HE WHO BREAKS THE EARTH

Anwei’s revenge is closer than ever in this follow-up to 2021’s She Who Rides the Storm.

Anwei’s magic has been changing since the events at Patenga’s tomb during which she confronted Tual Montanne and miraculously saved Knox’s life. Now, she’s hunting for information on Tual’s hideout, eager to finish the battle she began. Unfortunately, Knox has begun having the same fainting episodes Mateo suffered from, while Willow, the spirit of Knox’s dead sister, has attached herself to Mateo instead of Knox. She’s hungry for souls, and as a shape-shifter, Mateo can harvest them for her. This extra voice urging him on does nothing to help his struggle over the tomb’s horrible revelation: A shape-shifter is formed when a Basist and a Devoted share a bond, then one kills the other. The sacrifice his adoptive father, Tual, performed to turn Mateo into a shape-shifter was botched, and to fix it he needs to convince Lia to love him—then kill her. If he fails, he will die. Tual thinks he has the perfect bait to lure in Lia in the form of Aria, her sister, but Lia is vengeful and is retaking her broken oaths to restore her diminished powers. The strong opening is squandered when the consequences of the characters’ actions are undone by a deus ex machina ending. Additionally, the underdevelopment of established lore and mythology will leave fantasy fans unsatisfied.

A serviceable duology closer that sadly does little to expand on the setting’s worldbuilding.