The Edge of Worlds

Things I really like:
*The amazing and original worldbuilding, especially the wide variety of sentient (and non-sentient) species.
*The diversity in character development this allows, including casually treated polyamory and bisexuality (although those may not be quite the right words for a species with such different procreation and childrearing practices)
*Specifically in this book, I like the added touches of character development for Moon and Jade as we see what it does and does not mean for them to be parents now, and the new character Rorra, who turned out to be one of my new favorites.
I also really liked seeing more of the Fell/Raksura crossbreeds, especially this new queen. I am really intrigued to see where things go with her show more (and am hopeful that the Fell's breeding experiments end up backfiring on them as she becomes another ally of the Raksura instead).

What I didn't like as much: a lot of this book felt like it was moving very slowly. There's a lot of sailing around without really knowing what's going on. Yes, we get character development throughout, but the A-plot is pretty ponderous and only really picks up in the last quarter of the book. Also, I really could have lived without the cliffhanger at the end. I am terrible at waiting years for resolution!

In general, though, this is another solid novel of the Raksura, and I will be looking forward to the next book in this series.

I received a copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways, which encourages recipients to provide an honest review - thanks to the publisher for the free copy! show less

A team of Raksura from Indigo Cloud join a group of groundlings on an expedition to an abandoned, ancient city. I read the first three Raksura books within three days, so I was expecting to also read this book quickly. Instead it took me a couple of weeks. Too much travelling and scenery, not enough interpersonal drama or immediate danger.

Most of the story is from Moon’s point of view and he’s in a much more emotionally-secure place than he was, so there isn’t a source of emotional intensity which the previous books had. I wonder if this story would have worked better had it focused on one of the other Raksura.

However, the final third is utterly compelling -- and inconclusive, but I was able to dive straight away into the sequel show more and that is very satisfying, so I’m not inclined to complain.

Moon decided he was going to take drastic action. He stumbled a little, then shifted to his groundling form and collapsed. Jade caught him with a startled hiss, and Moon went limp. It wasn’t difficult. [...]
He heard the others trailing after her, then Chime asked worriedly, “Is he all right?”
“Yes,”Jade said, her voice tired but dry. “I was particularly impressed by how he rolled his eyes back in his head before he fell over.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” Moon said under his breath. show less

In the fourth full-length installment of the Books of the Raksura, Moon and his companions journey with a group of groundlings to an ancient abandoned city that may or may not have been built by forerunners, the common ancestor of both the Raksura and their enemy, the Fell. I felt that this was the weakest book of the series that I have read so far. The pace dragged through the first three quarters of the book, as the characters were mainly concerned with getting from point A to point B with not much happening along the way. It didn't help that the basic plot (journey to an ancient forerunner city) was similar to that of the third book, making me feel that I'd read all this before. Also, Moon's role in the series has changed. The first show more three books were concerned with Moon trying to adjust to his new life as a Raksuran consort, but by now, that's not really a concern, and the interactions between the Raksuran characters in this installment were not that interesting. I was expecting some conflict with River, but even that didn't really happen. Then, the book ended on a cliffhanger, my least favourite type of ending!

That said, I still love these characters and this world, and I was happy to read this book, especially after the pace picked up and things got a lot more exciting in the last several chapters. It was interesting to get a few differnet viewpoints other than Moon's, and I was especially glad to see Shade and Lithe again. Wells's world-building is still terrific, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. show less

An expedition of groundlings from the Empire of Kish [...] have found a sealed ancient city at the edge of the shallow seas, near the deeps of the impassable Ocean. They believe it to be the last home of their ancestors and ask for help getting inside. But the Raksura fear it was built by their own distant ancestors, the Forerunners, and the last sealed Forerunner city they encountered was a prison for an unstoppable evil." There's a prophesy about great evil being about to happen. "A small group of warriors, including consort Moon, an orphan new to the colony and the Raksura’s idea of family, and sister queen Jade, agree to go with the groundling expedition to investigate. But the predatory Fell have found the city too, ..." Things show more felt like they went a little off the rails for this one and also like there was maybe a less cohesive plot. I also cared less about the relationships. show less

This one is not as good as the previous. For the first two thirds of the book, it is essentially the same plot as the second book but with less interesting settings. The end was exciting, but the action resolution and cliffhanger were not satisfying at all. (We switched to River's point of view, I thought we were going to get a dramatic rescue from him and Rorra, or at least an interesting part to play. Or a mistaken use of a fire weapon accidentally starting a bloodbath. That thread led nowhere.)

2.5 stars rounded up.

You know it's a good book when you suddenly reach the end without realizing it and starting shouting a string of profanity because there isn't more to read. Then another string of profanity when you look up the next book and find it doesn't come out for another two months.

The Edge of Worlds is the fourth book in Martha Well’s amazingly inventive Raksura series, which starts with The Cloud Roads. This is a world without humans, and most of the cast are scaled shape shifters. I would suggest starting from the beginning of the series, to get better handle on the wide number of characters making an appearance in The Edge of Worlds.

The story opens with everyone in Indigo Cloud sharing a dream of the Fell attacking the court. When a sky-ship of strange groundlings arrive, looking for raksura to accompany them to an ancient city, the court realizes that this may be the key to preventing the danger foreseen by the dream.

Over the last three books, I’ve really grown to love this series, more so than I could show more possibly have imagined when I first read The Cloud Roads. At this point I’m just so fond of these characters. The issues I had early on with remembering who is who have mostly vanished, although I will still occasionally mix up the names of some of the minor characters. Now there’s so many I love, from Moon and Jade, to Chime and Stone, to Shade and Malachite.

If you’ve ever heard me talk about this series before, it’s probably involved me singing praises to the world building. The Three Worlds is unlike any other fantasy world I’ve ever encountered. It’s wildly imaginative and beautifully depicted.

The actual plot line of The Edge of Worlds did drag some, particularly since it involved so much traveling from Point A to Point B. I also want to note that the story doesn’t wrap up within this book and that the ending was left wide open for a sequel. But the reason I read these books is for the world and characters, who had some pretty good dialog in this installment:

“We could kill them,” Stone suggested, not helpfully.
It would have been a tense moment, except Heart sighed impatiently and said, “Like-grandfather, not in front of company.”
Delin lifted a hand. “I know Stone is merely stimulating discussion.”
Pearl eyed Stone and lifted her spines. “Perhaps Stone could stop doing that.”

I wouldn’t suggest The Edge of Worlds as a start to the series (I think you need to be familiar with the characters going in), but I think those who are already fans of the raksura will enjoy it. And if you’ve never had the pleasure of venturing into the Three Worlds, I highly suggest The Cloud Roads.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page. show less