Cold Fire (Spiritwalker, Book 2)

Cold Fire (Spiritwalker, Book 2)
Kate Elliot, 2011

Premise: Sequel to Cold Magic. Armed with some, but not enough, of the answers, Catherine tries to protect her cousin, disentangle herself from her arranged marriage, not get arrested, decide whether to help one of the factions of radicals, and figure out who or what her father is. It’s sort of a busy time.

Let me start with the nitpicks. I don’t like how this book/series plays to the trope: ‘hot guy who is attracted to the main character conveniently secretly a good guy, despite initial evidence to the contrary.’ This was touched on in book one and expanded here. I’m willing to go with it, but… I like the magic plot and the politics plot so many times more than the romance plot here. I’m warming to Vai a little, but I need to spend like a few months sometime only reading books with NO romance to reset my internal calibrations.

I hated how many times Cat was just floored by a twist. There are a lot of plot twists in this book, but in book one it was established that she was trained from birth in subterfuge and spycraft and politics. Why does it sometimes seem like everyone in the world can pull one over on her? She gets a few wins, but I was just so annoyed by people tricking her.

Little warning for impaired consent in this book. It’s addressed (later) to a certain extent, but still. Be ye warned.

But saying all that makes it seem as though I didn’t like the book. I did like it. I really enjoyed the read. It’s fast paced. The world is greatly expanded in a way I really enjoyed, that gave it more depth and color. Cat finds out about her heritage and both embraces and fights it in a way that makes me not want to put the book down.

I missed Rory, absent for much of this volume, and I could have used even more Beatrice.

I did enjoy this book, and I’ll probably get around to the third, but not until it’s on sale.

And if you have any suggestions for great sci-fi or fantasy novels that feature awesome lady protagonists who decide to entirely chuck their would-be lovers because of duty or a higher purpose or just the desire to form a lesbian utopia, send them my way.

Cold Fire gets 3 Stars - A Good Book