booksthatburn's Reviews (1.46k)

THE LIGHT BETWEEN WORLDS is a Narnia A.U. in which three children were magically plucked from a WWII backyard bomb shelter and spend several years in the Woodlands, where they grew up, faced dangers, went through a different kind of war, then returned home when the older two were ready. Except Evelyn didn't want to go back to England, and spends her time cycling between hope and misery as she tries to return to the Woodlands, the only home her heart knows. It captures the way that, sometimes, to them, each person's grief feels so specific and terrible that there's no way anyone could ever understand what happened or what they're still going through. Instead, each attempt at understanding through clichés, parallels, or personal stories only makes clear some enormous and unbridgeable gap. Every difference becoming an insurmountable barrier which makes it harder and harder to feel like anyone could ever understand. 

The narrative is split almost exactly in two, between Evelyn in the first half and Philippa in the second. Ev is depressed and lonely, and every bit of happiness she manages to find keeps reminding her of her previous joy in the Woodlands. She spends a lot of time with a boy named Tom, but that acquaintance began through her brother Jamie's helpful meddling and she's never able to tell him what's wrong. Philippa takes over as narrator when Evelyn disappears, the rest of the story follows her dealing (rather badly) with Ev's absence and feeling responsible for things going so badly. 

As a Narnia, A.U., specifically, this deals a little with the dysphoria which results from being flung back into bodies at least five years younger than they'd become used to. They were returned to the very instant of their original journey, showing none of the age they'd gained in the other world. Part of Ev's despair is being thrust back in to her eleven-year-old body after having made it to sixteen or so in the Woodlands. She literally grew up there, only to have it all undone in a moment because her siblings were ready to return home. 

The Woodlands are barely sketched, quite intentionally so, as no recitation of their lore could come close to conveying how much it calls to Ev, still. This assumes the reader is familiar with the general shape of a portal fantasy, with heroes plucked from an ordinary life and tossed into adventures they'll never be able to explain without being locked up for insanity, doomed to spend the rest of their lives never speaking of the most fantastical and formative moments of their entire existence. For Evelyn, the Woodlands are her home and everything else a shadow. Philippa wants to move on, if not to forget, and the brother Jamie appears to have placed it firmly in the past. While small slices of the Woodlands are shown, they're just enough to show what kind of place it was. The worldbuilding instead focused on the inner lives of Evelyn and Philippa, in what they pay attention to and how they see the world. This intense focus on them leaves some of the secondary characters feeling stilted and interchangeable, as the subtleties in how they interact with first Ev and then Philippa are almost lost in the weight of their different despairs. 

Evelyn and Tom's closeness felt mostly like she enjoyed him being quiet and there. She needed to not literally be alone, sometimes, but was unable to handle his attempts at understanding because he doesn't know about the Woodlands. Philippa and Jack's relationship is more developed, since she's trying to move on. What stilts her isn't the Woodlands, it's the terrible uncertainty of Ev's fate. When Tom tries to relate to Evelyn by discussing the brothers he lost in the war, Ev can't accept his empathy because it feels like it bears no possible connection to her forced exit from the Woodlands. Tom doesn't know that Ev's despair is unrelated to the war which touched all their lives, and has literally no reason to guess this. Jack's attempts to relate to Philippa go a bit better because the nature of her loss has more immediate parallels to something completely ordinary. 

I like the ending, it gives much-needed closure to the ambiguity which suffused the second half. It also avoids tying things off entirely, maintaining the feeling that there's more healing to do.

THE LAKE OF SOULS follows Harkat and Darren in a very weird place on Mr. Tiny's direction, doing cryptic steps in order so that Harkat can find out who he was before he was a Little Person (a stitched-together creature made by Mr. Tiny from a soul that wanted a second chance). Once they reach the Lake of Souls, Harkat must retrieve his old soul and find out who he was before he died. Partway through they meet a very strange ex-pirate named Spits who (the book won't let you forget) really wants to drink alcohol. I wasn't enjoying how much he took over the narrative, but it has a great payoff so it works out overall. 

