A fitting end to a gorgeous experiment in art, worldbuilding, and character, growing in strength from book to book.
The common thread of Myer's previous two books—don’t bargain with dangerous extradimensional magical beings—expresses itself in new and surprising ways in this conclusion to a trilogy melding music, enchantment, and dark ambition.
Having employed such bargains to take over the Poets’ Academy and foment civil war in the distant land of Kahishi (Fire Dance, 2017, etc.), Archmaster Elissan Diar now uses his power to take the throne of Eivar. But his magics have opened a portal for the White Queen, an icy, bloody being who has her own ideas about what Diar is entitled to. Peace and stability in both Kahishi and Eivar depend on former Court Poet Lin Amaristoth; Syme Oleir, a young man possessed and driven insane by an Ifreet; and two previously ignored and despised Academy students: Julien Imara, a shy young woman unexpectedly gifted with prophetic magic, and Dorn Arrin, whose unwilling part in a sacrificial ritual could mean his doom. And somewhere in the mix there is Etherell Lyr, a beautiful man of uncertain loyalties and Dorn’s decidedly unrequited love, whose tortured past as a sexual abuse victim has left him mercurial, vengeful, and sociopathic. These fully drawn characters negotiate complicated choices in a world that intriguingly intermingles Middle Eastern and Celtic folklore as well as a fantasy equivalent of the Jewish Diaspora. Myer delicately threads a steady path through a complex, ever shifting plot while maintaining a consistent throughline of theme that condemns the heedless and selfish choices of the powerful and pointedly underscores the folly of ignoring the quiet, seemingly insignificant people whose unexplored depths and considerable strengths might be poised to strike against those very same people at the top.
A fitting end to a gorgeous experiment in art, worldbuilding, and character, growing in strength from book to book.Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7653-7834-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perfectly fine despite second-book syndrome.
Cerúlia must grow up and learn to fight for her destiny in Kozloff’s (A Queen in Hiding, 2020) second Nine Realms novel.
Her mother, the Queen of Weirandale, is dead, and Cerúlia isn’t a child any more. She’s left her adoptive peasant family in order to escape evil Lord Matwyck’s clutches and eventually escapes Weirandale altogether. Using her ability to talk to animals and several bird-related aliases, Cerúlia manages to trek her way over the mountains and into the nation of Oromondo. Cerúlia knows that the Oros killed her mother, and she wants to avenge her death. She’s heard of a group of raiders who work to disrupt the Oros as they invade and pillage neighboring nations. When Cerúlia finally manages to find them and convince them to let her join up, she discovers not only new friends, but a newfound sense of purpose. But is any of that enough to win back her throne or even save herself from the Oro army? Interspersed with Cerúlia’s plotline are various threads centering on the Oro army and people, Lord Matwyck’s kindhearted son, and the raiders themselves. This is the second of a four-part series, and, as such, it falls into the expected pitfalls. The self-contained plot works, but it inevitably feels more like a buildup to further books in the series than its own story. It rises above filler, though, and Kozloff is clearly laying the groundwork for something good, particularly with the very last chapter.
Perfectly fine despite second-book syndrome.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16856-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Shannon’s prose style is serviceable, but her legion of fans will once again be here for the propulsive plot rather than...
Paige Mahoney, the Pale Dreamer of The Bone Season (2013), returns in this second volume of a projected seven-volume fantasy/science-fiction epic.
The novel begins with Paige’s escape to London as she eludes pursuers of all stripes and becomes public enemy No. 1. On the plus side, she’s with a gang of clairvoyants, and her cohort is headed by Jaxon Hall, one of the mime-lords of the title. (Mime-lords and mime-queens are leaders of clairvoyant gangs who form a subgroup within the various cohorts.) London becomes the main setting of the novel, and it assumes various guises, some comforting but most harrowing. Cohorts inhabit spaces that seem vaguely familiar (Covent Garden, Camden Town, Soho) yet remain mysterious and sinister. Readers of the first volume might also remember the emphasis on a specialized and arcane vocabulary applicable to the alternative universe the author creates. The glossary is again a welcome necessity. The prime mover of action here is Paige’s relentless pursuit by Scion, a governmental organization that sees her as a threat to its status and power. Eventually Paige meets up again with Arcturus Mesarthim, her Warden and a Rephaite—a physically immortal being. He has some advice for her—to be wary and to “manipulate [her] mime-lord…as he has spent his life manipulating others”—good advice for a world that is arcane, complex, multilayered and at times almost incomprehensible.
Shannon’s prose style is serviceable, but her legion of fans will once again be here for the propulsive plot rather than lyricism.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62040-893-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
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