I keep thinking about something that Philippines-based author Thea Guanzon said in a recent interview with Paste Books: “Coming at it from the perspective of someone who lives in the Global South, fanfiction opened doors for me that I otherwise would not have had access to.” Her debut novel The Hurricane Wars may have started as a Star Wars fanfic, but its transformation into a Southeast Asian-inspired fantasy romance has a greater emotional resonance because of where it started. Like fierce heroine Talasyn, Guanzon can credit a mix of luck and her own drive with achieving a dream—here, a published novel—that had previously seemed impossible.
It feels unavoidable to acknowledge that The Hurricane Wars began as a fanfic in which Rey and Kylo Ren are forced into an arranged marriage uniting not only the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, but also the Hapes Cluster (inspired by the Star Wars Legends novel The Courtship of Princess Leia, in which Leia Organa was supposed to marry into Hapan society). One, because landscape with a blur of conquerors was a truly thrilling epic that made this skeptical reader actually root for those Force-crossed dummies. But also because Guanzon has done a superb job of taking the bones of that story and reworking it into its own original epic—most notably because of the deliberate and detailed weather-magic worldbuilding, though the slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance mostly holds up under new names and contexts.
Talasyn is a young soldier on the frontlines of the Hurricane Wars, fighting for the Sardovian Allfold using her Lightweaver magic, which allows her to conjure any weapon she can imagine out of the aether. As the scrappy Sardovians stand up to the overwhelming might of the Night Empire of Kesath with their legionnaires and stormships, Talasyn frequently clashes with Alaric Ossinast, who can similarly transform shadows into swords.
A covert side mission to the Nenavar Dominion, an independent archipelago (modeled in part after the Philippines) delivers a stunning revelation to Talasyn: She is their lost princess, or Lachis’ka, presumed dead for the past eighteen years. The fiercely matriarchal society of Nenavar is led by the dragon queen-like Zahiya-lachis, Talasyn’s grandmother Urduja. With no other female heir, her return sparks a succession crisis that turns into a surprising alliance once the canny Urduja sees a way to secure more stability with the encroachment of Kesath upon their shores.
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The Hurricane Wars
The plot does follow some trope-heavy shorthand: Orphan discovers she’s the heir to a lost throne; arranged marriage between enemies-to-lovers; light versus darkness. Yet these familiar story beats are set against a vibrant, hurricane-ravaged world with an engaging magic system and a variety of radically different climates and locales in which the political and romantic intrigue take place.
The action immediately pulls you in, though it does take the book (which already clocks in at nearly 500 pages) a while to get around to Talasyn discovering her true heritage. The fanfic gets there faster thanks to the dual context of the movies preceding it and the Star Wars Legends novel for those extra in-the-know; the point is to get Rey to Hapes as soon as possible for the delicious crossover. That said, Talasyn’s skirmishes on the ice floes of Frostplum set the stage for her political battles at court, while the Sardovian Allfold’s retreat puts them in a compellingly defensive position, where they must appeal to the Nenavar Dominion for shelter and aid, with Talasyn their unintentional bargaining chip.
At first the supporting cast from the Sardovian Allfold is introduced so rapidly that it’s difficult to keep track of who means what to Talasyn, aside from mapping the connections to Leia Organa, Finn, etcetera. That said, Guanzon’s worldbuilding is carefully considered, the use of weather a poignant metaphor for how destabilizing war is. After all, hurricanes in our world are formed by the clash of dualities: thunderstorms sucking ocean heat from tropical waters, generating destructive winds that don’t discriminate with whatever or whoever is in their path.
It’s also thematically fitting to this particular romance plot, with the emotionally destabilizing one-two punch of secret princess and arranged marriage. Going in eyes open as to the controversial ship that inspired these two, I have to say… dammit, Guanzon has done it again. Twice now she’s made me ship this particular iteration of Reylo, to the point where I didn’t even think of them as their Star Wars selves but as nearly fully-realized fantasy characters. While Talasyn spends so much of the novel reflecting on how she’s always felt like an island, she is stunned to discover that Alaric’s upbringing as the Night Emperor’s sole heir has similarly isolated him from friends and comrades (forget any potential lovers). And while she struggles to catch up on eighteen years of Nenavarene society with its elaborate gowns and complicated alliances, it’s a pleasant surprise to see just how unprepared he too is to be a royal consort. They’re both soldiers, best on the battlefield and flailing in more delicate situations.
Theirs is a literal grumpy/sunshine dynamic in terms of how their powers manifest, shadow versus light. Yet there’s also a fun subversion where Talasyn is the clear grump, letting her temper get the best of her far too often; and while Alaric would never be described as sunny, his measured calm is the surprising anchor to her emotional storms. And while Kesath has won the Hurricane Wars (at least, for now), the natural powers of their shared home planet operate under no master—as demonstrated by the building threat of a sevenfold lunar eclipse, which threatens to ignite the death-magic Void Sever and overtake the entire planet. Even more thrilling than pitting their respective powers against one another is the moments in which Talasyn and Alaric discover they alone can combine light and shadow into something entirely new… if they can cooperate long enough to save everyone they love.
For a slow burn, the latter half of the book does get awfully wrapped up in Talasyn and Alaric’s betrothal, with other non-romantic elements falling by the wayside. The Sardovians are so cunningly hidden that Talasyn barely interacts with them; her best friend Khaede is missing in action, but to an extent that she seems out of sight, out of mind, no doubt something to set up for the next book. Even honing the narrative scope to the Nenavarene court, there are missed opportunities to really delve into how foreign this world is to both of them, but especially Talasyn as the Lachis’ka and how to model herself after—or turn away from—the Zahiya-lachis.
Hopefully future books delve more into the absorbing court politics that Guanzon has seeded already. The Dominion’s self-imposed neutrality works wonderfully in this setting, as a keen reminder that when it comes to climate change and the swelling populations of climate refugees, no country can afford to isolate forever when they’re all located on the same planet.
But where The Hurricane Wars ends is with the promised wedding bells. Guanzon does an excellent job reminding us that, despite the way their passion sparks with their growing attraction, neither is actually happy to be wedded when they still both identify more with the hate side of the love/hate spectrum. Being joined in matrimony may wind up being more of a hindrance than a benefit to working together.
The Hurricane Wars is the first in an epic fantasy romance trilogy, with Guanzon adeptly setting up the remaining two books: By the time we get to their wedding night (which is a tease in and of itself), there are four eclipses left until the Void Sever erupts. It will be a longer wait for book two than for weekly or monthly chapters, but it promises to be worth it.
The Hurricane Wars is published by Harper Voyager.
Between this and the delightful You, Again, Natalie Zutter has found herself spending fall with Reylo retellings. Talk fantasy romance with her on Twitter and Bluesky!
