A solid follow up!
The story takes place in a unique fantasy world, in which magic consists in harnessing the “intelligences” of various creatures to do the wizard’s bidding (sounds a lot like AI, really–and interestingly, the afterword mentions that Rob’s character is actually based on Alexander Graham Bell, while McKenna is based on his wife. So in fact, magic does = technology here). At the same time, humanity is threatened by the race of the Aesir, a more powerful magical race that thrives in the cold (the colder, the better) and hibernates for up to a hundred years at a time. They can also inhabit living human bodies though–which turns out to be the primary conflict in this story, though the concept was introduced in the last one.
McKenna might be a semblance, ever since her near-drowning experience in the previous book. But she isn’t just any semblance–she seems to be inhabited by Aesir royalty. Unfortunately the way the humans deal with semblances, since they can take over the human to do their bidding at any time, is just to kill them. When Rob (and McKenna’s family) realize this, they all close ranks to try to protect her, but will they be able to do so? And is she actually a threat? The military is in a bit of a quandary, since Rob’s magical inventions are critical to them, and yet his wife is a threat.
The book ends on a cliffhanger, but apparently the next installment is coming in just a few months!
My rating: ****
Language: none
Sexual content: none
Violence: fantasy only
Political content: none
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