Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Fevered Star

New settings and a few new characters, but a bit of middle-book syndrome here as not much advances between the principal characters - felt like the players were being moved around to set the stage for the final volume. As always, the magic system and the world-building as well as the nuanced characters made this an outstanding read / listen - I both read it and listened to the great audiobook production, with Cara Gee’s Naranpa a real stand-out.

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aardwyrm's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The worldbuilding and magic really make this series. Everything is just unabashedly cool. Giant birds, scary people who can turn into murders of crows, spooky dream powers. Some of the characters are more engaging than others (Naranpa is somehow more of a drip than ever) and there's a touch of second book slump, but the good is worth coming back for.

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thereadingskeleton's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thank you to B2Weird Book Club and Saga Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review and promotion. All opinions are my own.

Rep: Indigenous/Native-coded cast, blind MC, bi MC, queer MC, nonbinary SC (non-POV but important character), other queer characters

When I read Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse last year, it was an instant favorite. So many great characters. So much rich, vibrant description. So many twists and turns. Not to mention queer as hell. It was simply phenomenal.

I’m happy to report that the sequel, Fevered Star, is also phenomenal! I know that many people disliked Naranpa in the first book, and although I didn’t, I understand their reasoning. That being said, this is Nara’s book. She is the star, and she absolutely shines. In this book, Nara gets the chance to grow in a way she didn’t in Black Sun. Her chapters were my favorites, and I’m extremely interested to see where she goes from here.

On the flipside, I feel like Xiala—who was my favorite character in Black Sun—really let me down in this sequel. Her growth completely stagnates, and all she does is mope about not being with Serapio. Yes, she’s dealing with grief and trauma over the ending events of Black Sun, but her behavior was so frustrating to me.

I think part of the issue with Xiala’s arc is that this is, for better or worse, a middle book, and it has the hallmarks of one. There’s a lot of setting up for the final book in the trilogy, and that occurs to the detriment of some of the characters.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel and will be snatching up the next one as soon as it’s released. I especially recommend the audiobook (narrated by Christian Barillas, Darrell Dennis, Cara Gee, Nicole Lewis, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett)!

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dreareads_'s review

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adventurous dark tense

4.5

"Too much darkness destroys as easily as too much light. We must see the balance between us"

Okay, I should note that Black Sun is one of my favorite books of all time, just the perfect start to an epic fantasy/sci-fi trilogy.

The sequel was SO good, but also pretty different in scope. While Black Sun had political intrigue, at its core it was the story of a boy & a girl trying to find/fight their destiny. In this book Roanhorse puts the political machinations at the forefront of the story. The scope and number of pov's that we get increase, giving us better insight into the plot of the story. We are introduced to many chess pieces that are slowly moved into position before the final book.

Our favorite characters continue to shine, with Iktan just being the best. I enjoyed the complexity of Serapios character, and Naranpas own journey was exciting. I personally was disappointed by Xiala throughout the book, because she felt as if the plot was happening TO her instead of her playing any important part.

Spoiler

also, her being mostly love sick throughout the entire book was really annoying

Some may feel that the pacing was a bit slow, but I think it worked in giving us time to get used to the new characters and learn more from the world. Overall, this is a book meant to prepare us for the final installment and it did its job. I cannot wait for book three and what is sure to be an epic conclusio

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