![]() If the first installment was a hair-raising road-trip/hardscrabble survival tale, this one is a proper court intrigue laced with looming social revolution, cryptic religious prophecies, and a fair amount of gore. In a world where the dead gods may be reincarnated and every caste has witches and Birthrights, inequality and prejudices nevertheless fester, albeit along caste and class lines (rather than explicitly racial ones). ![]() Familiar with death, decay, and discrimination, Fie is a refreshingly earthy and grimly determined protagonist with borrowed powers but innate pugnaciousness romance clashes with her self-reliance. When Rhusana interrupts Fie’s too-brief reunion with Jasimir and Tavin (his half brother, a royal bastard, and Fie’s love interest) via gruesome zombielike skin-ghasts and new mind-control magic, Fie goes solo. ![]() ![]() Fierce young Fie, now a chieftain, and her Crows already delivered Prince Jasimir to safety once, but their promised protection-from daily abuse and nighttime Oleander Gentry raids-is threatened again by Queen Rhusana’s ruthless rise to power. Unlike the 11 other bird-named castes of Sabor, only the Crows can handle the Sinner’s Plague victims, dispatching fatal “mercy,” handling corpses, and taking teeth as payment, yet they are reviled. ![]() Plague and power struggles continue to ravage a kingdom in this sequel to 2019’s The Merciful Crow. ![]()
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