"You are in the spring of your life, child, and have much to learn about this world. Do not deny yourself the privilege of living."
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This was an excellent fantasy novel. The worldbuilding and lore was rich with detail, and the systems of magic were well-established. I did struggle a little in the beginning to assimilate all the names and locations, but was okay after the first 50 pages or so.

I liked how each culture was so disconnected from the others, which was represented strongly in their disparate religions and governing values. This was also represented in their basic understanding about the facts of the world- especially when it came to Cleolind and the Eastern dragons. Definitely a larger message there about opening ourselves up for exposure to what isn't familiar to us or risk misunderstanding reality itself. I also found the idea of a revisionist history engendering a purist, intolerant society to be really intriguing.

I am not often surprised anymore by plot twists, but there were several here that were unexpected to me. For me, this denotes strong writing that doesn't rely on overly teasing plot exposition. I also liked that Shannon was unafraid to kill off character for plot believability, realism, and to reduce plot armor.

There was a sort of grotesque symmetry/poetry to Truyde and Sulyard meeting the same end.

 

It felt a little bit like the pacing at the end was slightly rushed to bring all the characters together, and a number of unlikely twists of fate, but I'll overlook it. This had strong dialogue and no annoying info dumping. I really liked how intentional Shannon was about creating strong women and feminist themes. Additionally, she wrote diverse characters in both appearance and personhood. I'm looking forward to reading the prequel!