Cast in Fury by Michelle Sagara
Set shortly after Cast in Shadow, the humans of Elantra trust the telepathic Tha’alani even less than they did before. Concerned by increased violence to the Tha’alani, the emperor orders the royal playwright to write a play designed to make the humans more comfortable with them. Having more experience than anyone else with the Tha’alani, Kaylin and Severn are assigned to be his consultants. Meanwhile, their Leontine commander, Marcus, is accused of murder (committed in public, no less) and has been jailed. Marcus and his wives are also essentially Kaylin’s foster parents, and Marcus’s replacement is too by-the-books for anyone’s comfort.
The book starts out heavily focused on the Tha’alani plot, then shifts focus almost entirely to the Leontine plot. Part of me thinks it’s because there are more women for Kaylin to interact with there (and kudos to Sagara for depicting a polygamist society that doesn’t make me want to hate all men, as tends to happen with me and polygamy in fiction), but also because the Leontine plot is introduced and wrapped up here, whereas I suspect the Tha’alani plot will continue for some time. Unlike previous books in the series, I doubt Cast in Fury would be accessible at all for new readers, as much of it is heavily based on previous books.
Other people have complained in the past about Kaylin’s thickheadedness in needing to have things explained to her at times, but that’s never bothered me much, as it’s primarily been Sagara’s way of cluing the reader in to what’s up with the various societies and histories. It’s a narrative necessity, and explanations to the lead are way better than five pages of infodumping. This book is an exception, as it’s Leontine society being explained to Kaylin, and that’s something she should be familiar with. On the other hand, she gets to explain the Tha’alani to someone in a similar way, which was a nice bit of payback.
The already-backburnered romantic plotline is almost completely nonexistent here, which is fine with me, but may be less so for others. We also learn more about the “magic tattoos” on Kaylin’s body, and get hints about her eventual destiny.
One day, I really should read more of the Luna line, as all I’ve read so far are these and Mercedes Lackey’s first two fairy tale books for the line.