Wednesday, July 21, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Illusionary by Zoraida Córdova

 



Illusionary is the second book in Zoraida Córdova's Hollow Crown duology, which began with 2020's "Incendiary" (My Review Here).  I liked Incendiary, although not as much as I wanted to - a YA fantasy novel seemingly inspired by inquisitorial Spain, it featured a girl from a persecuted people with magic, distrusted by her own people for being used by the conquerors as a child for her memory stealing power, trying desperately to make up for her past despite everyone distrusting her.  The book however was short and didn't quite have room for the character development necessary to make certain plot twists and developments work as well as they could have.  So I was interested to see where the sequel would take me.  

And....Illusionary is fine, but honestly kind of loses a lot of the more interesting parts of Incendiary, without adding much to replace it.  The story features Ren, our protagonist, on the run with the man she once thought her enemy in search of a weapon that could save her people, and the result is a pretty classic fantasy quest to go along with some classic romance tropes.  And it does work in that sense - Córdova is too good at what she does not to make this type of narrative work - but the novel is again very short, such that certain character developments occur very suddenly, and the themes about identity, memories, belonging without a home amidst persecution, and more just kind of take a backseat, mostly.

Spoilers for Book 1 are inevitable:  

----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------------
Renata "Ren" Convida is on the run - from tyrant King Fernando AND from the resistance movement of her own people, the Whispers, who betrayed her and left her for dead.  And her sole companion is Prince Castian, the boy she thought was a monster...but who instead turned out to be another Moria like herself, with the power of illusions, and the brother of Dez, her former leader who she loved passionately before believing him to be dead at Castian's hand.  

Now, Ren and Castian, aided by Castian's illusions, are searching for two things: the still missing Dez and the legendary Knife of Memory, an artifact that could allow them to put an end to Fernando's cruel reign once and for all.  But to find it, Ren will have to deal with her Robári powers seemingly being out of control and flooding her with unexpected memories....and will also have to deal with her conflicted feelings for Castian, who isn't either the monster or childhood friend she once thought him to be.  

And then there are those who have their own plans for the Knife of Memory, and their own beliefs on how the Moria should handle their persecution, with their own plans for Ren and Castian and this world's future......
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Like its predecessor, Illusionary follows Ren in a first person perspective (with some small exceptions) as she struggles to move forward from both her past and her powers to try and save everyone.  Incendiary had Ren being a fascinating character - being raised by the conquering people to hunt her own kind, with a magical power that has potentially horrifying after effects on its victims, and that leaves Ren with the inability to truly forget what she's done.  And because of that history, and because of how rare her power was, she's distrusted by her own people, which makes her often feel like even if things were better, she wouldn't truly have a home.  

Some of that still remains in Illusionary, mainly in Ren's starting to lose control of her power and to see memories in the middle of random places...but for the most part, Illusionary doesn't really deal with that.  Instead we see Ren struggling to reconcile her former belief that Castian was an utter monster with the new remembering that he was the childhood friend who once saved her, and that he is a Moria desperate to help stop his evil father.  We see the two of them grow feelings for one another, complete with the standard gamut of romance tropes, all of which work well, and we see their love contrasted with one from the past (not spoiling).  Which is a fine plot....but isn't really that interesting or unique compared to Ren's past struggles with her own monstrous actions as a child, which is just basically put to the side here.  And even Ren's struggles with her power don't last too long, as she winds up getting help managing them (and in a very short book, that occurs in not too many pages).  Again the romance and fight for both Ren and Castian for a better future, and one not born out of vengeance is well done, but it just isn't as interesting as the prior book's themes.  

More interesting is the discovery of alternate paths for the Moria to take when facing this persecution - or at least one of them, led by a group who has responded by taking to the seas and their own hidden Island, rather than attempting to fight back or use a power that has already had one set of devastating effects.  These characters are really interesting and I liked them a lot, and a real key contrast to the Whispers we met in the last book, who are instead actively fighting back.  But here, the Whispers are fighting back out of a need for vengeance more than anything, in rage and despair rather than a hope for the future.  And in part due to one leader's jealous feelings, which honestly is the part that really really doesn't work.  

The end result is a plot that winds up with a happy sweet ending, even if the way it got there requires again some quick character turns that make you go "seriously people?"  But Ren and Castian's adventure, plus two additional companions, do work fairly well, it just isn't quite what I was hoping for from the setup in book 1.  Ah well. 

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