Dear Author » Michelle Sagara

REVIEW: Skirmish by Michelle West

Jia — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:00:02 +0000

Dear Ms. West,

I love your books. Whether it’s under this pseudonym or Michelle Sagara, I make sure to read them all. It’s true that I find some more satisfying than others but I’ve never actually regretted picking any of them up. Given my growing disenchantment with the fantasy genre as a whole, this is a major point in your favor. So thank you for offering an early look at your latest fantasy novel. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get to it sooner and it in no way reflects upon the book or your writing. It’s all on me.

Skirmish is the fourth novel in the House War series, which follows the adventures of Jewel Markess ATerafin, a young woman who spent her early years living in the poorest slums of the capital before being adopted into the most powerful noble house of the empire. You see, Jewel is a seer and at the age of fifteen, she helped avert a demonic invasion. Her ability makes her very valuable.

The first three novels of this series cover Jewel’s life before she was adopted into House Terafin. This novel jumps forward in time to when Jewel is an adult and is a member of the House Council. She has just returned from the Southern kingdom of Annagar and the war that is reaching its climax there. (That story is covered in a previous 6-book series, The Sun Sword, which I highly recommend.) The Terafin’s leader has just been assassinated by demons, casting the house into chaos. In this world, house leadership is not hereditary. The leader earns it — by political savvy, by forming allies, and yes, by murder.

The Terafin was one of the most important people in Jewel’s life. But she also knows what her dead mentor wanted: for Jewel take up the title of Terafin and become the next leader of the House. The only reason why no one else knows this is because the last heir the Terafin chose was assassinated and Jewel is far too valuable to be put in danger like that.

But Jewel doesn’t want to think about games of power and the responsibility of leadership. She just wants three days to bury and mourn for the woman she respected most. Unfortunately, that luxury may not exist. If demons were responsible for the Terafin’s death, then that means others must be around. More importantly, Jewel’s power and abilities have begun to awaken, affecting the lands within Terafin property and beyond.

Given that not only is this the fourth book of a series, which in turn is connected to other series, this is absolutely not the best place to start for a new reader. I wish I could say otherwise, considering how weary of series people can be but I would hate for a reader to pick this up and think it’d work well without any context. It won’t. Along those lines, I’m also not completely sure someone who hasn’t read the Sun Sword series will pick up some of the nuances in this one. So this is a major caveat for new and unfamiliar readers.

All that said, however, I really enjoyed this book. I’ve been waiting a long time to see what happens after the events covered by The Sun Sword and finally, we have it. This is a very political book. While there are clashes with demons, longtime readers know that knock ‘em and drag ‘em out fights never figure prominently in your books. But even though I love fight scenes, I also love political intrigue. I can see readers who don’t care for that subgenre not being so thrilled with it, but it was very satisfying for me. I especially liked learning more about Haval and his past with Duvari. It makes me even more curious about Jarven. I found all those interactions extremely interesting.

A good chunk of the book is spent exploring the limits of Jewel’s abilities which, as we discover, extend far beyond precognition. It was very fantastical and as a reader who’s getting a little bored with the GRRM brand of gritty, “realistic” fantasy, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I do like a little — or a lot — of magic in my fantasy from time to time and I thought this filled a lack I hadn’t realized I’d been feeling. In addition, the talking cats (a staple of science fiction and fantasy) were hilarious.

I know the book covers a relatively short time period so there probably wasn’t room for it, but I would have liked to see Jewel interact more with the people who had officially declared for the seat. She interacts with Marrick at the end but not so much with the others. This goes back to what I was saying earlier: longtime readers will be familiar with the pre-existing relationships but new readers, or even readers who’ve only read this series and not Sun Sword, will not fully grasp the bad blood involving Rymark and Harraed.

A surprising thing I liked was the relationship between Jewel and Angel. I’d never really gotten a handle on Angel in previous novels and only began to understand him in this series. In Skirmish, we really see his devotion to Jewel and his utter disregard for anything not related to her.

In many ways, this is a book about grief. In the end, the dead don’t care about the actions of the living. They’re dead. How can they care? It’s a loss of innocence for Jewel in many ways but it’s also an important lesson for her to learn, especially if she’s to succeed in gaining control of the House.

I feel like this review is short for a book in which I thought a quite a bit happened, but on the other hand, there’s a lot of spoilers involved too and those events should be uncovered on their own. I admit that after the last book, I was growing impatient for us to move along already and I think many other readers felt the same way. I like to think they’ll be as pleased with this installment as I am. I’m glad we’re back in the present, no longer expanding on the past, and I hope we get to see serious struggles for House control in the next book. B+

My regards,
Jia

Previous books in this series: The Hidden City, City of Night, House Name (review)

What Jia’s Been Reading, Late October/Early November

Jia — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:12:11 +0000

Both my reading speed and time have taken a serious hit the past few weeks. Hopefully, my upcoming vacation over Thanksgiving will remedy that but who knows?

Cast in Ruin by Michelle Sagara
I’m a big fan of Michelle Sagara/Michelle West’s books but this one didn’t live up to my expectations. It seems like every couple Elantra books, there’s one I find completely uninteresting. This, apparently, was the one. (Full review.)

The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin
The conclusion to the Inheritance trilogy. It’s a very different sort of book from the previous two. Both more and less epic at the same time. I have mixed feelings about it but overall, I liked what it was trying to achieve: the story of a child-god who has to grow up. I thought it was the perfect finale for the trilogy but I can see how readers who wanted something like the first two would be disappointed. Full review to come.

India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K. Carr
I think my mistake going into this book was thinking it’d be an over the top spy caper along the lines of the first book. It’s not. It’s still a spy novel, but it’s not quite as over the top which made it less entertaining for me. I also thought India was presented as more of a bumbling spy — she is inexperienced and a woman but I disliked how she was constantly put down by all the men around her — and I didn’t care for that at all. Full review to come.

Scored by Lauren McLaughlin
In some ways, I think it’s a shame the YA dystopian subgenre is so glutted. With so many books having similar premises, titles are bound to be overlooked. This one tackles the idea of teenagers being “scored,” essentially mapping out their futures. I didn’t realize until I started reading it, however, that the protagonist was biracial. What’s more, the book touches on race and class and whether or not a “score” is the great equalizer. Surprisingly deep for such a slim book. Full review to come.

What about you guys? Have you read any of these? Looking forward to the holidays in hopes for time to read?

REVIEW: Cast in Ruin by Michelle Sagara

Jia — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:00:19 +0000

Dear Ms. Sagara,

Ah, the peril of the long-running series. I knew in the back of my mind that your ongoing Elantra series consisted of many books but checking Amazon, I see that Cast in Ruin is book 7. This both surprises me and makes me wince. Surprise because I can’t believe it’s been that many books already (I remember when Cast in Shadow first came out!), but wince because at some point, the barrier of entry for new readers becomes too high.

Cast in Ruin continues the fallout from the previous novel, Cast in Chaos, in which a magical storm introduced a new race of people to Elantra. Because this new race is one of small giants, the people of Elantra are understandably wary. Efforts are underway to smooth over relations between the races but unsurprisingly, it’s a slow process.

Kaylin Neya, human Hawk (sort of the equivalent of a police officer) and gifted with magical abilities no one else has or entirely understands, continues her ongoing etiquette lessons with the Dragon Court. Given the nature of her talents, she has to meet the Dragon Emperor sometime but first, she has to become presentable enough so as to avoid being eaten. Further complicating her life are the race of giants whose presence requires attention and a work force already taxed by an involved and long-running investigation into other matters of the city.

But things take a turn for the bizarre when dead women start showing up around the fief the immigrants have made their home. Under other circumstances, people would look towards the newcomers as the source of the problem. That assumption is dismissed, however, by one minor detail. The dead bodies are all of the same exact woman.

It took me an embarrassingly long time to read this novel. It read long and only my love for your works kept me going because had this been any other author, I would have tossed this book aside. Now I realize your books are generally long. I feel like this is a defining trait of your works. Normally, I’m fine with that. Traditional fantasy is my love, after all. But this was the first book of yours where I struggled to finish and in fact having finished it, I still don’t know if the effort to keep going was worth it.

