CARVING SHADOWS INTO GOLD is a transition novel. By that, I mean that it is not a standalone novel. Which means that if you read it without reading the FORGING SILVER INTO STARS, the first novel of the series, you are really going to have a hard time understanding what on earth is going on.
Matters are not helped by the fact that author Brigid Kemmerer literally throws you into the deep end. It took me several chapters to figure out that the events before me took place only a week after the ending of FORGING SILVER INTO STARS. When the Royal Family of Syl Shallow was attacked. When three-year-old Silla (sp?) nearly witnessed her own mother being murdered before her. When Nora, Callyn’s younger sister, would have died of a knife wound had not Callyn’s magic saved her.
And that is really what this novel is about, this whole issue of magic. Some people see its many benefits. For example, the people of liberal Emberfall (Canada?) are mostly comfotable with its uses. But in next door Syl Shallow (USA?), which is much more conservative, magic is regarded with a great deal of suspicion.
This kind of divisiveness is all-too-common in today’s political climate, And I really love the way in which Ms. Kemmerer deals with it. You only have to replace Magic, with some hot-button issue to see how relevent this novel is. It really sounds like she is talking about the differing attitudes in the USA and Canada to vaccines, or abortions, or any of a number of fraught issues. One of the tragic consequences in CARVING SHADOWS INTO GOLD of this intolerance to magic, is that the Queen’s family is not altogether welcome in Syl Shallow. This causes a great deal of loneliness, not only for King Gray, but for his wife Lia Mara.
Of course the novel builds to a resounding climax, which leaves a bitter aftermath of difficult choices and sacrifice. Matters are not satisfactorily resolved, there are too many unanswered questions for that. And so it is obvious that there will be at least one more novel in this series.
