Notes

As you can probably tell by now, for me, “Shadow’s Return” wasn’t just a deep disappointment, but infuriating. At first, it was just the strangely simplified/amateurish writing style, compared to the earlier books, and even the Tamir triad (though I can't vouch for the latter - haven't read it in ages). Also, all the main characters except Micum, somehow have their characterizations flattened to just 3 or 4 emotional states, and come across as much more immature than before, for no good in-story reason. (Like for example Thero being bothered a bit about touching Micum’s thigh, because it’s “the first time he touched another man so intimately” or some similar wording to that effect. Is this really the same man who volunteered to switch bodies with Seregil even knowing that would necessitate handling bathroom breaks, and who then even calmly proceeded to bathe said body instead of waiting another hour for Seregil to do it himself? And who was very much enjoying getting a full-body massage from a male bath attendant, unlike Alec who was uncomfortable having someone other than Seregil touching his ass?) Even Seregil had nothing of the mental age complexity that I admired in terms of writerly skill / fridge brilliance in the first 3 books. (i.e. he acts like 40 when first mentoring Alec, because of the scary newfound responsibility; he acts like 20-30 with Micum, ‘cause that’s the stage when they met; and he reverts to teenage moodiness and immature bullying when around Nysander and Thero, because they’re his adoptive family and they have the same life expectancy as a ‘faie, so he feels he can relax and act his physical age for a little while, if maybe overcompensating a bit for all the time he has to play Lord Seregil, peer to 50-year-old nobles and expected to behave like them; even his slide back into adolescent behavior patterns in Aurenen to the point where Alec had to play the adult in the room made total sense – a lot of people act like that when first returning home to people who only remember them as kids, and Aurenen society barely considers him an adult anyway. But in book 4 he’s just acting like he’s 17 most of the time for no reason – gone is all that worldly experience, professionalism as a thief, and political tact, or the I’ve-been-in-relationships-before type wisdom to deal with Alec’s equally sudden lack of maturity and good sense.)

The romance read conventionally sappy and tacky in a way that I had been glad the previous books almost completely avoided (it's hard to explain - maybe you have to be aromantic to see the difference), which was especially weird to see in a couple that had not been like that after 2 years spending all their time together in a secluded hut, but now acted like it another year later. And the dialogue was just not… snappy and sparkling, like it used to be. It read like the first book by some new YA author, not something written by an experienced pro. Besides that, too much of the book just was a miserable, fun-free slog. Obviously, that is inherent in the topic of slavery, but she could have skipped some things and extended other parts, to make it not such a chore to read. That and the change in style is mostly why I stopped reading shortly after they arrive at the alchemist’s house, the first time.

Now, on the second try and directly after rereading the first 3 books again, the alchemy and Sabrahn’s deus ex machina level magic just didn’t seem to fit into the previous world building to me, and the former also broke my suspension of disbelief, making me think “elves don’t get heavy metal poisoning?” all the time. (Also, if even young apprentice wizards like Thero can turn a whole group of people invisible, why did the Watchers need a sneak-thief like Seregil again? Thero’s previously established scry-for-and-fetch-object-from-afar-spell was fridge-logic-breaking enough already. And why did Magyana not send one of her translocate-people-from-afar-back-to-yourself-spells to help with the rescue; or come with to find her almost-son, for that matter? This is why it was a good idea to exile her in “Traitor’s Moon”.) And Alec becoming even more bishonen-pretty through the alchemy (oddly, his becoming more ‘faie didn’t change his hair- and eye color, the most un-faie things about him… because blond/blue-eyed is more uke standard?) and Sabrahn’s whole flower thing just made me roll my eyes – was that just written in because there would be an edition with manga-style illustrations? It certainly read like something belonging into some cloying shojo series, not the books that had given us those awesomely visceral, unafraid-to-be-ugly descriptions of necromantic nightmares before. I remember reading online while waiting for this book to come out that the author had been introduced to yaoi/shonen-ai by her fans while writing the Tamir triad - that would explain a lot of things, actually, including the creepy sexual politics, and the abuse-level jealousy as a romantic trope.

