Meyer’s second entry in this surreal German fantasy has interesting concepts, but average prose. Merle speeds away from besieged Venice on the back of Vermithrax, a flying obsidian lion. The Flowing Queen, Venice’s protective spirit whose essence currently lives inside Merle, offers commentary as they fly down into Hell, where Merle hopes to enlist aid from Lord Light. Back in Venice, Serafin joins a rebel band to battle Egypt’s invading mummy soldiers. Helped by a sphinx, they attempt to assassinate the ruling Pharaoh. Merle’s experience in Hell has an evocatively somber and oppressive atmosphere. She encounters massive stone heads whizzing through the air, insect-like creatures with grotesque shapes and a surgeon replacing hearts with glowing stone. Lord Light’s real identity reveals a new enemy, more frightening than the conquering Egyptians or any individual: the Stone Light, craving new societies to conquer à la IT from A Wrinkle in Time. Meyer’s prose style can feel aloof and awkward; however, the complex loyalties and unusual settings are memorable. (Fantasy. 11-14)
