Petrodor

Book two in the quartet A Trial of Blood & Steel picks up the story of the brave and independent heroine, Sasha, now living in the port city of Petrodor. Away from the hills of her Lenayin homeland, Sasha is making a new life in the dark alleys and wealthy houses of Petrodor. An influential trading centre, Petrodor holds the key to preventing the coming war between Lenayin and the mighty Bacosh. Together with her old mentor Kessligh, Sasha attempts to navigate the political intrigues of the port city and find a way to stop the war. It is the serrin, the beautiful but dangerous people from beyond the Bacosh, who will be the pivotal point in this struggle. How much can Sasha trust her old serrin friend Errollyn? And how much can she trust herself?

Picking up where 2009's Sasha ended, Shepherd sets Sasha and her doughty band of human and serrin war leaders in the port city of Petrodor as Sasha's sister Alythia is married off to the noble Halmady family. This peace-treaty marriage sparks a power struggle among the other noble houses, including Steiner House, to which Sasha and Alythia's sister Marye was married. A politically minded archbishop begins bloody machinations that raise the stakes and turn allies into enemies. As in the first volume, the beginning bogs down with many similar names and a huge number of characters who tend to make speeches at one another with a lot of unfamiliar terms, but as soon as the action picks up, the banter, character development, and vivid descriptions build tension toward a gripping climax, leaving tantalizing threads dangling. (Mar.)
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"Should please fans of, say, George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels." --Booklist