When it comes to this series, I honestly can’t stop myself from hitting that request button when I see it. I’ve followed it from book one and anticipate every new entry.
As this is the fifth book in this series, I’m going to try my best not to spoil any of the first four, but if you’re new to this series, you may want to stop here, but I’ll leave you a brief review right here: It’s good, and you should read it.
Thanks to the author, as well as DAW via NetGalley for the review copy!
The reign of the kings of Sharakhai has been broken. The blood mage, Queen Meryam, now rules the city along with the descendants of the fabled twelve kings.
In the desert, Çeda has succeeded in breaking the asirim’s curse. Those twisted creatures are now free, but their freedom comes at great cost. Nalamae lies dead, slain in battle with her sister goddess. Çeda, knowing Nalamae would have been reborn on her death, sets out on a quest to find her.
The trail leads Çeda to Sharakhai where, unbeknownst to her, others are searching for Nalamae as well. Çeda’s quest to find her forces her into a terrible decision: work with the kings or risk Sharakhai’s destruction.
Whatever her decision, it won’t be easy. Sharakhai is once more threatened by the forces of the neighboring kingdoms. As the powers of the desert vie for control of the city, Çeda, her allies, and the fallen kings must navigate the shifting fates before the city they love falls to the schemes of the desert gods.
This is the continuing story of Çeda (pronounced Chay-da, if you’re unsure), who has had, it can be said with surety at this point, a grand adventure. She has killed kings, broken curses, and solved a problem or two. Now, after all the cursebreaking, she has to find Nalamae, a goddess who was slain, but reborn upon her death.
This series has gripped me from the very beginning, and this volume is no different. It had me reading well into the wee hours of the morning, wondering what will happen to Çeda and her friends.
I’ve been anticipating this one maybe a bit more than usual because of that thing that happened at the end of the last book aaaahem. (So vague, I know.)
The world of Sharakhai is really well described and easy to imagine. Imagine a huge city surrounded by a desert that giant ships traverse the sands like they were sailing on water. That’s this world. There was always plenty happening from several points of view (because we’re way past just Çeda as a main character at this point). There are some people who think that many points of view like this would be confusing, but since we were introduced to everyone very slowly over four long books, it isn’t at all. Everyone with the exception of one character is someone I was familiar with before this volume. Seeing the story from so many angles gives it a really epic feel that makes it a good long story to dive into.
And it is long. It felt incredibly long at times, but not necessarily in a bad way. There are definitely times that I like to immerse myself in a huge epic story, and this is one huge example of those times.
This was an excellent addition to the series and I still can’t wait for more. This is a series that I have loved thusfar and hope to love until the very end (which is only one more book from now!!!!). 5/5 stars!~
superstardrifter 
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