Seressia Glass

I hate flying. A lot. Though this was a library book, I brought it along on the plane because I thought it would distract me from the thought of a firey crash in a North Dakota cornfield. It turns out, I was both wrong and right; while it did distract me from negative thoughts about flying, part of the reason it worked is that it focused my negative energy on the book.

Glass is still struggling with pacing, and this feels like the process of disembarking a plane: shuffle, shuffle, quick grab show more carry-on, shuffle, dash up the ramp and hustle over to the gate board to find the transfer. Although the book's description focuses on the plot of recovering an artifact and returning it to it's place of origin, the first quarter to third of the book is cleaning up back-story from the first book as well as some origin story. Upon re-reading, the first 30 pages contribute almost nothing for prior readers, with Kira and Khefar each having small bits of dialogue and then doing lots of thinking in between. As a reader, it just wasn't a pace that felt natural to an urban-fantasy that is supposed to focus on chasing evil. Redundant to those of us that read the first book, and redundant to the storyline, it was a section that should have been cut. While I like thinking characters, this was overbalanced into the 'telling' category of narration.

Action starts to take off in London and moves better from there on out. Just like once you've reached the Badlands in your cross-country flight--you know you're over the first bit and are finally making some headway. From London we head to an alternate reality/ another world which feels a little like the plot from The Mummy, and culminates in an Indiana Jones adventure-style ending. As a result, it almost feels like three novellas mashed into a novel. I don't mean to sound like a disgruntled airline passenger, but I'd really prefer my ride a little smoother.

Still, I do like the multi-culti characters and their start at complexity, especially the tumultuous relationship between Kira and her 'mother.' Nansee remains my favorite character, providing the Wise Old Lecherous Man note with aplomb. Near the end, plotting started to feel contrived, as if we were segueing into every flight action movie ever, the one where the elite gang gets together to accomplish some impossible task. Granted, it was more exciting than the Skymall catalog, but I couldn't help thinking it wasn't a far enough step up.

On re-read, several more problems with the writing started to stand out, especially redundancies. Each character continues to be described (past initial introduction) in the same terms. Thus on page 67, when we are meeting Balm, Kira thinks "She wished she could talk to Balm--really talk to Balm as if the head of Gilead truly was her mother, and not the woman who'd become her guardian after her adopted parents dumped her on Gilead's doorstep. She wished she could talk to Balm about the innocent people she'd killed while strung out on Shadow." Never mind that Kira's already had this thought in conversation with her friend Wynne ("Have you forgotten what happened a couple of days ago? I almost killed you and Zoo!") and in conversation with Khefar ("This was all after Kira had been drugged by Shadow and, while out of her mind, killed more than half a dozen innocent people and almost taken out her best friends as well.") Enough, already. Have her think something else, or at least advance beyond repetition.

There's also language redundancy. For instance, in a conversation with Balm, she refers to Kira on every page as "my daughter," "daughter," or "my child." One, it seems inconsistent with the leader of a world-wide organization, as Kira is forever pointing out. Two, it is redundant. Boring! Three, real people don't talk like that unless they have a (pathological) point to make about possession and relationship. Then there's the phrasing seems to come straight from Romance 101: "emotion swirled in her eyes: anger, hurt and abrasive grief."

In retrospect, this is not a book that holds up well. Good for one fast, desperate, distracted read, especially if you don't want to think about turbulence. show less

Kira is back – back from the dead, brought back by Khefar and is now the Hand of Ma'at. With new duties and a new role in life, Kira has much to handle – but first and foremost she has to deal with the death of her handler, mentor and father figure. Now the battle is won she has time to mourn and time to put his affects in order and scatter his ashes.

But under it all she worries about her shadow taint. She took on some of the shadow fighting the fallen and now it is a part of her. A show more devotee of Ma'at, she is painfully aware that her heart is no longer lighter than Ma'at's feather – as well as the harm she did to her friends and innocents while under the shadow's influence

She also has time to explore her relationship with Khefar, the immortal Hand of Isis and the only man she can touch without her powers harming or killing him. But what future is there between them when she has her shadow taint and Khefar is approaching the end of his curse?

Of course the world doesn't wait while Kira balances her life. A chaser has gone missing along with an artefact that could literally destroy the world in the wrong hands – or simply if it is not returned soon. Kira has little time to grieve when she has the world to rescue, ancient Egyptian artifacts to return, a flood that would cover the globe – and the shadow of Set himself rising on behalf of the Shadow.

I love this book – and I was surprised. I expected to like it after the first book, but I didn't expect it to get this much better. But, yes it was a huge step up of an already good start.

I love the world. I love the Egyptian deities – and way beyond the common ones known to many. There's a lot of research here and a lot of information. Beyond that,.t he world itself is wide and broad with many layers and nuances. As part of that this book has a lot of great world building (and hints of more to come). Admittedly, some of this is done in the form of lectures but it never gets dull or to the point of me starting to wanting to snark it. Nor is it ever unrealistic.

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3.5 (rounded down)
This was really cute and I loved the vivid descriptions on how Cam and Kenya designed their projects. However, the romance aspect was not as strong as it should be and the sex scene was written poorly in my opinion. Despite this, the story was overall really heartwarming and a great example of a Black woman navigating and prevailing many different struggles in a predominantly white space, all with a great friend and lover by her side.

You know what's awesome about this book? Kira, the heroine, seems smart enough and knowledgable enough that I can totally buy into the idea that she's an archaeologist. (That's sadly rare for me in PNR/UF.) Ms. Glass not only presents elements of Kira's expertise in a way that demonstrates that she knows what things mean, not just details in isolation, but she also puts it together in a way that shows how those elements are important within the overall story.

That eye for detail is evident in show more pretty much every aspect of this book, from Kira's childhood experiences as a psychometrist in a Normal world to Khefar's interactions with his trickster companion, who added a lovely splash of humor to the story.

I also likes how Kira and Khefar's relationship develops -- there's an attraction and a growing sense of affection and trust and loyalty, but no insta-love, no love triangles, no immediate jumping into bed, no 3-day HEA. It's so refreshing to have romantic leads who 1) focus on the mission and 2) actually take the time to get to know each other.

I really enjoyed reading this and look forward to more by this author.

Favorite quote, a conversation between Kira and Anansi.

"Fighting a seeker demon doesn't freak me out. Having an ancient warrior rise from the dead in my bed doesn't freak me out. But having a demigod in my kitchen making breakfast... and that apron? Yeah, that strains my brain a bit."
"Why?"
"Why?" She blinked at him as he brought the plates over to the table. "You're a god."
"You've met them before. You talk to Ma'at quite often."
How does he know that? "Yeah, but she doesn't come to breakfast."
"Have you invited her?"
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