Without going into spoilers, my main issue is that while things happened, I didn’t feel like there was much forward progress in the book. Yes, I realize there was a game-changer, of sorts, introduced in the latter parts of the novel. The problem with this is that I felt like the sole purpose of the book was to introduce this game-changer. Who came into the book. And then the book ended. It’s a bit of a letdown, you know?

It’s true that because of the lead up to the new character’s introduction, we learn more about the dragons. Unfortunately, the information wasn’t imparted in any way I found compelling. How long have we been waiting for Kaylin’s much-anticipated introduction to the Dragon Emperor? Now I realize she isn’t at all ready for that meeting, but how many books has it been? Has she made any forward progress at all? At the rate we’re going, I have doubts as to whether we will even see that meeting within the next 2 books given the assumed location of the next installment.

That said, we do finally get a much-needed conversation between Kaylin and Severn. Does it lead anywhere or change anything? No, not especially. While I liked seeing what Kaylin actually thought of Nightshade, that subplot is moving about as fast as the built-up meeting to the Dragon Emperor. Perhaps even slower. I’m not particularly frustrated by the lack of progress but 1) by this point, I don’t expect any on that front anymore and 2) I was more irritated by other things.

Long-running series are difficult to keep interesting. I say this as a reader who’s followed many (Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire). What keeps me invested is change. While some readers would say that the new character in this book did introduce change to the series, I would argue that while it did introduce change to the world, it didn’t introduce an immediately obvious change to Kaylin. Sure, she gets a new roommate but how does this affect her character arc? After all, for all intents and purposes, the new character is essentially an immortal version of Kaylin and to be blunt, one of that character type per novel is enough. I feel like the proportion of scale was lost.

While it’s true Kaylin is not the same character we first met in Cast in Shadow, I’m not entirely convinced she’s made as much character progression as you’d expect for someone who’s gone through 7 books. She’s striking me as static at the moment. Does that mean massive character evolution couldn’t happen in the next novel? No, of course not but I’m not seeing it and it’s making my interest in this series flag. I honestly don’t know how much more of this non-progress I can take. And new readers beware: this is a not a good entry point into the series. We’ve long since passed that point, unfortunately. C

My regards,
Jia

Previous books in this series: Cast in Shadow, Cast in Courtlight, Cast in Secret, Cast in Fury (review), Cast in Silence (review), Cast in Chaos (review)

REVIEW: House Name by Michelle West

Jia — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:00:28 +0000

Dear Ms. West,

I fear my epic reading muscles must be atrophied. I realize I’ve been reading many young adult novels and paranormal/urban fantasies in recent months, but I think it’s warped my expectations for how long it should take me to finish a book! I’ve reviewed the Elantra novels you write under the Michelle Sagara name here on Dear Author in the past, but I think this is the first time I’ve reviewed one of your Michelle West epic fantasies.

For readers who are only familiar with the Elantra novels, Michelle West also writes interconnected fantasy series for DAW. The best analogy I can come up is something like Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar universe. The various novels chronicle the struggles of different characters against the backdrop of the God of Hell returning to the mortal plane, thus promising impending doom and the apocalypse.

House Name is the third book of House War, the third series set in this universe. This series focuses on Jewel Markess ATerafin, a major character of this universe, and her rise to influence in the most powerful noble house of the Essalieyan Empire, House Terafin. House Name picks up after the events of City of Night, in which Jewel’s mentor sends her to his estranged sister, Amarais, the lord of House Terafin.

Coming from one of the poorest districts in the Capital, Jewel is the den leader of a motley gang of street urchins. She is also seerborn which, for obvious reasons, is a very coveted and very rare talent. Because of this, Amarais sees her potential and has given her the opportunity to earn the name of House Terafin. The noble houses of the Empire are unique in fantasylandia in that you aren’t born to the name. You earn it.

