She Courts Darkness

Bartram's Maw #2

by Morgan Stang

Six months after helping win a bloody revolution, mercenaries Victoria Belltower and Samantha Redwyne find themselves working freelance on the road. But old ties are hard to break. They receive a letter from their former employer with dire news: Punkin—friend, thief, and strange young woman—is missing.

Cryptic clues lead Victoria and Samantha to the bustling desert city of Al-Haumarune, where they learn there is more to Punkin's past life than she ever let on. The city has unsettling secrets, with stories of disappearing people, knives in the shadows, and a sinister group gathering power behind the scenes. There's a darkness in the City of a Thousand Cults, and if Victoria wants to find her missing friend, she'll have to embrace it—and face the darkness in the mirror as well.

She Courts Darkness is the second novel in the Bartram's Maw series, following the events of She Topples Giants.

Genres: Fantasy

328 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 24, 2020

Reviews

[Canned Bread · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Don't mistake what this really is"

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Middle of the series after I dropped it like few years ago, so short review

Surprisingly, Stang polishes up a bit more in this second one and we see his wit, darkness, and craft starting to bud.

CW: Torture, SA (depending how you see it), Gore
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Prose:
If you had qualms about Book 1, he polishes it up quite a bit here. +3

Plot:
Simple at first but then...

Pace:
get to 40%, if it's not for you, then drop it, after that percentage though, it's a headlong rollercoaster

Characters:
Victoria is pretty well faceted and SLIGHTLY predictable though she does leave you guessing at quite a few turns.
Stang's forte plays in worldbuilding, prose, plot, and twists though his back up knife is definitely unique characters
+1

Vibe:
Assassin's Creed 1 but everyone actually minds their own fucking business...to a lethal degree

Worldbuilding: As usual, Stang keeps dangling carrots everywhere and you keep wanting to know more, which tends to annoy me in other books but Stang always places it at the right place in time that it becomes deeper than what you think. Well done
+1.5

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Very fun book and it REALLY made me speedrun this book after I hit the 40% mark and then finished the rest in less than a day lol

Stang is always a pleasure to read even if it's not his best work but still high 4.5
Full review when book 3 is finished

4.5/5

[Jonathan Pembroke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second book of the Bartram's Maw trilogy shifts to focus on the mercenary Victoria Belltower, who was a secondary character in the first book. (There are also some POV chapters told through another character, mostly in the book's first half). Victoria is a self-centered, amoral mercenary and is pretty straightforward about it. Watching her development and her struggle with the hard-nosed pragmatist she thinks she has to be, and the warmer loyal friend she wants to be, is the high point of the novel. Unlike the first book, where I thought some of the characters made staggeringly dumb decisions, here the characters mostly acted in intelligent, proactive manners and took positive steps to sway the outcome.

There is a lot of graphic violence in this book, some of it unflinching in its delivery. There is also a lot of fairly graphic sex, some of which felt over the top and didn't necessarily add to the story.

I'm not sure the tale's denouement was very satisfying and the entire driving plot device turned out to be a non-issue. Also, without providing a spoiler, I'll say I've read a lot of fantasy--enough to have seen the final scene coming the last half the book.

Even with the gore and smut, I still liked this one. Looking forward to book three.

[Ivory Shrike · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second book from the Bartram's Maw series! Now, there's a serious amount of warnings that ought to be front and center on this, so here they are. There's drugging, extreme violence, on page SA, and torture. If you make it through all that, then you'll be treated to a very interesting continuation of Sam's story from She Topples Giants. This book is actually from Victoria's PoV, and it's a real change. It was interesting to see how Victoria functioned, and honestly she wasn't functioning well. She's a thrill seeker who doesn't care what ties she breaks as long as she can do what she wants. Selfishness versus the loyalty that comes with relationships and family is the fight Victoria's going through in this book.Victoria makes a huge change over the arc of it, and honestly seeing how she ends up versus how the book starts, (she assures Sam pretty early on that she would 100% ditch her in a terrible situation to save herself) the change almost feels like it could never have occurred with anything less. Victoria goes through a lot during the search for Punkin in the desert city, and it's pretty plain to see she's horribly self centered. Honestly kind of surprised Sam cares for her like she does, and Sam proves what she learned in the end of books one again when things go south.

While they hunt for Punkin and try to infiltrate a cult, Sam is trying to keep everyone alive and not utterly panic at the sheer number of cultists willing to slaughter them all. Honestly, Sam had the right of it, but it was interesting to see her through other's eyes, such as Kirby. Kirby makes Sam seem unbeatable, a force of nature, when based on the previous book we know Sam struggles through kind of a lot. Victoria values Sam, but as a temporary partnership. Sam's in it for the long hall, but Victoria is plenty willing to ditch her in the darkest moment when they're all trapped under the desert being forced to decide whether they'll serve the evil spider goddess in space (basically). Of course, of course, Victoria pulls through in the end (and we get a nice anime betrayal) and she realizes that Sam is worth a whole lot more than she ever realized (maybe she wouldn't have sold her to slavers if she did). Definitely a worthy installment in Bartram's Maw, but keep in mind, this book is not for the faint of heart, read with caution folks.

[F. C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another Strong Stang Fantasy

There are very few members left of Bartram’s Maw, so when one of them goes missing there is concern from those left, not to mention from Baroness Blixen. Young Kirby, former merchant/peddler and now the Baroness’s secretary and general factotum, writes to Sam to ask for the mercenary’s help in finding Punkin.

Sam, joined by a reluctant Victoria, arrives in Craelle where they decide that Punkin may have left that small country for her original home, in Al-Haumarune, the “City of a Thousand Cults”. A short sea voyage brings Sam, Victoria, and Kirby to the desert.

There, they discover that the city (think Cairo in the 1880s, but as a greater cultural crossroads) is full of mysteries— and some of them would like to see them dead… or worse.

Recommended.

[A S · Rating 3 out of 5]

too much torture porn

I really liked the 1st book, although it was pretty awful to read at times. Poor Ingrid. I don’t really like smut, but I could tolerate Book 1. This book really gets too vicious and disgusting if you don’t have a stomach for that. The writing and story is still very good. I wouldn’t be so bothered by orgies and torture if I didn’t like the characters so much, but I just had to skip chapters of this book to get to end and I sort of wish I never read any of these books.

[Betty Slinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great one!

I've enjoyed absolutely every single book I've read by Morgan Stang! This one was no exception. I plan to read the rest!