Having already been introduced to this world, I was particularly thrilled with the setting of Dumbang for this story, a confusing maze of swamp, floating islands, and deadly creatures. To do this, she returns to her childhood home of Dumbang. She has a specific number of days to complete this, all overseen by two witnesses, the grumbly, but deadly Kossal, and the bright, complicated Ela. We meet Pyrre at the cusp of her journey to become a full priestess of Anashael, wherein she must complete her final trial, killing ten types of individuals all listed in an ancient song of the order. And if that sounds morbid, well, Pyrre, and Staveley, have much to say on the subject. But, lo and behold, this book blew me away, setting all of those concerns to rest and reminding me just how much I’ve been craving good, standalone fantasy fiction.ĭeath is at the center of the story. Sure, Pyrre was great in her supporting role, but she at times came across as unbeatable, and thus having no conflict, and, while we got into a few of the details of her religion in those first books, it also seemed like its seemingly callous philosophy would present a challenge to creating a sympathetic main character. When I heard that he was writing a spin-off (prequel?) that centered around this character’s origin story, essentially, I was a bit skeptical. Review: Readers first met Pyrre in Staveley’s debut trilogy, “Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne,” the badass assassin whose religious order, the Skullsworn, worship the deity of death, Anashael. Pyrre’s not afraid to die, but she hates to quit, hates to fail, and so, with a month before her trial begins, she returns to the city of her birth, the place where she long ago offered an abusive father to the god and abandoned a battered brother-in the hope of finding love…and ending it on the edge of her sword. If Pyrre fails to find someone to love, or fails to kill that someone, they will give her to the god.
The Priests of Ananshael, however, don’t look kindly on cheaters. If she were a member of a different religious order, a less devoted, disciplined order, she might cheat. Pyrre is not sure she’s ever been in love. To pass her Trial, Pyrre has ten days to kill the ten people enumerated in an ancient song, including “the one you love / who will not come again.” Pyrre has been killing and training to kill, studying with some of the most deadly men and women in the world, since she was eight. At least, she will be a priestess if she manages to pass her final trial. She is not, to her mind, an assassin, not a murderer–she is a priestess.
It fails to capture the faith and grace, the peace and beauty of her devotion to the God of Death.
Book Description: Pyrre Lakatur doesn’t like the word skullsworn.
0 kommentar(er)