What does Jewel have to do to earn the name? Oh, nothing much. She just has to find the entrances to the ruined underground city that exists beneath the Capital. For years, Jewel and her den scavenged the city for valuable items they could pawn. But recently, the ruined city grew unstable. Worse still, something else was in the city, something that led to the disappearance of three of her den and the death of her right hand.

You see, once upon a time, that fallen city was home to the Lord of Hell and his followers when gods still walked the earth. The problem? The entrances are disappearing. This is obviously a problem when demons have returned to the mortal plane and are trying to resurrect their god. Even more, it makes Jewel look like a liar. The only reason she’s believed is because Amarais and the powerful mage, Meralonne, saw the existence of demons with their very own eyes.

If this plot sounds familiar, that’s because it is. It’s the events of Hunter’s Death, a previous Michelle West novel, told from the den’s perspective. As a longtime Michelle West fan who’s read every book, I must admit that what should have been the high points of the plot ended up not being the case at all. I knew what was going to happen, and that negated the suspense.

I can’t say this was a surprise. After all, the last third or so of the previous novel, City of Night also repeated some of the events portrayed in Hunter’s Death. But it didn’t bother me quite as much there because we had the first two-thirds and Rath’s and Duster’s respective storylines. House Name, however, expands the remaining events involving the den from Hunter’s Death. A lot. To the point that I question if this book was even necessary to advance or just pretty filler.

Don’t get me wrong. I did like some of the expansion. I enjoyed Finch’s and Teller’s storylines a great deal. I also liked seeing the conclusion of Angel’s plot thread that began in City of Night, even though I felt that it lacked a certain impact. There were also some background details offered up that I think longtime readers will appreciate.

That said, I know this story already. I know how it ended. This isn’t a matter of knowing genre conventions — like the lost heir returning to claim the throne or the evil king being overthrown. Readers know those by heart. Like many readers, I read for the journey. But I’ve already been on this journey. I know the setbacks, the advances, the success, the failures. I know them already. A few minor subplots and expanded scenes aren’t going to change that fact.

I guess what it comes down to is why readers read a book, and why epic fantasy readers read epic fantasy series. Speaking for myself, I look for new adventures, new struggles, new conflicts, new mysteries, forward movement along a character arc, and maybe new characters. Maybe not at all once but certainly some of them. And to be blunt, I don’t think House Name actually gave me any of those things.

This is a tough grade to assign. It’s a well-written book and I think someone who hasn’t read the Sacred Hunt duology (of which Hunter’s Death is the second book) might not view it as much of a retread as I did. On the other hand, because it portrays the events of that book from the den’s perspective, unfamiliar readers might also feel like half the story is missing. I do think this is a book diehard fans of the series will want to read but readers who are lukewarm towards Jewel and her story arc can probably skip it. At any rate, this novel is anything but a good entry point into this universe, although that is a problem plaguing many an epic fantasy series and certainly is not unique to this one. C

My regards,
Jia

Book Link | Amazon | nook | BN |

There appears to be no ebook format for this book. I know. WTF?

REVIEW: Cast in Chaos by Michelle Sagara

Jia — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:00:56 +0000

Dear Ms. Sagara,

I’m a longtime fan of both your Michelle West epic fantasy novels published by DAW as well as the Elantra series put out by Luna. Your books never fail to remind me of why I love this genre. I also can’t believe we’re already up to six books about Kaylin Neya, a young woman with a mysterious destiny who’s just trying to make a living working as the second world fantasy equivalent of a beat cop.

To bring new readers up to speed, the world of Elantra is one co-inhabited by six different races: humans, Leontines (lion-people), hawk-people, Tha’alani (a telepathic race with tentacles growing out of their heads), Barrani (the equivalent of faeries), and dragons who rule over them all. It’s an uneasy peace at times and the constant shifting of this balance has been explored in previous books. As a Hawk, Kaylin’s job is to uphold the law set down by the Dragon court, and the Elantra series chronicles her adventures doing just that. In addition, Kaylin is a human with unexplained magical ability of unclear origin. She can heal but she’s also capable of doing other things, the most pertinent to this book’s plot being that she can read magical sigils and glyphs, even if they are from a long-dead language.

