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megwrites
Title: Cast In Fury (Chronicles of Elantra, Book 4)
Author: Michelle Sagara (msagara.wordpress.com;
msgara; @msagara)Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 490
Publisher: Luna (Harlequin)
Basic Plotline: After the Tha'alani, a race of feared and hated telepaths, tried to save the city from a massive tidal wave, they were accused of having caused it. The increased racial tensions and threats of violence have prompted the Dragon Emperor to commission his playwright to compose a play that will make the Tha'alani more sympathetic to the other races in the city, particularly humans. He assigns the task of helping the playwright to none other than Kaylin Neya. If that wasn't bad enough, Kaylin's sergeant, Marcus, is suddenly removed from duty, locked up and accused of murder, replaced by a new officer who wants her gone and will look for any excuse to get rid of her. Kaylin must solve the dark, and terrible mystery behind Marcus's murder charge, going deep into the secrets of Leontine society, while helping a grumpy, obstreperous playwright and keeping her job.
The Positives: Sagara's Elantra books are pretty much candy for me at this point in time. They are always dramatic, colorful, and engaging even if sometimes they aren't exactly the most spectacularly written books.
I liked the exploration of Leontine society in this book, and was glad to get to see more of Marcus's oft-mentioned but not seen wives, who had very distinct personalities of their own and really leapt off the page (no pun intended).
The secondary characters in these books are always worth the read and seeing the Tha'alani again was a pleasure, they're one of my favorite races. I love a lot of the way that they're both Utopian and not-Utopian. It was also interesting to see their take on truth and falsehood in the context of the play being written about them.
The very difficult playwright was the unexpected gem in this book. Grouchy and slouchy and messy and surly enough to make Kaylin look like the soul of tact and kindness, he had a lot of really interesting things to say on human nature and writing and drama and truth without ever once being turned into a teddy bear. I like when difficult people are shown to be worthy without being made un-difficult (if that's a word).
My two favorite characters of all time, Tiamaris and Nightshade make brief appearances, but don't get a lot of action. I really love them both because they're shown as being unusual for their kind, but not to their benefit. Nightshade is an Outcaste, even among Barrani and Tiamaris is odd for a Dragon (and also the best Dragon ever). They're both delightfully shady and snarky and Nightshade is maybe evil but maybe not, well, it's something that I've got a particular fondness for.
Mostly, I love that these books have kept me interested in the overall arc. Each of Kaylin's adventures has been interesting on it's own, but much like Lost, I just want to know what the heck is going on with the big mysteries of Kaylin's tattoos, the bracer, why Nightshade is interested in her, why the Emperor is interested in her, her powers, and the Old Ones. An interesting dimension was added with book (I won't give it away!) and hopefully Sagara's eventually conclusion won't be as disappointing as Lost's.
The ride is always a whirlwind and a really enjoyable one and of course I'm going to get the next book.
The Negatives: Sagara still does that thing where nobody in her books is ever capable of giving a simple, straightforward explanation to anything. It's like they couldn't even give someone the time of day in one paragraph or less without it getting complicated. This can get frustrating when scenes where things are being explained become somewhat convoluted and it turns out the answer could've been given in two sentences.
Sagara also over favors hyperbole and exaggerations in some moments, and sometimes it gets a little tiring to hear how every other character would kill you for looking at them wrong (but they don't, of course).
Kaylin also bears some slight tinge of Mary Sue to her character, and she seems to make friends wherever she goes, having better-than-average relationships with the Tha'alani AND the Leontines AND the Barrani AND she's of interest to the Dragon Lord - all without explanation. I also still am not convinced of why someone who can't show up on time is supposed to be so charming to the reader.
But these are all small quirks that are easy to get over, especially since the drama and intrigue in these novels is so delectably dramatic.
CoC Score: 5 or 10/10 - It's hard to rate this because Kaylin and Severn (the main humans in this book) are never described in a way that would pinpoint their race in a way that's easily categorizable. There's nothing that I've seen/read in the books that would say that Kaylin and Severn aren't POC, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary (if you have some, let me know!) I choose to believe that they are both rocking, awesome characters of color and I give the book at 10 out of 10.
Sagara does deal with race in her novels, just not human races. But she does so in a way that doesn't turn any of the non-humans into thin veils of human races or ignores the subtleties that go into race relations. She talks about tensions and alliances and dominance and oppression in various ways through out the novel, and it's interesting that humans are NOT the top of the food chain here.
Gender Score: 10/10. Kaylin and the other female characters in this novel rock. She explores the gender dynamics of Leontine society very deftly, in my opinion. Though there are elements of strong patriarchy and yet strong matriarchy, she shows the shades of a gray in society and how society's roles are also shaped by individual situations.
GLBT Score: 0/10. No overtly GLBT characters or situation, and that's sad. There's no reason that at least one person somewhere couldn't be GLBT. You could theorize that the Tha'alani would be open to queerness and maybe even de-facto bisexual if you wanted, and I'm surprised that all the races so far have divided neatly into male and female, because I think there would be room to explore agendered races or multi-gendered ones. There's heterocentricism in this novel as far as the relationships go, and I'd be glad to see at least some mentions of non-het relationships or transgenderism (come on, there's gotta be at least ONE trans being SOMEWHERE in Elantra that can show up!)
Ablism Score: 0/10. No PWD people or disability situations mentioned overtly, though I will mention that I think there is some space to think that there may be some non-human/magic-related disabilities that may show up later. And a case could be made for interpreting certain aspects of the Tha'alani as disability - or interpreting humans as disabled in comparison to them. But as for anything recognizable and clear cut? Nope. And again, I'd think in Elantra there would be some room for it.
