Magic is flaring across the world – great waves of magic
emitting from the nodes causing chaos as technology shuts down and random
magical occurrences afflict the world – from flights of griffins to
unquenchable flames to demon outbreaks
That includes demonic attacks aimed at the heirs to many
werewolf clans. The attack leaves Rule injured and committed in the complex net
of Lupi politics, laws and traditions at just a point when he and Lily are most
needed as the magical threat grows. Even worse, the Nokolai’s sworn enemies,
the Leidolf clan are taking advantage of the chaos to ensnare Rule.
Cynna joins in the battle to fight the chaos and find the
ones responsible – but her past comes back to haunt her and an old mentor has
turned into a deadly enemy
This world keeps going in depth and complexity – and all
of that is relevant to the story. All the vast info building of Hell last book
is relevant today along with a whole lot of the theories and histories that
have been expanded since the whole world exploded this book. The conflict with
the different werewolf clans and their shenanigans with the heir mantle, demons
wielding poison and, above all, the sudden flood of magic into the world threatening
to bring about a kind of apocalypse or at least severe damage to society all
combines to create something epic – a story where we really feel like the fate
of the world is in balance – not the Lupi, not Lily and Rule, but the entire
world. The story and the world building both leap forward in this book but they’re
also excellent integrated into a whole where everything is relevant, everything
is important and everything is either exciting or interesting or both.
If I have a problem it’s that there’s just too much world
building. Not that it’s exposition heavy, but that there is so much going on
with demons and gods and dragons and magic nodes and sorcery and different
kinds of magic and the lupi and the heir mantles and demon poison and
sensitives and… sometimes I feel like I need to be taking notes or be given a
text book. I can follow it, but I feel you have to work to remember everything
because most of it is relevant and needs to be remembered.
I like the characters in this series – Rule and Lily both
circle a few tropes but manage to avoid them. They have a bond that forced a
relationship, but they are adamant that their love was not forced by it or is
dependent on it. Rule plays the silly protector role while Lily continually
proves herself quite capable and continually proves Rule wrong in his need to
shield her without being super-woman. She has some excellent conflicts between
her adherence to the law and her need to keep her people safe and help her
people which may not involve going through all the proper channels. She has
some wonderful family connections that are fraught on some levels but deep and
abiding on others and, in all, I just wish there were more of her. Rule I’m less enamoured with – he’s not a
complex character, but then I think that’s less a lack of character development
and more the fact he’s not a complex person. He’s loyal to his people, his
clan, his loved ones and his people’s laws, there’s no real conflict there,
none of these ideals really battle each other and he knows what he has to do –
it’s hard sometimes, but there’s never a battle on whether to do a thing.
