The Otherworld has returned -- bringing with it the sidhe, the source of humanity's psychic powers. Some mortals welcome these creatures of legend, some fear them . . . and no one is ready for the change their presence will bring.
Last autumn Kim and Julian stood at the center of that storm. Now they face a challenge closer to home: a battle over the laws governing wilders, the closest genetic relatives of the sidhe. Many feel that change should wait until the current upheaval has ended . . . but Kim sees opportunity in the chaos, a chance to free Julian and all his kind from the chains of the deep shield that locks their gifts away.
The roots of that shield run deeper than she knows. The quest to destroy it will lead her and Julian back into the world of the sidhe, where they will uncover ancient lies, face betrayal on all sides -- and gamble everything on the possibility of freedom.
Marie Brennan is a former anthropologist and folklorist who shamelessly pillages her academic fields for material. She recently misapplied her professors' hard work to Turning Darkness Into Light, a sequel to the Hugo Award-nominated series The Memoirs of Lady Trent. As half of M.A. Carrick, she is also the author of The Mask of Mirrors, first in the Rook and Rose trilogy. For more information, visit swantower.com, Twitter @swan_tower, or her Patreon.
This didn't work for me as well as the first one. It felt repetitive and some of the writing was flat and cliched. I did like the relationship between Kim and Julian, but I regretted the absence of their college friends. Grayson is a wonderful character, but her motives seem unexplained. I gather it was published via a Kickstarter - perhaps it was written a bit too quickly? Or perhaps there is some intention that this will be a continuing story, which might fill in some of the blanks in this one.
Fantastic! And as usual with all fantastic books I read, I long for more to it. I found myself truly emotionally invested in the characters. Tears were certainly shed. It didn't end quite as I expected, but it was a good ending, despite being a bit heartbreaking.
*I received a copy of this book for free. The review is my own, honest and unsolicited.
I got this book via a Kickstarter campaign, but Amazon shows that it'll be released next year. Here is the description:
Manifestation was only the beginning.
The Otherworld has returned -- bringing with it the sidhe, the source of humanity's psychic powers. Some mortals welcome these creatures of legend, some fear them . . . and no one is ready for the change their presence will bring.
Last autumn Kim and Julian stood at the center of that storm. Now they face a challenge closer to home: a battle over the laws governing wilders, the closest genetic relatives of the sidhe. Many feel that change should wait until the current upheaval has ended . . . but Kim sees opportunity in the chaos, a chance to free Julian and all his kind from the chains of the deep shield that locks their gifts away.
The roots of that shield run deeper than she knows. The quest to destroy it will lead her and Julian back into the world of the sidhe, where they will uncover ancient lies, face betrayal on all sides -- and gamble everything on the possibility of freedom.
Two warnings: you really need to have read the first book for key plot points to make sense, and the ending is a major cliffhanger. The main struggle of the book is resolved, but something even bigger appears at the end. That said, I appreciated how the change forced on Kim in the last book affects everyone - Kim, Julian, their friends, and her mother. How they all react fits well with each character. A new character, Neeya, is amusing and not quite what she seems, and I love the return of Professor Grayson.