RISE OF FIRE

A fantasy conclusion brings romance and intrigue.

Luna and Fowler are an unlikely pair: she's the heir to the murdered former king and queen of Relhok, and he's the usurper's son. Nonetheless, they've fallen in love in the Stygian darkness of the time of the eclipse. Even after they fight free of the repulsive dwellers in the quagmire of the tunnels beneath the marsh, freedom is out of their grasp. With Fowler dramatically dying from a poisoned wound, they are taken prisoner by Prince Chasan of Lagonia. Like Fowler, Chasan is entranced by Luna of the milky white skin and pale freckled cheeks; unlike Fowler, Chasan has no idea that Luna is completely blind. It's an unsurprising deficiency on his part, as Luna has nigh-magical senses (she's an excellent shot with a bow and arrow, confidently firing into a melee without ever hitting an ally). The turgid love triangle, in a setting of villainous rulers, human sacrifice, and grotesque torments, follows predictable patterns—except, perhaps, that it only takes two volumes to bring the star-crossed lovers together instead of the usual three. In a world full of darkness, blindness acts as an overwrought metaphor more than a real condition: Luna's internal monologue is not at all that of someone who's been blind since birth, while Fowler thinks of how "Luna look[ed] normal, fully sighted, but I knew Luna was anything but normal."

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