Wednesday, February 19, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Storm of Life by Amy Rose Capetta




The Storm of Life is the sequel to Amy Rose Capetta's YA Fantasy, "The Brilliant Death", which came out back in 2018, and is the conclusion to this duology.  I found The Brilliant Death (review here) to be one of my favorite works of 2018, a tale of two genderfluid protagonists trying to find out who they truly are as they also deal with the dangerous political situation in a fantasy country (based in language at least upon Italy).  The book ended on a tremendously satisfying note, to the point where it didn't really require a sequel with our lead characters having fulfilled their character arcs, even though there were clear plot points unresolved - the main antagonist left alone to continue his plan for instance.  So yeah, I was excited when I realized the sequel, The Storm of Life, was finally coming out to start 2020.

Unfortunately, The Storm of Life is a mess.  The book reverses course on plot points repeatedly throughout - including plot points and character developments from the first book - introduces things out of nowhere, and just can't seem to figure out what it wants to be doing for much of the book.  Our two lead characters - Teo and Cielo - remain great for the most part, as they continue to try to figure out the situation...and themselves out, and a few new characters are welcome additions.  And the ending is satisfying, so it's not like this book is bad.  But after its predecessor, this just feels like a disappointment, as if the author switched from a trilogy to a duology at last moment and the missing middle book just can't be ignored.


------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Teo and Cielo are on the run, trying desperately to warn the streghe of Vinalia of the plotting of the Capo to use their power to consolidate his hold over the entire country, and to destroy the remaining leadership of the Five Families.  But it soon becomes clear that they can't stop the Capo, and save the other streghe, on their own....especially with a conquering army soon to be invading the country.  And so they are forced to turn back to those they left behind, the leadership of the Five Families, including the father Teo rejected, in order to have a chance.

But to save Vinalia from the approaching invaders, they may inadvertently strengthen the Capo, who has spent the time since Teo and Cielo fled from him by gathering new and deadlier allies - including a group of streghe who worship an old god and his deadly artifacts and the nightmare from Teo's past.  In order to stop him, Teo will be forced to make difficult choices for both herself and Cielo - choices that may threaten to destroy the love the two of them have come to share.  How far can Teo bring herself to go to save the country....and will it all be worth it even if Teo is able to pull it off?
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The Brilliant Death ended with Teo making the decision to abandon her father, who would require Teo keep to her male body in order to serve as his heir, to make her own path along with Cielo in finding a way to defy the Capo and stop his evil plans.  The only thing Teo and Cielo had at that point was their love for each other.  The Storm of Life continues the process of telling the story from Teo's point of view, but seems quickly to reverse course on that ending - pretty much immediately Teo and Cielo are infiltrating her sister's wedding in order to try and gain allies in the Five Families, instead of working from without.

*Quick Note:  Both Teo and Cielo are genderfluid and use their magic to shift their bodies' gender throughout the story, sometimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently.  Teo however still seems to refer to herself, and always identifies as she/her, but Cielo's pronouns are never constant and flip based upon whatever form Cielo takes at a time - as such for consistency sake, I'm going to use "they/them" for Cielo in this review, even if Cielo never uses those pronouns in the book.  

 To the extent this story works it's because Teo and Cielo are fantastic characters in their personalities, even if the book does seem to reverse course on Teo choosing her and Cielo's love over everything else fairly quickly.  Teo loves Cielo deeply, loves how they showed Teo how to use her magic to be free, how to change her form, and how much freedom means to her.  But she can't resist the urge to scheme as she was once taught by her father, regardless of what that means for the other people she means to use in her schemes....including Cielo.  Cielo meanwhile still loves Teo for her passion, but can't quite bring themselves to go along with such scheming, and has their own hope of finding a way to end the use of the Brilliant Death as a way to pass along magical power, a goal that conflicts with Teo's goal of saving the country.  The friction between the two serves as the most effective part of this plot, even if it does feel a little reductive of what was resolved in the last book.

There are other aspects of this book that still work well, before I get into the bad parts in a second.  Several of the introduced minor characters, particularly an opera singer Streghe with a talent for emotional manipulation and a love that blossoms on the side are particularly great, and a further developed pair of women from the last book are strong additions.  And the book ends on a satisfying and enjoyable note after it all.

Unfortunately, much of what happens on the road to that ending is just a disappointing mess, and it feels like the author tried to fit two books worth of material here into a short single book.  The book's plot takes severe turns repeatedly, making events and characters who should be significant not matter at all after a lot of emphasis early on.  So a major conflict is resolved in 5 seconds, and then the major antagonist's method of defeating magic is introduced and then made irrelevant within a single chapter, along with his major plot, only for the book to go in a completely different direction with the antagonist that presumes such a large amount of stupidity that it begs belief.*  And again, the reversal of Teo and Cielo's path at the very beginning of the book just feels really abrupt and like a lot happened that we missed.  It's as if there was an entire second book showing Cielo and Teo on their own that never happened and which would've allowed everything here to flow better, but instead we have this book on its own.

Spoiler in ROT13: Zvqjnl guebhtu gur obbx, Grb tbrf gb pbasebag gur Pncb va qvfthvfr, ubcvat gb pbhagresrvg beqref, bayl gb trg pnhtug va uvf genc juvpu pbhagref zntvp.  Gb guvf cbvag, gur Pncb unf orra bhe znwbe nagntbavfg, n fpurzre ba gur yriry bs Grb (be creuncf terngre) jub vf punevfzngvp naq uneq gb nagvpvcngr, jub cynaf gb hfr zntvp gb pbadhre nyy bs Ivanyvn.  Ohg va uvf bayl culfvpny nccrnenapr urer, ur vf vzzrqvngryl xvyyrq ol ynfg obbx'f fvqr nagntbavfg, Grb'f oehgny oebgure Oravnzb jub gura gnxrf bire nf gur nagntbavfg sebz gura ba.

Ohg guvf znxrf nofbyhgryl ab frafr, nf vg'f ovmneer sbe gur Pncb gb gehfg uvz fb zhpu gb nyybj uvz fb pybfr gb xvyy uvz, naq Oravnzb vf fb boivbhfyl rivy naq oehgny gung vg'f uneq gb frr uvz xrrcvat gur Pncb'f nezl gbtrgure.  Naq nsgre nyy gung cevbe jbex ohvyqvat hc gur Pncb, sbe uvz gb or erzbirq fb dhvpxyl vf whfg sehfgengvat fvapr vg erzbirf nyy vagrerfgvat cnegf bs gur fpurzvat onggyr orgjrra Grb naq gur Pncb va snibe bs n onggyr bs fheiviny gung vf arire ernyyl pbaivapvat tvira Grb'f zntvpny nqinagntr.

In short, if you really enjoyed The Brilliant Death, there isn't too much worth coming back for for this book - but if you do, be warned it's not quite close to the level of its predecessor.  There's some satisfying things in here, especially in the love of our main characters, but the rest is just a disappointment.


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