Shadow and Bone Trilogy Review, Part Two: Siege and Storm
Shadow and Bone Book Two: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
*This review contains spoilers*
Content Warning
Summary & Review
Siege and Storm, for me personally, was an improvement
upon Shadow and Bone. It was an improvement for a lot of
reasons, but I'll jump right in and admit that one of those reasons is the
character of Nikolai Lantsov. He's one of my favorite fantasy characters that
I've read about recently: charming, intelligent, caring, humorous, and on top
of that, Bardugo manages to write him this way without ever making him toxic! I
know there was no way this story was ever going to end without Mal and Alina
getting back together, but after Siege and Storm, I couldn't
help but root for her to end up with Nikolai. He was always more accepting of
Alina than Mal was, and unlike The Darkling with the stag, he was up-front with
her from the start about the advantages he hoped to gain in a marriage alliance
with her, not trying to trick her into it.
Oh yes, and he has a flying ship that he can turn invisible with the use of grisha powers. There's that too.
I also found the subplot about
Nikolai's true parentage and his claim to the Ravkan throne very compelling. It
added some real political intrigue to the series. On top of that, I commend
Bardugo for being able to create this character who the readers all knew may
not have actually had a real claim to the throne, but at the same time, they
probably couldn't help but root for him to get it. Nikolia proved time and time
again how worthy he was to rule Ravka, and he's certainly much more deserving
than his brother and the legitimate heir, Prince Vasily.
Speaking of that other prince,
as insufferable as Vasily Lantsov was, I really did enjoy his role in the
story. His inability to think through his new "alliance" with the
Fjerdans actually setting in motion the events of The Darkling's raid on the
Little Palace made for such an epic climax to the novel. I dare say that I
actually felt a bit more suspense during this moment than I did during the
Shadow Fold confrontation in Shadow and Bone.
At first, I was a bit
disappointed in the early chapters of Sige and Storm. I felt
that The Darkling tracking down Mal and Alina, as well as Mal's rather quick
work of tracking down the sea whip, happened way too quickly. I was worried
that Siege and Storm would suffer the same errors in pacing as
its predecessor. However, as the book really started to move, I realized that
wasn't the case. All those things that happened so soon had to happen that quickly
because Bardugo had a lot planned for the rest of the novel, and she wasn't
going to waste any time putting off the inevitable reunion of Alina and The
Darkling. Besides, if you've finished the entire trilogy, then you know why it
is that Mal was actually able to find the sea whip that quickly (*winks*).
The fast pacing also allows for
Bardugo to introduce our new monster for the rest of the series early on as
well. If you thought the volcra from book one were bad, you probably were not
prepared for the nichevo'ya. Introducing them in the same
early chapters that we see Genya again is also a great way to foreshadow her
unfortunate circumstance at the end of the novel as well.
During the climax, in The
Darkling's brutal assault on the Little Palace, we find out that he sicked his
creatures on Genya, scarring her permanently so that even her abilities as a
tailor could not ever heal them. As a reader, I hated it, because I love Genya,
and she's suffered so much. As a writer and a book reviewer, though, I felt
that it was perfectly dark and twisted. It did everything it needed to do: show
The Darkling's true colors, show what the nichevo'ya were
capable of, establish where Genya's loyalties truly lay. Bardugo managed to do
all this in such a genuinely emotional way and did it without abruptly killing
Genya off (which would have made me very upset if that happened).
This proves the point that many
readers have been making for years: death is not the worst thing that can
happen to a character! Death is not the only tragedy that can impact the other
characters close to the victim or motivate their further character arcs.
Murdering someone isn't the only way that a villain can show cruelty. Surviving
the villain's cruelty also isn't reserved for the protagonist alone. A side
character can suffer tragedy at the hands of the antagonist and still survive,
still continue to develop as part of the story.
This moment with Genya isn't
the only part of the climax that I really enjoyed either. I love that moment
where you think there's no way out, and then The Apparat shows up with his army
of Sun Soldiers loyal to Sankta Alina--including her new allies in this book,
Tamar and Tolya, who I had been waiting for their importance to show itself at
some point. After the Apparat was teased as a potential-ally, potential-enemy
type character in the first book, Siege and Storm and this
moment specifically becomes the only point in the entire trilogy (and the
Grishaverse as a whole) where I felt that this characterization was used to its
full potential. It left an amazing teaser for all that was to come in Ruin
and Rising and how important The Apparat could have been to it
all.
The Apparat wasn't the only
character who I think was utilized better in Siege and Storm. When
the grisha who were loyal to Alina instead of The Darkling make themselves
known, we finally get to see more of the characters David and Zoya, who in the
first novel mostly felt like stock characters. In the second installment, we
start to connect with them more and watch them develop.
