Welcome to Part 3 of my reread of Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons, with this post featuring book 4 in the series, 2021's The House of Always. You can find all my posts in this Reread - 1 post per book - by clicking this link here.
The House of Always is in some ways an odd book, as half of its plot (and the framing device) arguably feels unnecessary - as it deals not with the ramifications of the cliffhanger from book 3 (which will really be felt in the series' finale in book 5) but instead with the process of making those ramifications possible. As I put in my initial review of this book, it could very much have felt like the series was stalling if done poorly, as well....I and presumably most readers surely wanted to see how the cliffhanger of book 3 would play out here, so it's a hell of a credit to the writing here that this book does not feel like much of a disappointment.
The way it does so is through a second plotline featuring a number of side characters from books 1-2, many of whom we hadn't seen since book 1, that develops them into really great characters in their own right - and through examining the core relationships between the main trio in a way to finish the development that went on in The Memory of Souls. And it works really well, even if not quite everything works.
Okay that's about as much as I can say without spoilers, so MAJOR Spoilers and more thoughts after my reread after the jump:
So here's the thing: when I first read The House of Always, I had reread book three a ton, remembered book 2 a bit (but didn't have a copy to reread) and had basically not reread book 1 since I first read it back in 2019. And so here we have a book with four major characters we haven't really seen since book 1: Galen (who I remembered as the too nice son of Darzin and that's about it); Sheloran (who I didn't recall at all since she basically has just a cameo in book 1); Kalindra (who it took me a while to remember since she disappears mid book 1 and her characterization there is largely the sarcastic girl who Kihrin has sex with for a bit before Thaena sends her elsewhere) and Jarith (who again I largely forgot about, even though he has the most significant role sort of of the quartet in challenging Thurvishar to a duel).
So yeah, giving major parts to those four could really have gone wrong, because I had no reason to care about any of them going into this book - while there are so many other characters I did care about who I could've felt deserved page time....some of whom aren't even in this book at all (looking at you Therin/Khaeriel and maybe even Tyentso). And yet Lyons manages to make me care so much about each of these characters, even as Senera snarks about them all in both the footnotes and in the scenes in Shadrag Gor. Well maybe not Kalindra, who is so heartbroken and depressingly cynical in this book that she's almost more annoying than anything else, but at least she plays well in making everyone else more interesting in contrast. But in Galen and Sheloran, seeing how these two naive young people try to make things better and find themselves in far deeper than they realize, seeing Qown's relationship with Galen change the both of them for the better - it is just soooo damn cute, well it's just such great stuff. And seeing Jarith fight through the normal process of becoming a demon to still protect the ones he cared about in his human life? So good.
And of course the characters we already know better are just so great as they develop here too. Xivan and Talea go through hard times as Xivan's vengeance tears them apart, but Talea is just so charming and insightful as she becomes a goddess and still tries to reunite with Xivan and stop her from doing anything bad - and then as she passionately reignites with the newly revived Xivan in Shadrag Gor. Qown as I mentioned above really gets to recognize why his path with Relos Var is wrong, how he's been abused and groomed, and learns to accept himself and his love of another, in this case Galen. And of course Senera and Thurvishar's continuing romance is just tremendously cute.
If you can't tell from the above, I pretty much love this book just for its minor characters. Which is not to say the plot is bad - Dragon + Pirates + Zombie Pirate Kraken! or that what happens with the main trio, where Kihrin comes to realize how much he loves Tereath and Janel, that Janel is pregnant, and that he can't try to make decisions for them to escape the consequences of hearing them disagree with him, is bad. It's really good stuff.....of course a lot of that plot (not the character development of course) is revealed to be pointless by its ending! But still, as someone who loves character development, this is a book filled with a ton of it, and it sets up what is going to happen in book 5, as all of these characters are unleashed on the world, and we finally DO get to see what will happen when Kihrin as Vol Karoth shows up against Xaltorath and Relos Var.
Because well, that was what I expected to happen in this book, and it doesn't happen here; instead that's for the next book, which is coming out soon. And this book's character work and heavy lifting got me even more excited for seeing it happen which, hint hint, having read an eARC of book 5 before writing this reread, well, that excitement was very damn justified.
No comments:
Post a Comment