Cast in Chaos opens with Kaylin and her partner, Severn, doing rounds on their latest assignment, Elani Street. Elani Street is, to put it tactfully, an area known for charlatans and swindlers. Fortune tellers, vendors of magical elixirs, you can find it all on Elani Steet. So imagine their surprise when a hair restoration potion actually works and gives a client a new head of hair and when a well-known fortune teller provides an accurate reading, which both upsets her client and inadvertantly endangers an ongoing investigation.

What Kaylin and Severn soon discover is that a magical disturbance has begun, centering on Elani Street and surrounding regions. Sometimes the results are benign, such as fake hair tonics delivering what they promise. Other times, babies are born with third eyes in the middle of their foreheads and the sky literally rains blood. The reason for this disruption? A magical portal between worlds is opening. What will come through it, however, is another matter entirely.

Cast in Chaos took a little while to get going for me as a reader. A good chunk of the beginning was devoted to laying the foundation for the plot and at times my attention wandered. It wasn’t boring, but I think I might have grown used to the instant gratification of simpler plots so I’m not as patient as I once was. In some respects, this lent to an impression of not much forward momentum. I discovered, however, that once I hit halfway, I couldn’t stop reading. The plot is one of those that slowly builds until it snowballs hard and fast, so I ultimately felt rewarded for sticking with it.

At last, the great question of why Elantra has so many disparate races has finally been answered! I know this has been a worldbuilding quirk that’s niggled me since the first book, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that sentiment. But the revelation in Chaos made perfect sense as well as fit into the existing magic system, explaining why certain races have access to true names while others do not. To be honest, I usually don’t care for multiple world theories in fantasy simply because I tend to think of multiple realities as a science fiction trope but I think it worked very well here.

Kaylin also has more interactions with the dragons in this book. You can just see the impending meeting with the Dragon emperor looming on the horizon. I wonder how long it will take for her to meet him because after the events in this book, it’s become readily apparent they can’t keep putting it off forever. Kaylin is just too connected to many different races and has access to magic they can’t afford to let run loose unchecked. I’m personally looking forward to this meeting because I find the dragon race very fascinating. They’re the only original race we don’t really know much about at this point, though what glimpses we received in this book were interesting.

And finally, the other aspect readers will want to know — the question of Nightshade versus Severn. People may be interested to know that there are developments. I wouldn’t go so far as to say they constitute forward movement because that would require Kaylin to take some action, but I also see that the time is coming when Kaylin will have to do something eventually because even she can no longer ignore what’s there.

In the end, I was very satisfied with this read. It features a more self-contained plot than we’ve seen in recent installments but I also think the cast of characters has expanded such that newer readers who jump straight in might get lost easily. While the cast of characters is nowhere as large as that of the major players in the West books, it is still bigger than some people might be used to. The series has also become more epic in scope and straying further away from its beginning as second world police procedural fantasies. That isn’t a criticism but readers expecting the latter might not be entirely satisfied. Still, it was worthwhile and I look forward to seeing how the events that take place at the of Chaos impact Elantra’s future. B

My regards,
Jia

REVIEW: Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara

Jia — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:00:02 +0000

Dear Ms. Sagara,

You are easily one of my favorite authors. These days it’s very rare for me to follow a series past a certain point, but I find myself doing that for the novels you write under both the Michelle Sagara and Michelle West names. It also helps that thus far, they haven’t disappointed me which goes a long way to keeping this reader’s loyalty.

Cast in Silence is the fifth book in your Elantra series published by Luna. The Cast books follow Kaylin Neya, a private in the Hawks, the police force that helps protect the city of Elantra. Kaylin is stubborn, hot-headed, and at times immature, traits which prove unsurprising given her background. Still, she’s a useful member of the force despite her flaws.

