The second “Forged” book by Andrew Knighton.
In Forged for Destiny, Knighton brought us the story of Raul. Raul was seemingly a Chosen One that was manufactured by a former court official, and an officer in the army. By means of keeping him hidden from invaders who had toppled the kingdom, and seeding legend and myth, they hoped to manufacture a Chosen One storyline for him, and ride him to glory into throwing out the invaders and restoring the kingdom. Raul slowly begins to realize his role and his seemingly foreordained fate is a manufactured manipulation. And even as he tries to fulfill the expectations and the role, he finds that a prophecy and destiny cannot be so easily manufactured. The attempt at rebellion is shattered, brutally. The supposed destined sword captured by his enemy. And Raul abandons the woman pretending to be his mother and flees to the hinterlands to begin again--but his way.
Forged for Prophecy, second in the series, details what happens next.
And that of course is the trick, What happens when you find out that your own Chosen One life was a lie and that you weren’t magically destined for anything, really. You’ve been trained, in a sense, to be that hero, that heir, even if you really are not the last scion of the royal family of Estis. The Dunholmi are still in control of Estis. The local Count is still the one that took the fake chosen sword. The man who raised you still lost a hand in that disastrous final conflict.
Raul decides to try and do a revolution and revolt on his terms--mostly. He still is pretending to be the last scion of Estis, but without Prisca, the woman who raised him, guiding the rebellion with her prophecies. And it is not going well at all. Revolution is a hard business, and early on, Raul bites off more than he can chew. He has a reconciliation of sorts with Prisca, who urges him to go into the wild to find an ancient artifact that could help him be the hero he needs to be.
And so the story continues.
The second novel is very much concerned about forging a myth (as opposed to faking a myth as in the first novel) and the burdens of command and power. And the costs of doing all of this. Raul has chosen this leadership position, and now seeing it through is a real test of command and ability. Raul has to learn, quickly, and also learn, to his sorrow, that these lessons have a cost. This starts both, immediately, at a cost in trying to obtain coin from the Dunholmi, and in the long term, with a plot thread involving the somewhat reconciled Prisca. It turns out that trying to do divination does damage to the mind over time¹.
Knighton does a good job with this, especially once we get to the meat of the novel. In the course of being in the wilds, Raul and his companions are confronted with a god, Varrag. Varrag is worse than Conan’s Crom, he is capricious and even less useful as an object of worship, but he is the master of this twisted and changeable land. Raul and his companions traverse a tewr
And so does Count Alder.
Because, of course, Alder pursues Raul, because he does have a sense of duty to his Empire and his own interests. Raul is a small threat but he is a threat, and after the events of the first novel, he is willing to spend political and social capital in going after him. So the Dunholmi, too, go forging into these wilds after the Rebels. We only get a few short sections from Alder’s point of view. However, Knighton handles these well, giving a face to the local Dunholmi ruler, and making him a more fleshed out antagonist. He has his own problems, ideals and plans, and like in the first book, I could see and somewhat sympathize with him and his own life.
The Withered Hills, the wilds where the bulk of the action takes place, is an interesting and well written wilderness. Knighton knows his forebears, and has some interesting twists to the chaotic terrain and those who live there, giving the Withered Hills (which is such a good toponym that is worthy of Tolkien) a real life and personality to them. That the Hills are being violated by outsiders but fights back in a losing battle is a somber reflection about how a dangerous way of life, but one unique to the residents and one the residents are used to, is being slowly eroded away.
The book I was thinking of as I was reading Forged for Prophecy is the recent award finalist novel from Alix Harrow, The Everlasting. There aren’t anything like the time loops that Harrow uses, but other themes from that novel contrast well with this one. In this book, the myth making is happening in real time by Raul himself, rather than being just the results of the changes to Una’s story.
But Forged by Prophecy, just like Forged by Destiny, continues the critique from the inside of the whole project of a Chosen One. And it gets at the same thing as The Everlasting does, as the turns and revelations of the novels continue--the good, but also the danger of reaching for these myths and what happens when these myths do not align with the facts on the ground. As Raul pursues a magical item and the aforementioned Varrag, there is temptation, and bargain revolving around power, and the future of Raul and Estis, and the past history of Estis itself. This also goes to the character development.
The secondary characters, in addition to Raul are well done and get arcs of their own. Prisca’s struggles with the costs of doing divination; Valens, having lost a hand in the previous novel, has to reconcile his usefulness and his changed role in Raul’s rebellion. And Yasmin, with her masks that allow her to become various creatures, finds that the lure of “becoming the mask” is extremely tempting, and real. It’s easier to become the wolf whose mask she wears. It simplifies things... but becoming the wolf too often changes Yasmin. Alder, too, gets a small but significant character arc of his own.
But to turn to the style and the reading of the book, this is an extremely readable and page turning epic fantasy series, and a very good middle good in this story as well. After the twist of the Chosen One in Forged for Destiny, Forged for Prophecy keeps exploring the consequences of Raul trying to do better after the disaster of the first novel. In these trilogies, the ones that this novel derives and critiques, the usual pattern is Early Win in Book One, followed by the Empire striking Back in Book Two, and then victory in Book Three. Knighton is already off that pattern and continues to surprise in this book as well. While following more standard epic fantasy patterns can still be rewarding to a reader like myself, this critique and twist on those narratives was very satisfying. Forged for Prophecy is an entirely successful sequel to Forged for Destiny and I look forward to picking up the third book in the series, Forged for Royalty.
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Highlights:
The Chosen One with a twist continues, and continues the surprises.
Character arcs for all help support and grow the narrative
Refreshingly written and page turning.
Reference: Knighton, Andrew, Forged for Destiny, [Orbit, 2025]
¹ One is reminded of Charles Stross’ Laundry Files, a very different genre, but similar potential problems for wizards.
POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.
