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The Stone Dance of the Chameleon, Revised Second Edition #3
The Standing Dead
The Standing Dead is volume three, of seven, of The Stone Dance of the Chameleon—a coming of age story—a saga of love and war—an apocalyptic, epic, fantasy adventure about power and redemption.
Plainsmen barbarians rescue Carnelian and Osidian from abject slavery and escape with them to the Earthsky. There, among the Ochre tribe, Carnelian hopes for a new and simpler life, beyond the knowledge of the Masters, but Osidian must reclaim what is his and burns with a lust for revenge that only blood and destruction can quench.
(This Second Edition is a leaner and extensive reworking of the acclaimed original.)
Plainsmen barbarians rescue Carnelian and Osidian from abject slavery and escape with them to the Earthsky. There, among the Ochre tribe, Carnelian hopes for a new and simpler life, beyond the knowledge of the Masters, but Osidian must reclaim what is his and burns with a lust for revenge that only blood and destruction can quench.
(This Second Edition is a leaner and extensive reworking of the acclaimed original.)
- GenresFantasy
ebook
Published May 10, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 8, 2023
4.25 borderline 4.5 (may rate up after I’ve sat on it for a while).
I love this series. This one is my favourite so far. I love the slow yet intense nature. I find the characters to be very unique and compelling. There is this continuous sense of dread and like something is about to go horribly wrong. Yet it takes its time. It really builds up the atmosphere and the characters. It doesn’t always feel like there’s tons happening but you can be sure something is going down.
Love it and can’t wait to continue on.
I love this series. This one is my favourite so far. I love the slow yet intense nature. I find the characters to be very unique and compelling. There is this continuous sense of dread and like something is about to go horribly wrong. Yet it takes its time. It really builds up the atmosphere and the characters. It doesn’t always feel like there’s tons happening but you can be sure something is going down.
Love it and can’t wait to continue on.
October 11, 2024
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Following the tragic conclusion of The Chosen, we are thrusted into the carnage of life outside the capital of Osrakum. Carnelian and Osidian are captured after the events of the election and transported far from home. Suth, Carnelian’s father, believes his son is dead and is trying to manage the damage at the capital. What transpires is a story of brutality and vengeance to get back the power that was lost. This will be a spoiler free review but I will be touching upon events in the previous novels.
After being rescued, Carnelian and Obsidian find themselves in the company of citizens from The Earthen Sky region. Among these new characters is Blue and his family members trying to figure out what to do with The Masters whom they refer to as The Standing Dead. Carnelian seems to understand these newcomer foreign language and he must use his brains to bring about a peaceful resolution. When The Masters are brought before the Clan leaders for judgement, Carnelian sees this as an opportunity to escape the politics and betrayals of Osrakum while Obsidian sees a new weapon to be used in plotting his revenge.
If you thought that the first two books in the series were grim than buckle your seatbelt good and tight. Not only do our two main characters need to survive in a foreign land, but to coexist with the people who revere as well as despise them for stealing their children to become slaves. Perspectives will change but Obsidian’s revenge will be the burning light throughout this story. We get to see the world from a completely new culture and creatures not seen before. It’s very hard to go into more detail without giving away spoilers but the ride had me at the edge of my seat.
Ricardo Pinto’s writing goes deep and rich in terms of worldbulding while describing it in very few words. Everything built upon in the first two volumes will just add a new layer to the worldbuilding equation. With this being the second edition of the series, The Standing Dead is really the first half of the original trilogies book 2, so be sure you have book 4 ready to go.
The originality and dark atmosphere to this series is one I find compelling and tragically slickening at the same time. The lengths that characters have to go through to survive and the sacrifices made in all there barbarism will raddle you to your core. Are you ready to read something this dark? Strap in!
Cheers!
After being rescued, Carnelian and Obsidian find themselves in the company of citizens from The Earthen Sky region. Among these new characters is Blue and his family members trying to figure out what to do with The Masters whom they refer to as The Standing Dead. Carnelian seems to understand these newcomer foreign language and he must use his brains to bring about a peaceful resolution. When The Masters are brought before the Clan leaders for judgement, Carnelian sees this as an opportunity to escape the politics and betrayals of Osrakum while Obsidian sees a new weapon to be used in plotting his revenge.
If you thought that the first two books in the series were grim than buckle your seatbelt good and tight. Not only do our two main characters need to survive in a foreign land, but to coexist with the people who revere as well as despise them for stealing their children to become slaves. Perspectives will change but Obsidian’s revenge will be the burning light throughout this story. We get to see the world from a completely new culture and creatures not seen before. It’s very hard to go into more detail without giving away spoilers but the ride had me at the edge of my seat.
Ricardo Pinto’s writing goes deep and rich in terms of worldbulding while describing it in very few words. Everything built upon in the first two volumes will just add a new layer to the worldbuilding equation. With this being the second edition of the series, The Standing Dead is really the first half of the original trilogies book 2, so be sure you have book 4 ready to go.
The originality and dark atmosphere to this series is one I find compelling and tragically slickening at the same time. The lengths that characters have to go through to survive and the sacrifices made in all there barbarism will raddle you to your core. Are you ready to read something this dark? Strap in!
Cheers!
