Wyvernhail by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Spoiler Free Reread Review

Wyvernhail is the fastest paced of these five books. Hai's desperation to save the future from the flames of the unborn Keyi is palpable. She, no overt spoilers, does manage to save everything and tie a neat bow on the whole series. Wyvernhail is also a book of self-discovery for Hai, though I don't think she realizes it until the very end.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Wyvernhail personally. On the one hand, I am again frustrated by the way Wyvern's Court is still super segregated, though that is both less and more of an issue in Wyvernhail. I am annoyed by the falcon interference. I am pleased that Hai, despite being pulled this way and that by her magic, is able to have some adult relationships that are implied to be... well... less than healthy. And to be clear, I'm not pleased by the less-than-healthy aspects of this, but by the fact her character isn't infantilized.

Wyvernhail also does a lot of heavy lifting, as far as the World Building for the entire series. There's been bits a pieces of the past scattered throughout the series, but Wyvernhail comes right out and explains what happened with Maeve and Keisha and Alasdair and the falcons. It feels cathartic, but I also doubt Hai really explains any of this to her compatriots, so I'm not sure whether or not it's helpful to the people of Wyvern's Court.

I do like Wyvernhail well enough. Definitely not as up on it as I was on first read, but then, I've grown since then so... yeah.

Wolfcry by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

 Spoiler Free Reread Review

My feelings on Wolfcry are complicated, as, I think, is the entire story.

On the one hand, I really, really don't think the people of Wyvern's Court are forced to spend enough time together. Just hanging out in the Market isn't nearly enough. They should be celebrating their holidays together, going to school together, etc. It definitely feels as though the society here basically isn't trying hard enough.

On the other hand, the society of Wyvern's Court definitely mirrors real life. The way the USA (the only country I can speak about with any kind of authority and even that is from my priveleged-white-girl stand-point) has segregated itself despite having many more years than the fictional Wyvern's Court to come together. Plus, the societies are just so, so different, combining them is nigh impossible. The Falcons certainly did them a doozy as far as that goes. I'm finding it hard to come up with a more real-world equivalent and failing to come up with a combo that makes sense. But I digress.

Oliza's personal journey here was what actually took up the "runtime." I liked the continued world-building with the wolves and the Obsidian guild. I definitely liked the whole Betia thing, which I won't get into, but yeah... I think it was an interesting choice to have the sakkri tie everything together. Oliza is vaguely aware of the issues she's going to have to face, probably more aware than she realized, before the sakkri essentially woke her to the realities of the situation. She did voice at some stage how she has literally no one in her peer-group who embodies what she herself does, which I found both interesting and absolutely absurd... and proves my point that the societies really aren't trying to combine effectively if even those in their princess' inner circle are so divided.

So yeah... overall, the story hangs together well enough. I feel like Oliza's physical journey took forever, which... yes, the distance she apparently had to cover on foot would have. But it all culminates around the sakkri and Oliza deciding what to do about all that. Still heckin' complicated.

In Other News

I've been on vacation for the last week! I went to visit my family in Washington. If you'd like to see pictures from my trip, head over to my Facebook Page (link in the side bar) and take a look at my "Washington 2025" Album. There's a lot of beautiful tree photos from our walk through "The Hall of Mosses" in Hoh National Park, just as a highlight.

Falcondance by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

A Fairly Spoiler-Free Reread Review

So... Falcondance... honestly, entirely middling and actually a bit confusing. The main plot isn't really that confusing, though it does have some twists and turns, the confusing part is the magic system. Nicias is used and abused pretty much throughout the book, poor thing, really. He definitely wasn't aware or prepared for the kind of machinations going on in the court of Ahnmik... if you can even call it a court.

The magic system has a large focus here, though it is still not very concrete in the way things are explained. Nicias' magic wakes and he must learn to use it, though that use is pretty much glossed over. If this were a movie, Nicias' training sessions would have been montages where light flashed back and forth and nothing was explained. The spells are described as bands of light, eyes change color, and that's more-or-less it. We get some overview of how Ahnmik and Anhamirak's magics used to intertwine and more explanation of Ecl, but it's still all quite vague. Basically the backdrop to explaining why the Falcons did what they did and why the Serpiente and Avians will never and must never become one again.

