I was really looking forward to this one but then it came out, and I realized I wasn’t sure I remembered the previous book enough. So naturally, I waited a few more months, didn’t reread the other books in the series and then decided to read it. The funny thing is, I feel like I did a decent enough job of remembering where book 1 had ended but was at a loss for what happened in book 2. I jogged my memory with some spoiler filled reviews, most of which also told me that book 2 was very much a set up novel and likely explains why more specific plot points weren’t standing out to me.
While there were a few plot points that were hazy, I mostly was able to keep up with what was going on, though, I think doing a re-read or reading these novels closer together might have changed some of my emotional connections to the books. I liked a lot of the details and characters independently but often found myself wondering how one relationship had become such a central point … maybe it’s been too long since I read Black Sun but while I vaguely recall thinking they had some good interactions due to their vastly different backgrounds, I didn’t really enjoy Serapio and Xiala as this huge romantic driver.
I also had a few moments of trying to recall all the allegiances since Serapio and the city of Tova are preparing against an invasion from Balam and his allies and yet, I thought much of the previous book still involved Tova’s ruling families plotting against Serapio. But beyond that, let’s get into it!
I mostly liked Xiala’s story – when the novel starts, she is back at her home islands with the Teek, a Siren-like group, though most of the women on the island have lost their Song. Ironically, Xiala, who had been banished (or ran away?), is the only one who hasn’t had issues with the power waning or disappearing altogether. Due to political maneuverings earlier in the series, the Teek have come to the attention of external forces like Balam, the Jaguar Lord, and soon find themselves invaded, with Xiala having the leadership position thrust upon her.
Naranpa is learning to dreamwalk – while she is the avatar of the Sun God and thus the natural opposite to Serapio’s Carrion King/Crow God, her story gets short changed and instead we see her dealing with Balam in her dreams, and trying to reunite with Iktan, her former friend, ally, lover and one time betrayer. Since I quite enjoy this character overall, I am disappointed with how little she had to do throughout the book – I very much enjoyed my time with her, it just didn’t add up too much, both page-wise and plot-wise. It’s almost like Roanhorse had one very specific scene in mind for her, and was just keeping her in reserve for that. It honestly felt like a wasted opportunity.
Balam ended up being the most fascinating and interesting character in many ways, though his decisions and actions quickly took him from morally gray to completely irredeemable. These books are violent and no one’s hands are clean but I also wish there had been a more nuanced ending for his character.
I also enjoyed the chapters focused on Serapio who is trying to be a leader while also questioning his own morality and motivations – leading is much more difficult than having a mission and dying for it. He spends much of the book trying to force a prophecy, though the flaws in his analysis for at least one of the parts of the prophecy are very obvious.
Independently, I mostly enjoyed everyone’s chapters but as I said above, I struggled with how the characters related and interacted. I simply wasn’t that invested in Iktan and Nara or Serapio and Xiala as love interests, and I got really annoyed with Xiala and her actions halfway through. As the leader of the Teek, I would have expected her be more focused on that role but there is a point where she just seems to forget about her people and it’s all about Serapio. The ending also just felt oddly rushed after so much build up from this novel and the preceding ones, and Nara especially just felt oddly superfluous to it all.
So overall – the first book in the series was fascinating and well developed and while the series as a whole is worth the read, I don’t think it hit the highs I thought it might from the first novel. I admit there are a few points where I am not sure if we got the answer earlier (when Okao mentions his mother being poisoned, for example, he doesn’t say who did it so I couldn’t recall if we found out in book 1 or 2 or if that was still something to resolve – it’s related to my comment about how the internal politics of Tova went from being a significant plot point in the earlier books to barely existent in this one) or if we simply never got an answer and it ended up as a dropped plot point. Whether you think the ending works and the character motivations make sense vs being plot driven will also likely depend on how much you bought the central romances. While I said I wasn’t that into the love stories, that was mostly related to Serapio and Xiala and how outsized of an impact their short interactions seemed to have on them. In the case of Nara and Iktan, they clearly have a deep history but given Iktan’s betrayal earlier in the series, I didn’t expect it to take the romantic/sexual turn despite that being something they had been to each other at another time.