Black Sun Light My Way by Jo Spurrier is the sequel to Winter Be My Shield, which I absolutely loved when I read it last year. This review contains minor spoilers for book one.

Before I started writing this review, I went and read over my review of the first book and I was struck by something I hadn't realised when I was reading. Although the two books follow the same characters and are linked by a logical sequence of events, they actually explore very different themes. While the first book dealt a lot with ostracism, particularly of mages, the second book deals much more strongly with difficult choices and personal sacrifices.

The torture (of various characters at the hands of the evil Blood-Mage Kell) is also dealt with differently. It seemed to me that in the first book all the torture was near the start and used to establish that Kell was in fact pretty evil. Black Sun Light My Way does something similar with recently enslaved people being raped (well, threatened by rape, I don't think any of it took place on the actual page) and beaten by the invaders. But the most horrific (to me) bits were later on in the book when Kell's torture dungeon was revisited. I didn't think any of the violence was gratuitous but if affected me more than in the first book, partly because of elements of choice Spurrier incorporated into the story (I can't be more specific without spoilers). This is not a book for the faint of heart.

The next paragraph contains minor spoilers about a specific scene.

I also found Rasten's character much more interesting in Black Sun Light My Way than in the previous book. In Winter Be My Shield we saw him as the torture-conditioned and brain-washed apprentice to the Blood-Mage. In this book, we see a lot more of him and his point of view. The way he thinks in contrast with how Sierra (and, y'know, most saner people) thinks is often quite stark. There was a powerful moment when Sierra resists a particularly horrible punishment (easily the most sickening start to a scene) and Rasten can't understand why she wouldn't just submit and bide her time. It's impossible for the reader not to be on Sierra's side (I hope) and the whole scene was a stark and frustrating demonstration of just how much psychological damage Kell has inflicted on Rasten in four years.

On a cheerier note, Delphine, a mage from the invading country, becomes an interesting prominent character. Her role evolves significantly over the book and I found it most interesting when she was used to give an outsider's perspective on the characters we know and love. Spurrier uses her to great effect to highlight some of the differences between her culture and the other main characters', at the same time helping the reader understand how aspects of both cultures work. She was a character that at different times I cheered for and against, and that I could feel that way is a mark of Spurrier's excellent writing skills.

The last thing I want to mention is that I loved the ending. No details because spoilers, but it's not your usual book two ending. More got resolved than I expected, but there's no shortage of problems left for the characters to deal with in book three.

Black Sun Light My Way was an excellent read. I don't recommend skipping Winter Be My Shield, so if you haven't read the first book, do that first. In general, though, I highly recommend this series to all lovers of epic/high/big fat/whatever you want to call it fantasy. As I said earlier, it's not for the faint of heart, but on the other hand it's not significantly worse (in terms of ick and violence) than a lot of the genre.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )

This book should be entitled "The Impossible Choices Plaguing my Favourite Characters, and the Heartache that Ensues." Sierra, Isidro, Cam, Mira and Rasten were all put through so much throughout Black Sun Light My Way, it was kind of a relief when the book ended!

I thought the strongest element of the previous book was the characters, and this is again the case. Sierra continues to surprise me, willing to make extraordinary sacrifices for her make-shift family - the people who saved her from certain death in the last book. The character that surprised me is Isidro - I'd never really doubted his bravery nor his god-naturedness, but he shines throughout this novel. The author does a brilliant job of examining the motivations and psychology of all her characters, and even though the focus is firmly on Sierra, Isidro and Rasten, I love the glimpses we get into Cam and Mira's relationship.

There's a lot of blood, violence and torture in this book, as we get intimately acquainted with the rituals of Kell the Blood-Mage. Although I found it disturbing, and sometimes had to skip over the worst parts, I never felt it was gratuitous. Even the sexual violence served a purpose: to show the very real dangers the slaves faced at the hands of the Akharian Slavers, and to depict Kell's complete dominance of over Rasten. I was glad to find that Rasten became one of the key players in this instalment, and I feel like I have gotten to know him a lot better. He's a complicated character - groomed as a Blood-Mage and prone to anger and violence, but he shows that he genuinely cares for Sierra.

The expansion of the world is another aspect I liked about Black Sun Light My Way - we first came upon our Riclan comrades in the full blast of Winter, and now, as the Thaw begins, we get to witness the new challenges that they face. I'd mistakenly believed that their troubles would lessen as the weather warmed up. The world-building is again impeccable, and I enjoyed the way that the Akharian and Riclan lifestyles were explained, especially when the Akharian mage Delphine suffered from culture shock.

Jo Spurrier has delivered another amazing book in Black Sun Light My Way, and fans of Winter Be My Shield are sure to enjoy it as much as I did. This series is also perfect for those looking for something outside of the usual sword-and-sorcery of high Fantasy, and it is a great entry point for newcomers to the genre.

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )