Soldier. Summoner. Saint.The nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Now her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives.
As her allies and enemies race toward war, only Alina stands between her country and a rising tide of darkness that could destroy the world. To win this fight, she must seize a legend’s power―but claiming the firebird may be her ruin.
This is one of those rare series that actually gets better as it progresses. I cannot wait to read Six of Crows (But is that sentence contradictory? Because if I actually could not wait, you’d assume that I’d be reading Six of Crows right now instead of being at my desk, writing this post. Shrugs.)
There was some seriously entertaining dialogue. Examples will follow the colon:
- Everything that came out of Nikolai’s mouth
- Everything that came out of Harshaw’s mouth.
- Mal and Alina’s conversations
- Zoya’s insults
- Tolya’s lovely poetry
I found myself laughing out loud at quite a few of the parts, so much so that I caused disruptions with my unending snickering.
There was an amazing antagonist in this book! The Darkling may be the best antagonist I’ve read in recent history. Bardugo somehow made you despise him and want a happy ending for him at the same time.
Harshaw and Oncat!!!
Favorite character: Nikolai, followed closely by Harshaw, then The Darkling (What did I say about Bardugo and rooting for the antagonist?).
Favorite quote: I am not ruined. I am ruination.
This quote. I love it.
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