Thursday, April 29, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The House of Always by Jenn Lyons

 



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 May 11, 2021 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.
The House of Always is book four of five of Jenn Lyons' "A Chorus of Dragons", her epic fantasy series that began in early 2019 with The Ruin of Kings (which I reviewed Here).  I've head a weird relationship with this series - I really didn't particularly love book 1 and wasn't really sure I was that interested in continuing further but took out book 2 from the library anyway on a trip to a Hockey Analytics Conference.  And I fell in love with that book, The Name of All Things, (Review Here) as the story expanded to new areas of the world and far more interesting (and far more queer) characters than were present in book 1, to go along with some really fun dialogue.  I then got a copy of book 3, The Memory of Souls (Review Here) early off Netgalley, which only got better, with all of the important characters from books 1-2 combining in an interesting plot that took a really interesting turn that intrigued me enough I actually wrote a second blog post to discuss spoilers.  Each of these volumes is LARGE - we're talking 500-600 pages each, but they each come with a helpful multipage recap of the prior book so that you never really have to reread the prior volume to start the next book in the series.  

So yeah, when The House of Always showed up on Netgalley, I was praying to get an early copy, and when I did get such an early copy, I couldn't resist reading it almost immediately.  And The House of Always....kind of delivers and rewarded my eagerness.  On one hand, this is a step back in plot quality, as the book brings back a number of minor characters not seen for a while, and focuses a lot of attention on them as the series' main plot doesn't really move much forward here.  On the other hand, the characters - both the familiar and the ones we haven't seen since book 1 - are tremendously developed, the dialogue is tremendous, the relationships are so easy to fall in love with, and I've already reread tons of moments, just like I did the prior book.  There isn't any plot concept/idea as fascinating as the one in book 3, but the characters here are so good that I still want to reread this for parts I might have missed and still desperately find myself wanting for more.  

Trigger Warning:  There are no full rape scenes this time (an issue with the series is the occasional occurrence of mind control rape, although usually off page), although there is one scene where one half of an F-F couple is unnecessarily rough and forces her partner to yell at her to stop (she does) in this book.  Might be an issue for some although if you've gotten this far in the series, I suspect you're okay.

SPOILER WARNING:  There is no way to talk about this book in any depth without spoiling the cliffhanger ending of book 3.  DO NOT go past this point here if you intend to read book 3 and haven't. 

Note: Again this book comes with a thorough recap of book 3, so anyone who hasn't read book 3 in a while will be able to pick this up with ease.  The recap is ONLY of book 3 though, and some of the characters featured in this book haven't showed up since Book 1, so if you haven't read books 1-2, you will be quite lost (and if you're like me and only read book 1 once and forgot a lot in it, it'll take a little bit to get you back up to speed, but this book does manage to do that).




   --------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
24 Days after the battle at the Well of Spirals, on the Main Island of Devors, Janel, Teraeth and Thurvishar find themselves at the site of another impossible battle.  There the trio, along with Talea, Galen D'Mon and his wife Sheloran, their former ally Brother Qown, and Kalindra Milligreest, find themeslves defending the library against an undead kraken, a crazed shadow dragon, and an undead army led for some reason by Talea's undead ex-lover Xivan Kaen. 

And then Senera arrived and cast a spell taking them to the Lighthouse at Shadrag Gor, the place where time moves impossibly faster than the rest of the world.  And before Senera can say more than that she brought them there to "help Kihrin", the group suddenly finds themselves seeing a memory of Teraeth.  And then a memory of Senera. 

For Kihrin D'Mon has done the unthinkable - he has merged his soul with the King of Demons Vol Karoth in an attempt to heal and take control of the all powerful demon.  And now as he battles for control inside Vol Karoth's mindscape, Senera has brought all these people, including those he loves the most, right into Vol Karoth's reach, where there memories and support might give him the strength to prevail....or might just accelerate the destruction of the entire world......
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It will come as no surprise to anyone reading this series that this book is once again in the format of a text written by one of the characters - in this case book 2's narrator Senera, who sardonically footnotes this book just like she did book 2 (and just like Thurvishar footnoted books 1 and 3).  And once again, the story is told in altering perspectives from a bunch of different characters - in this case really, all of our characters (13 in all).  The House of Always attempts to justify this even more strongly than in prior books, as the parts of each story told from various perspectives are in fact fragments of memory called upon by Vol Karoth or Kihrin (or another telepath) as part of the psychic battle between the two.  The book also includes the reactions of the most relevant characters to each part of the story told.  

Essentially you have three stories being told simultaneously in various layers:
1.  Story 1: Kihrin's conflict with Vol Karoth, which grows to include the other characters, inside his own mind.
2.  Story 2: The story of how events came to pass that all the non-Kihrin characters were together fighting at the start of the story; and 
3.  Story 3: The reactions of each of the 12 non-Kihrin characters to the reveals of people's memories of Story 2, and how that affects their mindsets and relationships as they also are touched by Story 1.  

In a way this story framework is kind of a disappointment.  Story 2 makes up the bulk of the story really, and it both partially overlaps with Book 3 and also includes characters from Book 1 who I didn't really care about that much (Galen, Sheloran, Kalindra) compared to the characters I've grown to love in the last two books.  And even Story 1 seems pretty clear from the beginning like it can only end in one way, as we all knew when it was set up by the epilogue of Book 3, even if how it gets there isn't particularly clear.  The result kind of feels like a holding pattern in some ways, as opposed to a moving forward of the plot, and there isn't an idea as interesting as book 3 featuring a magic spell not working because "race" is just a social construct.  

But what a holding pattern, because Lyons tells a story with characters - even the old ones I previously didn't care about - that I grew to love tremendously.  Talea is still honestly the highlight - she's basically the most goodhearted person in the series (Galen is close) despite all she's been through and she goes through more here and comes out tremendously and triumphantly, even as her lover, Xivan, loses her way in darkness and the two fall apart.  Xivan's tale of vengeance is hard to take, but still strong.  Galen and Sheloran are such a loving non-couple - their marriage a fiction for political sake as the two of them don't actually like those of the opposite sex - and their attempt to do some good from the ashes left behind from book 1 is really fun, especially as it intersects with Qown, who finds himself once again questioning his throwing-in with Relos Var.  Thurvishar and Senera - who continues to contribute witty footnotes - have their relationship grow as well in charming ways and really the only person whose plotline is kind of overbearing is Kalindra, who just falls more and more into misery for plot related reasons as the plot goes on.  

And then of course there's our main trio, of Janel, Teraeth and Kihrin, who continue to have a tremendous relationship, even if it's mostly resolved from the last book - although Kihrin gets a yelling at for his not telling the other two of his plan at the end of book 3.  Their love is tremendous, and that combined with Lyons' tremendously quotable and fun dialogue carries this book tremendously well.  Oh and then of course you have things in this book like crazy dragons, zombie krakens and pirates, magical luck and resurrection powers, and more such that it seems like Lyons was trying to go as bonkers as possible without breaking the narrative...and she pulls it off.  

Again, this book feels like a narrative hold, Kalindra's misery is kind of a mood killer even if it's necessary for the plot, and certain parts of relationship building (the aforementioned trigger warning) don't quite fully work, but so much does here that I still found myself really enjoying this book.  It's definitely not as good as books 2-3, but it's still well above book 1 and makes me want more, so yeah, if you've really enjoyed this series as much as I have through 3 books?  You'll enjoy this one and be waiting eagerly for the conclusion sometime in the next year.  

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