The Queens of Land and Sea is the fifth — and, unfortunately, final — volume of John Maddox Roberts The Stormlands series. While one of the early chapters adds a trifle to the travelogue of Roberts’ distant future Earth, this book offers a great deal less world building than the previous four. It does open up the possibility of future exploration by revealing a South American civilization, one possessed of naval technology exceeding that of North America — and also one bringing a contagion to which most of the North American’s do not possess a natural immunity, with calamitous consequences.
Again Ansa is the protagonist, saying farewell to his younger brother early on, and traveling to request the aid of Queen Shazad of Neva in the struggle against Mezpa. However, Queen Shazad is involved in her own troubles against a renascent Gasam and Larissa. The plot reset button has been pushed. Ansa throws himself into the struggle. The book, as expected, provides some top notch action scenes.
The — rather shocking — end establishes another reset of sorts, setting the stage for another, long-promised showdown between Hael and Gassam, likely as a culminatin of multi-sided wars between and among the Islanders, Neva, Hael’s prairie kingdom, Mezpa, and — perhaps — the South Americans. Alas, we will never know. Queens was the last book of the series published. Presumably sales did not justify another. And sadly, book four was the last appearance of Hael. He spends the entirety of this one off-stage, convalescing.
On the positive side, Roberts provided five excellent novels of high adventure. And the reader is free to imagine his own ending. I’ve actually spent some time considering a variety of scenarios and satisfactory outcomes. On the negative side, we readers are left with an unending cliff-hanger. Unless there is an outline somewhere, describing the events of future volumes, we will never know what Roberts intended. (If someone is aware of such a document, please let me know.) But that’s the risk with series fiction, and I don’t regret taking that gamble with The Stormlands. The enjoyment I received from what was published is greater than the disappointment resulting from what wasn’t.
If you’re interested in picking up a completed series, you can get my Falchion’s Company series, all three books of which are available in print, digital, or audio. (And I’ll have a bit of Falchion’s Company related news later this month.)