The Fates Divide Book Review: The Sequel That Made Me Care About the Politics

Rating: ★★★★

"The Fates Divide" Book Review:

The Fates Divide picks up where Carve the Mark left off and does what good sequels do — it expands the scope while deepening the personal stakes. Where the first book was about Akos and Cyra surviving, this one is about them choosing. And the choices are terrible.

Cyra and Akos are separated for much of the novel, and Roth uses that distance to give each character their own arc rather than tethering them to the romance. Cyra is drawn into the political upheaval of the Shotet nation, where her brother Ryzek's grip on power is slipping and new factions are emerging with their own agendas. She has to navigate who to trust when everyone is using her — her currentgift, her name, her proximity to power. Akos, meanwhile, returns to Thuvhe and confronts what he's become during his time with the Shotet. He's not the gentle boy who was kidnapped anymore, and Roth doesn't pretend that transformation is clean.

The politics are significantly more complex here. The Assembly — the galactic governing body — is intervening in the Shotet-Thuvhe conflict, and their motivations are murky. Roth handles the geopolitics with more confidence than in the first book, drawing clear parallels to real-world interventionism without becoming heavy-handed. The revelation about Cyra and Akos's true fates — the ones the oracles actually predicted — reframes the entire duology.

The pacing tightens considerably. Where Carve the Mark sometimes meandered through worldbuilding, The Fates Divide moves with purpose. The action sequences are better constructed, the emotional beats hit harder, and the ending delivers genuine resolution while remaining true to the story's moral complexity.

Austin Butler and Emily Rankin return to narrate, and they've grown into the characters. Butler's Akos in particular carries a weight in this book that he didn't in the first.

Four stars. A sequel that earns its ending.

If You Liked The Fates Divide, Try:

• Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo — Another sequel that deepens the political complexity while keeping the character relationships at center stage. The heist structure is different but the emotional intelligence is similar.

• Morning Star by Pierce Brown — The explosive conclusion to the Red Rising trilogy. Same escalation of scope and stakes.

• Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray — Star-crossed lovers on opposite sides of an interplanetary war. Similar DNA, different execution.

From Luke Stoffel's Bookshelf

If you enjoyed this book review, check out The Stardust Pirates — a story about people who travel impossible distances only to discover the thing they were looking for was the crew they built along the way. Found family at its most literal and most earned. Learn More: The Stardust Pirates

The Stardust Pirates by Luke Stoffel