I think some of the best fiction are there are the ones that take a simple theme and extrapolate on it three-fold. When I got the luck of getting welcomed into a small writer’s group, I got to meet Edward Patrick, writer of The Rage of a Boy, Grey & White; Book One. I picked up the book in anticipation of his sequel that came out in July of 2025. And boy was I enraptured by the snow-laden world introduced to us. Rage plays games with the reader, it wants you to think this is is a simple High Fantasy story. With it’s Grand Tourney and White Magic and royal armies, one can easily mistake it for a story gearing up for an Aragorn-esque quest for the greater good. But Tristan of Grauberg, has one goal in mind; Revenge. At all costs. For a deeper examination of The Rage of a Boy, I would recommend reading the book, because what I will speak most of here is in relation to the pay offs and excellently laid out narrative that follows up Rage in A Feast of Stones.
Before I move on, a quick reminder that The Rage of a Boy and A Feast of Stones are available HERE! To learn more about Edward and his work you can find his website HERE!
Diving in now we get to the light spoiler section of the book;
While I read The Rage of a Boy independently in anticipation of Feast, I did receive A Feast of Stones as an advanced reader copy, as a note. But I was PUMPED. Rage was a delicious tale full of political intrigue, strange magics, and friendships that one takes to the grave. Literally.
Rage has a simple theme; rage. And the world erupts from that concept. Tristan’s revenge quest in Rage takes him on a sorrowful journey of strife and loss. The loss of a home, a friend, and of his own sense of self as he discovers he has the ability to utilize a magic once though lost, or nothing more than a fairytale. A dark magic, a rage-fueled magic; the Grey. In contrast to the healing magic his best friend and potential romantic partner, Ella, uses. The White. The Grey and White ebb and flow like tides. When one is strong, the other is weak. Use too much of one and you empower the other, it’s not just about the physical effort to cast the magic, it’s the delicate balanced of empathy and rage. A rage that spills over at the end of The Rage of a Boy leading to Tristan and Ella’s capture, and the death of countless others (including my favorite character, fuck you Edward).
Rage balances, the darkness and brightness, the hope and sorrow that comes with the ebb and flow of rage and patience. If the Grey and White are tides, than while Rage was high tide, Feast is low tide. Tristan has lost almost everything, and gained twice as much. His revenge quest to kill the Prince of Felixandria has failed and he is dragged back to the place all his sorrows began and is given a front row seat to the consequences of every single action he has taken in the past and the ones he hasn’t even taken yet. The Rage of a Boy tricks the reader into thinking this story is a Lord of the Rings style quest; go home, free Elinton, kill the Prince. Instead, once we dive into A Feast of Stones we’re instead presented with a deep political drama that asks you to questions why any one royal should be in charge of anything. While LOTR’s Aragorn tells a story of a rightful king returning to his home land, Feast asks ; why kings at all?
Feast lets us into the deeper motivations of the villain, but doesn’t go as far as to insist that Tristan’s mortal enemy Prince Jules is just misunderstood and worthy of redemption. Feast spends a great deal of time forcing Tristan and the reader to question whether or not the insistence that one person is a villain at all is the cause of such villainy. Jules thinks the Queen of Elinton a villain, and thus he punishes her and her people, Tristan thinks Julian a villain and comes to punish him and his followers. Rage builds up Jules as this indominable evil worthy of punishment, Feast asks; “Who are we to determine who is the villain?”. Jules and Tristan are foils of one another, both wielders of the Grey, both on quests to save their homes, both losing faith in the world day by day. If the story were from Julian’s point of view, he may come across as a character like Odysseus. Flawed and willing to commit great horrors, but as the song goes:
But when does the comet become a meteor?
When does a candle become a blaze?
When does a man become a monster?
When does a ripple become a tidal wave?
When does the reason become the blame?
When does a man become a monster?Just A Man from EPIC! The Musical.
The Rage of a Boy takes us on a revenge quest, but A Feast of Stones takes us on a quest of self discovery. Tristan’s desire to stay true to himself becomes crossed with the question of what that true self actually is and if it’s worth being that any longer. With the weight of all his actions weighing on him, he’s forced to understand his villain and himself. When does the reason become the blame? When does his own revenge quest become the reason for another’s? When does a man become a monster, when does the use of the Grey go from force for the sake of justice to the path that Prince Jules now walks.
I won’t go into heavy detail, as this is a sequel and there’d be too much given away about Rage for me to do a deeper dive into Feast. But for anyone who’s a fan of EPIC! The Musical, you may enjoy the Grey & White series. The politics and power moves made between different factions is not unlike the journey of Odysseus. Odysseus just wanted to get home to Penelope; Tristan wants to get home to his family, or to find Ella. But the question isn’t whether or not Tristan’s actions are justified, or if he’s not crossed that line between comet and a meteor; but whether or not Tristan is Odysseus or Poseidon.
Because none of this would have happened if Prince Jules had just killed Tristan. And now as the ships leave the ports of Felixandria, and Tristan again finds himself alone and wallowing in the consequences of his own actions. He can only hope that Prince Jules will get in the water and follow him so that Tristan can kill him at last. I cannot wait for Book three of this series to happen, as Feast has concluded a lot of the questions from Rage and set up so many more that I’m absolutely vibrating with anticipation for what comes next!