So in the first couple of chapters The Assembly votes to send Violet and the other cadets back to Basgiath. This kind of makes sense from the rebel point of view I guess, but it’s not so good for the cadets when it becomes obvious that they are being targeted for assassination. I guess once they are back though, they can’t exactly just disappear without it being very clear where they have gone.
Assigning Xaden to a distant post is obviously also very intentional – it’s punishment, but it’s also demoralizing for both of them and removes another layer of protection from Violet so she’s an easier target. (Not only is Varrish a sadist, but I he seems to really underestimate Violet.)
The scenes with Sloane and Cat were honestly hilarious. It seems like Yarros feels like there has to be somebody around who hates Violet to add to story tension. The problem is that Yarros really likes Violet, and so she keeps winning over her enemies. Then of course Jack Barlowe returns and the scene where he rescues her makes it look as if the same thing is happening there – and it turns out to be a red herring and Jack is still evil. (But in a completely different way than he was evil before!)
I kind of felt the same way about Violet’s refusal to be with Xaden unless he promised complete honesty. It seemed kind of like an inserted tension that didn’t feel really natural? Especially with the way she was also agonizing about the need to keep secrets from her own friends in order to protect them.
Dain has his redemption arc, which I love. I’m a sucker for somebody realizing they fucked up and working to actually fix their mistake and earn forgiveness.
I loved the integration of the gryphon riders and I’m really hoping we get to learn a lot more about them and their culture. Their training obviously involves a lot fewer dead cadets, which I think is the much smarter system.
One thing I found really fascinating was the confrontation between Violet and her mother – where it turns out that her mother forced her to become a rider to save her life. She might have died about a hundred times over in Basgiath, but she absolutely would have ended up being executed for treason as soon as she found out what was really going on with the war. I question General Sorrengail’s priorities but she knows her daughter.
We also learned a lot more about venin in this book – they aren’t just driven by a mindless hunger for power, they have an actual strategy and a hierarchy. And apparently they can turn people without their consent, which strikes me as really weird. If the whole premise of how venin work is that they suck magical power out of the land, couldn’t they just – not do that? Maybe it’s like a vampire bloodlust where you can’t control it after a while?
Guess I’m going to find out.