A Chorus of Dragons (by Jenn Lyons) Reread: Book Three: The Memory of Souls

 


Welcome to Part 3 of my reread of Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons, with this post featuring book 3 in the series, 2020's The Memory of Souls - probably my favorite of the series.  You can find all my posts in this Reread - 1 post per book - by clicking this link here.

The Memory of Souls is where A Chorus of Dragons, with the groundwork underlying the series being largely laid, finally spreads its wings and really goes all out.  Book 1 told the story pretty much entirely from Kihrin's perspective - yeah we had bits told from other perspectives all over the place, but it was Kihrin's story, which generally hindered the narrative.  Book 2 told the story half from Janel's perspective and half from Qown's (with Kihrin in the framing device).  

By contrast the Memory of Souls jumps all over the place.  Kihrin still probably gets half the chapters, but you have parts from Janel's perspective, from Tereath's perspective (finally), from Senera's perspective, from Talea's, from Grizzst's perspective, from Therin's, etc. etc.  In book 1, the wide spread of the plot was a problem, as the story couldn't focus upon a single story arc, leaving large parts feeling unsatisfyingly unresolved or pointless.  But here the wide spread of perspectives all come together in one epic end that massively changes the status quo of the series, to the point where we'll need a whole next book to come to grips with that new status quo (but we'll deal with that next week).  And well, not only do these perspectives give us an interesting story, they build the side and main characters up tremendously, build relationships to the point where I loved so many people here, and well....it's just generally great.  

More specifics after the jump, going heavily into spoilers of course:

Like its predecessors, The Memory of Souls starts from the end (the actual end this time, not just the 80% endpoint) and features characters retelling what happened to get to that point.  And hell, like The Ruin of Kings, its perspectives are often told from parts of the world - and time periods, as some of these are in the recent or distant past, - that don't seem immediately to be relevant - for example the book features a Talea/Senera/Xivan chapter early, when they don't show up in the main story until the book's second act hundreds of pages later.  

But it works so well because it's a lot more confident in its characters, and the characters actually get to play off each other than the first book.  So you have Kihrin-Janel-Tereath (and okay Thurvishar) together for the entire first half of the book, and you get to see them struggle with their relaionships amongst the crazyness they get involved with, whether that be Kihrin confronting his sexuality, Tereath dealing with his jealousy over Janel-Kihrin's relationship, and Janel confronting her fears that her love is based entirely on her prior lives' memories, rather than something real.  The love triangle, which of course becomes polyamorous in the end, is just done so so damn well, and it makes all three characters - even KIHRIN, who was just utterly boring in book 1 at times - into people who I loved.  

But there's so much more than just this main trio here.  With Xivan-Talea-Senera you get your own trio, especially once Thurvishar and Kihrin join them that are just incredibly likable and enjoyable to read.  Talea's confession to Xivan is just so damn perfect, and well...we'll see their relationship continue to evolve next book but it's just really great here.  And then in a series that has been so much about sex between romantic partners, we have Thurvishar and Senera, hinted at in the previous book, which works so damn well here despite the fact sex isn't involved or wanted by anyone involved - as Senera points out she's asexual and can't understand that Thurvishar, who remembers past lives where he had sexual relationships with literal goddesses, would want her.  And well it's an impressive job making Senera likable given her clear villainy in that last book, although her having a cute dog in Rebel she cares for is adorable.  

And well the plot is just so much fun, for the most part - really the only part I struggle with his Khaeriel essentially raping Therin via enchantment, even if Therin did it to her first during her time as a gaeshed slave.  The dialogue is often hilarious, the interactions of characters due to reincarnations are just incredible (Valathia inviting Janel into hers and Doc's beds is just omg), and the adventures everyone goes through are always interesting and exciting - escaping from a dragon of death and Vol Karoth; going after Suless and running into two more dragons; politics in the Manol; et.  

And then there's the final conflict, which is brought on by a brilliant use of the idea that "Race is a Social Construct" - meaning the fourth race, the Vané aren't actually a race for the purposes of magic, even if they called themselves one, meaning they had no immortality to sacrifice!  It leads to a continuing theme of this series of powerful people making dangerous and dumb decisions in panics, in jealousy, and in fear, leading to a conflict between the eight immortals, Relos Var, ,Xaltorath, and more!  It's off the wall in the final conflict....and that's before Kihrin ends the book by deciding to sacrifice HIMSELF to try and control Vol Karoth.  

As readers of this blog may know, I prize character development and relationships over everything else in the books I read, and The Memory of Souls is where this series just has that in spades, and it made me absolutely fall in love with this book, to the point where I finished it once in eARC form and promptly kept rereading it for the next week despite having other stuff to read.  It's just so great.