Heir
Sabaa Tahir
Hardcover/ eBook/ Audio
ISBN: 9780593616949
Penguin Random House, October 1, 2024, 512 pgs

Aiz is a gifted orphan, determined to help her peers get out of the slums and into power. Sirsha is the haughty exiled daughter of a powerful matriarchal nation of magic users. Quil is the heir to an empire, hiding both his ambivalence about taking the throne and mystical powers of his own. Together, the three of them team up to take on an evil pretender, bent on twisting holy purpose to his own nefarious ends and destroying any chance their nations have at finding peace.

Sabaa Tahir’s Heir is familiar fun—the first installment in an epic YA fantasy duology full of big battles, exciting magics, and enough love triangles to teach a geometry lesson with. It’s even set in the same universe as Tahir’s previous series, An Ember in the Ashes. It shares the same setting, styled vaguely after the late Roman Empire, and has the same immensely detailed worldbuilding, although Heir is set some years after Ember, with an (almost) entirely new cast of characters and a slightly darker edge. You don’t need to read the previous series to get into Heir—it’s written well enough to stand on its own, although the glimpses we get of people and places from the past are probably much more satisfying when you get the references.

There’s a lot of layers in the creation of this book’s world. Readers will really feel as though they’re traversing an entire continent full of different cultures and languages that all interact with each other in really different ways. We know what people eat, how they look, the myths they tell, and most importantly what they think of each other. The harsh Kegari who use their gifts solely to raid peaceful nations, the haughty Ankanese who hold their magic in mystic regard, the rigid, martial Empire—all of these cultures are just as much a part of the story of Heir as the heroes and villains.

The painstaking way that the details of this universe are set up is a blessing and a curse. It takes a really long time for our three heroes to finally team up and get to work, and once they do, it takes them a while to figure out what to actually do. It’s a good thing they have such a capable and devoted supporting cast. The sidekicks in this book have most of the best dialogue and some of the more meaningful moments of awesome as well.

This is a young adult novel, so expect a lot of trauma, a lot of emotional introspection while journeying to the next stage of the quest, and a lot of romantic tension in the midst of fleeing for one’s life. It all works. This is a culturally well-crafted, deeply detailed popcorn book—something to read for fun and adventure on the couch on a cozy weekend.