And what’s up with every last PoC character being capital-E Evil (slaver, necromancer, rapist alchemist, rapist guard), right down to the little shit of a son of the alchemist – and then even the one PoC freed slave they meet turns out to be a wife beater, for no apparent reason? Zengat’s and Plenimar’s descriptions as nations of slavers and the ridiculous state-religion-of-evil-torture-death, or the Simple Superstitious Tribespeople trope as the only alternative to that, and Eirual’s exotification and sexual objectification as the only civilized, non-villainous PoC character – those were bad enough. But the first two books were written in the late 80s / early 90s and as a first-time author , I reasoned that she was probably just thoughtlessly replicating Tolkien’s racism. After all, “Traitor’s Moon” got a little better by pointing out that not all Zengati tribes are slavers and pirates, and showing some random dark-skinned half-faie in the crowd that implied civilized PoC trading partners to the south of Aurenen. But with “Shadows Return”, written in the early 2000s, so there's no excuse like having no access to critical feedback, it’s like she’s actively trying to be offensive.

Also, it bugged me that she apparently hadn’t bothered to put in the minimal effort of re-reading her own books to get the details right. Like the name for the new tavern, which had been a mark of resolution for important character development in “Traitor’s Moon”, Seregil’s acceptance of his mixed cultural upbringing, so I don’t get why she would changed it without even giving a reason in-story. But also the many other retcons and arbitrary changes to continuity and characterisation, some of which I’ve mentioned before. I can’t stand that sort of thing, call it a pet-peeve. It’s lazy writing and it feels like having the rug pulled out from under me as a reader, and destroys my trust in the author. How can I trust she won’t simply act like any aspect of the characters that I loved had never been part of them, in a future story?

Not that she didn’t already change them to a point where I can hardly root for them anymore. I don’t just mean the rewrite of Alec from monogamously inclined and religiously primed to consider his romantic partner’s sexuality and attention to be his property, but mature enough to curb that instinctual jealousy and his distrust because he realised that it was unfair and would hurt Seregil (see his reaction to Keeta) – into a ragingly possessive, irrational, and passive aggressive green-eyed-monster who won’t even talk about his deep, undeserved distrust of Seregil’s sexual faithfulness for weeks and months instead of acting like an adult (and whatever happened to that empathic bond of theirs?) - and then even further into someone who responds to the sexual harassment/assault of his partner by an old flame/abuser who he knows to be in the habit of this kind of assault (kissing without consent) not with protectiveness or even momentarily confused, hurt questions, but with violent domestic abuse.

But I hated what she did with Seregil even more, because at least Alec’s possessiveness had some precedent in the previous books and made some sense in context with his religion, as much as I wanted to shake some of his old prudence and good nature back into him. But what about Seregil’s sudden dark ruthlessness? In the previous books, he only killed people while they were attacking him – fair game. I can even understand him quietly slitting the throats of those unsuspecting guards, though I would have liked to see some more ethical qualms and a need to justify it to himself (it was the only way to get out without raising alarm; they had wanted to rape him and therefore were a danger to every other slave in the house; whatever). But who the hell answers the question “Why did you let the sleeping stable boy live?” with “His corpse would have told our pursuers where we went” instead of “Because he’s an innocent bystander and no threat to us – what the fuck is wrong with you, you psycho?!” I can just about root for a thief who occasionally steals from people who can’t afford the loss, if it serves a higher goal. I can’t root for someone with ethics this low.