We also learn more about
Morozova's amplifiers, which I had been waiting for. Alina gets placed into
more of a leadership role as she takes over the Second Army. I enjoyed both
seeing her in this position of real authority, but at the same time, she
doesn't immediately acclimate to it the way a more "Mary Sue"
character might. Alina struggles sometimes with leadership, and she still has
her own internal struggles going on. Particularly, I love the hunger for power
and for the third amplifier that she is trying to repress because she is trying
so hard to prove that she isn't like The Darkling. But that desire is still
there. It's a wonderful character flaw that makes Alina more realistic as the
martyr symbol she's become. They call her a saint and--while she has good
intentions, and I would go so far as to say she's a good person morally--she's
not really a saint. She has a darker side that she's struggling against.
And speaking of dark sides,
it's time to discuss Baghra and The Darkling. I love Baghra as a character, as
well as their dynamic as mother and son. It's interesting because Baghra
clearly still has affection for her son, but at the same time, she knows that
he's gone too far to redeem himself, so she was willing to betray him to Alina.
On the other side of that spectrum, The Darkling knows his mother betrayed him,
but he clearly still has affection for her too, else he would have killed her.
Instead, what we get is something just as painfully well done as what happened
to Genya. The Darkling blinds his own mother. It's so layered and complex for
their relationship because it's cruel and unforgivable, but at the same time,
he spared her the worst of what he could have done. We know that The Darkling
is capable of worse violence, based on his desecration of Novokribirsk and the
slaughter at the Little Palace, but when it comes down to his mother, he can't
or won't kill her. While I still think The Darkling is a villain, this little
nuance of his character reminds the reader that this wasn't always the case.
It's also an interesting juxtaposition because while Baghra is the more morally
likable character, she's the one willing to do something as cruel as betraying
her own son, and while the Darkling is the less morally redeemable one, he's
the one who shows mercy (kind of, in his own way) and spares her life.
I think that reminding us of
the human aspects of The Darkling's character is also very important to the
story as a whole. After all, The Darkling was once a man with good intentions,
just trying to protect himself and his people. It was somewhere along the way
that he lost sight of this and became consumed by power. He went from trying to
offer a sanctuary for all grisha people to escape prosecution to being the one
who slaughtered every grisha in the Little Palace who chose to side with Alina
over him. He became the murderer of the people he was trying to protect. It's
all very paradoxical, and it offers a great deal of foreshadowing to what may
become of Alina if she succeeds in getting all three amplifiers.
Like the first book, the
weakest link in Siege and Storm was Mal and Alina's
relationship. This installment does a decent job of acknowledging the aspects
of their relationship that aren't working, but it seems like the whole time,
all their personal issues could be solved by just the two of them having a
conversation about how they really feel. Alina flinches when she has a vision
of The Darkling in her bedroom while Mal is touching her cheek. Mal assumes the
flinch is because she doesn't want him to touch her (and I mean, honestly, what
else would anyone think in that situation?) That acted as the breaking point
for their split. How hard would it have been for Alina to admit that she saw
something that startled her, and it wasn't because of Mal? Or better yet, admit
that she was having visions about The Darkling, so they could figure them out
sooner and avoid a lot of other conflicts later. Mal also could have just as
easily asked her why she reacted this way instead of jumping to conclusions.
Again, a simple conversation between the two could have worked wonders for
them. I'm not opposed to conflicts keeping couples apart a bit longer in books,
as long as it's written well and adds to the story and each individual character's
development. However, when something as simple as one conversation could
completely fix the relationship, then I feel that the conflict needs to be
developed more.
Final Thoughts
I would give the second Shadow
and Bone installment a 3 out of 5 stars. It was enjoyable, and I
think Bardugo found her footing with the story itself a little bit better here.
Great new fun characters were introduced and used, and the world-building was
much better. It had a great ending, if albeit, a rushed start. Its handling of
the main love story is still a bit wobbly though.
I'm also going to award my
edition of Siege and Storm specifically some bonus points for
its inclusion of a Genya-centric short story at the end, titled "The
Tailor." It explains her decision to betray Alina to The Darkling (events
from the first book) in more detail, from her own perspective. Though this is
touched on in the trilogy, this short story gives us so much more insight into
the truly desperate situation Genya was in, being sexually abused by the king.
It never sought to vilify her for her betrayal of Alina, but only empathize
with the impossible choice put before her that she never should have had to
make.
Genya's story is one that I very specifically want to analyze in depth during my reviews of the trilogy, but I am saving it for my thoughts on the trilogy as a whole. It's coming! I promise!
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