I enjoyed Coriane's story, though I found Farley's story a bit dry. Neither goes into much depth, of course I know they also aren't meant to be full novels. It was interesting to get a bit of back story on some of the characters from the series however. I listened to this book on CD and the transmission between characters of the Scarlet Guard was particularly dry this way but I could see it being better when being physically read.
Overall I love the main series much better and could have went without these two stories and just had a bit of it worked in with the main novels. ( )

[b:Cruel Crown|25944381|Cruel Crown (Red Queen, #0.1-#0.2)|Victoria Aveyard|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1439081588s/25944381.jpg|45843828] is a novella containing two prequel stories to [b:Red Queen|22328546|Red Queen (Red Queen, #1)|Victoria Aveyard|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1449778912s/22328546.jpg|25037051], featuring characters that either appeared briefly or were mentioned. Queen Song significantly quicker and covers a larger time period, but that the stories have different narrative styles is a good way to break the stories up.

Queen Song tells of Coriane, the former Silver Queen, and how she became queen and illuminates how she died. I quite liked this one as it illuminates a bit about the royal family before the story picks up in Red Queen and you get glimpses of the mentors and villains when they were teenagers.

Steel Scars is about Scarlet Guard captain Diane Farley. I enjoyed this one because Farley was a character who definitely interested me so it was very interesting to see where she came from. Starting with a character already in the revolution is a fun contrast to the standard 'accidentally falls into a rebellion' narrative that is so popular right now.

Fast, relatively easy reads. 6.3/10 ( )

QueenSong Review

I was very curious about this time period and relationship, since it was hinted at forever throughout the first novel. I feel like this novella was far too short for what it tried to cover. The courtship is entirely too short, and the way people felt about her far too brief all together.

The marriage almost non-existently off to the side. The years covering the loss of babies, also, was barely a line or three. We hardly heard about baby Cal. I'm still very, very, VERY confused about how Elara did anything to her, since we never see it (either her being driven insane, or being forced to lose her babies, or whether the dreams are dreams or being forced into her mind) -- and Elara managed to lie through the singing, or something like that? Or? I'm still very baffled about that part.

Basically too short, too jammed, and too much still unexplained.

But -- as a secondary fact, I did like getting hear about her having interests that passed down to Cal and I loved getting to learn more about the stratification of the Silver World.

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Steel Scars Review

This was a lovely look at the inside of Farley, and I found myself swept away in the world of the Gaurd. I loved getting to see this side of Shade in his appearance as well, and I like that the novella works as a prequel from the other side, before the big things that happen to Mare in the first book of the series. I, also, love the dispatches. ( )

I listened to the audio book of this. This book contains 2 different stories. The 1st story, Queen Song, gives the backstory of Cal's mother and what happened to her. I'm kind of in the middle on what I feel about this one. I gave this story a 3. It was interesting. I didn't not like it, but I didn't love it either. Now the 2nd story, Steel Scars, was better in my opinion. This is Farley's backstory and how she is tasked with planting the seeds of rebellion in Norta. She goes to recruit black market traders, smugglers, and extremists for her first attempt at an attack on the capital, and what she finds is Mare Barrow. I really enjoyed this story and would give it a 4, so for the book as a whole, I would give it a 3.5. ( )

The first tale of the novella really took my interest. The later was necessary , but somewhat lagging. ( )