Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4/5 cats
so, yes—i found this book much more satisfying and original than the first volume. for one, i thought the writing was better, but also the themes are darker and truer than those in the first. there’s more tension in this one, as alina ascends into a position of even greater power which separates her from her old life, and complicates her relationship with mal. accustomed to being the more capable of the two, mal is forced to accept that alina has responsibilities that are beyond him, and although he can still be useful to her with his particular skill set, there’s a gap widening between them, despite both their attempts to fight it. mal realizes that he is becoming superfluous—that she might not need him the way she used to. and the realization hurts them both.
most of the book is about power. the loneliness of power, its allure and the the temptation to wield it in the wrong ways, the way power corrupts intentions, becomes addictive, and ultimately isolates the one who holds it….one can kinda see what made the darkling into the darkling, yeah?
and mal can see it, too, as alina changes and grows into her role; she’s no longer the frightened little girl she was, but he worries she is losing too much of herself and the things that make her special.
He raised his hands as if to plead his case, then dropped them helplessly. “I feel you slipping away from me, and I don’t know how to stop it.”
Tears pricked my eyes. “We’ll find a way,” I said. “We’ll make more time – ”
“It’s not just that. Ever since you View Spoiler », you’ve been different.” My hand strayed to the fetter. View Spoiler »I heard you speaking to Zoya the other day. She was scared, Alina. And you liked it.”
“Maybe I did,” I said, my anger rising. It felt so much better than guilt or shame. “So what? You have no idea what she’s like, what this place has been like for me. The fear, the responsibility—”
“I know that. I know. And I can see the toll it’s taking. But you chose this. You have a purpose. I don’t even know what I’m doing here anymore.”
this book ends with several characters in newly horrible situations, or—you know—dead. but cheer up, because there are also NEW characters, and they’re not just cookie-cutter fantasy archetypes. or maybe they are, and i just don’t read a lot of fantasy, so i don’t know, but i loved tamar and tolya—their bravery and their secrets. and i knoooow everyone’s all about sturmhond in this one—no matter what he is being called at the time, and i liked him, too. he managed to bring humor and cheer to an otherwise pretty bleak plot. but to me, a love triangle is bad enough without making it a square. back off, shippers!
i do like the magic in this book, although sometimes the different kinds of grisha confuse me. squallers?? there are people whose magic is to make wind?? there should be better powers, with farther-reaching application, like “crop-growers” or “volcra-witherers.” ah, but then there would be no need for heroes.
there’s a passage in this book that reminded me of one from The Last Unicorn:
“Then what is magic for?” Prince Lír demanded wildly. “What use is wizardry if it cannot save a unicorn?” He gripped the magician’s shoulder hard, to keep from falling.
Schmedrick did not turn his head. With a touch of sad mockery in his voice, he said, “That’s what heroes are for.”
and here’s the one from this book—which reminds us that in a world full of magic, we do still need our heroes. i don’t think this is spoilery, but i’m sure i will be told if it is. this is also another example that highlights mal’s restlessness and feelings of insecurity—a conversation between alina and nikolai (a new character i won’t say anything about here)
He dropped his hand. “He doesn’t belong here.”
He belongs with me, I wanted to shout. But I knew it wasn’t true. I thought of Mal’s bruised face, of him pacing back and forth like a caged animal, of him spitting blood and beckoning to Eskil for more. Go on. I thought of him holding me in his arms as we crossed the True Sea. The map blurred as my eyes filled with tears.
“Let him go,” said Nikolai.
“Go where? Chasing after some mythical creature that may not even exist? On some impossible quest into mountains crawling with Shu?”
“Alina,” Nikolai said softly. “that’s what heroes do.”
“I don’t want him to be a hero!”
“He can’t change who he is any more than you can stop being Grisha.”
It was an echo of what I’d said only hours ago, but I didn’t want to hear it.
“You don’t care what happens to Mal,” I said angrily. “You just want to get rid of him.”
“If I wanted you to fall out of love with Mal, I’d make him stay here. I’d let him keep soaking his troubles in kvas and acting like a wounded ass. But is this really the life you want for him?”
I took a shaky breath. It wasn’t. I knew that. Mal was miserable here. He’d been suffering since the moment we arrived, but I had refused to see it. I’d railed at him for wanting me to be something I couldn’t, and all the while, I’d demanded the same thing from him. I brushed the tears from my cheeks. There was no point in arguing with Nikolai. Mal had been a soldier. He wanted purpose. Here it was, if I would just let him take it.
i just realized that both of these passages involve alina crying, which is a little misleading. yeah, she cries a lot—she’s going through a lot of shit here. but she’s also learning to grow into her role in terms of her emotional armor—assuming the public face of her power, suppressing her humanity to become a leader worthy of respect.
I bit down hard on my lip to silence the sob that shook my my chest. That’s good, I thought as the tears spilled over. That way the servants won’t hear.
and it’s a tough transition, but an important lesson about the sacrifices that have to be made to attain and hold power—the mask that needs to be maintained.
a tough lesson, but education is never a waste, indeed.
so, yeah—much better than the first one, and i am looking forward to the third, despite the warnings people have given me. and i do want more darkling, who was used all-too-sparingly (albeit effectively) here.
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