Fantasy – Nonfiction and Nonsense

Quicksilver by Callie Hart

I decided that I needed to read this book to see if it was appropriately hyped. I also felt like I had been missing a little bit of magic in my life lately. While I have been reading a lot of romantic fiction over the past few months, they have all been realistic romantic fiction, no magic, fae, witches, vampires, no other worldly creatures of any kind. I was missing stories that involved intertwining the supernatural with romance, with adventure and intrigue on the side, and I was hopeful that this would provide me with what I was longing for. It did.

Saeris lives in a ward called The Third in the city of Zilvaren. The planet is dry and hot, with two suns that never set, making water more valuable than gold. The people of The Third are expected to survive on a daily ration of the smallest portion of the filthiest water out of all the residents in the entire city. Life is hard, so much so that Saeris steals cleaner water from another ward, as well as other things, to ensure her and her younger brother’s survival. The story begins with her taking something that is a little bit too valuable, leading the queens guard to invade her ward, something they usually avoid at all costs due to rumors of The Third being full of disease. After being captured by the guards and interrogated by the queen, she is sentenced to death. But something strange happens after Saeris is stabbed, and after passing out from her wounds she wakes up cold for the first time in her life.

Kingfisher, the fae male who arose from a pool of liquid silver as Saeris lay dying, returns to the kingdom of Yvelia after a decades long disappearance. Everyone has questions, where was he, why was he gone for so long, and why does he have a human female with him? But most importantly, how did he travel though the quicksilver pool when they have been sealed shut for over a thousand years? Saeris, it turns out, has the ability to unfreeze the pools, she just needs to learn how to do it with purpose rather than through a near death experience. Overnight, she becomes the most valuable being in the realm, an alchemist. Thought to have become extinct, she has the gift to activate the pools which makes travel between realms possible. And the fae of this realm desperately need to travel elsewhere to trade goods so that they can win and end the war that has been going on for centuries.

This novel really had everything that I was looking for, and I am optimistic that it will end up turning out to be a very good series. There were mystical creatures, but not too many that it was overwhelming, conflict, war, excellent tension between Saeris and Kingfisher, which lead to amazing intimate scenes, and a good overall plot. I placed a lot of post its throughout the book to mark things that I thought were important or bits of information that I found a little tricky to understand and knew I would want to go back to. I found that the way the curse was described made it harder to understand than it should be and I ended up reading that passage a few times. There is also a lot of information about swords and the magic they used to have as well as who they belonged to versus who owns them now, it was a lot.

I do appreciate that the author put a pronunciation guide for both people and places at the beginning of the book, but I found myself not caring so much about that as I did the map. Not all of the places mentioned in the novel are marked on the map, so you do have to try and estimate where they are based off of where the characters are coming from and where they are headed. I don’t know why, and I am sure I am not the only one, but I like to trace the path that the characters travel along. Even though we are only in Zilvaren for a short period of time, Saeris’ home city does not have a map at all. While I like to think that I have a very active imagination and was able to create a basic picture in my mind of what all the wards surrounding the central palace looked like, a map would have been nice. Maybe we will get one in the upcoming second book. An expanded or improved map of Yvelia and the rest of that realm would be nice too.

To bring this post to an end I just want to mention that I did originally buy the book in paperback, because it was less expensive. But after reading it and enjoying it I decided to buy the hardcover so that it will look nice next to the copy of Brimstone, which I preordered almost immediately after finishing Quicksilver. So I will say, if you enjoy fantasy, go ahead and buy the hardcover because you will enjoy this series and want to have a nice, matching set.

I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan

Fiction

This novel is a unique first person perspective from the view of the devil, Lucifer. Out of Hell, living in the body of a man who recently decided to commit suicide, Lucifer is taking a holiday under the guise of considering an offer from God. If Lucifer can live for one month free of sin in the body of this human man, he can remain in the man’s body for the rest of the vessel’s mortal life and return to Heaven at the end of it. Oh, and he has to ask God for forgiveness first too.

The Lucifer in this book is a version I have never seen depicted before. He’s not as evil as you might think, he doesn’t spend all his time torturing those who are sent down to his domain. He seems to love spreading his influence more than anything else, whispering in the wind with the hopes of getting mortals to act on their terrible thoughts. He is proud of the fact that more souls get sent to Hell than to Heaven, and from what he says it’s not even a close race. Even though his entire existence is spent in constant, excruciating physical pain, he would never go back to God’s rule under any circumstance. But when the offer that God places before him means getting a reprieve from that pain, he pretends to seriously consider the offer just so he can have a little vacation.

