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In all other aspects though, Laini Taylor has surpassed my wildest expectations and written a novel that I can claim, in full confidence, that is far, far better than its predecessor. You kill and kill, and at first it’s fulfilling, but then you’re like, “this really isn’t getting me laid the way I thought it would, even though I got these eyes of fire and a dreamy widow’s peak and, like, shawls fulla moth-birds I picked up at Hot Topic. OHMIGOD I CANT W8 I CANT I REALLY CANT AHHHHH OMGOMGOMG THIS IS GOING 2 TAKE 4EVER ND I WANT IT NOW!
Having learned who she really was, and what her world consists of, Karou is clearly not the same young, carefree teenager she once was. Days of Blood and Starlight features a bigger cast of characters in general, with several intriguing personalities introduced on both sides. Bart and I were both listening to the audiobook of these separately (him on his commute, me while I did dishes and laundry and prayed for small children to take reasonable naps) and at the end of the day, we’d quote our favorite bits to each other. From Chicago to New York, London to Beijing, from the museums' wildlife dioramas, from the frozen, snarling mouths of lions and wild dogs, the jaws of Komodo dragon specimens and ball pythons and stuffed Arctic wolves, the girl, the phantom. I immediately picked up the second book because this is one of those series you just can’t put down until you know every possible detail about it.
Akiva tells Karou that he is going to close down the portals between their world and the human world so Jael cannot invade. Or, worse than snoring, as Taylor so beautifully showed in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, he has the capacity in him to commit genocide and kill every one you ever loved. Zuzanah and Mik travel to southern Morocco and risk their lives traveling to a spot in the travel blog that they think Karou might be. Akiva is let in while Joram is bathing and has little trouble killing him, and holding back the other guards.
Because, as we have seen so many times in our real world, the natural compulsion is to answer violence with more of the same, to wreck vengeance, to make the other side feel your pain.Once upon a time, the sky knew the weight of angel armies on the move, and the wind blew infernal with the fire of their wings. But the villagers aren't the only things under the aqueduct, as the eight seraphim have the misfortune to find out. It is such a pleasure to read something about a world that has so much depth to it, to feel like I will never know the full expanse of this world and every wonder it holds.
The uselessness of adhering to the 'eye for an eye' approach to vengeance and violence is repeated over and over and over again. When you add Taylor's solid world building, and fabulous prose to that, we end up with an excellent successor to the first. It's now clear that I got ahead of myself when I thought Hazael and Liraz to be villains in the first book, and looks like they'll probably end-up being amongst the favorites. Both Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight unfold in a sequence of events driven by fate, by destiny, and not entirely by choice, much like our own lives.After he is healed, Ziri tells Karou everything, including how Akiva summoned birds to let the Kirin escape.
During the last couple of the pages, the author did take a considerable leap forward, leaving some huge blank spaces. In this we get more of the other characters and everyone needs Zuzana and Mik even if you don't know you do. Unlike most trilogies which follow in a steady rhythm of romance or action or paranormal mystery, Laini Taylor breaks all imaginary constraints and reveals to us the completely unexpected, for Days of Blood and Starlight is as far removed from its predecessor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, as any novel could possibly be.For once, I’m really happy I didn’t start this series when it first came out because how can you possibly wait a whole year between each new release?
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