Unfortunately for Kaylin, she’s also gifted with an unusual magical talent of alarming proportions, the signs of which are evident in the black marks that cover her skin and have, in fact, continued to spread across her body. The only thing she finds useful from this talent is her ability to heal, which she exercises often at the expense of her health. Other people, however, don’t see it that way. An Outcaste Barrani lord who rules over the fief Kaylin spent her childhood in has marked her. The dragons who rule Elantra have seen fit to give her magic lessons. The time is coming when Kaylin will have to face the Dragon Emperor himself but thankfully for her, that day has not yet come.

While the previous novel, Cast in Fury, was a direct continuation of its predecessor, Cast in Secret, Silence brings readers back to the format of the first two novels — installments which stand alone but build upon what has happened before. One of the things that has remained a mystery to readers is what happened during that six-month period in Kaylin’s life after she fled the fief of Nightshade when the person she’d idolized, Severn, killed two of her dearest friends to protect Kaylin, but before she joined the Hawk. Cast in Silence finally answers that question.

I didn’t find it surprising to learn what Kaylin did during those six months. She had to have learned certain skills somewhere and given my impression of her time with Severn, I never thought it would have been with him. What I did find surprising, however, was how she came to join the Hawks. It fit, and it certainly didn’t come out of left field; in fact, it made a certain sort of sense why the dynamic in the Hawk is the way it is when it comes to Kaylin. But I’d be lying if I said I had predicted it.

This brings us back to why exactly Kaylin’s past was finally revealed. There’s an anomaly in the heart of fiefs and Kaylin is sent to investigate, accompanied by Severn, who is now her partner, and Tiamaris, a Dragon who works with the Hawks. The assignment brings her back to Barren, which is the fief to which she fled after she ran from Severn all those years ago. And it’s here that we finally learn what is at the heart of the fiefs, why Elantra was built around it, and why exactly the Dragons chose to make their home here.

While Cast in Silence is a return to the standalone episode structure that characterized the earlier novels, I will say it’s probably more introspective than its predecessors. There are many flashbacks. I thought they were well-handled and in fact, I believe the plotline supported their use, but I know some readers dislike them a great deal and thought it appropriate to point out. For some reason, those sections — where Kaylin switches from flashbacks to the present timeline — reminded me a great deal of the novels you write under the Michelle West name. There’s something in the structure that recalls those other books.

There is one other thing I’m dying to talk about with other people who’ve read the book, but I’ll leave it unsaid here because it is a large spoiler. But for those who have read the novel, did anyone else feel like a paradox was created by the events that happened to Kaylin, Severn, and Tiamaris?

And finally, I think I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the subject of Severn and Nightshade. I’ve said before that I am firmly on Team Severn, but that has no bearing on what I’m about to say. Readers who are expecting major developments in Kaylin’s relationships with these two men will be disappointed. There are some implications about Kaylin’s feelings towards Severn that, at best, can only be described as ambiguous but those who are on Team Nightshade might be annoyed at the lack of forward movement here. It doesn’t bother me particularly but I have been a longtime fan of the Michelle West books and anyone who’s read those knows that a main character in that universe (Jewel) has had what might possibly be the one of the most drawn out ambiguous relationships with men in fictional history. So take what I just said with a spoonful of salt. I’m not especially surprised by the lack, but I can certainly see how readers expecting there to be could feel like they were being strung along needlessly.

Considering what we discovered in this novel and how it ended, I am definitely curious to see what will happen next. I’m wondering if Kaylin’s time to meet with the Dragons has finally come. That said, I’m not holding my breath regarding the issue of Severn and Nightshade. B

My regards,
Jia

This book can be purchased at Harlequin or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

REVIEW: Cast in Fury by Michelle Sagara

Jia — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:00:19 +0000

Dear Ms. Sargara,

I suspect longtime fantasy readers are more familiar with the epic fantasy novels you write under the Michelle West name. But because those tend to fall in the doorstopper length category, we often have to wait a few years in between releases. That’s one of the reasons why I like the Kaylin books you write for Harlequin Luna. They come out on a roughly annual schedule, so I think of them as snacks to hold me over until your next Michelle West novel.

