Book 3 and conclusion of the Elemental Trilogy. This was a perfectly fine read and there were a few gotcha moments in the plot, but in general it felt like a neverending chase between the ubervillain and the plucky heroes, in which things were barrelling so inevitably towards the conclusion that you wished they would just get on with it already. All in all, there were enough plot twists and emotional highs to make it a satisfying ending to the series.
Tag: author-sherry thomas
The Perilous Sea, by Sherry Thomas
This sequel to The Burning Sky opens with both protagonists awakening in the middle of the desert, without memories. They come together and cooperate for survival, their impromptu alliance helped by the fact that an entire army seems to be after them. The narration then swings back and forth between past and present, as events catch up to how they got there. Although the desert interludes were thrilling, I don’t think they added much to the story; most of the meat of the book were the “past” bits, which were tense and engaging enough on their own. The second book does a little more interrogation of the logic behind Titus’ unswerving dedication to his mother’s book of prophecies, and the pitfalls therein, which I particularly enjoyed.
The Burning Sky, by Sherry Thomas
Solid YA fantasy, refreshing gender twists. Heroine Iolanthe ignores her guardian and puts on a showy display of magic, which immediately makes her a target of the dictator-king’s secret police. She is rescued by an exiled prince, who has been preparing for the appearance of a prophesied elemental mage. Undeterred by her gender, he promptly installs her in the spot which he’d prepared for a fellow student in the decidedly nonmagical and male-only Eton, and proceeds to train her in magical skill and combat. Solid series beginning, and I like how the main characters approach each other as equals despite their differences in gender, rank, and magical power.
A Study in Scarlet Women, by Sherry Thomas
Nominally a take on the Sherlock story: under pressure to behave as a young woman of society, brilliant Charlotte Holmes uses the persona of Sherlock to solve mysteries and investigate suspicious deaths. I liked the pointed critique of the gender imbalance of the era, and how a woman would have had to jump through many more hoops to get the same kind of automatic respect and freedom that Holmes and Watson had; however, I found the rest of the plot rather contrived and thought it was unfortunate that for all her brilliance, Charlotte’s intuition was not essential to the resolution of the conflict.