Strife’s Bane: The Shattered Kingdoms, Book 3

Manieri’s third Shattered Kingdoms fantasy (after 2014’s Fortune’s Blight) is only moderately satisfying for returning readers and requires too much effort for newcomers; though she provides a multipage cast of characters before the text, she declines to explain who the various races are, or give a short précis of what happened before. The narrative starts with Lahlil, the sister of the Norlander king; she has a lot of blood on her hands and is desperate to prevent Ani, a woman with magical powers, from taking more lives. Ani is travelling on a ship, the Argent, with Lahlil’s sister, Isa. Their plot threads eventually intersect with the story of Daryan, a leader of the Shadari race. Uneven prose is another minus: Manieri is capable of memorable passages, as when a character muses that the inaction of the gods may be due to their having grown old and forgetful, but also trite ones (“It was exactly like every other death Lahlil had ever witnessed—and nothing at all like any of them”). Only devoted series fans will want to pick up this installment. (Feb.)