September 22, 2024
4.0
Gostei muito mais, já dá para conectar com as personagens e a ação desenrola-se de uma maneira muito fluída apesar de ter também uma extensa componente de worldbuilding. A intriga política que aqui acontece é muito mais fácil de compreender também ! Vamos ver como são os outros 4 livros
3/7 livros
Gostei muito mais, já dá para conectar com as personagens e a ação desenrola-se de uma maneira muito fluída apesar de ter também uma extensa componente de worldbuilding. A intriga política que aqui acontece é muito mais fácil de compreender também ! Vamos ver como são os outros 4 livros
3/7 livros
July 1, 2025
The note I left in my kobo near the end of this one, just before he and Osidian : common Carnelian L.
Just like book 1, this is also half of once was a wholly published novel and it's so hard to review on its own! The pacing was glacial in the first half, and bounced back in the second - it's all a Dances with Wolves arc slowly build to something horrible. Which is like, real glib, I don't really mean that, because once again Pinto paints an incredibly well-realised portrait of an indigenous hunter-gatherer culture under the yolk of an extractive empire. But Carnelian's arc isn't exactly unique here.
I think I'm struggling with Carnelian and Osidian's connection. I would love to be sold more on what Carnelian sees in him that's so different to Aurum and Jaspar that he fell in love. We have the memories of the youth in the library. But Carnelian was so immediately repulsed by the way the Chosen culture was expressed by the first Masters that he met, and by his father at times. Carnelian is very much repulsed by Osidian's change here, yes, true - but it's all traits that I very much saw in the previous book as well. The whole, like, hell yeah I want to be God Emperor of Fucked Land, I bred children with significant disabilities in order to blood sacrifice them, no big. CARNELIAN PAY ATTENTION.
I hope Carnelian gets more agency as the series goes on, beyond initiating these meaningful connections with the people around him. I can see how this comes together - I'm just waiting for the payoff.
Just like book 1, this is also half of once was a wholly published novel and it's so hard to review on its own! The pacing was glacial in the first half, and bounced back in the second - it's all a Dances with Wolves arc slowly build to something horrible. Which is like, real glib, I don't really mean that, because once again Pinto paints an incredibly well-realised portrait of an indigenous hunter-gatherer culture under the yolk of an extractive empire. But Carnelian's arc isn't exactly unique here.
I think I'm struggling with Carnelian and Osidian's connection. I would love to be sold more on what Carnelian sees in him that's so different to Aurum and Jaspar that he fell in love. We have the memories of the youth in the library. But Carnelian was so immediately repulsed by the way the Chosen culture was expressed by the first Masters that he met, and by his father at times. Carnelian is very much repulsed by Osidian's change here, yes, true - but it's all traits that I very much saw in the previous book as well. The whole, like, hell yeah I want to be God Emperor of Fucked Land, I bred children with significant disabilities in order to blood sacrifice them, no big. CARNELIAN PAY ATTENTION.
I hope Carnelian gets more agency as the series goes on, beyond initiating these meaningful connections with the people around him. I can see how this comes together - I'm just waiting for the payoff.
July 29, 2020
The Standing Dead is the third book of The stone dance of the Chameleon, 2020 version.
We find Carnelian lost. Kidnapped, destined for burial, his lover packed into a funerary urn and drugged near to death. And though naturally he escapes his immediate danger, it is only through losing agency, and at the cost of an ever deeper decrepitude of his lover Ossidian.
Cut off from the power of the Quya and at risk of being hunted by their triumphant adversaries, it is only Carnelian’s empathy that saves them, who are seen as the Standing Dead by their captors.
Carnelian seeks to bring Ossidian back to their new reality. But in doing so he risks Quya guile and accumulated praxis poisoning the precarious life his kindness has bought them.
And he finds that though they are exiled from Osrakum, they cannot escape its machinations or the destruction those bring.
Ricardo Pinto in this book relents from painting a world of masks and instead applies his skill to portraying all to human people. And yet the darkness of the Quya world we left behind is felt in every scene; the toll the Masters demand both literal and psychologically harrowing.
Through the empathy of Carnelian, Pinto lets the suffering he writes about cut deep. It is because of this that the book cannot be put down.
We find Carnelian lost. Kidnapped, destined for burial, his lover packed into a funerary urn and drugged near to death. And though naturally he escapes his immediate danger, it is only through losing agency, and at the cost of an ever deeper decrepitude of his lover Ossidian.
Cut off from the power of the Quya and at risk of being hunted by their triumphant adversaries, it is only Carnelian’s empathy that saves them, who are seen as the Standing Dead by their captors.
Carnelian seeks to bring Ossidian back to their new reality. But in doing so he risks Quya guile and accumulated praxis poisoning the precarious life his kindness has bought them.
And he finds that though they are exiled from Osrakum, they cannot escape its machinations or the destruction those bring.
Ricardo Pinto in this book relents from painting a world of masks and instead applies his skill to portraying all to human people. And yet the darkness of the Quya world we left behind is felt in every scene; the toll the Masters demand both literal and psychologically harrowing.
Through the empathy of Carnelian, Pinto lets the suffering he writes about cut deep. It is because of this that the book cannot be put down.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews