This sequel to Last Song Before Night is part mystery, part quest, part romance, and wholly enchanting.

Lin Amaristoth is sent from the court as an ambassador-spy to find out if certain highly inconvenient, incapacitating deaths have been caused by magic; and if so, to put an end to the attacks. There is a certain hard irony to the assignment, since she herself is dying of a malady with magical roots. She hasn’t much time to get to the heart of the political maze and find the origin of the malevolence. As she assesses her own life, the strange turns it has taken and all she is losing to death, she begins to sense that there is something much more subtle going on than magical strikes in a cold war. The indicators are nuanced, easy to miss or mistake, but Lin is attentive, and she is looking for a better outcome than “I blow up you, before you blow up me.” Seeking, will she find? Finding, can she persuade anyone to listen to her?

Myer is not imitating Tolkien’s high, archaic language, yet she transports you to another world just as deftly and completely. Her imagery, and the music underlying the words, induces a sort of rapture. This is the kind of storytelling that, as you read, causes your soul to expand. ~~ Chris Wozney

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