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

by Laini Taylor

[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.