I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and my participation in this tour. Many thanks to Orbit and Caffeine Book Tours!

Talyien, stripped to her core never loses who she is. While there are moments of doubt, of self-reflection, she retains an innate strength of character that allows her to survive, even when practically alone and surrounded by her enemies. The Ikessar Falcon sees Queen Talyien at rock bottom and even then, she remains unbowed. I’m excited to see what she would do at the final book and see how she recovers from where she ends up being.

Even when it looks like she’s lost, I’m confident she would end up at the top. Her character has been put through numerous trials throughout the series and yet, she’s unbroken. The Wolf of Oren Yaro put Tali through so much, but even that was nothing compared to what she faced in The Ikessar Falcon. That was just the beginning.

In the first book, I gushed about Tali as a character. In this one, I could gush about her even more because wow, she really goes through the ringer here. The Ikessar Falcon takes everything you see in the first book and ups the ante. The stakes are higher in this one and this time, politics wouldn’t be Tali’s only concern.

The Ikessar Falcon lets us see more of the world and greatly expands on what it looks like, from its cultures and traditions, the food, the folklore. While the book remains character driven, the story becomes even more epic in scope. The plot features more action, more magic, story exposition, and a lot more plot twists.

If you thought Talyien had gone through enough in the first book, the second one seems determined to break her further. In this book, you can see Tali growing tired, desperate to see her son, and even willing to walk away and just live a life of peace with him. And yet, there are considerations bigger than her wishes and even more revelations and twists thrown her way.

In The Ikessar Falcon, more secrets are uncovered and still, Talyien’s reactions through all of them are only too human, real. In some cases, she trips and makes mistakes because in the end, she wasn’t perfect and like any human being, she has flaws. I think that despite everything and the way she almost seems larger than life, these mistakes ground her and make her seem more relatable.

The book also builds on Tali’s relationships and as with everything else in her life, nothing about them are ever neat or tidy. Her relationships- whether platonic or otherwise are messy and full of misunderstandings, miscommunication, and a lot of disagreements. There are tensions between her companions too and herself. There are some relationships where there isn’t a solution and some where it’s left loose. I think that the book is stronger for it because nothing is ever tidy in real life and having a protagonist with relationships full of strife really made the book more interesting.

Many sequels fail to live up to the hype created by the first book. That wasn’t the case here because The Ikessar Falcon builds from it and towards the end, just never lets up until you’re left wanting for the final book.

All in all, this is an excellent sequel to one of my favorite SFF books and I highly recommend it to everyone who liked the first one.