THE HIVE QUEEN by Robin Kirk – Review

I received this book for free from the Author in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Hive Queen by Robin Kirk
Series: The Bond Trilogy #2
Published by Blue Crow Books on September 1 2020
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 300
Format: Finished paperback
Source: Author
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The nitty-gritty: A vividly realized world with fascinating characters, The Hive Queen is a thrilling and satisfying sequel.

Freedom is like a marsh with no path, a dangerous place where any wrong step might send me and my brothers to our deaths. I never imagined being free could be so hard. Or so deadly.

Robin Kirk has once again blown me away with her vision of a dystopian future where women rule and men are considered the enemy. In this sequel to The Bond, Kirk leaves Dinitra and 12 to their own adventures and instead follows the warrior Fir and his eighteen brothers on a dangerous journey to find freedom. I have to admit at first I was a little disappointed not to be on Dinitra’s journey, but luckily that feeling didn’t last long, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying Fir’s adventures.

The story picks up right after the end of The Bond. Dinitra and 12 have decided to head North to the Deep, where she’s hopeful she can protect her beloved hyba cross 12. Meanwhile, Fir and his brothers have heard rumors of a place where men are free, a place far from the reach of the Weave. Despite the dangerous journey, Fir is determined to keep his brothers safe, but several obstacles lie in their way. First, because of the way men are bred, they need a daily dose of a substance called Remedy in order to survive the virus that runs through their bodies. The brothers have a limited supply of Remedy with them, but it won’t last long, and they’ll have to find it in the wild if they hope to live. The other danger is only a rumor–Fir has heard of a draft Queen who lives in the forests and captures men who stray too close to her lair. It’s said that no man has ever escaped the Queen after being caught, and the last thing Fir wants is to have his new-found freedom taken away from him by another woman.

But when the brothers stumble across a beehive high in the forest trees, the temptation of fresh honey is too much to resist. Unfortunately, the honey is a trap, and Fir is dismayed to discover he’s found the lair of the draft Queen. Captured by her guards, human-sized bee hybrid creatures, Fir and his brothers are taken back to Hive Home, a magical place where the fields are blanketed with red flowers and an enormous hive sits atop a mountain. The Queen, whose name is Odide, has special plans for Fir. But despite being inexorably drawn to the beautiful and mysterious Queen, Fir knows deep down that he must find a way to escape.

This is such an imaginative series! I loved the world building in The Bond, and I was thrilled to see that the author expanded her universe in the sequel without repeating herself. The story has two main sections (although the book isn’t divided this way): the first takes place when Fir is captured by Odide and taken to her Hive. Odide and her bees produce nektar, a honey-like substance with miraculous healing powers that is made from the red lilyfire flowers that grow wild in the valley. Nektar is used in the Weave to create drafts, the animal/human/plant hybrids that were so prevalent in The Bond, but it can also be drunk, and in this form it acts almost like an additive drug. Poor Fir finds himself besotted with Odide when she gives him nektar to drink, but he’s smart enough to realize that the nektar is binding him to Odide against his will. This is Fir’s greatest struggle: he wants to remain with Odide, who promises him a happy life, but he’s bound by his relationship with his brothers and he cannot let them down, no matter how much he wants to stay. Kirk’s lush and sensual descriptions of Odide and her attendants—human sized bees that can fly!—were simply magical, and I hope we see Odide again in the next book.

The second part takes place later when Fir and his brothers finally find the Master they have been seeking. I loved this part just as much, although I can’t tell you why because I don’t want to spoil anything for you! What I love about this series is that Kirk has so many surprises up her sleeves, and the experience of reading these books is a delightful adventure full of awe and discovery. The Hive Queen is, in essence, the story of Fir’s journey, so in that respect it’s a traditional fantasy/sci-fi format. But Kirk throws in lots of twists and turns, and the danger to the characters is very real. The stakes just keep getting higher and higher as the story progresses, and by the end I was a nervous wreck!

But no matter what his challenges are, Fir has not forgotten Dinitra and 12 and often thinks about them and wonders if they are safe (I was wondering the same thing!). Fir has a keen sense of duty that drives all his actions, and I couldn’t help but love him for his devotion to the people he loves most. Things don’t always go smoothly, though. Fir loses his brothers’ trust during his stay with Odide, and he has to work hard to get it back.

Kirk has several themes running through her story, but the most important is that of freedom and what it actually means. Is anyone really free, even if you have free will? For Fir, freedom seems to be elusive, no matter how hard he tries to hold onto it. His vision of freedom changes over time. In The Bond, Fir had no concept of it, because he didn’t realize he was a slave. And when he’s given the chance for freedom, the meaning changes as he goes out into the wider world and experiences new things. It’s going to be interesting to see where he and the other characters end up!

The story ends with plenty of exciting action and surprise reveals and sets everything up perfectly for the final book in the series. I can’t deny I loved the way things played out at the end, and I can hardly wait to read the next book. The core group of characters simply want to find a place to live in peace, a place where freedom is a real possibility, and I fervently want them to succeed. Fans of intricate world-building should not miss this series.

Big thanks to the author for supplying a review copy.

Read my review of The Bond