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Black Stream
Black Stream is the second book in Sarah K. Balstrup's visionary Velspar - Elegies series.
In the days of the Purge the tides of death swallowed all that was holy, but now Velspar is on the verge of revival.
Sybilla Ladain survived her judgement and is now caught between her duty as Skalen and her growing entanglement with the rebels she once considered her enemies. Voirrey takes Sybilla to a little village in the mountains where they plan to start a religious community based on the old rites. In Avishae, Intercessor Maeryn is working with the Elshenders to do the same.
But with the rise of the Guard and its factions, traditional seats of power cease to hold their value. The revival depends upon the will of the Skalens but without the Guard at their side, no Skalen is safe.
"Black Stream's feverish prose will transport you to a realm of psychic synesthesia that is at once fantastical but also a mirror of our own full of dark secrets and emotional phenomena. [Balstrup's] characters are deeply developed, her world so tangible you can taste the sacrificial blood, and her narrative set on an arc of spiritually epic proportions. This is fantasy of transcendental scope and exquisite execution." --Joseph Sale, author of The Book of Thrice Dead and Virtue's End
In the days of the Purge the tides of death swallowed all that was holy, but now Velspar is on the verge of revival.
Sybilla Ladain survived her judgement and is now caught between her duty as Skalen and her growing entanglement with the rebels she once considered her enemies. Voirrey takes Sybilla to a little village in the mountains where they plan to start a religious community based on the old rites. In Avishae, Intercessor Maeryn is working with the Elshenders to do the same.
But with the rise of the Guard and its factions, traditional seats of power cease to hold their value. The revival depends upon the will of the Skalens but without the Guard at their side, no Skalen is safe.
"Black Stream's feverish prose will transport you to a realm of psychic synesthesia that is at once fantastical but also a mirror of our own full of dark secrets and emotional phenomena. [Balstrup's] characters are deeply developed, her world so tangible you can taste the sacrificial blood, and her narrative set on an arc of spiritually epic proportions. This is fantasy of transcendental scope and exquisite execution." --Joseph Sale, author of The Book of Thrice Dead and Virtue's End
428 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 4, 2025
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14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 27, 2025
Loved this. Like Peake’s Gormenghast, we return to a dark fantasy world steeped in religion and ritual, with a focus on character, political machinations, and family. Loved the complex cast in this book, at its heart the relationship between two women who are each others’ redemption or salvation. Sybilla and Voirrey’s complicated past, and fierce love for Sybilla’s daughter Davinia and one another, was particularly resonant in the realistic details of family life, health challenges and healing, and the lengths they will go to to protect one another. Evocative, poetic prose. Perfect ending. It’s been a while since I read the first book but I had no trouble jumping into the second.*
*I received a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review
*I received a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review
May 12, 2025
Black Stream follows our cast of characters with a sharp focus on Voirrey in particular, along with Maeyrn, Zohar, and the exquisitely skin-crawling villainess, Kalet of Seltsland. With the balance of Skalens, Guards, and Intercessors upended following Sybilla's purge in book 1, nefarious figures within the Guards see weakness and strike.
In many ways, this book reminds me of GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire: a large cast of players with their own agendas all pirouetting around another, no one wears plot armor, and a perfectly balanced infusion of rare "magics." Many of the twists and turns took me by surprise.
In particular, Kalet's character piqued my curiosity throughout the novel. Her obsessive interest in the forbidden and willingness to take any risk to obtain that knowledge proved delightfully horrifying. She's a well-crafted villain, and I'm still stuck with "O_O"-face after her final scene in the novel.
I'll always have to give props to a book that can make my stoneheart cry. I'm not normally one prone to tears during death scenes, but this one snuck up on me. The preference for veristic rather than dramatic touches made this and similar scenes hit harder than the "shocking" deaths one finds in GRRM's works.
Overall, a compelling though disquieting read that leaves one pondering the philosophical side of death and reincarnation.
In many ways, this book reminds me of GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire: a large cast of players with their own agendas all pirouetting around another, no one wears plot armor, and a perfectly balanced infusion of rare "magics." Many of the twists and turns took me by surprise.
