This novel follows on a few years after the events of The
Threat Below – you can find a review of that further down the blog. Icelyn has
been living in the ruins of a city of the Apriori with her Anaghwin followers
and has taken up the position as their God. When the whole of mountaintop faces
a fertility crisis caused by the poisoning of their water supply by the Croathus
in the first book, Adorane sets out to find her in hopes that as she has not drank
from the contaminated supply she will be able to find a mate similarly
unaffected and carry on the lineage of Mountaintop.
There is a discernible tension between Adorane and Icelyn when
they reunite which I really disliked but I do admire the author for acknowledging
the hurt they put each other through and that the passage of time does not
always numb those wounds. I also felt a bit uncomfortable with how the people
of Mountaintop reacted to Icelyn when she visited them but that again is appropriate
for such a cloistered and judgemental community.
We get to see several flashbacks from various perspectives
including Sean Brathius, Amperous and Omathis, all of which really helped to
grow our understanding of these characters as well as why the Croathus chose to
try and exterminate the humans in the way they did. These sections also helped
to answer a lot of questions I had about Shai and the role she had to play in
the creation of the Croathus.
What I felt was a really nice touch was how the characters
we are following in the present are the direct descendants of the characters we
are following in the flashbacks; this may have been something which was obvious
in the first book but I just never picked up on it.
Latshaws writing style is the same throughout both books and
there is plenty of action and drama to keep you hooked throughout. I especially
enjoyed the ending of the book and am hoping he’s gearing up to write a third!
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