Welcome to Part 2 of my reread of Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons, with this post featuring book 2 in the series, 2019's The Name of All Things. You can find all my posts in this Reread - 1 post per book - by clicking this link here.
And well, this time around I'm going to pretty much just be gushing, since The Name of All Things is a revelation as compared to The Ruin of Kings. It's still not a perfect book, nor is it my favorite of the series, and it's still very much dealing with introducing various major characters - particularly Janel, Senera and Qown - and concepts that will be relevant to the rest of the series.
But whereas The Ruin of Kings's need to introduce the world and it's concepts leads its plot to feel often scattershot, confusing and less interesting, The Name of All Things' narrative is cohesive - long and windy and going in very different places from time to time, but cohesive such that it feels like one complete part of a story. Even as the story is clearly setting up long term plot arcs - Xaltorath's messing with Janel, Relos Var dealing with the prophecies, the Dragons and Val Korath, etc. - these parts feel like natural parts of the story being told in THIS book, as Janel struggles to fight for her people and to save them and others from threats on a much higher level. It's just a really great book.
Spoilers obviously after the Jump:
The thing is that the characters we see here are just so much better and more interesting than in The Ruin of Kings. Rather than splitting one character into two timelines, we feature Janel and Qown's perspectives, and this allows us to see a pair of really strong interesting characters. In Janel you have a strong character - an openly queer character - who is firey and righteous in her determination (through her physical strength and unique magical attributes) to do what's right for her people, particularly those who have offered her allegiance. She faces incredible hardships as she discovers secrets about who she is, and about how they change her understanding of herself, and has some moments of doubt, but she (with the help of her supporting cast) never lets that define her. She's a hero trying to navigate a system that depends upon shows of force and the ability to protect, whose own identity of who she is as a stallion has been repeatedly denied by others in power, and she's just tremendously great and fun. Basically everything Kihrin wasn't in the first book from the start, which is not to say she doesn't develop quite a bit.
Oh and then there are the other characters. Obviously Qown is the primary other one, developing from a completely out of his depth healing mage devoted to a peaceful religious cult to one who, among his worldview being shattered by betrayals, is willing to scheme a bit and make decisions on his own...to the regret of some of the cast at times in the end. He serves at times, like Kihrin, as an audience surrogate in terms of learning about Joratese culture in places to help the reader understand it, but he has his own interesting journey as his naivete is shattered by the realities of this world. Then you have the other minor characters, and unlike the last book, the supporting characters hang out long enough in the story such that they also develop and get the chance to be people you care about, from Mare Dorna (who is amazing) to Ninavis, to hell even Kihrin himself who is a lot more fun now that he can play off Janel as part of the framing device. And we even get to constantly see our antagonists, such as Relos Var, as well as Senera, whereas in the last book they were largely off page (and Senera is so so much more fun with her footnotes than Thurvishar ever was).
And this world shown here is just far more interesting than the same stuffy homophobic imperial Empire that we got in The Ruin of Kings. Jorat is queer friendly, with its idea of gender not being perfect (as noted in the glossary, it still focuses upon two categories - Stallions and Mares - even as it has a "Gelding" category for those who don't fit) but being different than the norm. Same-Sex relationships, or just being Ace, are also entirely common and there's even a magical festival for those who wish to change their sex to match their asserted gender, although such is not required. And outside of its different views on sex and gender, Jorat is different in politics and socially as well - with again a society based upon those who are able to protect being those who rule, and upon navigating that fact in politics, as to protect those under someone else's authority is to suggest that they are not able to and that you are challenging their rule. Really everything - politics, social scenes, and sex/gender - in Jorat is organized over dominance/submission and recognition of that fact, with the lack of recognition being where conflict emerges, and it's really really interesting.
And so we have a story with a refreshing setting (and I haven't even gotten into Yor and I won't because this is meant to be a reread and not a review) with great characters and tremendously fun dialogue and interactions and well....THIS is what book 1 should've been for this series. The story does largely take place at the same exact time in plot as The Ruin of Kings, which means you could almost certainly start the series here - and I've suggested that at times, because this is what I hope for in an epic fantasy opener: Great characters, interesting themes, plot aspects and settings that are different, etc.
And it does all that while setting the stage for everything else. So we have the beginnings here of realizing Xaltorath doesn't follow other demons' rules and how she has her own dangerous agenda that might be on the level of even Relos Var (something book 1 doesn't really do well, as it just makes Xaltorath seem like a strong demon, not someone who will be one of the series' main antagonists); of Relos Var unleashing Val Korath, of how you kill dragons, of how Relos Var is willing to do anything to "Save" Humanity, no matter the cost; You have introductions to Suless and Xivan Kaen, a major antagonist and supporting character respectively, whose conflict will underly much of the next two books; you have the beginnings of realizations about reincarnations, with Janel being Elana and C'indrol being mentioned briefly as Suless nearths a memory of hers at one point and Teraeth's past life becoming well known. You have romances beginning to form between Kihrin-Janel-Teraeth - Teraeth's reaction upon seeing Kihrin and Janel together at the end cracks me the hell up - etc.
And hell one thing I noticed this time around is one part reads a bit differently after book 4 - where Janel walks in on Senera crying over a dead Joratese boy, and Senera comments in a footnote "I don't remember this at all" - which upon a first read sounds like a denial to make herself sound tough, but after book 4 I'm pretty sure this is meant to be literal - the block on Senera's telepathy that Relos Var put on her prevents her from remembering it, or even realizing she was crying. Really interesting touch.
Again this isn't my favorite in the series - that's coming up next I think - but it absolutely is where this series becomes well well worth your time.
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