Complete Savage Rebellion by Matt Wallace + Q&A: “A lot of us want the kinds of resolutions that can only be found in fantasy.”
“Epic fantasy the genre has been waiting for.”
From Hugo-winning author Matt Wallace comes an entertaining and epic fantasy series where the underdogs of society rise up and right the wrongs of their city.
Matt Wallace is currently on a blog tour promoting Savage Crowns, the latest book in his dark fantasy Savage Rebellion trilogy. The acclaimed, epic, and spellbinding fantasy series revolves around about a utopian city with a dark secret—and the underdogs who will expose it…or die trying.
They call them Savages. Brutal. Efficient. Expendable. The empire relies on them.
The Savages are the greatest weapon they ever developed. Culled from the streets of their cities, they take the ones no one will miss and throw them, by the thousands, at the empire’s enemies. If they live, they fight again. If they die, there are always more to take their place.
This remarkable and captivating fantasy will take you on a journey into the heart of brutal battles, dire situations, and odds that seem too high to overcome.
“Epic fantasy the genre has been waiting for.”
—Sarah Gailey, Hugo Award-winning author of Magic for Liars
More info about all three books in the Savage Rebellion series below!
A Hugo Award-winning podcaster, Matt Wallace has also written the urban fantasy comedy series Sin du Jour (about caterers to demons, goblins, faeries, and the like), plus books for middle grade readers, titles that are part of the Galactic Football League series, and more.
He’s also penned more than 100 short stories, and written for movies, TV, and video games. In his youth, he traveled the world as a professional wrestler and an unarmed combat and self-defense instructor before retiring to write full-time.
Below, find out about the Savage Legion series—and more about Matt Wallace!
Complete Savage Rebellion by Matt Wallace
Savage Legion (Savage Rebellion #1)
The acclaimed, epic, and spellbinding fantasy by Hugo Award-winning author Matt Wallace, about a utopian city with a dark secret…and the underdogs who will expose it, or die trying.
Evie is not a Savage. She’s a warrior with a mission: to find the man she once loved, the man who holds the key to exposing the secret of the Savage Legion and ending the mass conscription of the empire’s poor and wretched.
But to find him, she must become one of them, to be marked in her blood, to fight in their wars, and to find her purpose. Evie will die a Savage if she has to, but not before showing the world who she really is and what the Savage Legion can really do.
This remarkable and captivating fantasy will take you on a journey into the heart of brutal battles, dire situations, and odds that seem too high to overcome.
A war has begun. Savages, the empire’s most valuable resource, have been thrown at their captors’ enemies long enough. If their rebellion succeeds, it will undo a nation.
At the helm of this Savage uprising is Evie, the Sparrow General. It isn’t a title she asked for or particularly wants, but she is the last hope for several peoples at the edge of extinction.
Back in the empire’s city seat, Dyeawan, a brilliant young strategist plucked from the streets, must risk her life to maintain her newfound authority. And Lexi has finally taken control of the guild built by her family, but she finds herself at the heart of a sinister power play that could tear apart society as she knows it. Meanwhile, Lexi’s loyal retainer, Taru, has been conscripted into the legion of Savages still under the empire’s control.
These four individuals hold the fate of the world in their hands. But even if they survive their missions, they may find themselves at odds with one another…
The final war for the nation of Crache has begun.
At the helm of the people’s rebellion is Evie, the Sparrow General. She has been captured by the Skrian, Crache’s vicious army, and is being brought back to the Capitol for punishment. But reinforcements are coming for her.
Dyeawan, who has climbed from street urchin to Crache’s highest seat of power through clever schemes and ruthless bloodshed, finds trouble on every front once she arrives. The rebellion approaches, and there are whispers of a martyr within the city who holds enough sway to stage a coup. If she doesn’t act quickly, her rule will be short-lived.
As the women who hold the nation’s future meet each other from different sides of the battlefield, will they be able to find a shared vision of Crache, or will they destroy each other first?
About Matt Wallace
A screenwriter, novelist, and the award-winning author of over one hundred short stories, Matt Wallace spent a decade traveling the western hemisphere as a professional wrestler and combat instructor before retiring to write full-time.
In addition to the dark fantasy Savage Rebellion series, his fiction also includes the urban fantasy comedy Sin du Jour series (featuring expert caterers to demons, goblins, faeries, and the like); and his Galactic Football League titles co-written with Scott Sigler, including The Reef (about a lawless land ruled by the strong and the vicious), The Detective (a science fiction mystery adventure), and Title Fight (a SF mixed martial arts thriller with aliens).
In 2018, co-hosts Matt Wallace and Mur Lafferty took home the Hugo Award for their podcast Ditch Diggers. Wallace has also written for several TV shows, and done narrative work on video game titles.
Interview with author Matt Wallace, author of Savage Rebellion
Q: How do you explain your unique spin on dark fantasy? What inspired you to go in this direction?
What I’ve done in the genre so far has very much been the product of growing up on old school 70’s/80’s/90’s fantasy novels then looking back as an adult on all of those tropes and all of the hardwiring I scraped from those works and realizing about 90% of it was kind of terrible.
Q: What are your favorite things about the genre? What do YOU look for in a good story?
I think a lot of us want the kinds of resolutions that can only be found in fantasy, where there are few things that can’t be solved by a sharp sword or a magic spell and a single individual’s will to right a wrong. We don’t get that in the world of the real.
Q: For this genre, what are your pet peeves that you’ve seen others do?
It’s more like a menagerie of peeves at this point, honestly. Endless feasting scenes. Sexual assault as a plot device. Hopelessness. A certain model of author constantly trying to out-grimdark and out-edgelord each other. The “because that’s the way it was in real life/history” defense when it comes to made-up fantasy worlds, especially considering it usually wasn’t that way, regardless.
Q: What are the best ways for fans to keep track of what you're writing (and related author news about you)?
I have my website, matt-wallace.com, which I try to keep as up-to-date as possible, mostly out of fear of Dahlia Adler. I’m clinging to the last branch in the dying ecosystem of Twitter and you can still find me there at MattFnWallace. You can try screaming out of your window into the dark of night and maybe I’ll answer back. Maybe.
Find more about Matt Wallace online
More from Monster Complex
Charlaine Harris Q&A: Gunnie Rose series continues with ‘All the Dead Shall Weep’
Q&A: Michelle Schad on SMOKE AND STARS: “Fantasy offers so many possibilities.”
Q&A: Alma Katsu on THE FERVOR: “Horror is very truthful. Terrible things happen in real life.”
Complete Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews in Order + Q&A
Kim Harrison Rachel Morgan | Hollows Series Reading Order + Author Q&A
Q&A: Christi Nogle on BEULAH: “I am more scared by things when they aren’t fully lit or fully seen.”
Horror and comedy both make us jump—which is why these elements work together so well together. Looking at books from authors like Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Tanya Huff, Kelley Armstrong, John Scalzi, Diana Rowland, and Kevin J. Anderson, plus many authors you should meet.