Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White is the epic conclusion to the duology that started with Song of Silver, Flame of Night. This book is sweeping in its story and lyrical in its language with descriptions of powers, gods, and legends. At the heart of all these forces are Zen and Lan, the characters who a reader couldn’t help but to fall in love with. Their relationship is beautiful and painful all at the same time.
The author introduces some new nuances and explanations to the magic system and a few new characters, but all in all, this book really is the conclusion of the paths and journeys initiated in the first book. There are epic battles, heart-breaking decisions, pain, self-sacrifice, and resolutions. This is well-done, high-stakes drama, fantasy, and romance all rolled into one. Yes, epic is definitely the word for this book.
This is a read that is hard to put down and highly recommended, but be sure to start with the first book in the series.
Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy Provided by the Publisher
Content Analysis:
Profanity/Language: 4 mild obscenities; 1 religious profanity; 3 derogatory names; 4 scatological words.
Violence/Gore: Many references to historical acts of violence and to acts of violence in the first book of the series; character uses magic to inflict pain, harm, choking on a subordinate who has displeased him, resulting in splattering of blood and broken bones; character attacked by a creature, defends with magic and sword (brief description); gruesome description of creature (body destroyed by worms, maggots, etc.); character attacked by creature and sword used to behead it; character purposefully cuts fingers to draw blood for use in a magical spell; characters sees a flashback to a battle with brief descriptions, mention of blood; characters see a group attacked by demons and can hear their cries as they are dying; characters fight demons with weapons and magic resulting in injuries and death (both human and non-human); character feels pain due to a magic spell; characters are pursued; character holds knife to neck and threatens, draws blood; character stabs dagger in chest only skin-deep, mention of blood; character recalls someone holding her mother’s beating heart in his hand as he killed her; various verbal threats of harm and death; threat of use of magic to cause mass death in civilian population; character rams hilt of blade into character’s head and then pushes them off a cliff; character jumps from cliff and crushes every bone in body; characters sees an individual lying in a pool of blood and dying; character painfully healed by magic, some description and mention of blood; character slide knife into character’s side; mention of blood on hands; character thinks about killing another; magical creatures have a confrontation; character digs her nails into her own hands so hard she draws blood; character coughs blood; character fights demons with magic and sword in moderate length scene with some description and mention of blood; death of souls; characters fight straggling, stepping on wrist; extended battle scene involving fire, magic, swords, death, mention of blood, some description; reading of a historical account of battle and death; female slaps male across face; character sees splatter of dried blood on the walls; character uses own blood for spells; extended, multi-page battle scene between and among humans, magicians, demons with brief descriptions of violence via weapons and magic including mention of blood, hearts being ripped from victims by magic, humans turning to dust; character is stabbed in the back by a sword resulting resulting in copious amounts of blood; death of individuals by magic in a battle.
Sex/Nudity: Character observes a male character thinking about another male character he is in love with; female recalls her love (romantic) for a male character; characters run into a brothel to hide, mention of tangled bodies and female splayed with a male; male and female pretend to be intimate to avoid capture in the brothel, begin kissing passionately touching face/neck/back; upon multiple occasions female and male notice each other and they think about their feelings of attraction for the other; character touches another character’s face in affection; male character makes romantic advances to a female character; female kisses a male character to distract him; female and male kiss passionately and she sits in his lap; verbal professions of love between characters; female disrobes and there is a moderate length scene of male and female having sex (some description); same-sex couple embrace, kiss, and hold hands; female and male embrace.
Mature Subject Matter:
Death, war, self-sacrifice, oppression by colonizers, child out of wedlock, dark magic, sexual relationship out of wedlock (heterosexual), same-sex romantic relationship (reference to).
Alcohol/Drug Use:
Eighteen-year-old drinks plum wine.