Cast in Fury is the fourth novel in your series about Kaylin Neva, a law enforcement officer for the capital of Elantra. Elantra is a city in which humans live alongside five humanoid races: the Barrani (faerie analogues), the Aerians (winged people), the Tha’alani (a psychic race identified by their forehead stalks), the Leontines (cat people), and the Dragons (er, dragons). One of the things I like about this series is that each of the books tends to focus on a specific nonhuman race, allowing us to learn more about them. That’s one of the great things about the fantasy genre; exploring new cultures through the lens of created races. As you mention in the foreword, Cast in Fury is the Leontine book.

Picking up immediately after book 3, Cast in Secret, Kaylin is assigned to serve as a cultural consultant for the imperial playwright. Because of events that happened at the end of the previous novel, the Tha’alani have become targets of violence. Due to their psychic abilities, the Tha’alani have always been viewed with mistrust. No one likes having someone rummaging around your head and for the Tha’alani, this is considered normal.

The Dragon emperor has charged his playwright with creating a play to humanize the Tha’alani for the sake of cultural understanding, with the added benefit of defusing the civil unrest. Since he considers Elantra to be his hoard (like in classic stories, dragons hoard treasure, wherein “treasure” can mean any number of things, not just gold), the dragon emperor would prefer his people not to kill each other while they’re under his care. It’s a situation further complicated by the fact that the playwright doesn’t understand the Tha’alani himself, and the Tha’alani consider any play he creates to be nothing more than lies. (Because of their collective consciousness, the Tha’alani are able to have a thing called absolute truth.)

That’s a difficult enough assignment for the often tactless Kaylin, but matters are made worse when her immediate superior, Sergeant Marcus Kassan is accused of murder and sentenced to be executed for the crime. In addition to the fact that he was like a surrogate father to Kaylin, Marcus is the only Leontine to serve the law enforcement division, a very significant fact not easily overlooked. Unfortunately, witnesses were present so all evidence points to his guilt.

If this were a different book, we’d looking into how and why Marcus was framed. What I liked was that this wasn’t that kind of story. Instead Marcus did commit the murder and Kaylin’s task is to find out why. It’s a good way to show readers Leontine society and the kind of social mores and taboos that permeate it.

One of the strengths of the Kaylin series, unlike your West books, is that they’ve been more or less standalone. It’s true that various subplots such as Kaylin’s tangled history with Severn and the mystery of the marks covering Kaylin’s body continue from one book to the next, but the actual main plots start and finish within the same novel. That can’t be said for Cast in Fury. Although the main story about the Leontine murder is introduced and wrapped up in the book, the book starts with the playwright plotline. People who have not read Cast in Silence probably won’t be able to understand the significance of why the play is necessary and why Kaylin being chosen as a cultural consultant is significant.

I also think readers might be initially thrown off by the unexpected shift from the Tha’alani play storyline to the Leontine murder storyline. I admit it was a little jarring for me at first. But once I finished the book, I realized the two tied together in their themes: the power of stories. For the Tha’alani play, the trick wasn’t to tell the truth because to be honest, the absolute truth, as the Tha’alani understand it, would never soothe the general populace. If anything, it’d only terrify them more and incite more violence. Instead the playwright has to present a story that’s true in its core, if not in the details. For the Leontine murder plotline, the history of their race, its creation, and its forbidden magic is intrinsically tied to stories. Which in turn is tied to the mystery of Kaylin’s body marks.

I liked that the book brought together things that were introduced in previous novels like Lord Nightshade and his interest in Kaylin, or more specifically Kaylin’s power which is much more than the ability to heal, and the outcaste Dragon Lord we first encountered in the first novel, Cast in Shadow. That said, I still wait with bated breath for a novel about the Dragons and its emperor. Considering what we learned in Cast in Fury, I’m starting to wondered how exactly that came about.

All in all, I found this to be a satisfying installment for the series but people looking for further developments in Kaylin’s relationship with Severn, her relationship with Nightshade, or the mystery of her body marks will have to wait longer for enlightenment. And as I mentioned before, this is definitely not the place to start for new readers. B

My regards,
Jia

This book can be purchased in mass market from Amazon or Powells or ebook format.