Alison Sinclair - Lightborn

Lightborn is a solid sequel to Darkborn, picking up immediately after the first book ended. It continues the series with Sinclair's excellent wordcraft and dazzling world building undiminished. The story is well paced, appreciably convoluted and unexpected, and is highly recommended. In contradiction to the editorial review I didn't find the book a particularly difficult read, just one targetted at a mature reader rather than the burgeoning young adult genre (which I personally appreciate); no need to understand whatever "stiff regency prose" is to understand the book. As with the first novel, Sinclair uses multiple points of view to tell the story: Telmaine continues to be the central figure, joined by the previously mentioned Floria White Hand and two new lightborn characters, the Prince and a mage. The new characters shift the focus to court politics and intrigue and the book centers around unravelling the assassination of the previous Prince and searching for the elusive Shadowborn. The most notable concern is the lack of a clearly defined plot arc. Lightborn suffers from the classic dilemma of a middle novel; it expends its energy continuing the plotlines of the first book while struggling to introduce its own, and never really provides a resolution to any of them. Sinclair is a solid writer with good pacing and storycrafting, so I'm confident these will be tied up well in Shadowborn (the final book of the trilogy) but the sudden, unsatisfying ending - signalled, it feels, only by a page count - is something a reader should be prepared for. Similarly, Telmaine's love interests - her husband Balthasar and the tempting Ishmael - are regretably absent; their presence is limited to a single brief conversation and vague references of action elsewhere (presumably to be narrated in the next book). This unfortunately removes any hint of romance - and the resultant tension and plot - from Lightborn. I felt Telmaine's struggle between her good-but-dull husband and exciting-but-scandalous new friend really helped define the evolution of her character in the first book, and the lack seems to leave her a bit diminished in this one. Finally, Floria - while an interesting character due to her actions and role - feels distressingly flat. Her motivations and history are glossed over, shocking in the face of her almost fanatic loyalty. This is really more of a personal gripe, but I love her position as a contrast to Telmaine - a rival for affection that could never be a mistress, a warrior rather than a lady, and so forth - and it was really disappointing not to learn much about her personality. Overall, the absence of personal dramas, and shifted focus on court intrigues, makes Lightborn a much more epic novel than the first, with characters caught up in the action more than instigating it. Despite my grumbles it really is a good book in a great series, and as with the last I think the setting is enough to make the novel worth reading to any fan of fantasy - it details the unique role of the mages and the lightborn court in as complete and logical a way as seen in Darkborn.