2008, Orbit
688 pages, Paperback
Personal copy
Fantasy
Cushions: 4/5
Daggers: 4/5
Paperclips: 4/5 (detailed accounts of relationships, not all consenting adults)
Smiles: 1/5
Tissues: 3/5
Yunaleska's recommended rating: ♥♥♥♥
This is what I've been up to the last few days, after work. Reading the second installment in the crossroads series. I warn anyone who doesn't want a spoiler for the first book, Spirit Gate, to stop reading now.
Upon finishing the first book, I read the blurb on the back cover for Shadow Gate. I couldn't believe it. Marit is alive!
Well, alive in one sense of the word. Shadow Gate commences with her story, how she woke up, remembering the feel of the dagger against her when she was murdered. Yet she is now whole, no scar from that fatal encounter. To be honest, it might have been easier if she'd stayed dead. Because she's a Guardian, who doesn't know what a Guardian does. She's one lone Guardian, hiding away from the others with only a winged horse she names Thunder by her side. Thunder can fly, a useful trick when Marit gets ambushed. Yet there is no where in the world Thunder can fly Marit to for sanctuary. It is down to Marit to fight against the corrupt Guardians who no longer have the helpful spirit of those from the past. Her journey takes her a long way, her path crosses that of Cornflower, who is Cornflower no more, but a Guardian set on taking revenge on those who shamed her.
I happily report that Mai and Anji's lives are followed closely, Mai now pregnant has to deal with Anji being away from her for periods of time which seem far to long. Yet he has his purpose, to strengthen the area around them so they can live in relative safety from his half-brother the Emperor's grasp. Mai isn't idle, her task is to see that the rest of Anji's men, now exiles from their homeland, can find wives who won't mind living in a barren land. Countless interviews ensure: there are some families who are just after money. That isn't the kind of community she wishes to build. She needs those with productive skills that can provide for the people in the new settlement, and in time trade with others. This isn't a safe task, there are those who wish to seek her and Anji harm.
It is the reeve Joss who crosses paths with Mai. There's a lot of work to be done, sorting out the reeves after the take-over from the corrupt predecessors. The reeves close to him must aid a new reeve who happily sells herself into slavery to escape the eagle who chose her. One who didn't choose slavery is Shai; but such an act does him good. He sees the error of selling Cornflower for favours, which he did stop when Mai asked him to. He does all he can to protect the child slaves, many of whom are cruelly abused by their masters. Will he be in slavery forever? What can he do to escape Cornflower (who is no longer called Cornflower)'s wrath?
There are so many stories within this epic tale, all have ties woven in and out of each other. I liked watching the story unfold, half-guessing who might cross paths. My favourite character is Mai, and also a new girl who enters Mai's household, Avisha. Every character, both male and female stand out as living, breathing people from the pages. No one is perfect, not even Mai. All have been touched with tragedy, and acts they are ashamed of. Yet this makes them human, and easy to relate to.
Content: there is a fair amount of detailed, bloody fighting in this books. And also more than a sprinkling of adult relationships, not all consenting, and not all with just adults. That is what dropped Shadow Gate to a four star rating for me. I understand the necessity of telling Cornflower's tale, and the crudity which the slave children suffer, but for me it was a little too detailed.
Other than that, I have no other grumbles, and I'm glad there will be a fourth book in this saga, in the land where Guardians are corrupt and feared rather than revered, where eagles bear soldiers and messengers across the sky, where cultures clash and people's lives are changed forever. The story doesn't end here, I'm about to commence Traitor's Gate. Who knows where the characters I've mentioned will end up in that installment.
Kate Elliott's website can be found here.
ISBN: 9781841492971
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