Review: “How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse”
Have you ever asked yourself why more fairytales don’t take place in space … in the future?! It is a conundrum that has haunted me for AGES! But! K.Eason is here to answer our prayers. OK … maybe just my prayers.
The Rory Thorne of “How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse” is the princess of the Thorne Consortium, a sort of space kingdom that observes many traditional Earthly customs … including the inviting of fairies to royal christenings. This, dear reader, is when all hell breaks loose.
Rory is “blessed” by her 13 fairy godmothers and granted gifts that some find … off-putting. But this is overshadowed by an assassination plot that kills Rory’s father and the ruler of a neighboring kingdom. This kicks off a series of events in which our princess must save herself from unwanted betrothals, plots for power grabs and an evil regent hell-bent on breaking Rory. And Rory very likely will destroy galactic peace by upsetting this particular apple cart. You know, normal teenage princess stuff.
The sassy, definitely biased, narrator hooked me in the first few pages of this book, which is written as a historical archive. But you can definitely tell who the unnamed historian is rooting for.
The thing that really propelled this story for me was the masterful blend of magic, fantasy, fairytales and sci-fi. Seriously, this book is all of my fav genres wrapped up in a whipsmart story.
Obviously, I wasn’t super into the romantic plot seeds planted between Rory and Jaed, who just happens to be the evil regent’s youngest son. Can’t a girl save her home and family and wreck the universe without having to find a boyfriend? I understand the purpose of this plot point, but I’m not convinced the story would suffer without it.
I also felt as though some of the characters were a bit underdeveloped. But since this is the first book in a series (WOOOOHOOOO!), I think that might be addressed in the sequel: “How the Multiverse Got Its Revenge.”
I definitely recommend diving into “How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse,” especially if you (like me) love a story in which the princess saves herself.
5 stars
