Back of the book
Tunuva Melim is a sister of the Priory. For fifty years, she has trained to slay wyrms – but none have appeared since the Nameless One, and the younger generation is started to question the Priory's purpose.
To the north, in the Queendom of Inys, Sabran the Ambitious has married the new King of Hroth, narrowly saving both realms from ruin. Their daughter, Glorian, trails in their shadow – exactly where she wants to be.
The dragons of the East have slept for centuries. Dumai has spent her life in a Seiikinese mountain temple, trying to wake the gods from their long slumber. Now someone from her mother's past is coming to upend her fate.
When the Dreadmount erupts, bringing with it an age of terror and violence, these women must find the strength to protect humankind from a devastating threat.
My thoughts
I was blown away by the first Samantha Shannon novel I read so I was very excited to read this one. Her writing is impeccable and I plan to read everything she publishes. I saw a review that summed up this story as 'dragons and lesbians' and I love that but it leaves out so much. This novel is monstrously long and I took a long time to read it which makes pulling my thoughts about the whole novel together difficult.
I spent the first 100 pages or more trying to figure out if this story was set in the past or the future and if we knew any of these characters as the grandparents or grandchildren of characters from Priory of the Orange Tree. Newsflash, it's set in the past and I could not discern any clear character connections because it's 500 years in the past. When I finally let go of trying to make connections I enjoyed it a bit more.
I love the telling in third person and wouldn't dream of changing that. But at some key moments it was annoying to leave the characters and switch to a chapter across the ocean for other characters. Bouncing between stories made it easier to put the book down instead of being caught in a whirlwind of one characters' story. I can't imagine any other way of writing this story but I am trying to critique a near-perfect novel so that was one of my 'icks'.
More queer characters! The first time the queerness beautifully surprised me but this time it saturated the entire story. It feels a little bit like this novel was a fan service repeat of the first one. Take everything we loved from the first (women in power, gay love) and make it more. The story arc felt a little bit the same but with less intrigue because I know the secret of the stones and the characters weren't trying to figure that out anyway. There weren't any large mysteries to solve and the challenge of fighting the Dreadmount creatures was lacklustre too. Of course I'm happy the comet came and saved the day, but it made all the characters' efforts feel worthless that they were powerless to save the day.
TL:DR
Dragons and lesbians. Religion and fantasy. Another epic tale, similar to Priory of the Orange Tree but with less mystery and more queer relationships.
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Spoilery Book Reviews
No FicciónBook reviews written by me. All reviews will contain spoilers. Some books are ones I have read millions of times and are my well known favourites. Some books are really random and bizarre picks for me that were complete surprises.
