***100 Days of Summer 2023***
Reading prompt: Book with a dog on the cover
Virtual 12 sided dice roll: 8
A lot of things shift in this book. The First Lord has to do something drastic. Tavi (or maybe I should refer to him as Octavian now?) learns his heritage, reaches his full growth, and figures out just how difficult adulting can be. Bernard and Amara have their loyalty stretched to its limits. Isana has to relinquish her most deeply guarded secret.
Butcher has cleverly plotted this volume, giving out problems left and right, then providing clever ways around or through said problems. Some of the solutions you can predict, others are less obvious. Thankfully, he is still able to surprise readers.
One of the high spots for me was the oceanic encounter with the leviathans. The creatures themselves were an inspired creation, being so huge, wild, and uncontrollable. The uncertainty of that adventure kept me reading frantically. Isana was amazing! Punching a shark away with her water fury! Following that remarkable incident, I have come to wonder if she has far more power than she has allowed herself to believe. Excessive power could have drawn attention to her little steadholt and to her family that she just didn't want.
Two books in the series remain. One in which Tavi can get the Canim back to their own lands and one in which he can consolidate what he has set up in this book. And we still have the unresolved question of where Lady Aquitaine has disappeared to and what repercussions Marcus/Fidelius will face for his disobedience. Plenty of issues for two more books.
Book number 490 of my Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Project
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