All Hail Chaos is the second installment of Sarah Rees Brennan’s A Time of Iron, a portal fantasy which finds a younger girl named Rae swept into the world of the fantasy novels she and her sister Alice maintain pricey to their hearts. The primary installment, Lengthy Stay Evil, noticed Rae embrace the identification of Girl Rahela, a villainess of the best order. No less than that’s how Rahela, the Magnificence Dipped in Blood was portrayed within the books earlier than Rae entered its pages. Whereas Lengthy Stay Evil gave readers a real “villain protagonist” that first ebook ended the way in which it did earlier than Rae entered it… form of. All Hail Chaos is in regards to the penalties.
Rae is a fantasy reader who’s been transported to her favorite fictional world of swords and sorcery, castles and monsters. Enjoying the villainess, she thought she may change the narrative, however this model of the plot is much extra lethal than the one she knew.
Her mates are on the run: the Cobra shelters in an eerie manor haunted by darkish secrets and techniques, whereas Emer and Lia stoke a revolution within the gutters. Undead armies roam the dominion, raiders camp on the metropolis gates, and the omnipotent Emperor – Rae’s favourite character ever, now presumably the best monster within the land – needs her to be his evil queen.
Romantic in fiction, difficult in actuality. What’s a villainess to do? Time for depraved bargains and faux engagements, in a fantasy the place probably the most harmful factor you are able to do is imagine in somebody.
For all of Rae’s maneuvering, many plot factors nonetheless fell into place. When the As soon as and Future Emperor arises from the abyss, it isn’t precisely who she anticipated it to be. Key, a personality Rae noticed is basically disposable regardless of the sentiments Key had for Rae, is the Emperor. However Key because the seemingly omnipotent emperor has little restraint, proving to be a real chaos engine.
Like Physician Who, there are “fastened factors” within the story that can not be modified. Nevertheless, sure folks could also be moved round to a level and that is very a lot seen within the “excerpts” of the books prefacing every chapter. We see this alteration due to the brand new character launched, Rae’s sister Alice, who’s a good larger fan of the Time of Iron sequence than Rae. We solely see glimpses of Alice within the “actual” world, nevertheless it is sufficient to present an excellent sisterly relationship.
The majority of the novel sees Rae making an attempt to navigate in opposition to the plot she thinks she is aware of. This proves difficult as a result of the character she inhabited died within the first installment of the sequence and is much more difficult by how unsettling Key has turn out to be. He was initially a personality Rae cherished, however the creature he’s turn out to be as an undead Emperor forces her to play in opposition to his whims and be much more nimble than she was in Lengthy Stay Evil. There’s a tense interaction between them that hints at potential romance, as Rae bounces between worry and keenness as a result of she is aware of Key isn’t the one for her… or somewhat she isn’t the one for Key. It turns the connection nearly poisonous as a result of she fears she has to withhold data from him. I’ll say this, it makes the connection an interesting factor to expertise because it unfolds throughout the breadth of the novel.
I additionally loved the persevering with metatextual commentary about fantasy novels, reader assumptions, and the way these issues play off one another. There’s a Deadpool-like commentary with Rae primarily addressing the reader straight. Enjoyable stuff.
There have been some fascinating twists and turns all through, I loved the “self-aware” characters. Particularly if these characters got here from our real-world like Cobra. Actually, I’d welcome a narrative targeted on Cobra. If Rae entered the story, others may too. A part of the enjoyable is making an attempt to find out who these “actual world” transports may be.
All Hail Chaos is a enjoyable, pleasurable sequel that reveals sufficient solutions to questions raised up to now within the sequence. There’s a little bit of a repetitive nature to the story, however that’s powerful to keep away from in a second ebook/sequel.
I’m trying ahead to the finale and hope for some extra surprises in it than have been on this one.
Really helpful.
© 2026 Rob H. Bedford
Commerce Paperback | Orbit Books
Might 2026 | 464 Pages
https://www.sarahreesbrennan.com/
Evaluation copy courtesy of the writer
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