A Lazy Reader's Review of "Seige and Storm" by Leigh Bardugo
Synopsis
Darkness never dies.
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can't outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling's game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her – or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
Review
After having a brief interlude in between books in this series, I decided it was time to tackle Siege and Storm. And I am, somewhat, glad I did. I have quite a few mixed feelings regarding the second book in the series.
So many trilogies, I find, tend to suffer from 'Second Book Syndrome'. This is a phenomenon where the second book of a trilogy is almost always the worst rated book. I mean it kind of makes sense. The first book is always the set up where the principle characters are introduced and the main conflict arises and the final book is the pay off. So that kind of leaves the second book in a sort of weird limbo. Often times authors with introduce new characters and smaller conflicts. However, second books also fall into a kind of slow pace that readers tend to not like. And, I mean, it makes sense. In the previous books, they were treated to a likely more fast paced story that's filled with new information and characters that they liked and then for it to slow down drastically in the second book is kind of off-putting. And, unfortunately, Siege and Storm suffers greatly from this. A good portion of this book, and by this I meant the entire middle, it filled with very boring, tedious, and repetitive events. Which I understand, at this point in the story, Alina and her supporters are training to face the Darkling and try to find the other amplifiers. I get it, really I do. But at the same time, I couldn't help but feel like I was reading just to finish this book at get to the third and final installation of this story. And I'm not a big fan of that feeling. If I didn't suffer from heavy Summit Fever and if I wasn't heavily invested in the story and the characters, I most likely would have dnf'ed this book.
That isn't to say, however, that this book didn't have any good moments. There is a scene near the beginning of the book where Alina, Mal, and Nikolai's crew are on his ship and they get attacked. And when I tell you that it was one of the most electrifying fight scenes I have ever read, I fucking mean it. Oh my god, what a thrill I felt reading it. I felt like I was actually in the fight. I also really liked Nikolai's character was so fun and I fell in love with him instantly. I also found it really interesting to read and see Alina's personal and internal struggle she has regarding her powers. She has a kind of back and forth conflict with herself over whether she should giver herself to her power and let herself be consumed by it or if she should fight against and try to hold onto her old self. The last few chapters were really good, the action was top-tier and I was really engaged. Still not sure how I feel about the ending.
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