This is the tenth book in the series and the first book of the final trilogy. It wraps up the long-teased question of Harkat's original identity, a mystery which has lingered since early in the series. While the need to answer the question is old, the way the do it is so strange of a quest that I do count it as a new storyline. While I knew they needed it answered, I wasn't expecting "shoved through a portal and told to figure it out or die" as the start of a quest. They get slightly more information, but it's nearly that cryptic and definitely that threatening at the time. 

It introduces and resolves the backstory of a strange person they meet on their journey, as well as their best guess at what that strange place actually is. It's not the final book, and specifically teases that the final battle with the Vampaneze Lord will be some time in the future. 

Darren is still the narrator, and he feels more like an adult in terms of what he knows, but his narrative style still feels like a teenager. Since this hits a sweet spot on his reactions feeling appropriate to the target audience while also not shying away from the horror in certain events.

Even though this is the start of a new arc in the series, it's the final arc which will wrap up everything they've been building towards. It's answer time, and if you hop right in without having sat with questions it won't be nearly as satisfying. Also, Darren is trying to figure out how to grieve for someone he lost in the previous book, and it won't have nearly the emotional impact it's meant to for someone who hasn't at least read as far back as the sixth book. For the big mystery of Harkat's identity, you really ought to go back to the fourth book where Harkat's first major journey with Darren takes place.

As the second book in a quartet, this doesn’t wrap up anything from a previous book, but it spends time with the wolf pack Daine mentioned in WILD MAGIC. There’s a new storyline which is a combination of spying and a “save the forest” style mission. The Pack summoned Daine because the local two-leggers are destroying natural resources and making the land uninhabitable with their new mining and logging projects. When Daine and Numair arrive, they discover that there are a lot of potentially hostile mages who have no reason to be there. The rest of the plot focuses on Daine’s increasing connections with the local wildlife, and her growing mastery of her magic. Numair leaves to get help, leaving Daine to figure out things without his aid for long stretches. 

The entire plot with finding out the problem and saving the valley is introduced and resolved within this book. It introduces a bunch of characters and factions who may be important in later books, but this story is very well-contained. It doesn't specifically leave anything for later, but it establishes new situations for most of the characters who were established in this book. I know from the sequels that certain details and characters do or don't matter for later books, but the story itself doesn't really give hints. The two major exceptions to this are that Daine has been trying to find out who her Da is since the first book so eventually she'll probably get an answer, and that Emperor Ozorne has been mentioned a lot and will likely be important. Anything else might or might not matter later. Daine feels a bit older than the last book. Clearly not an adult yet, she's now fourteen and a half (an age where half years are important) rather than the perhaps thirteen of the first book. 

This story is so self-contained, with backstory succinctly conveyed when necessary, that it could make sense when read on its own. It could make even more since to anyone who has read any of the other Tortall books, even if not WILD MAGIC. It only barely features previously known characters, due to the event which effectively traps Daine in the valley almost as soon as they arrive. 

I like this one generally, and it introduces several characters who will be more important later. It also features an expansion of Daine's powers in a major way. Not bad, but I remember liking the later books more (we'll see if they hold up on re-read). 

STALKING DARKNESS finally answers the big mystery that has Nysander swearing people into secrecy if he tells them anything at all. Alec continues to be an excellent student of thievery and hidden things, and Seregil is maybe almost someday thinking about perhaps telling Alec he likes him... at a later date.

The plot follows Alec, Seregil, Nysander, and Micum as they are living life and doing sneaky (or magic) things. Seregil has a brief quest by himself at Nysander's direction, and a lot of the emotional tension in the first half related to Seregil trying to navigate the increasingly romantic direction of his already intense feelings for Alec. Mysterious antagonists have been tracking them since the first book, and their nefarious plan (centuries in the making) has finally come to fruition. Once they make their big move, the rest of the book is devoted to trying to stop them and save some of their victims. This connects with Beka's storyline in an unexpected but narratively neat way (though very bad for a bunch of her fellow soldiers). 

