Tuesday, April 28, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Daughter of the Sun by Effie Calvin




Daughter of the Sun is the second book in Effie Calvin's queer fantasy romance series, Tales of Inthya, following the series' first book: The Queen of Ieflaria (which I reviewed here).  I really liked The Queen of Ieflaria - set in a fun fantasy world filled with magical creatures and many sometimes present deities, it was a really delightful romance between princesses of very different temperaments - one deep at heart caring of all her people, but preferring wildness to duty, and the other from a more stuck-up family but more understanding of the need to get over her own fears and be dutiful in times of need - that really pulled off a nice story in a short amount of time.  So I may have taken this book out from the library immediately after finishing the first one, even despite the books I already had out.

And Daughter of the Sun is perhaps just as delightful, or maybe at most a little less, than its predecessor.  And while it's still a F-F romance at its core it's very different from its predecessor: whereas the last book dealt with two women trying to see if they could love each other, this one features two women falling in love despite knowing they absolutely should not.  Whereas the last book featured two women thrown into a situation they could never have expected but who previously were at least somewhat comfortable in that position, this one features two women who have been lonely - even if they are in denial about it.  But it's done so well, and the characters are so likable, that it works nearly as well as its predecessor, and I may have reread parts of it several times before writing this review.

I should note somewhere that, like its predecessor, this isn't the type of romance in which anything explicit is described - the most that's described on page are kisses. So if you're looking for something more steamy this isn't it.  (On the other hand, that also makes it fine for younger readers as well if that's your concern, even if this isn't YA).


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------
Orsina - a Paladin of the Order of the Sun, the order devoted to the defending the ideals of Iolar (Truth, Order, Justice, etc) - was given a quest from her Baron: Iolar had sent the baron a vision that Orsina was to defeat a great evil and that she needed to leave her home to find it.  And so Orsina left her home, her two fathers, and most importantly the Baron's daughter - the woman she loved.

Two years later, despite many evils being defeated, Orsina has not received a sign from Iolar that her task is done, and so still she wanders the land searching for evils to defeat.  And so she comes to a small town held in thrall by Aelia, the chaos goddess of caprice.  To save the town, Orsina binds Aelia into a mortal body and seemingly slays her...but still, no sign from Iolar comes.

But what Orsina doesn't know is that Aelia survived her attack, and still exists in a mortal woman's body, weak without power, until she can find an ancient relic to allow her to regenerate.  And when Orsina comes across Aelia again, she doesn't recognize the goddess, who tags along with Orsina in hopes that the Paladin can lead Aelia to the relic.  But what Aelia didn't anticipate, as she and Orsina come into contact repeatedly with other dangerous evil, is the kindness and caring of Orsina, and the two find themselves falling in love.  But can the two really be together when the truth would require Orsina to kill Aelia for what she is?

Aelia and Orsina's travels will reveal to the two of them truths about the world, and about each other, and about themselves - truths that will change everything for the both of them and their very destinies.....
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Daughter of the Sun takes place over a larger setting than its predecessor, with its characters moving between different towns and cities and even countries over the course of the book.  And while the last book dealt with a single god really and a few magical creatures, this book deals with a number of deities - unsurprisingly given that one of the romantic protagonists is a deity herself!  It's a setting that is in many ways unfamiliar and familiar at the same time, with the major deities seeming to fit archetypes familiar but not quite matching any classic mythology I can think of, and the book does a great job making this setting seem real and expansive even when it only has time to allude to different aspects of it - an Empire here, a goddess with a small cameo with little explanation there, etc.

Into this setting go our two main characters who are both terrific and both very different from the main duo of the last book, and like before, the story switches points of view between the duo each successive chapter.  The two are still featuring somewhat opposing temperaments which result in them clashing to a certain extent, but as the two are not trying deliberately to see if there can be romance between them, it makes for a very different romance novel.  And yet still it works and it makes it all very easy to love and care for these two characters, both Orsina and Aelia, despite their faults.

Orsina is the devoted Paladin to her god, to the point where she went on a mission for him despite it taking her away from all the people she cares about.  But she's oh so lonely, and well obviously somewhat in denial about the woman she loves, the baron's daughter, who after two years of Orsina being away and writing letters has never once responded back.  And yet Orsina is still devoted to her cause of justice and order and thus can't dare reach the conclusion that her love may be unrequited....or even that the woman she loves might not be the woman she thinks she is.  So when she finds a young woman named Elyne (secretly Aelia), she is determined to help the young woman out from what she assumes must have been an injustice - after all the young woman has been stabbed and won't say who did it to her.  But as her own self denial blinds her a bit to what Elyne really is, she finds herself attracted to Elyne, who fits the woman she imagines her love to be far better than the actual woman she's envisioned all this time, and Elyne forces Orsina to start to realize the depths of her own denial.   

Meanwhile Elyne - or really Aelia - is at first just a spiteful weak chaos goddess - as she's literally the goddess of caprice - being unable to stick to a decision or literally just making bad decisions.  For years, as a result of her worship being outlawed (and few really wanting to worship such a thing even if it was allowed), she has had a spiteful attitude towards her more lawful and more powerful sibling gods, and has surfaced every now and then using her magic to put people in thrall against their will.  Yet her very domain has made her unwilling to take a look back at the world and take stock at what is happening.  But when too weak to do so, and confronted by Orsina, she finds herself doing so for the first time, especially taking stock in herself.  And so even as her nature leads her to make some wild choices and to explore more than could be safe - since she isn't one to stay in the same place for long - she finds herself seeing more of the world she might actually like, such as music and art and a group of women who are meeting together to explore what talents they have.

And then for Aelia there is Orsina, who Aelia first thinks of as an utter fool.  But when Orsina continues to treat her kindly and caringly, Aelia can't help but start falling for the Paladin - after all, even if she is a goddess of bad things, no one has ever cared for her before.  And so a decision to use Orsina and then kill her morphs into a decision to stay with Orsina and try to protect her until Aelia can leave....and then more.  And really for Orsina, who has had loving parents but only loved another who really didn't reciprocate that caring, seeing Aelia/Elyne reciprocate those feelings is an experience she's never had before.  And so the romance blossoms and it's so nicely done, up until eventually you know the secret truth that threatens to force them at each other's throats comes out.  But like the last book, Calvin doesn't allow the characters too much time to be in that state of opposition where your heart is broken and the book may be a bit more shallow for it, but it's much easier and more delightful to read for it.

I've just spent three long paragraphs - well long for me - talking about these characters and their romance, and you can tell that's how much I love them.  I've heard that we may return to them in future books in this series, and I'll definitely be checking back in for them as a result - sometimes you need a little joy and love, and this series continues to have it in spades.
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