The world-building aspect of Nicias' visit to the island city of Ahnmik was kind of neat and actually quite horrifying. The class structure is... problematic at best. More-or-less determined by how your magic decides to wake in you at the tender age of FOUR. I don't think I liked it on my first read and I definitely don't like it now. The way magic has permeated the island was the neat part. I kind of enjoy the idea of a semi-sentient city.

Remembering what I do about Wolfcry and Wyvernhail, Falcondance is undeniably setup and explanation for the events in those books.

Snakecharm by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

 A Semi-Spoilery Reread Review

So, of the 5 Keisha'ra books (and given, I've not reread the rest in a hot minute), Snakecharm is probably my least favorite. It does have a lot to enjoy, but it just kind of falls flat for me.

That said, if there is one thing Amelia Atwater-Rhodes is good at, it's creating vibes. The legend related in the Prologue is a chef's kiss of vibes. Might just be me recalling my Ancient Egyptian fixation from when I was a kid but... I felt like the vibes of an Ancient Egyptian cult were spot on.

Ultimately, I think Snakecharm suffers from reread-itus. I've reread it enough times that the answers to the mysteries have imprinted themselves on my brain and the "Happily Ever After" of it all just kill the tension. And yes, that is a mild spoiler, but I'm gonna let it be. After all, Snakecharm does have Romance elements and an HEA is demanded by the genre so... yeah. But anyway, the tension was just dead on arrival during this reread. I did, however, have a bit of rage.

I will fully admit that I spent entirely too long reading and sitting with the first couple of chapters and this may have colored my feelings on this issue buuuut... no one tells Danica she might be/probably is pregnant despite talking around it a bunch. Apparently she's too naive to realize this on her own, despite everyone else figuring it out... even Valene in a couple of seconds. Like WTF, ya'll. Just finish your dang questions and tell her already. Geez.

All of that stuff said, Snakecharm is really about expanding the Keisha'ra world. We got a little of it in Hawksong, but now it's in the aftermath and the "What do we do now?" stages. There is a much greater focus on Serpiente society, specifically the dancer's nest, Sha'Mehay. And I did love the looks into the past we got after the Falcons pushed them into research mode. We also get more background into the Falcon shapeshifters, who are much more relevant to the overall story later. It's enough to make us hopefully wary of them, at the very least, for Falcondance. Syfka and Araceli themselves are kind of "meh" characters at this point, though. Syfka mostly just comes off as a bitch and Araceli... well... also a bitch, but a to-the-point one.

But yeah... Snakecharm honestly just felt like filler. A necessary bit of filler, given the rest of the Keisha'ra story, but filler nonetheless.

Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Spoiler Free Reread Review

I'm usually not a fan of Romance and Hawksong is, first and foremost, an Enemies-to-Lovers Romance. However, Hawksong spends a lot more time in the realm of introspection than it does anywhere else, so it doesn't exactly feel like a Romance to me... if that makes any sense. We spend most of the book in Danica's head and she's not super focused on the Romance aspects of her life. She's definitely more concerned with simply stopping a war and keeping it stopped than she is on whether or not her love-interests are interested. Again... if I'm not making sense about this, it's probably because what I'm trying to say is mixed up in my own head.

Anyway, I like Danica as a character. She honestly comes across more Ace to me than anything else. Again, more concerned with stopping a war than the romantic side of things. This also might be because of the "Avian Reserve" aspect of her life sort of saps the outward manifestations of her emotional states. That's a fun bit of world-building that's brought to the fore once she spends more time with Zane among the Serpiente.

I also quite like how the world-building is done through how the people behave, rather than just their surroundings. The Avian Shapeshifters bottle up their emotions and act "properly" rather than, like the Serpents, be very open in thought and deed. I don't know how true this is, as the Hawk's Keep isn't really described in terms of building materials, but I've always kind of envisioned it as made of wood and plaster in contrast to the Serpiente's palace of stone. Not sure why that is, but yeah... Contrasts.

It's also really interesting how these writ-large Shapeshifter societies and kingdoms eventually get whittled down when moving from this series to the main Nyeusigrube series. Rise and fall of civilizations, I suppose. Just something fun to think about when reading and rereading these series.