This is a year for series enders
The only thing I can say without somehow spoiling Twilight's Dawn is that if you enjoyed the prior Black Jewels books, you should definitely read this one too. I would recommend having read the original trilogy and probably Dreams Made Flesh (the last short story collection) and Tangled Webs (the "spooky house" book) before this one; the three books about Dena Nehele in many ways constitute their own, mildly-related trilogy. Twilight's Dawn is a collection of four novellas with the first two taking place between DMF and TW and the second two taking place well after.
I read the first chapter a few months back and was getting bored when I skipped to the end and read the final novella first. This was kind of a mistake and I found myself crying - not kidding, actual tears streaming down my face - the entire time. I have never cried so much in my life as I was by the end. I wonder if Anne Bishop planned all along to set up this ending, but in Twilight's Dawn, she takes all the comments she's made about race, privilege, caste, and longevity to their natural conclusion. In doing so, she's written her finest, most thoughtful book yet, although as I told Elana about it, I realized it's also designed to tug on my heartstrings as strongly as possible. gah.
The second novella tells us about the Eyriens of Askavi Kaeleer. I didn't remember Falonar being that much of an asshat or the damage in Tangled Webs being that bad, but it was otherwise pretty good. The third novella is about Sylvia. Unlike "Kaeleer's Heart" (the short story about the witch who tries to snare Daemon), Bishop explains how such villainy can still exist in the post-Purge world. Both these novellas would be good reasons to pick up the book. The first one didn't improve -- it adds nothing to the overall story arc and I find it hard to believe that Daemon Sadi is henpecked.
My biggest criticism of the book is how long does it take someone from the long-lived races to mature anyhow? Daemonar seems to be a child for many decades. According to a FAQ on the author's site, the long-lived races live 4500-5000 years, but I wouldn't think that would mean a 40-50x longer childhood. Also, zomg, could you imagine spending centuries in school? By the time you left, you should know, like, everything, especially in a world that has the normal complement of countries but no science or applied mathematics. Also, if Daemonar spends that much time as a kid, you'd think someone who was 75% long-lived race would make have zir Birthright Ceremony at a much later age than 15?
Also, this might be a spoiler too, but whatever happened to Wilhelmina Benedict, Jaenelle's sister? She emigrated in the final book and then we never hear of her again.
In the end, I can confidently recommend the Black Jewels stories to friends who don't mind (or prefer) a touch of kink in their fantasy. It's still the best representation of power exchange I've seen in any book. Like Cryoburn and in some ways, Jim Butcher's Changes, I enjoyed the series, I'm sad it's over, but I'm glad it ended so well.
PS - The Amazon summary is spoileriffic too, so it's not just that I suck at keeping secrets.
I read the first chapter a few months back and was getting bored when I skipped to the end and read the final novella first. This was kind of a mistake and I found myself crying - not kidding, actual tears streaming down my face - the entire time. I have never cried so much in my life as I was by the end. I wonder if Anne Bishop planned all along to set up this ending, but in Twilight's Dawn, she takes all the comments she's made about race, privilege, caste, and longevity to their natural conclusion. In doing so, she's written her finest, most thoughtful book yet, although as I told Elana about it, I realized it's also designed to tug on my heartstrings as strongly as possible. gah.
The second novella tells us about the Eyriens of Askavi Kaeleer. I didn't remember Falonar being that much of an asshat or the damage in Tangled Webs being that bad, but it was otherwise pretty good. The third novella is about Sylvia. Unlike "Kaeleer's Heart" (the short story about the witch who tries to snare Daemon), Bishop explains how such villainy can still exist in the post-Purge world. Both these novellas would be good reasons to pick up the book. The first one didn't improve -- it adds nothing to the overall story arc and I find it hard to believe that Daemon Sadi is henpecked.
My biggest criticism of the book is how long does it take someone from the long-lived races to mature anyhow? Daemonar seems to be a child for many decades. According to a FAQ on the author's site, the long-lived races live 4500-5000 years, but I wouldn't think that would mean a 40-50x longer childhood. Also, zomg, could you imagine spending centuries in school? By the time you left, you should know, like, everything, especially in a world that has the normal complement of countries but no science or applied mathematics. Also, if Daemonar spends that much time as a kid, you'd think someone who was 75% long-lived race would make have zir Birthright Ceremony at a much later age than 15?
Also, this might be a spoiler too, but whatever happened to Wilhelmina Benedict, Jaenelle's sister? She emigrated in the final book and then we never hear of her again.
In the end, I can confidently recommend the Black Jewels stories to friends who don't mind (or prefer) a touch of kink in their fantasy. It's still the best representation of power exchange I've seen in any book. Like Cryoburn and in some ways, Jim Butcher's Changes, I enjoyed the series, I'm sad it's over, but I'm glad it ended so well.
PS - The Amazon summary is spoileriffic too, so it's not just that I suck at keeping secrets.