The book is written without chapters, just constant narration from Lucifer, and he is a real chatterbox. There are occasional conversations between Lucifer with either humans or angels, but mostly the novel consists of the devil reflecting on the entirety of his existence, from creation to the present. He goes over what he considers some of his greatest moments, what parts of the story we got wrong, time, and various other eternal worldly things. It was a lot at times, but it was interesting. I especially enjoyed his monologue on Eve. But what made me change my mind about enjoying the book to not being sure I liked it had to do with the ending.

The entire story was not ambiguous at all, everything was spelled out very clearly, until you got to the very end. I spent entirely too much time after finishing the book trying to confirm my uncertain conclusion that Lucifer returned to Hell once he left Gunn’s body. At the end of his trial period he was given the choice to return to Heaven, if he would do the unthinkable and ask God for forgiveness. It was pretty clear to me, due to the many times throughout the novel Lucifer stated that he had absolutely no intention of doing that, that he would be staying true to his word. Even when Rafael tried to intervene by revealing to Lucifer what God was considering, he still refused. Some may say this is unreasonably, dangerously, stubborn of him, but I am kind of impressed with how true to himself Lucifer was. Lucifer made a lot of really good points as to why he never regretted what he did and why he wasn’t willing to go back to living under God’s rule. I’m on his side.

But while I think it is pretty clear where he ended up, it wasn’t entirely crystal to me whether or not Lucifer made a side quest before returning to his kingdom. It was never mentioned if Lucifer could travel to Heaven at all, with the intention of just speaking to God or one of the angels, not for the purpose of returning. If Lucifer wanted to make a deal with God, as opposed to what occurred here, is it something that could have happened?

In any case, Gunn has a lot to deal with once he gets placed back into his body. And I’m not saying this in a, oh can you imagine the mess he had to deal with once he wasn’t possessed anymore way, but in the fact that you do actually get a few pages from Gunn’s perspective at the conclusion. And from the third to last line of the book, which I will not spoil for you, I think he was mildly aware, or at least had a pretty good idea, of what happened to him while he was in limbo.

Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros

Fiction

I spent the two weeks leading up to the release of Onyx Storm reading Fourth Wing and Iron Flame for a second time, because I could not remember the bulk of the story. The big thing I did remember was what happened to Xaden at the end of the last book, which was a cliffhanger. If you don’t want to read any spoilers, I am going to encourage you to leave and come back in the future after you have read all three books.

I remember a few months ago when there were previews of the audiobook for Onyx Storm on Spotify, and people were freaking out because the length was much shorter than it was for Iron Flame. I think people got entirely too worried over that, because the book is shorter by less than one hundred pages. And you don’t even miss those few pages because the book is full of an incredibly fulfilling plot. After all the mentions about the distant and numerous isles which surround the continent, Violet and several other riders, Xaden included, take the enormous risk of going to visit them in pursuit of finding allies in the war against the Venin. Only a small number of people know that Xaden himself is now Venin, the unfortunate consequence of having channeled his power from the Earth towards the end of the battle of Basgiath. While visiting all the isles that Navarre has been out of contact with for centuries, Violet is determined to find a cure, probably even more so than she is in finding an army willing to fight on the continent alongside the dragons and griffins and their human counterparts.

There are several stages of Venin, and Xaden is only at the very beginning of the change. He has a long way to go before he could even become close to becoming a Maven, but the more he gives into the power that he has accessed, and whenever he loses control of his anger, he takes one step closer to leaving the Initiate phase and becoming an Asim. In order to protect those around him and keep his secret he has Garrick and Imogen keeping a close eye on him. Xaden has also made the decision to touch Violet as little as possible, after he almost channeled power from her when they were being intimate a short time after he made the change. I cannot tell you how frustrating it was to read that and come to the conclusion that spicy scenes would be few and far between in this book. I will tell you that there ends up being a way around it, and it has everything to do with the main plot. I was extremely relieved that we didn’t end up with a book that was all plot and no spice.

