This book by Sherwood Smith spends 500 pages leading up to a big battle that barely gets started before one side just gives up and goes home.
For the most part, I really enjoyed this sequel to The Fox, except for the end.
Inda has finally made his way back home and been reunited with his friends and his sister. He even gets to see his parents again — although that doesn’t happen until the very end, and his dad is so far gone and it’s not clear how much of what’s happening registers with him.
We get to see his interactions with Evred, Cherrystripe, and even Tdor, who, yes, is still is fianceé.
I know we’re supposed to cheer for Inda, but throughout this book, there were times he was so oblivious as to be hurtful to those around him, and I would find myself thinking, “Wait, why are we cheering for this asshole?”
As an example, Tau and Jeje accompany him home to make sure he stays safe. Despite everything he’s been through, they seem to think he has managed to hold onto some small bit of naiveté that makes him vulnerable, and so he needs to be protected.
I’m not sure how anyone can remain naive after everything Inda has been through. Either way, it becomes pretty clear once Inda is reunited with his friends that he’ll be fine.
So Jeje jumps ship (figuratively, since they’re on land at this point) pretty quick and heads off to find some long-lost family members, but for whatever reason, Tau decides to stay with Inda.
When they show up, someone sees Tau and immediately assumes he’s Inda’s Runner (i.e. personal assistant.) I was waiting for Tau to correct them, but he’s smarter than I am and has absolutely no vanity. He quickly realizes that the Runners know everything that’s going on because they are literally running around with messages back and forth between the nobles. When they’re not doing that, they’re waiting in the shadows until their noble needs something from them.
So Tau becomes Inda’s servant and Inda has no problem with this and doesn’t try to explain that Tau is a friend, not a servant. What an asshole!
What confused me about Evred’s relationship to Inda is that everyone except Inda can see how strong Evred’s feelings for Inda are, as well as how dangerous that can be if those feelings aren’t returned (which they won’t be, because Inda doesn’t swing that way.)
I just couldn’t figure out how Evred could think he was in love with someone he hasn’t seen for almost a decade. They were kids when they last saw each other. It’s one thing to have a childhood crush, but if that crush solidifies into love over the course of nine years without any contact whatsoever, is that romance or an unhealthy obsession?
I’m inclined to think it’s more likely to be an unhealthy obsession, especially since Inda has been through so much Evred can’t possibly know the man he’s grown into. He’s just in love with the idea of Inda he’s held in his head for the past nine years. Just like Inda has always thought of Tdor as the child she was when she last saw him, but of course she’s grown into a woman … who is also still in love with Inda somehow?
Anyway, aside from all the weird interpersonal relationships, the main action of this book is leading up to the Venn invading from the north and west. Inda went home to warn Evred about the invasion, so they gather as many men as they can and head north as quickly as they can, hoping against hope to get there before the Venn do.
They don’t quite make it, and they have to use some magic to divide their forces so they can meet in the middle of the Andahi Pass to cut off the Venn army.
They fight for a day or two, then the Venn get word that the king has died, so they have to go back home to deal with succession. They have a very awkward meeting with Evred and Inda in which they explain their reasons for leaving. It’s not clear, but it doesn’t seem like they’re surrendering. They’re just … leaving.
It was so anticlimactic I wanted to throw the book across the room.
All that buildup. All those characters dead. For nothing?
To be clear, it’s not like the characters don’t understand how fucked up it is. Durasnir, the one charged with relaying the news that they’re heading out, is disgusted by the waste of lives, not to mention time, money, and resources, all so Prince Rajnir could play king. He’s especially disgusted when he realizes (although it’s never spelled out, because it’s one of those things that can’t be explicitly stated) that Erkric arranged all of this and knew it was all a lost cause when he started. He had no intention of taking over the country, and in fact, it’s heavily implied he was responsible for the king’s death.
I know there’s only one more book in this series, but I would be tempted to skip it and leave these characters here if it weren’t for the fact that a) it’s still unclear whether the Venn are going to try to invade again next year (maybe for real this time?) and b) the book ends with Tau getting a message from Jeje that she’s found his mom. She didn’t say anything to him before she left, but she was asking questions of some of the Marlovans that implied she things Tau might be descended from royalty, and I have to know what happens there!