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emtees's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Wow, was this book an improvement on the last one.
I said in my review for Mask of Shadows that I enjoyed the plot and the world but found the characterization so weak that it ruined my enjoyment of the story. I was worried going into this one that without the structure of the assassin competition that Mask of Shadows was built around, this book would be more flaws than strengths. But I was wrong. I don’t know if Miller grew tremendously as a writer with this book or if the competition plot was actually holding her back but this book was really good.
Following the assassin competition in the previous book, former thief Sal is now Opal, a member of the Left Hand, assassins in service to the Queen of Igna. Sal is having a hard time adjusting to a lot of their position. They entered the competition to get a face-to-face meeting with the Queen, to tell her about the sacrifice of their childhood home, Nacea, during the war that she ended by destroying all magic, and the villains who brought about that destruction and were never punished. But Sal was disappointed; it turned out that the Queen was very aware of what happened in Nacea and had chosen to let the killers go free out of political expediency. Sal is left deeply disillusioned with the court and the political nature of the job they’ve taken on. But now, their quest for vengeance against the destroyers of Nacea finally lines up with the Queen’s need to put down a conspiracy of nobles from the region of Erlend, and so Sal is free to take on their true enemies.
The complexity of the themes and characters in this book is its strength. While the first book hinted at Sal’s backstory as a typical “tragic fantasy protagonist background,” here Miller uses it to explore all kinds of issues: war, loss, PTSD, cultural colonialism, what it means to be deprived of ones culture, when the ends justify the means and when justice must come first. Sal is an uncompromising character - they are unwilling to learn about the delicate balance of politics that has kept Igna safe, unwilling to hear that anything could be more important than justice for their lost homeland - and while this can be frustrating at times, it is also understandable and ultimately makes them more interesting as a character. Sal is far from perfect and they know it, but they can’t change who life has made them no matter how much they might wish to. Over the course of the story, they go on a journey that forces them to confront what they are willing to do to see their homeland avenged and where their loyalties really lie. They make a lot of compromises and face head on the idea that they may be destroying themself to get revenge. By the end of the book I wasn’t sure if I liked Sal, but I know they are a character I won’t forget.
This increased complexity carries over into the world-building and the relationships. We only got hints in the first book of the wider world of Igna, a new nation made up of the combination of two very different regions, Erlend and Alona, only a generation earlier. In this book, we get to see just how messy this nation building effort was, what was sacrificed to make it happen, and how fragile the peace remains. The nobles of Erlend, whose culture is one of strict class divides, patriarchy, and disdain for anyone who doesn’t fit into their sharp social expections, are rebelling against the Queen, and the result is not a black-and-white war, but rather a messy conflict with morally grey heroes, horrifying and forbidden magic, and all kinds of secrets about the past that Sal has to untangle. Along the way, Sal’s main relationships are challenged. I continue to love the relationships Sal has with their servant-turned-friend Maud and their love interest Elise. Maud continues to be a delightful character, probably my favorite in the whole series, and I loved the way Sal and Elise went from a fluffy, almost-too-easy rom-com in the first book to something more complicated and real here.
The diversity of this series continues to be a highlight, though the approach in this book is different from in the last (to the point that I wondered if Miller revamped her ideas about this world between books.). While the first book seemed to take place in a world where race held little significance and queerness in many forms was casually accepted, here we learn that that isn’t really true. Some parts of this world are accepting of a variety of skin colors, genders and sexual orientations; others, most notably Erlend, are very much not. Sal and their allies are therefore a bit of a social justice squad up against the all-white, patriarchal and homo/transphobic Erlend nobles. I think readers who were enjoying the easy acceptance of the first book might be disappointed but I enjoyed the way this change allowed us to see Sal’s gender identity in a different light and explore different aspects of what it means to them. There is one particularly good scene where a cisgender queer character, one who accepts Sal but can’t fully understand what it means to be them, uses language that hurts Sal. That’s the kind of nuance that isn’t possible in a “everyone accepts everyone” type world.
