As I mentioned in my post about A Fading Sun, I was fortunate enough to receive its sequel, A Rising Moon, to review right around when I was wondering when it would be published. According to Goodreads, A Rising Moon has been out for a couple weeks now, so it’s seems like an appropriate time to share the review I wrote for Booklist.
Remember, in some parts of the world, it’s traditional to give books at the holidays. But don’t be that guy who gives the first book in a series when it has a cliffhanger ending. Or that guy who recommends a book where the sequel isn’t even published yet, and then the trilogy expands to … how many books is A Song of Fire and Ice aiming for now? Oh, seven. (Yes, it was the same guy. Yes, we’re still friends.)
NOTE: There are spoilers here for the first book. Read beyond this line at your own risk.
At the conclusion of A Fading Sun, the Cateni were a conquered but rebelling people, with their mystical leader Voada Moonshadow killed in a battle against the Mundoans, and the Moonshadow spirit searching for Voada’s daughter, Orla. A Rising Moon is the eagerly anticipated sequel, picking up as Orla flees from the aftermath of that battle to the far reaches of Albann Bràghad. In Onglse, she meets Ceanndraoi Greum Red-Hand, the head wizard who both trained Voada and clashed with her. As expected, the Moonshadow spirit joins with Orla, who then follows the Ceanndraoi back to Albann Deas to fight the Mundoans. She quickly proves that she views the war and the Mundoans differently from her mother and the Moonshadow spirits, refusing the wholesale slaughter that they are encouraging. Her stubbornness and idealism put her at risk, with Moonshadow threatening to consume her spirit, just as she has absorbed all of the wizards who have wielded her power in the past. Will she fall to Altan Savas, the Mundoan war leader, as her mother did, or to her own anamacha?