A review by pagewraith
A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

4.0

 

“It was laying eyes upon the world, being part of it, that made me appreciate the importance of protecting it.”

I wish every fantasy book was like A Day of Fallen Night!

How refreshing to spend time in a world full of magic and dragons with matriarchal societies and queer characters. Over and over again I caught myself assuming certain kinds of characters, like guards and knights, were men, and was so pleasantly surprised when they weren’t. I love how Shannon is able to balance the normalization of gender, sexual, and racial diversity in the Roots of Chaos world with the critique and exploration of issues like patriarchy and xenophobia.

Shannon writes about pregnancy, birth, and motherhood with such tenderness. I found it almost sacred, and I appreciate the way these characters think about, long for, fear, mourn, and experience these things alongside a feminist criticism that emphasizes a person’s choice and inherent worth, separate from their ability to conceive. The imagery and metaphor of birth as a war or battle coexisted nicely alongside birth as a natural and mysterious experience.

A Day of Fallen Night is also ripe for an ecocritical read - I love the way Shannon explores balance, and suggests the wyrms are part of a necessary cycle, even if they represent the corruption and imbalance of heat or industry. I loved reading the wyrms as a metaphor for climate crisis and an industrial relationship with nature contrasted against dragons as harmony with nature.
 
I truly loved all of the narrators, and was especially pleased to find how much I cared for and was invested in the characters who are much older than I am. As I get older, I appreciate middle-aged characters more and more.