Reviews

The Tainted by Glenda Larke

lian_tanner's review against another edition

4.0

Four and a half stars. This is such an excellent trilogy, and it's really nice to have found another fantasy author I love. Larke continues to address interesting questions in this book, particularly the two tiered society that magic creates so easily. Her writing reminds me of Robin Hobb - the character development is superb, the world building excellent, and the series comes to a very satisfying conclusion. More Glenda Larke books, please!

ireadthebooks's review

3.0

Spoiler

At the end of book 2, after Gilfeather killed Morthred, everyone was shocked to find people falling out of the sky – people who had only moments before been sentient Dustel birds, suddenly released from Morthred’s spell. Dustels across the Isles of Glory are now human – but having been born as birds, they can’t walk, talk, recognize one another, or communicate as humans. Some are driven out of their minds with fear, while others succumb to the elements they don’t know how to protect themselves from. I thought this was extremely well thought out on Larke’s part. Just because they can understand human doesn’t mean they’re able to make a seamless transition to being a human. Ruarth is constantly missing the ability to fly, even forgetting and trying to fly when he’s distressed. Ruarth’s constant references to not being able to tuck his head under his wing, staring at his feet, or having to remember he can move his eyes without moving his whole head reinforce the idea that the Dustels are no longer humans in a bird’s body, but have become birds in a human’s body.

Our favorite Dustel Ruarth did manage to get to a safe place on board Flame’s ship before Gilfeather’s killing stroke. Flame is almost completely overtaken by dunmagic, being continually subverted by the unborn child of Morthred she carries. She is determined to go back to the Bastionlord and convince him to marry her, and then by using her magic, convince him the child she carries is his, so that he can rise to power and rule the Isles of Glory. Ruarth wants to protect her long enough for Gilfeather to find a cure, and in rare moments of lucidity, Flame begs him for her own death. My heart broke for Ruarth throughout the book, because subverted-Flame mocks him, threatens him, and promises to kill him, and he knows that even if they cure her, even if they succeed, she’ll never be able to live with all that she’s done and all that she’s said. He wants to save her even if it means that he can’t be with her, and knowing they’ve spend decades as friends and would-be lovers and now that they’re finally both the same SPECIES but it won’t work out? Augh the FEELS.

The Tainted introduces two new narrators: one is our framework narrator, the former love interest of the ethnographer who conducted the interviews we’re reading as the story. Having secretly read the unedited interviews, she’s determined to meet Blaze, whose life of freedom and choice is so different from her own life of stuffed up propriety and restriction. The second narrator is a young man named Elarn, a young man and slyvtalent who works as a tiderunner (sort of a kayak-based message carrier but way cooler) between his home island and the Keeper Hub. Elarn gets caught up with Gilfeather and Tor Ryder, who have been studying Awarefolk and slyvtalents to see how magic is passed genetically in order to isolate a “cure” for magic so that they can save Flame and anyone else subverted by dunmagick. Larke weaves in character discussions from previous books regarding the Menod belief system and the precarious political relationships between the Isles and the Keepers who regulate them. One thing Larke handled well was the relationship between the characters who believed in so many different things. Ryder had his opinions, as did Blaze and Gilfeather, but they all got along and respected one another.

The ending was exciting, and the Isles of Glory have been forever shaken by the actions of our half-dozen heroes. The framework narration by the girlfriend and Blaze in flashbacks explains the Change and ties up all the loose ends. Still, there were several characters who I thought would die but didn’t, making me think that maybe Larke just couldn’t bear to kill them off after three books. Still, I was satisfied with the way she resolved the plot and the relationships and especially the Change, which was ambiguous right up until the end.

I didn’t care for the cover for this one, simply because Blaze isn’t around quite as much in this book and burning pirate ships, while visually exciting, are not indicative of the plot overall. Of course, I could say the same for Flame being the cover character for Gilfeather, while holding a sword which I don’t recall her doing often, but really that is all more the publisher’s fault. Ms. Larke told me that she’s hoping to get these released as e-books soon, so maybe that will come with a cover revamp. ;)

All in all, 3 stars for an excellent conclusion to a series I really liked! I’ll be spreading the word about this one for sure.