I read in the Amazon reviews that this aspect of Seregil’s characterization is going to get worse in the later books, and that the writing style won’t improve much, so I’m not really inclined to read any more of this series. I was planning to, and even bought the books, but now that I’ve read the second half of “Shadows Return”, I just don’t want any further character assassination ruining my enjoyment of the first 3 books, and I don’t trust the author anymore to be able to repair the damage. It’s not just that I was disappointed by this book, it’s that it managed to retroactively soil what I loved about the series and the characters in the first place.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate everything about the book. I did like a some details – like Seregil coming to see what happened back in his childhood from Ilar’s perspective and letting go of his wish to kill the man. (Or at least I would have liked that if Ilar hadn’t so horribly abused Seregil now in the present to give him far more reason for murder than he ever had before, and if Ilar had shown the least sign of remorse for anything instead of just briefly acting sorry for the abuse to get rescued by Seregil and then going “we should just forget about all that, we’re even now, really, because I blame you for my bad choice to get involved in illegal political intrigue with someone who unsurprisingly decided to get rid of my unimportant ass as a liability afterwards”. As it was written, Seregil eventually just came across like someone who denies that their lover is abusive because his infatuation/lust makes him blind – and with no real resolution in the end making clear that this is not okay. I would really like to think that the author just assumed this would be self-evident to her readers and that Seregil's ambiguous forgiveness and ongoing desire was just meant to show a sad character flaw in Seregil. But with all the other yaoi tropes in the book, and knowing that about 90% of yaoi outright romanticizes abusive relationships (not an exaggeration, unfortunately), I can’t trust the author not to mean that Ilar’s behavior is forgivable without her clearly denying it in the text and/or deconstructing the trope far more obviously than she - hopefully - may have intended to do. )

I also liked that Ulan was secretly ransoming Viresse slaves. (Presumably the rest of the Aurenfaie don’t know about the mass enslavement of their people and use of their blood for necromancy to power the Plenimaran war machine, otherwise they wouldn’t hesitate to go to war with them for atui reasons alone - which would put Viresse harbor in the first line of fire.) But his personal grudge against Seregil and wish for him to suffer made no sense, considering that it was Ulan who half-blackmailed Seregil into accepting the limited opening of Gedre that Ulan had previously negotiated with the dead Skalan envoy (Seregil had nothing to do with the terms of that compromise), and who half-gifted this compromise to Seregil instead blocking it for more months like he easily could, partly in thanks because Seregil had just saved Ulan from the false murder accusation. Hell, he even volunteered to make the Plenimarans open the Strait of Bal to let Sklalan ships back into Viresse harbor as a free bonus gift, because he really prefers trading with Skalans to trading with Plenimarans. The only nasty, personal, power-gaming thing Ulan ever did before “Shadows Return” was make Seregil admit that they are more alike than Seregil likes, and that Seregil wouldn’t have saved some random kid from getting into trouble either, if the conspiracy for his relatively minor dishonoring (after all, nobody expected Seregil to commit manslaughter, just petty theft) would give the people he was responsible for some political/economic advantage. (Ulan also clearly stated that he wasn’t involved in arranging Seregil’s downfall, and I believed him. Why would he lie, when he had all the power in that negotiation? If he was inclined towards sadism and wanted revenge for the Skalan’s ‘forcing’ him to give up some power and trade to Gedre, he could just have said that he was responsible, and then watch Seregil having to grit his teeth and play nice with him anyway. He could have made Seregil or Klia beg for the limited opening of Gedre, once Skala was really in trouble at the home front, after a few months more of stalling the negotiations. But he didn’t. Instead he called Seregil “clever”, “wise beyond your years”, “a most interesting young man”, and told him that they are alike in their style of thinking and enjoyment of intrigue. I really got the impression that he kind of liked Seregil as a potential worthy adversary, and intended to groom him as such in the years to come, even if Ulan still felt the need to push the youngster down a little and show him that he’s better than Seregil at the whole game and in terms of insight and psychological warfare.) She could have written a political explanation for why Ulan wanted Seregil out of the way – or even that he wanted to maneuver him into Plenimar just to motivate him and enable him to give a true witness account of the slavery to get the Aurenfaie to start taking part in the war, because Ulan couldn’t tell them about the mass slavery now that the Plenimarans started to bleed out more of the 'faie slaves for war-important necromancy-fodder - not without losing face or even getting punished for not informing them sooner . But instead of sticking with the characterization of Ulan as a chess master who still outmatches Seregil by sheer reason of age and experience, she resorted to the simple, boring, juvenile motivation of personal revenge, and had the means be blunt violence. No skillful drawing Seregil into a complex trap to hurt himself, just overpower him with a large number of soldiers and a necromancer, who somehow managed to travel across Aurenen undetected and without trouble with the protective spells into a territory where Ulan holds no power. (If the necromancers can translocate troops, as this implies, why don’t they just attack Rhiminee directly instead of bothering with years of battles in Mycena?)