Seregil's early mission features a far-away mountain-dwelling culture whose practices around visitors feel like a colonial fever dream. They're extremely welcoming, don't realize Seregil isn't the one actually doing magic (he's using prefabs from Nysndander), and won't take no for an answer on the subject of Seregil sleeping with their daughters. The reason for that last one is that they need new blood from visitors in order to not inbreed themselves too badly due to their isolation, but it comes off rather badly. If an individual character with a name seduced him during his visit that would be one thing, but what the text describes is a rotation between houses with sets of sisters wanting to sleep with him while he's in their dwelling. Thankfully this section avoids specific details of those encounters, but the whole thing felt very strange. A pair of later scenes where Seregil goes to brothels of his own accord felt more intimate than all the mountain encounters combined. 

Noting here that when Alec has his first sexual experience (with a character we've been set up to dislike) it's unclear whether it's assault, but at the very least his will was magically impaired which makes true consent impossible. The story treats it as uncertain and the other characters follow Alec's lead on how to react to the event, but if I could change one thing I'd make it more obvious as to whether Alec was actually consenting. 

This wraps up a bunch of things so completely that it feels like it could have been book two of a duology rather than what ended up as a seven book series. It finally answers and resolves the mystery of the scar on Seregil's chest and all the questions Nysander refuses to answer. It also (at long last) handles the extremely slow burn of Seregil and Alec's relationship as it changes from mentor and pupil to maybe something differently intimate. There's a new storyline related to Micum's daughter Beka joining the army. Most of what it resolves are things (and people) introduced in the first book, so much so that while there might be some small thing which appears and ends here I can't think of it. 

I like the audiobook narrator and would happily listen to them narrate this series or another. The rotation of narrators sound consistent with their previous appearances, but I didn't strictly keep track of whether any were new this time around. This time we do get Beka's perspective on her first experience of war and command, I don't think she narrated at all in the first book. I like her sections, it's nice to see her living up to her warrior dreams from LUCK IN THE SHADOWS.

The ending gets much bleaker than anything in the series until that point, with some of the main characters in the hands of the villains and a long road to any potential rescue. The story handles it well, taking seriously the trauma inflicted, but it gets pretty stressful.

So much of this is built on LUCK IN THE SHADOWS that I don't think it would make sense or be satisfying without having read that first book. The highs wouldn't be as high and the depths wouldn't be so tragically, crushingly low otherwise. I started reading this series because I wanted very long books with magic, queerness, thieving, and general skullduggery. This hit everything on my list, with a slow burn romance and some war tossed in for good measure.

Daine meets and then travels with Onua, the horse mistress of the Queen’s Riders, beginning as a hired hand for the journey to the palace and quickly becoming indispensable. She has wild magic so strong that she’s in danger of losing track of herself when she connects with animals (the People). They meet the mage, Numair Saladin, who becomes Daine’s master in her magical studies. The plot revolves around Daine connecting with People and with two-leggers, gradually feeling like she can belong again after having traumatically lost her home and family before the events of the book. I like almost all of this book, I just wish it didn't lean quite so hard into Daine's crush on Numair (a man twice her age and her mage master, besides). 

There’s a new threat to Tortall: the immortals which were sealed away for several hundred years. Some of them seem to have been in on the return plan, working with enemies of Tortall. Others were unceremoniously plopped in the Mortal Realms with no forewarning and are making the best of it. 

In characterization, this focuses nearly as much on animals as humans. Daine connects with many wild animals and enjoys meeting new kinds of creatures (especially on her first visit to the ocean). She also communicates with some of the immortals, particularly the ones with animal forms. I like Cloud, she’s technically an animal sidekick character but she is written much more like a human traveling companion in temperament and tone. She never feels like a gimmick, but is a full person with Daine.

