Monday, September 23, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Whispers of Shadow & Flame by L Penelope




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on October 1 2019 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

Whispers of Shadow & Flame is the second book in author L Penelope's "Earthsinger Chronicles" series, after her first book, Song of Blood & Stone (Reviewed Here).  Both Song and this book were originally self-published, but are now being rereleased by a traditional publisher, with this second book coming out this coming month.  I liked Song a little - it was a solid fantasy romance story, featuring strong themes of racial prejudice and the issue of refugee camps in a country bordering a totalitarian government that seem a little more relevant now than even just a year ago.  Still, I felt Song felt utterly barebones at times, with very little depth to the setting outside of its themes, and a personal conflict that felt rather weak and predictable overall.  I may have skipped this second novel, had I not see it come up on NetGalley for a potential review.

And Whispers of Shadow & Flame definitely course corrects on the issues of its predecessor - the setting this time around is far deeper, with the story featuring far more characters of importance and really exploring the world over the course of its plot.  It's actually not a sequel per se - the book takes place during the same time period as Song, but in the neighboring totalitarian nation instead, dealing with characters dealt with but not really seen in that first book. And I really enjoyed these characters for the most part, as well as the romance that develops, but the book has two issues: a bifurcated plot where one plotline is much stronger than the others, and an ending that well....isn't an ending, but instead a cliffhanger for a third novel.

Note: You can start the series with this book and you'll probably be okay doing so.  The book references characters from the prior book on occasion, but they never really actually show up on screen, outside two greater powers who lurk on the periphery.  That said, some of the concepts of this world were explained in greater detail in the first book, so you might be a little lost at first if you try it.  

More after the Jump:

-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
The Country of Lagrimar is a hard cruel place, ruled over by the menacing True Father and his iron fist.  The True Father demands that all children born with the life magic of Earthsong sacrifice their magic to him immediately as "tribute" and inspires a culture of fear among the populace, encouraging his populace to inform on each other of anyone with even an inkling of rebellion in their hearts.

Kyara is one of the True Father's most feared weapons, a young woman known by others as the Poison Flame and as the True Father's most deadly assassin.  Kyara was born not with Earthsong, but with a far more deadly and uncontrollable magic - the magic of Nethersong, which can kill anyone it touches.  Kyara longs for something more, and yet cannot even envision anything else due to her tragic past....and because of the blood magic that binds her to the True Father's will.

Darvyn is a member of the Keepers, the resistance group against the True Father in Lagrimar.  And more importantly, he is secretly the legendary Shadowfox, the most powerful Earthsinger in Lagrimar, who tries to bring life throughout the country in spite of the True Father's harsh decrees.  But Darvyn longs not only to help the resistance, but also to search for his missing mother, who left him years ago.

But when Kyara is sent after the Shadowfox, hers and Darvyn's destinies will intertwine, in a way that will change the destiny of the entire world, as a greater threat lurks hidden in Lagrimar, and both Kyara and Darvyn will have to make decisions they never could have dreamed of.  Meanwhile, their paths will affect others as well, such as a young woman Zeli, and a pair of young girls who are just trying to survive in a country filled with kidnappers, abusers, and informers, with danger lurking just around the corner for all to fear....
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Song of Blood and Stone dealt entirely with the perspectives of its two main characters, and while the story involved a greater scope beyond them, those two lead characters were almost the only developed characters with any depth at all between them.  Whispers of Shadow and Flame is very different, with the book alternating really between three to four perspectives, in Kyara, Darvyn, Zeli, and the young girl Ulani.  The book also develops some side characters in far better fashion, making them feel less like caricatures, and giving the decisions of all involved more weight.  In short, whereas the first book tried to involve the main characters having conflicts between their hearts and duties that seemed obviously to be trending in only one direction, those conflicts here are far better defined so as to make the choices of the characters clearly have more real meaning.

It helps that some of these characters are excellently done and easy to root for.  Kyara and Darvyn's eventual romance is obvious from the book's inception, but its built up really nicely with the two characters themselves being rather strong, even if they are hardly unique archetypes.  Kyara's girl who spreads death uncontrollably is not a new plot element, but the book executes it well and uses that plot point to take her in interesting different directions, and never goes for the easy way out, making Kyara's plight even more heartwrenching as things go on.  Meanwhile, Darvyn's internal conflict between his personal goals and those of the Keeper's is incredibly understandable, and his plot arc is similarly well done.  Even Zeli, whose plot arc involves her making some decisions the reader will want to slap her for, is extremely understandable, and once she gets into trouble, her conflicts between the horrors of her past and the knowledge of what she knows to be the right thing to do is really well done.

This all adds up to a far more in-depth setting, in the country of Lagrimar, than in that of the first book, which often felt like a series of set pieces in a country that had no other places or features other than that where our lead characters were at any given point.  Here instead, we see the true evils of the country and how that results in a land of oppression and fear, through the story's main two plotlines.

But while those two plotlines really work to give the country and setting far more depth, it also works to detract from some of the book's focus, with the story often leaving one plotline - the main one featuring Kyara and Darvyn - for the other (involving Zeli) in the middle of tense cliffhangers.  This is especially annoying because Kyara/Darvyn's plotline is far more intriguing, and the two plotlines never reconnect by the book's end, making it all the more frustrating.  It's like there's two separate books going on here, with one more interesting than the other, except we keep having to leave the first for the second.  Add to this an ending that, unlike the first book, is basically not a resolution to anything but just a massive cliffhanger for a third book to come out next year, and I couldn't help but having a really frustrating taste in my mouth when all was said and done.

Still, I guess I'm more invested in the book due to its depth even with its lack of ending than I was in the last book which was shallow and had a more satisfying ending?   Hopefully the third book will make this one feel more worth it, I guess. 
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