December 15, 2020
The action moves from phoenix races to all-out war in this sequel to Ashlords (2020). The novel opens with victorious Ashlord Pippa leading an army against her previous foes in the Races: Imelda, a Dividian, and Adrian, a Longhand. The narrative shifts from one character to another as all three discover links to the underworld where the seven Ashlord gods live with their slaves, and they begin to see the gods, not each other, as the enemy. The pace here is frenetic, the writing smooth and exciting. The worldbuilding continues to feel illogical and inconsistent in terms of technological development, and most of the time it's hard, if not impossible, to follow the plot. The phoenix horses around which the first novel centered are incidental to this book, but readers who haven't read the first entry will feel lost and have difficulty understanding the characters or setup. Halfway through, the confusion begins to matter less as the characters become more fully developed. If readers don't worry about understanding it all, the action will be interesting enough to carry things along as the story rockets to a somewhat comprehensible happy ending. Although in the first book the Ashlords were described as dark-skinned and the Dividians and Longhands as light, that difference is downplayed in this entry. A mess, but at least it's a hot one. (dramatis personae) (Fantasy. 12-18)
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