Black Sun Light My Way by Jo SpurrierMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
If this was a movie, it would definitely be rated R for violence and sex. And I would definitely watch it.
Repeatedly.
Carrying on from the first book, our friends quickly make their way back to one another and grudgingly work with the bad guy we all secretly love, Rasten. He's kind of a dick but deep down he's traumatised and actually kinda sweet so be prepared for some feels here.
Sierra and Isidro are desperately in need of training montages, so they both learn a bit more of the craft but not nearly to the extent I anticipated. The magic is actually pretty vague and confusing and not particularly well-described. This book gets a bit more political (always my least favourite part of fantasy) and there's lots of talk of armies and negotiations and who is mad at whom etc. Relatively dull, but it fortunately doesn't go into too much detail.
Mostly I was just happy to go along for the ride. I wasn't trying to figure anything out, or determine what would happen next. I'm actually grateful to Game of Thrones for renewing my belief that main characters can totally die. It made the tension that much greater, and thus the story more exciting.
Some elements I did guess thanks to some pretty terrible writing, but it wasn't major spoilers. The writing is actually pretty decent in terms of atmosphere and setting the scene, it's just a little clumsy with setting up future events, leaving it slightly predictable in places. That being said, so much happened in this novel that I never really knew where it was going. This book covers much more distance than the first!
The core characters are still mostly lovable, and we get to know them a little more, as well as newcomer Delphine. Aside from her, though, there aren't any fresh faces. A minor disappointment, but not a deal breaker.
How 'bout sex, huh?!! I actually appreciated that it was dealt with in such a no-fuss manner. (view spoiler) I'm not big on sex scenes, but I was so thankful it was not revered and likened to suns, stars, explosions, fireworks and the like. Sex is just such a base human act, and it was nice to encounter a book that didn't make a big deal out of it. (view spoiler)
Here's a Fun Fact: This book actually gave me nightmares. Legit, woke-up-with-terror-and-disgust, nightmares. I dreamt I was having scones with the queen and there was a Smaug-like Chinese dragon flying around entertaining us but it flew too low and crashed into the ground and then some guy said, 'I'll do it, it's my horse' and then I realised that a horse had been the one controlling the dragon and on crashing it had broken something and it was thrashing around all distraught an dying and OH MY GOD I STILL FEEL LIKE CRYING OVER WHAT HAPPENED TO THAT POOR HORSE, I can't go into detail because you'll think I'm a proper psycho but safe to say I woke up feeling distraught and ill and wondering what the hell was wrong with me. Then I remembered a snippet of what I'd read before going to bed and, look, my imagination is clearly out of control but the point I'm trying to make is that THE VIOLENCE IS REAL YO. So, um, yay? I mean, I actually really enjoy violence in books (I swear I'm not a psycho) but this one kinda snuck up on me? It's definitely adult fantasy, though. It has some seriously brutal scenes.
I think I was more in love with the first book but I still really enjoyed reading this one. I think it was weaker in terms of the plot because it was all a bit unclear to me, but I'm looking forward to everything becoming clearer in the last book. I particularly enjoyed Rasten's journey in this one so will be interesting to see where he ends up!
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