Dark wings they are descending, see shadows gathering around. One by one they are falling, every time they try to strike us down. Let’s paint The Red-Stained Wings, by Elizabeth Bear.
Synopsis:
Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear returns the epic fantasy world of the Lotus Kingdoms with The Red-Stained Wings, the sequel to The Stone in the Skull, taking the Gage into desertlands under a deadly sky to answer the riddle of the Stone in the Skull.
The Gage and the Dead Man brought a message from the greatest wizard of Messaline to the ruling queen of Sarathai, one of the Lotus Kingdoms. But the message was a riddle, and the Lotus Kingdoms are at war.
Elizabeth Bear created her secondary world of the Eternal Sky in her highly praised novel The Range of Ghosts and its sequels. She continued it the first book of the Lotus Kingdoms, The Stone in the Skull.
Source: Goodreads
SPOILERS BELOW
Ah, the latest book by Elizabeth Bear is finally out. It’s been quite a while since I read the first one in the series; let’s see if I can remember what was going on. The city of Ansh-Sahal was destroyed by the eruption of an underwater volcano; the rajni Sayeh was taken captive by the warlord Anuraja, her son and heir was taken captive by the warlord Himadra, the Dead Man was with the rajni Mrithuri preparing her city for a siege, and the Gage had embarked on a quest to dragon-poisoned lands in search of a magical artifact called the Carbuncle. Whew! I think that covers it.
One of the things I believe I discussed in my previous review is that unlike the previous Eternal Sky series, which tipped its hand too early as to who the Big Bad was and thus made it apparent how little progress the heroes were making, The Lotus Kingdoms was more ambiguous about who was the ultimate villain and what plan they were working on. The Red-Stained Wings continues to slowly dole out hints, now revealing that Anuraja and Himadra are likely being played as pawns by the mysterious sorcerers who have been assisting them – Ravani and Ravana. However, the character are as yet unsure whether the sorcerers are themselves the masterminds or are in turn working for some greater evil. Instead of starting at the top of the villainous hierarchy and working our way down, we’re starting at the bottom and working our way up, which all in all is coming off as far more effective at making the heroes short-term victories seem meaningful while also building up suspense and menace with regards to the ultimate villain.
The book also shone in its character interactions. I was a bit worried on that regard at first, since the stand-out relationship in the first book was between the Gage and the Dead Man, who are separated for the length of this one; but I needn’t have feared, since the characters bounce off each other just fine.
Overall, I found this to be a strong entry in the series, and it has me more invested in the plot and characters than ever before.
Final Rating: 4/5
profmorbius 