For anyone who’s read The Song of the Lioness quartet, WILD MAGIC occasionally leans into a “where are they now” roundup of beloved characters from those earlier books. If you read this without those, it completely makes sense and doesn’t require background knowledge from that series in order to have 99% of its emotional impact. Usually it just means that readers of Alanna’s quartet may recognize returning characters by their descriptions a paragraph or two earlier than when Daine learns their names. 

I like the big battle at the end, it fits the characters and gives a chance to show how much Daine has changed over the summer.

As the final book of Alanna’s quartet, this wraps up several things left hanging from the previous books. Since the previous book (rather dramatically) featured Alanna rejecting Jon’s proposal, this shows Alanna having other relationships (George and a new person), and gives a strong indication as to who Jon’s queen will be. It reveals the result of Thom’s magical experiments, Claw’s attempt at George’s throne, and the contents of the mysterious letter from the sorceress of Alois. 

Because Liam is a new character, Alanna’s romance with him could count as a new storyline, but it’s a continuation of her previously established interest in Shang warriors. He assists in a quest which resulted from meeting the sorceress of Alois in the previous book (the Dominion Jewel), so it doesn’t really feel like a new storyline, though it’s definitely more information about Shang than we’d gotten before. Their relationship is both introduced and resolved within this book.

Alanna is closer to her old self, with much less of the white savior nonsense from the previous book. This story is contained enough to be friendly to readers returning after a long break between books, but the finale will be much less impactful to someone who hasn’t at least read the first two books. 

Based on the letter retrieved at the end of the previous book, Alanna and Coram go on a quest for the Dominion Jewel, a powerful artifact currently resting high in a specific mountain pass. I said there’s less white savior nonsense this time around, but the letter was specifically for the headman of the Bazhir tribe which adopted Alanna, and he returns it to her rather than go on the quest himself or giving it to someone who is of the tribe by birth. Also, we learn of at least one other person adopted by a different Bazhir tribe, so I get the impression that it’s common for the Bazhir to adopt outsiders, something which wasn’t clear before. While on the quest, they meet Liam, and later are joined by Thayet and Buri. When they return to Tortall they find that things are very wrong in a number of ways, all of which come to a head at Jon’s coronation in a pretty dramatic battle. The finale and its sequence of fights is one of my favorite moments in the series, for all its tragedy. 

I said it’s mostly free of white savior nonsense, but there’s a moment which sticks in my craw where someone relays a theory that the Doi, K’miri, and Bazhir are descended from one race. The Doi are shown precisely long enough to tell fortunes (helping Alanna in the quest), the only examples we have of the K’miri are of them as body-servants to royalty of another ethnicity, and the Bazhir are being subsumed into Tortall (refer back to book three). It feels like a way to make all the semi-nomadic (or fully nomadic) peoples in the whole quartet all actually be one group, which definitely feels squicky. Maybe in this setting it is correct and it’s actually a cool fact! But it’s presented as a theory and completely doesn’t matter to the conversation in which it occurs.

I like most of this and it’s a solid end to the quartet.

A STRANGE AND STUBBORN ENDURANCE is one of my favorite things I’ve read all year, in a year where I’ve already read more than two hundred books. It might be my favorite arranged/political marriage book, if it’s not the winner it’s at least in good company. It’s instantly achieved the rank of my favorite fantasy book dealing with rape (a strange category to have, but as I make a podcast dealing with fictional depictions of trauma, an almost necessary category to be aware of).  If you’re uncomfortable with that content, please choose another book, with my best wishes, as this deals with the actual event and long aftermath of a (graphic but brief) sexual assault by someone who until very recently was the victim’s romantic partner. 

