Trem: Exiles by: Alex Baxter Scott

 

Last year I wrote a review for Trem, the self-published debut novel from Alex Baxter Scott, where I found it to be an engaging, if flawed, first novel, whose myriad of issues could come from better formatting and a second edit.  Trem: Exiles, the sequel, released two years later, addresses many of these issues and more in what amounts to be a highly engaging sequel.  The first point of note about Trem: Exiles is its length: while Trem struggled with a 400 page count only containing a story for about 350 pages, Trem: Exiles breezes past with a 272 page count, allowing for a quick pace, expecting readers to already be familiar with the previous novel.  This isn’t to say that Scott has to keep writing shorter books, there isn’t the issue of the end of the book being dragged out to meet a page count, without feeling like a novella or a short story.  This hits the necessary story beats to tell a full story while deepening the worldbuilding of the Manzazzu, spending much of the book searching for Trem’s parents and giving Gabby Morgan’s parents a real weight, going against the trope of hiding the magic from family and bringing them into the action after being kidnapped by the Styx sisters.  The theme of family, and providing trust in that family, is the major thrust of Scott’s novel.  Trem essentially saw the Styx sisters lost the closest thing they had to a family with Treman’s defeat.  The sisters adorn the cover and Trem: Exiles is their story as much as it is Gabby and Trem’s.  Scott attempts to have a redemption arc after the kidnapping, setting up future books, but in this one they’re a trio of villains, which is where Scott seems to take a fish out of water story as they adapt to Earth.

 

There is an interestingly smug sense of authority when it comes to portraying Manzazzu society, which gets featured in this book.  The Queen in particular having an open mind makes an interesting twist on the general formula of an alien society looking at humanity as lesser.  There is a need to convince the Queen to accept Gabby as a person.  There is also the interesting connection between Gabby and the Sentinel, initially teased as a possible future version of Gabby, though this only lasts through the first few chapters and the actual identity of the Sentinel is far more interesting.  Trem: Exiles takes cues from the myth of Orpheus, with Trem and Gabby descending once again into the Styx to rescue Trem’s parents, though unlike orphic storytelling this at its core is not a tragedy.  The action moves quickly back to Earth after finding Trem’s parents, and that Earth setting makes it feel distinct from the first book where everything seemed to revolve around the Styx.  There are hints here of a deeper world and Scott has clearly given thought to just how deep the world he’s creating is: there are Manzazzu exiles living on Earth, masquerading as human beings and simply trying to live their lives which makes for an interesting idea, though one that is not explored to its fullest extent.

 

Trem: Exiles also takes the series in a different direction from the first book: while the ghosts where a major through line in the first book, here they are relegated to minor characters, and while Trem and Gabby’s romance is still a thing, it is more a background feature for the characters.  This means that the romance subplot that also drove Trem isn’t here, though Scott does keep it as a deepening feature.  There are just points where it may have served better for some of that romance to slow down the plot and come to the forefront, as the fast pace doesn’t allow for much romance.  Introducing Trem to Gabby’s friends is also an interesting prospect as it brings the two worlds together quite well.  Overall, Trem: Exiles is an exciting installment and improvement over the initial installment, though still suffering from a few problems.  Scott’s style improves and the formatting increase makes this one much easier to read and unlike Trem, which finished before then setting up a sequel, there is clearly more coming in the series and further developments will be followed with interest.  If you want a good fantasy series from an independent author, this series is one of your options.  8/10.