I have decided to write about both of these books in one entry, since they're essentially one complete story told over two halves and I read both of them within the course of three days. The central character is Savonn Andalle, aka Silvertongue, whose father was the governor of Cassarah. Elegy, the first book, starts with the funeral of his father, who was killed by bandits...or was he? And his son is both the captain of the guard and also a former actor and, we learn, spy, whose loyalties and true motives are constantly at question.
There is also a mysterious and devastatingly handsome stranger named Dervain Teraille (who often goes by the names Red or the Empath), who has a very complicated past relationship with Savonn, two pairs of siblings who are tied up with both of them, a queen and her estranged sister who also has a secret, and lots of murder and intrigue. In short, it is a fairly classic historical fantasy with chapters ending on cliffhangers and misdirection about who is actually responsible for which death and why, but with the added (and welcome) intrigue that both of the main romances in the book are gay, and the intense friendship between two male characters while one is more or less exiled from his home is textually romantic rather than just heavily implied (and then handwaved away in the final act).
There's so much in these two books for me to like, and yet at the end of the day they didn't quite land for me as solidly as I wanted them to. Aspects of the plot felt referenced rather than developed for me; there were deaths that I knew should affect me greatly, but I hadn't had enough time to really care about the characters to actually feel anything. I liked being thrown right into the world and expected to keep up, but instead of working hard to piece everything together I found it all a bit predictable.
Grade: B
There is also a mysterious and devastatingly handsome stranger named Dervain Teraille (who often goes by the names Red or the Empath), who has a very complicated past relationship with Savonn, two pairs of siblings who are tied up with both of them, a queen and her estranged sister who also has a secret, and lots of murder and intrigue. In short, it is a fairly classic historical fantasy with chapters ending on cliffhangers and misdirection about who is actually responsible for which death and why, but with the added (and welcome) intrigue that both of the main romances in the book are gay, and the intense friendship between two male characters while one is more or less exiled from his home is textually romantic rather than just heavily implied (and then handwaved away in the final act).
There's so much in these two books for me to like, and yet at the end of the day they didn't quite land for me as solidly as I wanted them to. Aspects of the plot felt referenced rather than developed for me; there were deaths that I knew should affect me greatly, but I hadn't had enough time to really care about the characters to actually feel anything. I liked being thrown right into the world and expected to keep up, but instead of working hard to piece everything together I found it all a bit predictable.
Grade: B
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