The only thing I am a little disappointed in was how fast the mission through the isles went. It felt like every isle the drift traveled to was summarized in a few pages. I would have loved to learn more about life on the isles, what their society is like, and why they have not kept in contact with any of the territories of Navarre. I guess the real battle and all the conflict exists on the continent, so we don’t need to spend too much time anywhere else. But I feel like there is a reason that there is no magic on most of the isles, and that something is going to happen in the future which will result in the return of magic to these places. I feel like if this happens, the isles that shunned or refused help to the representatives of Navarre will be begging for their aid if and when the war reaches them. I hope that in the next book we can get an expanded map. I am interested in getting a visual displaying how far away all the isles are from the continent and the size of them. I believe it took the dragons twelve hours to fly from the city of Cordyn in Poromiel to the shores of Deverelli, which is about the same amount of time it takes to fly from Aretia in the Tyrrendor province to Cordyn. And Deverelli is apparently the southernmost isle of the isles, so to me that says the other larger isles must be even closer to the continent. I would love to know more about everything that happened during the rebellion and how it played in all the isles and the continent severing contact.

One thing I was not disappointed in was our runaway prince, Aaric. I really love his character, I have since he was introduced in the last book. I love that he was able to see through all the unjust decisions his father has made as a ruler, and decided to disobey him in order to try to change Navarre in a way that will benefit the nation as a whole but will also help Poromiel. I also love how he stands up to his brother, who seems to be as unfit to rule as their father. Halden may be next in line, but Aaric is more suited to the role. That always seems to be the case, those who don’t want the power or responsibility are the ones most deserving of it. Besides being more than capable in common sense and compassion, he is apparently an accomplished polyglot. He seems to be able to fluently speak the language of every nation they visit. It makes me wonder what other secret skills he is hiding. I had been waiting since the last book for Aaric’s signet to be revealed, and the author really had me stressing over how long it took to finally confirm it. You can guess what it is, because she not so subtly gives a hint, but I am never satisfied until I can confirm for sure. I knew that he was going to be able to do something amazing, and I was not disappointed at all. I guess you can see how much I hope that we get more of Aaric in the future.

And now, we wait. We were left on a cliffhanger even bigger than the one we were left with at the end of Iron Flame. I can’t wait to see how Violet tries to figure out what memories she had Imogen erase, and if Imogen knows the details of the memories and the time leading up to those events. I’m assuming that because Imogen can erase memories she has to be able to see them in order to remove them. So potentially the only people that know all the details of what happened are Imogen, Xaden and perhaps one other person, unless that person’s memories were erased too. I’m also questioning if all their dragons know as well and were sworn to secrecy. I think it’s going to be a long time before that next book comes out, and I think it will be an even longer time before we get to see Xaden again amongst those pages.

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

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I can’t believe there aren’t any more books in the Grishaverse after this one. I’ve been reading this series for about two months, and I’m really going to miss it.

I originally started reading this series because I saw the trailer for the show on Netflix, and I knew it was something I would get a lot of enjoyment out of watching. But because I knew it was a series of books, I couldn’t watch it while possessing that knowledge. I bought all the books and planned to watch the first season after I had finished the first book. But when I started watching the first episode and realized that there were characters being introduced that were not in the first book, I knew that I would have to read a lot more before I could begin. For anyone who likes to read before they watch, I will say that you need to read the trilogy and then Six of Crows before you start the show. I won’t divulge any more spoilers than that.

Now for the book itself. If you read my last review you will know that I found Nina’s chapters to be incredibly dull in King of Scars, probably because she was deadly depressing for most of them. Whereas in Rule of Wolves, I couldn’t wait to see what she was up to. We get back the original vibrant and clever Nina we met in Six of Crows. She has infiltrated the Fjerdan Ice Court once again, performing some very deep undercover work for Ravka. She is also trying to figure out where her future stands with Hanne. Will Hanne choose to remain loyal to her nation and her family, even though she has always been miserable living under the strict rules placed upon Fjerdan females? Or will she leave with Nina when her time as a spy comes to an end, to live in Ravka where she can have freedom and live without fear of using her powers? Will Nina ever be able to show Hanne her real face, the one she has been wearing since before she met Hanne many months ago, or will Hanne only ever know the face of Mila? I don’t know if I could live forever with a false face, Nina certainly misses the one she was born with. But I guess it’s different if you don’t feel comfortable in your own body, which we see a lot where Hanne is concerned. There are a lot of allusions to transgender issues at play here, and I think it was very well written and fit into the story perfectly.

We finally learn a lot more about Zoya’s upbringing and training as a young Grisha. We get to see why she often comes off as cold, sometimes even nasty. She has her reasons, I don’t think they entirely justify her overall personality, but now we at least know why she keeps her distance from people and refuses to form close relationships of any kind. However, her sensibilities are put to the test as the pull between her and Nikolai becomes even stronger in this final book. I tried to imagine them as a couple, and I found it difficult. I can’t remember hoping for them to get together at any point during the story. I just don’t know if I find them suitable for each other.

