The Faithless by C.L. ClarkMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
The second book in this planned trilogy proves to be full of surprises, especially for a reader like me who had expected Clark to follow the Court of Fives fantasy-decolonial playbook pretty closely. But also, the way Clark wrote Luca harked back so much to Helene in An Ember in the Ashes, a very complex character ethnically linked to the colonizers but wanting to do better for her legacy, that I shouldn't have been so surprised by how this book progressed after all. No one ever said decolonization was easy, especially for people like Luca and Touraine, representing both sides and doing their damnedest to push for peace, no matter how difficult it is. Adding to those difficulties, of course, are Luca's uncle, the Balladairan regent who refuses to step aside, and the constant wicked machinations of assorted Balladairan nobles, and the book's general emphasis on the price of magic and how that differs between nations. Touraine has already had to know some of that cost in terms of Qazāli magic, and Balladairan magic, long banned because of its barbaric side, is starting to make a pretty sinister comeback...but perhaps there's no more sinister comeback than the force that rears its ugly head at the very end of this book. So now to wait even longer for Clark to finally come out with Book 3...
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