Two years ago, Csorwe and Shuthmili defied the wizard Belthandros Sethennai and stole his gauntlets. The gauntlets have made Shuthmili extraordinarily powerful, but they’re beginning to take a sinister toll on her. She and Csorwe travel to a distant world to discover how to use the gauntlets safely, but when an old enemy arrives on the scene, Shuthmili finds herself torn between clinging to her humanity and embracing eldritch power.
Meanwhile, Tal Charossa returns to Tlaanthothe to find that Sethennai has gone missing. As well as being a wizard of unimaginable power, Sethennai is Tal’s old boss and former lover, and Tal wants nothing to do with him. When a magical catastrophe befalls the city, Tal tries to run rather than face his past, but soon learns that something even worse may lurk in the future. Throughout the worlds of the Echo Maze, fragments of an undead goddess begin to awaken, and not all confrontations can be put off forever…
Back when I still gave book star ratings on Goodreads, I gave The Unspoken Name three stars, which I now find a little puzzling. My fondness for that book has definitely grown in hindsight, and this delightful conclusion to the duology definitely makes me feel even more affectionate towards what A.K. Larkwood has created here.
Simply put, these books are funny, creative, adventurous romps. Larkwood clearly has an incredible imagination and both books feature awesome elements of magic, fantastic settings and exciting “set pieces,” for lack of a better word. Here I loved the descriptions of the living forest and the Lignite Citadel just as much as I loved the vivid descriptions in the first book. Everything meant to be ancient and alien and esoteric truly feels that way, which I think is admirable.
Tal was also a standout part of reading The Unspoken Name – he’s a bitchy and hilarious mess of a person. Everything that I enjoyed about his character in the first book is expanded upon here, and he goes through some excellent development to overcome his relationship with Sethennai, find love and purpose, and bond with a child who is perhaps his only match in disastrousness and delightfulness. His burgeoning grudging care for Tsereg and eventual happy ending were probably my favorite parts of this book.
I was less fond of Csorwe in the first book, particularly in the context of her relationship with Shuthmili; I found her somewhat too passive and thought the build-up to the drastic choices that Cswore and Shuthmili made didn’t feel convincing enough. I’m wondering if I would feel the same way upon a reread or if some of these dynamics changed in The Thousand Eyes, because I enjoyed Csorwe’s part of the story and her love with Shuthmili much more this time around.
My only real critique is that it feels just a little ridiculous and repetitive that Shuthmili, Csorwe, Tsereg and Sethennai all end up being possessed by gods. That being said, I like that they all have different ways of dealing with this and interacting with their gods. In particular, the goddess Zinandour’s relationship with Shuthmili is fascinating because of the strange kind of affection present, how the goddess is changed by it and the ultimate resolution of their merging.
All in all, my appreciation for this duology has only grown with time. It’s a unique delight and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
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