to many of our own leaders.

There was one quote that stuck out to me:

“No one can manipulate those with faith like a person who has none.”

That one struck me right between the eyes. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I read it, as it gave voice to a feeling that I have had for a very long time now, but couldn’t quite find the words for.

Another quote that I think gives voice to some of what has been swirling in my brain is one that Tahir put in the IG post in which she acknowledges the book’s inclusion in the annual NPR Books We Love List:

[ALT: When you sacrifice other people’s chidren (sic) on the altar of your ambition it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be willing to sacrifice your own.” is written in black on a faded gold square, with an image of sand dunes in the background.]

I think that reading these lines, in a weird way, gave me an “Oh, it’s not just me” feeling. It is hard to believe that so many people, including people in our own circles, have made some of the choices that they have.

When I read those lines, I also thought, “Oh, THAT’S how it happens.”

I saw throughout the book how people willingly barter away pieces of their humanity and sense of empathy bit by bit for power, fully believing the entire time that they are doing the right thing, and that the power they gain is worth the pieces of themselves that they lose in the process.

Also, this narrative is ANGRY.

Tahir’s prior book is titled All My Rage ( A | BN | K | AB ), and that could have fit this book as well. The characters in this book are angry, and every last one of them has entitlement to that anger, even the ones that are doing horrible things. That said, the narrative does not excuse the actions of those characters, even as it acknowledges their suffering and what feeds their rage.

I think that is one of the most important elements of this book. It tells us that anger can be valid and still not make it okay to perpetuate further suffering. I think that it is an extremely important statement for a book to make, especially right now.

This book is excellent, which is not a surprise, given that Tahir is an excellent writer. It would have been more surprising if it wasn’t.

But the more important thing to me is that this book was the right book at the right time, and it was there when I needed it to be. I dearly hope it could be that for others, because I know that right now, a lot of us need that, and we’re going to need it for a long time to come.