Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor published 8th November 2012
This is one of those sequels that I picked up with some trepidation, having enjoyed the first part so much there is always a nervous apprehension as to whether the brilliance can be maintained. It’s made all the more so with a novel which felt like such a breath of fresh air, such a vibrant and new voice, there is always the danger that as the narrative continues the more derivative the writing might become. I’ve had some success with series reading already this year like the Patrick Ness trilogy which held me powerfully gripped with every word. However, I’ve also had a couple of disappointments; the second part of Deborah Harkness’ series which began so explosively with A Discovery of Witches (a book so addictive I had to take it with me in the bath/on the bus/in 5 minute breaks in meetings etc.) was relatively lack-lustre and too often turned to cliche.
With her first novel, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor accomplished that rare feat of walking a tightrope between fantasy and reality maintaining the integrity of both. Whilst her sequel moves much more squarely into the world of her fantasy creations she never loses the humanity of her characters and manages to maintain the fiction of Chimerical invention with barely a moment of incongruity. The central drama of the last book, that of the relationship between the (mostly) human girl Karou and the angel Akiva takes a backseat to the unfolding wider world of war-torn destruction and a larger cast of characters peopling both of their worlds. Nevertheless there is enough of the feisty, vulnerable and lonely girl with blue hair and strange tattoos and the beautiful, wounded angel to keep the fans of the first novel reading on.
It is well done, the ‘Two Towers’ of interweaving, mostly separate narratives of Akiva and Karou are both equally involving. I never once found myself wishing to skip ahead or preferring one over the other, there’s a real art to maintaining that level of balance. She similarly keeps an overarching equanimity between the two sides of the landscape of war. Angelic dominion and chimeric survival, both sides see sacrifice, acts of unforgivable brutality, shifting sands of motivation. Even the darkest figures on both sides are allowed some moments of grey interpretation. In a world where souls move like water in and out of bodies forged and shaped by war the truth in faces, in appearance becomes increasingly blurred. It is a really well-worked feature of these novels that a no-one is what they seem when even their bodies might not be their own. It also allows a familiar feeling of growing up, of feeling not at home in your own skin, to be literally realised. There is a peculiar vulnerability in learning to wear a new body, one that in this case you not only grow into but might wake up in as a stranger. It makes it all the more pertinent that conflict changes people and makes them into other, more horrific and monstrous versions of themselves. In wartime the losses are numerous (including loss of self) and there are few real heroes.
This gripping, visceral play with lives, bodies and souls has a strange kind of replication in the angel world. The lives of women are particularly strongly portrayed in this novel and where angels are born as weapons (forged, or made rather than sired) women are more than ever vessels of the state. There is a powerful fear here of the worst kind of de-humanisation of war, that of rape and misogynistic dominion.
As with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I found myself consciously trying to slow down reading this novel to prolong the enjoyment and delay the inevitable feeling of loss at it’s ending. I’m finding myself left with all kinds of questions for the next part and I’ll be tapping my heels in anticipation of the next part. It’s been a highlight of the year to have Laini Taylor’s writing on the market, providing a genuinely innovative addition to the shelves and which effortlessly bridges Fantasy and Fiction markets and which is a tempting lure for young adult readers into the wonders that are waiting in adult Fiction. I’m so in thrall I’m almost tempted to go for blue hair and tattoos… well, almost.
For those of you who haven’t discovered the series yet, here’s a taster trailer to get you intrigued: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKcHWWvPI1I
To Capture the Castle 