Another beautifully written addition to the series. That I have 15 books left to read makes me downright giddy. I love that we get intimate with the working of the Barrani court in this series. I started with the prequel series and had SO many questions about the workings of the immortal cultures, so this was a nice deep dive into world-building and culture! Also, Sagara's ability to end a book with the perfect mix of "Yes! I love this ending." and "Holy shit! Now what?" is downright enviable!

Definitely read it! ( )

http://bactra.org/weblog/algae-2007-04.html#courtlight ( )

OK, I tried, but I can't do this and it is only page 22. "His eyes were that shade of green that made jewelry superfluous." And there are seven words of dialogue on those two pages. The rest is all description and feelings.

"His smile cooled slightly as his gaze glanced off her cheek."

I'm sure this is great for someone else, but not me.

I started reading this book, not realizing at first that it was the second in a series, but still I tried my best to give it a go. 2 years later, I still haven't attempted to continue reading this book. I'm calling it a day - nothing that I read appealed to me, which I find disappointing. It's time for me to donate this book... Hopefully someone else will be pleased by it instead. ( )

{Second of 16 Chronicles of Elantra; fantasy, sword and sorcery}(2006)

The events in this story follow almost straight on from those in the first book.

Kaylin Neya left behind her name along with her fraught past when she fled the fiefs of her childhood. As we all know, names have power.

She has been a Ground Hawk in the city of Elantra since she joined the Hawks at the age of thirteen, seven years ago. The Hawks, along with the Wolves and the Swords, keep the city safe and are answerable to the three Lords of Law. However, Kaylin grew up in the fief of Nightshade but the fiefdoms, which lie across the river, also lie outside the law and Kaylin had sworn never to return to Nightshade

As a healer - an almost unique power in the Empire - Kaylin is much in demand to help with difficult and dangerous births but this often makes her late (or, rather, even later) for her actual job as a Hawk policing the city of Elantra. But this power has recently brought her to the notice of the Dragon Emperor (not a courtesy title) who has decreed that she should be trained as a mage; unfortunately, Kaylin has always had little patience with lessons and ... ah ... frustrates the mages sent to train her.

But this book does not concern the Dragon caste. The two immortal races, Dragons and the elven-like Barrani, have always held themselves aloof, for the most part, from the mortal races. Kaylin does have a couple of Barrani friends in the Hawks and discovers that her friend Teela is a Lord of the Barrani High Halls when Teela whisks her there to attempt to heal the younger son of the Lord of the High Courts. Having done so, she is then invited back during Festival when she finds that things are not as they seem, although her discoveries are ... not aided by the inscrutable Barrani.

Teela lead them quietly. She paused as Kaylin paused and moved when Kaylin's attention was once again in the present. She did not ask what had caught Kaylin's eye. Sometimes it was the floor; the stones there had been laid out like a mosaic, or a series of mosaics. She almost hated to walk across them. She saw trees, birds, deer; she saw swords, armour and crown; she saw caves and mountains. The rivers that passed down the mountains were real; fountains were set at intervals throughout the Hall, blending with the floor. So, too, were flowers, and these were at least as remarkable as the floor itself.
'It has been long since mortals walked these Halls,' Teela told her not unkindly. 'And often they tarry. It will be expected,' she added, 'And lack of attention to detail might be seen as a slight.'
Given permission, Kaylin did tarry. The sunlight seemed endless, and the permutations of light through glass - for the walls were half glass, and all of it coloured and composed like hard tapestry - blended with the stonework of the floor.
She tried to remember that death was waiting. But it was hard to see death in these things.

She discovers that she still has work to do to drive back dark forces, this time within the Barrani court, although she finds that she is not alone as she makes more allies to go with existing ones. The mark that Lord Nightshade, the exiled Barrani lord, gave her in the first book turns out to be both a help and a hindrance, depending on the situation, as she navigates Barrani court politics.

I found that this book flowed a lot better than the first one and though I still had moments of confusion, many of them were resolved and I found the narrative quite more-ish. (I must say, though, that where Lord Nightshade was first scary and then protective in Cast in Shadow, now I‘m finding him creepy.)

Kaylin, for all her fierce independence and fighting skills, has spent the last seven years growing up with the Hawks and being protected by them to some extent so she still seemed a bit childish in the first book. Now she seems to be growing up and learning from her experiences - even deliberately ‘failing to notice’ things on a few occasions although she still tries to ask lots of questions. She also learns a bit more about events connected to the first book and how she inadvertently failed to save the world.

I'm beginning to see why people like this series and will be continuing with it soon. I think, too, that these first books could bear re-reading at some point, once I'm further into the series.

September 2021
3.5 stars ( )