The magic system of this world deserves a shout out because it is dark and horrifying and amazing. Since Sal isn’t a sorcerer, in the first book we saw only the results of the magic; here we get to see how it works and it is really scary and well done. But even here there is complexity - some of this dark, destructive magic is worked by good people, with good intentions, and the way Sal has to reconcile that with their instinctive hatred of magic is interesting.
This book does have some weaknesses. The prose can occasionally be confusing - in the fight scenes, in particular, I wasn’t always sure what was going on. Some of the revelations at the end of the book come a little too fast, and there were aspects of the magic system that weren’t very well explained. And as much as I love the social justice drive of the book, the nobles of Erlend were almost too evil; given how nuanced everything else was, it was odd to have them all be such completely terrible people. But none of these weaknesses kept me from really loving this book.
I said in my review for Mask of Shadows that I enjoyed the plot and the world but found the characterization so weak that it ruined my enjoyment of the story. I was worried going into this one that without the structure of the assassin competition that Mask of Shadows was built around, this book would be more flaws than strengths. But I was wrong. I don’t know if Miller grew tremendously as a writer with this book or if the competition plot was actually holding her back but this book was really good.
Following the assassin competition in the previous book, former thief Sal is now Opal, a member of the Left Hand, assassins in service to the Queen of Igna. Sal is having a hard time adjusting to a lot of their position. They entered the competition to get a face-to-face meeting with the Queen, to tell her about the sacrifice of their childhood home, Nacea, during the war that she ended by destroying all magic, and the villains who brought about that destruction and were never punished. But Sal was disappointed; it turned out that the Queen was very aware of what happened in Nacea and had chosen to let the killers go free out of political expediency. Sal is left deeply disillusioned with the court and the political nature of the job they’ve taken on. But now, their quest for vengeance against the destroyers of Nacea finally lines up with the Queen’s need to put down a conspiracy of nobles from the region of Erlend, and so Sal is free to take on their true enemies.
The complexity of the themes and characters in this book is its strength. While the first book hinted at Sal’s backstory as a typical “tragic fantasy protagonist background,” here Miller uses it to explore all kinds of issues: war, loss, PTSD, cultural colonialism, what it means to be deprived of ones culture, when the ends justify the means and when justice must come first. Sal is an uncompromising character - they are unwilling to learn about the delicate balance of politics that has kept Igna safe, unwilling to hear that anything could be more important than justice for their lost homeland - and while this can be frustrating at times, it is also understandable and ultimately makes them more interesting as a character. Sal is far from perfect and they know it, but they can’t change who life has made them no matter how much they might wish to. Over the course of the story, they go on a journey that forces them to confront what they are willing to do to see their homeland avenged and where their loyalties really lie. They make a lot of compromises and face head on the idea that they may be destroying themself to get revenge. By the end of the book I wasn’t sure if I liked Sal, but I know they are a character I won’t forget.
This increased complexity carries over into the world-building and the relationships. We only got hints in the first book of the wider world of Igna, a new nation made up of the combination of two very different regions, Erlend and Alona, only a generation earlier. In this book, we get to see just how messy this nation building effort was, what was sacrificed to make it happen, and how fragile the peace remains. The nobles of Erlend, whose culture is one of strict class divides, patriarchy, and disdain for anyone who doesn’t fit into their sharp social expections, are rebelling against the Queen, and the result is not a black-and-white war, but rather a messy conflict with morally grey heroes, horrifying and forbidden magic, and all kinds of secrets about the past that Sal has to untangle. Along the way, Sal’s main relationships are challenged. I continue to love the relationships Sal has with their servant-turned-friend Maud and their love interest Elise. Maud continues to be a delightful character, probably my favorite in the whole series, and I loved the way Sal and Elise went from a fluffy, almost-too-easy rom-com in the first book to something more complicated and real here.
The diversity of this series continues to be a highlight, though the approach in this book is different from in the last (to the point that I wondered if Miller revamped her ideas about this world between books.). While the first book seemed to take place in a world where race held little significance and queerness in many forms was casually accepted, here we learn that that isn’t really true. Some parts of this world are accepting of a variety of skin colors, genders and sexual orientations; others, most notably Erlend, are very much not. Sal and their allies are therefore a bit of a social justice squad up against the all-white, patriarchal and homo/transphobic Erlend nobles. I think readers who were enjoying the easy acceptance of the first book might be disappointed but I enjoyed the way this change allowed us to see Sal’s gender identity in a different light and explore different aspects of what it means to them. There is one particularly good scene where a cisgender queer character, one who accepts Sal but can’t fully understand what it means to be them, uses language that hurts Sal. That’s the kind of nuance that isn’t possible in a “everyone accepts everyone” type world.
The magic system of this world deserves a shout out because it is dark and horrifying and amazing. Since Sal isn’t a sorcerer, in the first book we saw only the results of the magic; here we get to see how it works and it is really scary and well done. But even here there is complexity - some of this dark, destructive magic is worked by good people, with good intentions, and the way Sal has to reconcile that with their instinctive hatred of magic is interesting.
This book does have some weaknesses. The prose can occasionally be confusing - in the fight scenes, in particular, I wasn’t always sure what was going on. Some of the revelations at the end of the book come a little too fast, and there were aspects of the magic system that weren’t very well explained. And as much as I love the social justice drive of the book, the nobles of Erlend were almost too evil; given how nuanced everything else was, it was odd to have them all be such completely terrible people. But none of these weaknesses kept me from really loving this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, War, Colonisation, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexism, and Racism
Major themes around war, cultural loss/deprivation, colonialism, racism, homo/transphobia. All are handled from the perspective that these things are bad and the mcs fight against them.cataglyphis's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Grief, Murder, and Body horror
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Genocide
Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Vomit, Xenophobia, and Biphobia
melaniereadsbooks's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I love Sal. This book was kind of too slow paced for me, but I really liked it other than that. I love how dark it is and I love the morally grey-ness (is that a word?) of the main character and many of the other characters. It is really interesting in this book how the focus is so much on shades of grey and how things in the world are not black and white the way they seem.
Great book!
Great book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, and Death
Moderate: Misogyny, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Sexism
foreverinastory's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
A great conclusion!!
Rep: white sapphic genderfluid MC with anxiety and PTSD, BIPOC bisexual female love interest, aroace white female side character, white nonbinary side character, white trans man side character, BIPOC male side character, male side character with one arm, deceased female side character is mentioned to have been chronically ill.
CWs: Blood, body horror, death, fire/fire injury, gore, injury/injury detail, mental illness (anxiety and PTSD), murder, panic attacks, self harm, torture (physical and psychological), violence. Moderate: child abuse and death, colonisation, confinement, genocide/mass murder, grief, kidnapping, medical trauma/forced medical experimentation, racism, transphobia/transmisia, war, xenophobia. Minor: sexual content, misogyny, sexism, acephobia/acemisia, biphobia/bimisia.
Rep: white sapphic genderfluid MC with anxiety and PTSD, BIPOC bisexual female love interest, aroace white female side character, white nonbinary side character, white trans man side character, BIPOC male side character, male side character with one arm, deceased female side character is mentioned to have been chronically ill.
CWs: Blood, body horror, death, fire/fire injury, gore, injury/injury detail, mental illness (anxiety and PTSD), murder, panic attacks, self harm, torture (physical and psychological), violence. Moderate: child abuse and death, colonisation, confinement, genocide/mass murder, grief, kidnapping, medical trauma/forced medical experimentation, racism, transphobia/transmisia, war, xenophobia. Minor: sexual content, misogyny, sexism, acephobia/acemisia, biphobia/bimisia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Colonisation, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Racism, Transphobia, War, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual content, Misogyny, Sexism, Biphobia, and Acephobia/Arophobia
gayghostprince's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gore, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Body horror, Blood, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Xenophobia, War, Kidnapping, Grief, Genocide, Colonisation, Child death, and Confinement
Minor: Transphobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Sexism
transphobia is just passive aggressive misgendering and the main character acknowledging that specific groups of people have a problem acknowledging that things exist outside the gender binary
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