Starless

Kind of disappointing, to be honest. I love Carey's Kushiel's Dart series and I was expecting another story with the same sort of epic impact. I think that this story could have been easily stretched out into a trilogy, and I think that's the reason that I found it so difficult to be invested in it. The true action of the story didn't even start until 300-400 pages in. For so much time spent with Khai going through his education and training process, it didn't really seem to have much of an impact on the end of the story. He was a good fighter and he killed a lot :shrug:

This story was missing the same depth that the Kushiel's Dart series has. Everything was too easy. Every step was laid out before the characters and they followed the plan. By the time Khai and Zariya met up with the other defenders, the majority of the prophecy had already been figured out. Nothing went awry. There were no difficult decisions to make or agonize over. Without seeing the characters really overcoming anything, I couldn't find it in myself to care about any of the characters, or the family they built with each other. The characters built bonds with each other, but I didn't feel like a part of that process. Even the villain of the story was kind of lame.

I think the premise of the story was interesting. I would have liked to have seen more of the impact of Miasmus' forces returning. I would have liked to have seen more of the impact of the stars being missing, and then returning. I can't imagine Zariya's family was happy to have lost their long lives so quickly. It was pretty glossed over at the end. I think the story had a lot of potential but in the end I just don't think it was executed well. It's really unfortunate because I consider Carey to be a pretty talented storyteller.

This has some kind of weird pacing problems that you're probably familiar with if you've read Carey before: the first two-thirds are the hero growing up and meeting their soulmate: the last third is a breakneck saving-the-world adventure with a company of heroes.

I dunno who to recommend this to, either. In some ways it feels like you should read this if you liked David Eddings or Raymond Feist, but it has a genderqueer protagonist, which I do not believe is a thing either of those authors would be likely to do. I dunno, man, read it if you're nostalgic for nineties fantasy but want to avoid the suck fairy.

Khai has been raised to be the 'shadow' to the princess Zariya, a kind of warrior/bodyguard/companion. (He's also been raised as a boy without being informed that most boys do not have his anatomy, and is pretty upset when he learns this. Despite being coercively gendered in this way, Khai mostly identifies as male, except when she doesn't.)

There's a thing about how one of the gods is mad and wants to destroy the world, but honestly that's, like, about 10% of this book's draw?

A wonderful story about two persons born in the same moment destined to be "soul twins" and finding their destiny amidst a dire prophecy coming to pass. While I generally do not like a lot of prophetic fore-shadowing JC has never disappointed in her ability to weave this seamlessly into the story. However, this book is dominated so much by prophecy that even with her ability to make it palatable I was a little over it by the end.

The story Khai and Zariya is wonderfully told and I enjoyed every second of it.

Khai raised by desert monks to be a bodyguard to the princess born in the same moment in the shadow of the moon only gets to meet her charge when they are both 16 years old. While Khai is an accomplished fighter by that time the princess has been raised solely in the palace's women's quarters.

As usual JC creates an evocative interesting world, with a fascinating supporting cast.

My main critique is that this book starts out reading like the beginning of a trilogy and then it hurries toward an ending way to quickly from the three quarter mark onward. I wanted to see more of the world, get to know the characters better...