January 3, 2022
Braffet expands the world of The Unwilling in her powerful and often heartbreaking second Barrier Lands fantasy, moving many of her viewpoint characters outside the capitalist dystopia of Highfall. Judah the Foundling and Lord Gavin, Highfall’s heir, are magically linked such that each shares the other’s pain. At the end of the previous volume, Judah cast herself from a magical tower and now she finds herself in a white featureless expanse which gradually resolves into a strange forest. Two travelers, Lukash and Cleric, nurse her back to health as she journeys with them far from Highfall, discovering that in moments of peril she can enter “the white” and manipulate it to perform marvelous feats. Meanwhile, Gavin and his betrothed, Eleanor of Tiernan, are held captive outside of the city by the Seneschal, who has overthrown the ruling family and enforces Dickensian working conditions. The pair are “rescued” by Eleanor’s brother Eduard and taken to Tiernan, where her eldest brother, Angen, who abused Eleanor in her youth, plots to rule Highfall with Gavin as a figurehead. Through these and other characters, Braffet explores the interplay of suffering and power, both temporal and mystical. Despite this focus, none of her scrappy characters feel like hapless victims. A strong cast and excellent worldbuilding will sell this to epic fantasy fans.
Starred review from December 15, 2021
Rather than kill her foster brother, Gavin, Judah jumps from the tower. Fully expecting to die, she instead finds herself far from Highfall and all she has known there. Injured, Judah is saved by two travelers who nurse her back to health. Needing friends and a way back to Gavin, Judah feigns amnesia and stays with these two men until the secrets she has kept from them leads them to even greater danger. Gavin and Elly are now prisoners, and what they thought was a rescue leads them to even worse circumstances, and they have to figure out how to survive. Meanwhile, in Highfall, the Seneschal is forcing a captured Nali leader to experiment on orphans in the hopes of recreating the strange bond that Judah and Gavin have. In this second book of the Barrier Lands series (after The Unwilling, 2020), Braffet impressively juggles her large cast of characters and many plot threads. Fans of the first book will cheer to see Judah grow in her powers. While there is some table setting for the next installment in the series, this novel stands on its own as an exciting fantasy adventure tale.
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