There was one character death that absolutely broke my heart. I exclaimed, “No!” very loudly when it happened. I was hoping it would turn out to be a mistake or they would find a way to bring this person back but it didn’t happen and I am still very upset about it. There was also one plot twist that I also screamed out loud in reaction to that I really did not see coming. It was a really excellent surprise. I am kind of bummed that unless there are more books in the future we won’t see any sort of redemption or character growth from this individual and I think that they had a lot of potential to become someone great. There was also the potential for a lot of conflicts of interest, questions of morality, and the breaking of promises to oneself that would have made for great writing. Maybe some bold fanfiction writer will see the potential I saw and write a piece about those characters one day. I won’t say who these characters were, but I will say that they are currently in Fjerda.

I’m trying to figure out if the author brought back old characters because she wanted us to be with them one more time before she puts this series to rest. Or, if the ending of this book hints at, she has more planned for this universe in the future. It has only been about four years since Rule of Wolves came out, which is a short period of time when you consider how many years we have been waiting for Winds of Winter or The Doors of Stone. I don’t believe there are any rumors floating around, but I would love to hear anything regarding a continuation of the series. I would love to go back to Ketterdam and see what the Dregs are up to, especially Inej, since we barely got a glimpse of her in Rule of Wolves. Kaz is young and I know he will have more money making schemes in his future. I could probably do without Alina and Mal, who are enjoying their relatively peaceful life running the orphanage. Unless there is another matter in the future that would require them to be brought back into the fold. I will just have to look for the next adventure series that will have me raving about it in my future reviews.

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

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It has now been several years since Nikolai has taken his place as the king of Ravka. His ascension was fraught with many challenges, exiling the old king and queen, fighting a war against the Darkling, and trying to convince Alina to marry him, those just being the biggest of his many struggles. His struggles have not gotten smaller in any way. The kingdom was, and still remains, incredibly poor, any money that Ravka may have had that wasn’t being funneled towards the centuries old war was spent frivolously by the royal family. And although the Darkling is gone and there seems to be a tenuous peace within Ravka itself, there are other dangers looming.

On a slightly bright note, one thing that seems to be going particularly well is the advancement of weapons and transport. The air ships Nikolai has been working on for years are now at the peak of their functionality and his underwater ships are promising as well. The one thing he needs is more of them, as a means of protection now instead of a means of adventuring, because the threat of war from either Fjerda or Shu Han still lingers. The ships would be an immense help, due to the many soldier and Grisha deaths that occurred during the civil war, which greatly depleted their army. Nikolai is trying to put an end to his country’s debts and find a way to make allies, and even though he is reluctant to say so, he and those closest to him know that the best way to get both money and allies is through marriage.

While I am always excited to continue reading a book that is part of a larger series, I was disinterested in a lot of the plot in this one. It took me much longer to finish this than I would have liked because it kind of lost me in the middle. I think a lot of it had to do with Nina’s chapters. She was so terribly depressed and it did not make for great reading. I also was not into the new sect of religious fanatics led by Yuri, as well as not being into the character of Yuri himself. I am thankful that there were no chapters from his point of view. I also didn’t really care for all the chapters that detailed Nikolai, Zoya, and Yuri’s trials during their disappearance, even though what occurred is important for what it leads up to in the next book.

Some might consider this strange, but when Isaak started to become a main character; that is when I got drawn back in. I really liked him, even though he was a pretty minor character up until that point. I liked how he started off kind of ordinary but he became something kind of extraordinary. I loved his devotion to his family and to Ravka, and the way he fully committed himself into doing what was asked of him. My other well liked moments in this book were any scenes in which Genya and David spoke to each other. They are by far my favorite romance in this series.

To wrap things up, I will say sorry if you have been reading my reviews and have been waiting to see what I would have to say about the King of Scars duology. I have one more book to go and then my time with the Grishaverse will be at an end. If you have come this far, I will have some spoilers in my next review. They won’t necessarily be about the book, Rule of Wolves, I have not decided how that review is going to be written yet. But I will be writing what I thought about the Netflix adaptation of the books, and that will contain many spoilers. But hopefully they won’t be terrible spoilers, especially if you have read the original trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. Although this is primarily a book review blog I really feel the need to talk about the show because I have a lot to say about it.