In particular, Kalet's character piqued my curiosity throughout the novel. Her obsessive interest in the forbidden and willingness to take any risk to obtain that knowledge proved delightfully horrifying. She's a well-crafted villain, and I'm still stuck with "O_O"-face after her final scene in the novel.
I'll always have to give props to a book that can make my stoneheart cry. I'm not normally one prone to tears during death scenes, but this one snuck up on me. The preference for veristic rather than dramatic touches made this and similar scenes hit harder than the "shocking" deaths one finds in GRRM's works.
Overall, a compelling though disquieting read that leaves one pondering the philosophical side of death and reincarnation.
October 23, 2025
Black Stream is the second book in the Velspar – Elegies series by Sarah K Balstrup and continues after her last book, The Way of Unity.
Like so much of life, a transformation is just the opening of a new series of challenges, often more difficult and expansive, and lead to unseen and unintended consequences.
After Sybilla’s reckoning and redemption in the first book, the reader is presented with the grim and dark world that came about following the religious cleansing of the Intercessors and of the sacred. The slaying of Sybilla’s demons unleashed an evil far worse. The book wrestles with the concept of what is left of the soul when the sacred is removed – and how it can be restored.
This book is beautifully written, and its genius is captured in its realism and depiction of the human condition in all aspects – from the faithful to the malevolent and everywhere in between (and also many at once).
I also recently read C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces, and while the story is very different, they both had some common ground in the way that they perfectly captured the protagonists’ thoughts, feelings and intentions. While a lot of books skim over a character’s religious beliefs, Black Stream dives in deeper, so you really get a sense of “living” that character.
Highly recommended!!
Like so much of life, a transformation is just the opening of a new series of challenges, often more difficult and expansive, and lead to unseen and unintended consequences.
After Sybilla’s reckoning and redemption in the first book, the reader is presented with the grim and dark world that came about following the religious cleansing of the Intercessors and of the sacred. The slaying of Sybilla’s demons unleashed an evil far worse. The book wrestles with the concept of what is left of the soul when the sacred is removed – and how it can be restored.
This book is beautifully written, and its genius is captured in its realism and depiction of the human condition in all aspects – from the faithful to the malevolent and everywhere in between (and also many at once).
I also recently read C. S. Lewis’ Till We Have Faces, and while the story is very different, they both had some common ground in the way that they perfectly captured the protagonists’ thoughts, feelings and intentions. While a lot of books skim over a character’s religious beliefs, Black Stream dives in deeper, so you really get a sense of “living” that character.
Highly recommended!!
July 5, 2025
Loved the second installment of this series, which did not disappoint after the awesome Way of Unity. The action picks up slightly after the first book and focusses on a range of characters, some new. Having already established much of the world building, Black Stream wastes no time exploring the ramifications of characters' actions from the previous novel. I'm keen to see what happens with what's being set up for the next book.
It's probably been a couple of years since I read the first book, so I appreciated the material at the front of the book (chronology and dramatis personae) to jog my memory. I missed the maps that accompanied The Way of Unity, but any important geographical detail is delivered contextually anyhow.
It's probably been a couple of years since I read the first book, so I appreciated the material at the front of the book (chronology and dramatis personae) to jog my memory. I missed the maps that accompanied The Way of Unity, but any important geographical detail is delivered contextually anyhow.
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August 10, 2025See below for reviews of Black Stream not published on Goodreads:
"Sarah K. Balstrup writes like she is daimonically possessed. Black Stream's feverish prose will transport you to a realm of psychic synesthesia that is at once fantastical but also a mirror of our own world: full of dark secrets and emotional phenomena. Her characters are deeply developed, her world so tangible you can taste the sacrificial blood, and her narrative set on an arc of spiritually epic proportions. This is fantasy of transcendental scope and exquisite execution."
--Joseph Sale, author of The Book of Thrice Dead and Virtue's End
"Sarah K. Balstrup writes like she is daimonically possessed. Black Stream's feverish prose will transport you to a realm of psychic synesthesia that is at once fantastical but also a mirror of our own world: full of dark secrets and emotional phenomena. Her characters are deeply developed, her world so tangible you can taste the sacrificial blood, and her narrative set on an arc of spiritually epic proportions. This is fantasy of transcendental scope and exquisite execution."
--Joseph Sale, author of The Book of Thrice Dead and Virtue's End
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews