Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

by Laini Taylor

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is--and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?

• ISBN10: 0316133973
• ISBN13: 9780316133975
• Publish Date: 6 November 2012 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

This review is also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.

Days of Blood and Starlight is a strong follow-up to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, written with the same imagination and lyrical prose.  Taylor brings life to both plot and thoughts with her beautiful descriptions.  In one of the opening chapters, she writes: “It was one of those dreams that invade the space between seconds, proving sleep has its own physics—where times shrinks and swells, lifetimes unspool in a blink, and cities burn to ash in a mere flutter of lashes.”  Small events become momentous through Taylor’s imagery and important ones become larger-than-life.

And Taylor’s characters are fighting bigger problems than before.   War is in full swing between angels and chimera and everyone is choosing sides.  The terrible events they experience change beloved characters from book 1, including Karou, Akiva, and his siblings.  Taylor demonstrates brilliant character development as she explores how each person is the same at the core, but must adapt to and be affected by heartache, betrayal, and battle.  In addition, Taylor introduces a complex array of new characters, both heroes and villains.

Taylor represents the innermost thoughts of these characters by writing in multiple points-of-views.  There is no pattern, and at least one point-of-view is introduced only to disappear without much conclusion later in the novel.  The effect is slightly disorienting, but it does gives reader unique perspectives on the action and personal thoughts that they would not otherwise be able to experience.  The trade-off—a bit of confusion for the sake of new and important knowledge—is worth it.

Plot-wise, the book is intense and exciting, following multiple threads through war, explorations of Karou’s and Akiva’s pasts, and the difficult decisions everyone must make in order to fight for a better future.  Ultimately, however, Days of Blood and Starlight reads very much like a middle book.  There is really no beginning, climax, or end—a frustration familiar to readers invested in multiple series.  Individual scenes may be gripping, but there is still the sense of lacking when it is unclear why any scene matter or where the story in general is going.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone appears to be a series where reading all the books in a row, instead of waiting years between publication dates, would be a great improvement.

Days of Blood and Starlight is a must-read for fans of the first book, and for fans of fantasy in general.  It is original, compelling, and often profound.  There is not much romance in this one, but certainly there will be more in the future.  Its greatest flaw is leaving readers hanging, desperately wanting more.

[neddieb]

SPOILER******



No offense but this book is not about the devil. It should be an angel falls in love with mutant mixed animals/human. The storyline is good, but it's really hard to imagine an angel and a girl who once was half animal and human in love. I think the book would have been a definate 5 star if the angel actually fell in love with a devil girl!

[Hillary]

http://www.adventuresinneverneverland.com/2013/03/14/review-days-of-blood-and-starlight/

[Angie]

Wow. I thought Daughter of Smoke and Bone was magical and awesome, but Days of Blood and Starlight takes it to a whole other level. If only all middle of a trilogy books could be like this one! While it did feel like an extended set up for the last book, it was by no means filler material or boring at all. Every page served a purpose in either moving the plot forward or expanding the amazingly detailed and original world that we were introduced to in the first book.

This is not a happy book. The first book wasn't exactly sunshine and rainbows, but it did have a more cheerful tone than this one. Book two is war and betrayal, so I frowned far more often than I smiled. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's fitting given the circumstances. There was one scene where I forgot to breathe. It's all just very intense. Some of the author's wit and humor did work its way into the story though, so it's not all death and despair all of the time.

Why are five star review so hard to write?! It's easier to write about what I didn't like, which is odd, but I'll start with that. I hated that the book ended and now I have to wait an eternity for the finale. Now, what did I liked? Everything except that it ended and now I have to wait an eternity for the finale. Yep, that's pretty much it. I suppose I can get more specific though, if I must.

First of all, I loved how Zuzana (and Mik) was still present! I loved her in the first book, and I figured that the Chimaera/Seraphim war would keep her away from Karou. However, she's there and provides plenty of comic relief from the depressing stuff. It was also nice to see Karou smile after all that's been through.

I also loved how we got to see the war from several different angles. There's Karou in Morroco, Akiva in Eretz and the Empire, Zuzana gives a human perspective, and there's the refugees in Eretz. It's all bad from all sides, but I still enjoyed having each of these perspectives. It added to the experience, and I just adored all of the world building it allowed for.

