Zodiac Academy #8 ~ Sorrow & Starlight deals with the fallout of the disastrous battle that ended the last volume.
Darcy and Orion are captured by King Lionel Acrux, and Orion makes a death-bond to free Darcy from Lavinia’s curse. This bond is set to expire in three months, so everything should be okay. Right? Needless to say, Lavinia’s treatment of both of them is so bad that it is highly unlikely they will survive.
Gabriel is also captured by King Lionel Acrux and installed in the Seer’s Chair in the Palace of Souls. Needless to say the King hopes to use him as a weapon against the rebels. But Lionel has ways of providing useless information. The question is, how long can he hold out?
Then there is Tory, now completely devastated by the death of new husband Darius Acrux (who changed his name to Darius Vega when he married her.) Unfortunately, his father murdered him, so now he lies cold and dead in an ice coffin. Much of the novel deals with how Tory goes about bringing him back.
Again, this is another over-long novel (clocking in at 36 hours and 41 minutes) with too many detours to a magic library, a magic box, and other venues that would be interesting if this novel had a spine of tension. As it does not, these incidents left me feeling even more exasperated.
Not only is this volume over-long, but the series is as well. I have noticed this before with other series that are essentially one big story. J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter comes to mind. So does George R. R. Martins The Song of Ice & Fire. Both of these series start with absolutely fantastic novels that keep you glued to the page, but then after about Volume 5 or so they start to lose momentum under the inertia of too many storylines and too many characters.
This series is no different. When we got to 10 hours out, I was sure that nothing was going to happen of any great interest. Imagine my surprise when 5 hours out, things started to happen, problems got resolved and we seemed to be moving in the direction of The Ending.
But did it end? Of course not. Either the authors are having too much fun writing this series, or they are enjoying their income too much. Either way, we all have to wait for the next volume to find out what really happens.
But I, for one, am done. I will not be buying any more of this series. I’ve had enough. Three stars.