There are two major countries, one of which is barely shown but heavily felt (Ralia), and the other is where almost all of the story takes place (Tithena). That means the reader's main understanding of Ralia is through Velasin's recollections and Tithenai gossip. The story's focus on Velasin's arranged marriage to a man, combined with Ralian homophobia, means that most descriptions of Ralia are unflattering, focusing on much that Velasin was unable to freely do in his former country. Most of the story is set in Tithena, in or around Caethari's home (now Velasin's new home). This allows the opportunity for both the official Tithenian line and the reality to appear side by side in a way that doesn't happen for Ralia. It makes it clear that even though Tithena is more egalitarian in many respects, 

Velasin and his soon-to-be husband, Caethari, are the two narrators. I love Velasin and Caethari, both separately and together. However, unlike most books with dual narrators, this gives each narrator several chapters in a row before switching to the other. This helps with immersion into each man's perspective, and means that in this emotionally fraught story based on a colossal and nearly catastrophic misunderstanding, the reader doesn't get an immediate narrative resolution merely by switching to the other person. They're very different people, something which really gets to shine when Velasin gets more comfortable and begins turning his people skills and political mind to the mystery at hand.

We meet Velasin on the road, almost immediately reaching his father's home after fleeing his unfaithful partner (and accompanied by Markel, his servant and friend). Upon his arrival he's notified by his father of his impending arranged marriage to a Tithenai woman. Moments later his former partner arrives, having pursued him, then assaults him. After his father and the Tithenai envoy walk in on them (not understand that it was rape), the envoy offers him a marriage to a man instead. He accepts with as little consent as was involved in the former arrangement, and then travels to Tithena, where the rest of the plot unfolds. 

Markel is Velasin's servant and best friend. He's mute, using signs, writing, and other non-verbal signals to communicate with Velasin (and anyone else who'll learn). I like Markel, and he gets a lot of space in Velasin's thoughts, but not quite as much in the actual narrative (as he spends much of it recovering from a very serious injury). He's very important to the story, playing much more of a role before he's attacked and after he's mostly recovered. 

Caethari wasn't expecting to be the one getting married, since Ralia's endemic homophobia is well-known in Tithena. Tithenia as a country is so casually queer that saying it's more accepting of queerness than Ralia does a disservice in the comparison. It is not, however, free of other problems. Before Caethari can greet Velasin, the incoming party is attacked and their introduction is made under rather stressful circumstances.

The rest of the plot weaves together a series of strange and possibly politically-motivated attacks, investigations of the same, Velasin's internal struggles, Caethari's attempts to help, and many long conversations about cultural differences which range from extremely serious to mere curiosities. There's also the lingering threat that Velasin's attacker might pursue him further, a (not unfounded) worry which complicates his recovery. I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer number of characters, but I'm generally terrible with names and was still able to track most of what was happening. Much of the narrative is structured like a mystery, where they're trying to figure out the person or group behind the attacks and don't know who they can trust. This is interwoven with Velasin and Caethari getting to know each other, and Velasin's introductions to Caethari's family and a few other important persons. 

Read this for a kind of mystery story, full of political machinations, focused on recovery from trauma in a situation where bad things are still happening.

Having trouble getting into it.

I like the narrator for Gul's portion. This isn't the first audiobook performance I've listened to by her and I like her style. What kills it for me is the male narrator. The performer for Cavas has a voice which sounds like he came straight from working on a Trump impression to do this audiobook. It's annoying during the main narration when he's portraying Cavas's thoughts and speech. Then, it becomes even worse when any female characters speak, as he gives them grating falsettos which are only barely differentiated. Luckily, Gul narrates much more of the book than Cavas does, and if I had access to a printed edition of the book I would have switched to that as soon as he first spoke. 

Setting aside the audio for a moment, I can't stand Gul. She was fine but a bit annoying, then midway through she shamed a girl for what she thought was a history of sex work but turned to actually have been rape and other abuses while a small child. Gul ended up apologizing and the only thing I liked about it is that the other person didn't accept the apology. Even if she'd been correct that it was sex work and consensual, that still would have been awful to try and shame her for it. In terms of the writing for the other girl, she was wielding that history of sexual abuse to try and say Gul wasn't ready or tough enough because she hadn't suffered enough as someone who'd "only" had her parents murdered in front of her. 

The oppression olympics are noxious, I have zero emotional investment in Cavas (supposedly the love interest but at over halfway through I'm not seeing that yet, he's just a boy who's there), and I don't like Gul. 

Didn’t like it, not totally sure why.