There's so many twists and turns along the way, that I could never figure out what would come next. Some things ended up becoming worse than I imagined, while others weren't quite as bad as my mind was anticipating. There was only one thing that I did figure out in the beginning, and I was so happy when it was actually revealed! It was one rare moment of smiling during the book.

Anyway, I loved this book. This series is super fantastic, magical, exciting, romantic, and heartbreaking. I have no idea what the final book has in store for Karou, Akiva, and everyone else, but I do hope that love triumphs in the end!

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

Oh wow. I don't even know what to say. Days of Blood and Starlight is absolutely incredible, but in a completely different way to Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Blood and Starlight is just as epic as Smoke and Bone, but for completely different reasons!

After the events at the end of Smoke and Bone, Karou is left broken. The only ever family she's known, Brimstone and his assistants, are dead. As the chimaera no longer had their resurrectionist, the seraphim slaughtered their way through the ranks of the chimaeran army, leaving them victorious. The end of the war. But the end of war doesn't mean the end of the problems. With the memories that flooded back after breaking the wishbone with Akiva, the memories of her life as Madrigal, Karou is left with the knowledge that her people were dead or enslaved. In the company of the chimaeran soldiers who survived, she is constantly reminded that this is all down to her; because she saved Akiva from death all those years ago, he escaped with the knowledge that led to the chimaera's destruction. The guilt and the shame lay heavy on her heart, but she atones in the only way she can; as she worked for Brimstone, Karou knows how to ressurect dead chimaera, and so has become the new ressurectionist for the chimaeran rebellion.

Akiva is distraught. When he believed Madrigal had died, his sights were set only on getting revenge on those who had killed her. Now he knows that Brimstone brought her back as Karou, he is overwhelmed with guilt over what he caused to come to pass; the destruction of those who loved her and kept her safe for all this time, and with knowing he couldn't have done anything worse to hurt Karou and the love she felt for him. Despite knowing they will never be, Akiva can't help but long for the dream they once both had; the dream of peace, the end of killing, the beginning of a life worth living.

This may sound like I've gone and spoiled the book, but I haven't. All of this you find out quite early on. Laini Taylor is a genius who takes the plot of the story much further than you would have thought possible, so I really haven't given much away - so much more happens! Compared to Smoke and Bone, this is a harder book to read; the first book was all about the love, but with this book, there is so much bad. Guilt, shame, grief, pain, and that's just the emotions. This is the aftermath of war, and there is a lot of death and indescribable terror. Blood and Starlight can be quite visceral, but without bring gratuitously graphic in the violence. There is blood, pain, and extreme violence at some points, but never at any point does it feel like it's too much, and there's never any over-the-top gore. But it's true to war, true to the story, and doesn't hide away from the grim, disturbing aspects.

One of the things I loved most about this book was the varying view points. The story is mainly told from Akiva and Karou's third person point of view, but to show us the full scale of how this war, and the actions taken since the end, effects the many different people involved, we get their point of view. An angel soldier disgusted with the order she has been given, a chimaeran child who has been freed from slavery by the rebel army, yet is still not out of danger, one of the Emperor's guards, a chimaeran rebel, a seraphim captain, so on and so forth. It makes this novel one of the most grown up YA novels I have read, showing just what war can do to a land, can do to the people who live in it. It's very thought provoking, and has you asking how can this possibly end, if every action is retaliated against, if every death on one side leads to death on the other? How can there be peace if those in charge are set on revenge? Which side is the "good side" when both are committing such appalling atrocities? The small moments from the eyes of other people dashed every thought about right and wrong from my head, and I found myself scared of turning the page, scared of the next awful thing I might read. Blood and Starlight takes a brilliant look at what war and peace really are, what they really mean, and I can only applaud Taylor for showing truth.

It's not all lows though. Zuzana and Mik make their appearances, and they are just the most amazing characters for bringing the laughter and the smiles to every character they meet, as well as the reader. And there are so many twists in this book, it's unbelievable! Just when you think things are looking up, something will come along to knock everyone back onto their backsides, time after time.

Days of Blood and Starlight is just phenomenal, the dark to Daughter of Smoke and Bone's light, and will hurt your heart more than you would believe. With the ending (Oh my god, the ending!), I have absolutely no idea where things are going to go from here in book 3, but one one thing is for certain; the future looks bloody horrific - and I cannot wait! Laini Taylor, I salute you!