I’m not the optimal reader for this fifteenth book of a series, because I have not read any previous stories set in this world. Still, I should be able to jump in, pick up a sense of the place and characters, and run with the plot. Unfortunately, that really didn’t happen with CAST IN WISDOM. Fans of the series are no doubt delighted to get another adventure with the cast.
The first two chapters are full of characters in a palace bravely having conversations to catch everyone up on the past few books. More names than you need to know pass by, and sometimes the cast are saying that they don’t know what someone’s brother was doing in that place before he got killed. So there are dead ends. We move out and get on with an adventure, which is where I would have started if I were the author.
A few companions explore the city of Elantra and the borderlands, which have sentient Towers that guard against incursions. Good idea in a fantasy realm that has known war. Kaylin Nera is a ground Hawk, an officer of the civil guard to keep the peace. Along with Bellusdeo, her immortal Dragon shapeshifter companion, she goes to an outlying fief. Now, we’ve just learned that Bellusdeo is the last remaining female dragon, and if she dies there will not be any more dragons. Why she is being sent/let go to places of danger baffles me. The other companion is a person called Severn, and Kaylin has a winged little familiar called Hope.
The group discovers a strange building with no door or window, something like a tomb, and manages to find a magic way in, so of course they enter, and then can’t find a way out. This deceptive building features again in this story. The general threat is from a Shadow influence which may be trying to enter this realm of the Barrani people. Other characters met include Lannagaros and Maggaron. I was glad that not everyone who was discussed earlier showed up, given that I had to piece together locations and politics as I went. The battle comes later.
Overall, the author Michelle Sagara seems well able to bury her head in her fantasy and keep generating stories with ongoing characters. I would suggest that at this point, she might consider writing something more standalone, rather than trying to tie every previous book in the Chronicles of Elantra series to the next one.
SOMETHING IS WAKINGThe fiefs that exist at the heart of the city of Elantra are home to sentient Towers that guard the world against the incursion of Shadow. But between the fiefs exists the gray world of the border zone. In it, geography changes between one passage across a border and the next. The rules of magic are different there—and yet somehow familiar to Kaylin Neya.When a Shadow escapes, Kaylin must find out how…and why. If Shadows can breach the barrier erected by the Towers, the whole of Elantra will be devoured. It’s happened on other worlds. Bellusdeo, Kaylin’s Dragon companion, absolutely believes it can happen on theirs.The border zone holds secrets and ancient histories, and people are gathering there in search of its power. Without even understanding what that power is, or why it exists, Kaylin is in a desperate race against time to find those secrets first. She doesn’t know who her enemies are. She doesn’t know how many she’ll face. But she won’t face them alone.
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