Monday, July 9, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Queen of Sorrow by Sarah Beth Durst



  The Queen of Sorrow is the third book in Sarah Beth Durst's Queens of Renthia trilogy - a dark fantasy series that I have enjoyed a good bit (My review of Book 1, The Queen of Blood, can be found HERE and my review of Book 2, The Reluctant Queen can be found HERE).  The series is set in a fantasy world in which elemental spirits are responsible for the growth of things in the world.  The only problem is that those spirits want to kill human beings as much as they want to grow the land and if left unchecked will do just that.  The only thing that keeps humans alive are the Queens of each of the five countries, who have the ability to command the spirits of their countries and to keep them from doing harm.  But the result is an unstable equilibrium where the slightest change - such as a Queen losing power or worse, dying, could result in catastrophe.

  If the above didn't make it clear, the first two books were often very very dark, although this was true more of the first book than the second.  They were also filled with interesting characters and surprising plots, which made me look forward quite a bit to this concluding volume.  But The Queen of Sorrow is merely solid and doesn't quite live up to the standards of its predecessors - the characters remain excellent, but the plot becomes surprisingly predictable.  It's a book that serves as a nice ending for what has come before, but the means of getting there just doesn't live up to the prior setup.

Mild Spoilers for the prior books follow after the jump:


-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------
The land of Aratay is still recovering from the invasion by Queen Merecot of Semo, which resulted in the unprecedented circumstance of the land having not one, but two Queens - Queen Daleina and Queen Naelin.  But when Merecot uses spirits to kidnap Naelin's two children and to drive the wolf Bayn into the Untamed Lands, Naelin loses control in anger and causes devastation to the land.  Now it appears that another war is impending, as Merecot threatens harm to the children if Naelin will not help Semo remove the excess spirits.

But Merecot's plans go beyond merely helping the people of Semo, as she has plans to become the savior of all of Renthia instead, guided by her mentor the dangerous former queen of Semo.  If Daleina and Naelin aren't careful, they could wind up not only in Merecot's deadly trap, but causing the destruction of both of their countries.

And what of the wolf Bayn, forced into the Untamed Lands so specifically by Merecot?  It is common knowledge that nothing survives the Untamed Lands, where the spirits roam en-mass and uncontrolled by any queen, constantly creating and destroying the land.  But is that really true?  And if not, what exactly is Bayn that he could survive and be so important?
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The Queen of Sorrow expands the world of this story by quite a bit.  The previous two books dealt entirely with the Country of Aratay, whereas the Queen of Sorrow introduces the Country of Semo as well as the Untamed Lands and features cameos by the other three countries of Renthia as well.  How the murderous spirits of this world would appear in the other countries with different climates is particularly fascinating, and the showing of the Untamed Lands is even more so.  Durst does a fantastic job drawing out the differences between these parts of the world and showing how these differences just mean different kind of dangers, rather than lesser dangers.

The book also expands the numbers of point of view characters by adding the point of view of Merecot to the roster.  It's always hit or miss to add in the antagonist as a point of view - because knowing what the antagonist is thinking naturally reduces suspense - but it hits a lot more than misses here because it really adds to the story by showing how Merecot got from the ambitious but lonely girl of Book 1 to the seemingly power-mad Queen of Book 2.  Merecot's confusion in the good intentions of Daleina and Naelin is incredibly amusing (Merecot isn't really evil, but it's a pretty amazing "Evil cannot comprehend Good" moment from the perspective of the Evil character anyway).

The existing characters remain excellent and build upon their experiences in the prior books.  Daleina is particularly well done for me - whereas last book she felt a little too naive given what she'd been through, here she has a nice balance of extreme optimism and reasonable paranoia that constantly makes both her friend and enemies underestimate her (she has one instance of naivete late that is a throwback to her earlier issues, but other than that it's a nice and well understandable mix).  Her sister Arin remains a fun character as well, and Headmaster Hanna returns in this book to prominence and is particularly special.  And then there is Poison Master Garnah, the completely amoral poison master whose wisecracks never failed to amuse.  She's the best.

The main issue with the Queen of Sorrow is that by the final third, it becomes pretty apparent exactly what the book is setting up with each plot point, even if how the book is planning on getting to each end point isn't totally clear.  Every book and every story has to move pieces into place, but the Queen of Sorrow is unusually transparent about it.  Those ending points are satisfying, which is what prevents this from being a real dealbreaker, but in some cases, they feel almost unearned (for example, that two characters are going to wind up in a romantic relationship is fairly obvious from their first interactions, but we spend so little time with them that it feels almost laughable).  Unpredictability isn't a necessary part of any book, but part of what made the first two books so satisfying was how they surprised in their plot turns and that's lacking in the final third of this book.

This book also lacks some of the darkness of the first two novels, to some extent - whereas Book 2 really did feel (after Book 1's ending) like anything bad could happen to any of the characters, by the final third of this book it becomes pretty clear that the worst is not going to happen here.  There's nothing wrong with less darkness mind you, but it's an aspect of the prior books that made them stand out, and it sucks to have it disappear here.

Still, I love this world quite a bit, and Durst is apparently planning a spin-off novel for next year in the same world in one of the other three countries (and Poison Master Garnah might make an appearance there....ooh boy), and I will be there for that.  This may be the worst of the trilogy, but there's still a lot of potential in this world and I look forward to seeing if Durst can tap into it.
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