His mortal demise by Vanessa Le

This is the final book in the duology that began with The last Bloodcarver. The first book in the series was compelling and unique, and this book continues in the same awe-inspiring manner. Ven Kochin’s life has been saved by Nhika, but the heart-soothing sacrifice came at the expense of Nhika's own life. Now Kochin is left grieving and yet his past has given him the hope that his own heart-soothing and healing talents may enable a resurrection despite the logical impossibility of restoring life to a corpse. His hope for this future may involve his own sacrifices and he becomes tangled in war and power struggles as he researches and investigates how he might bring back to life the love that sparked his own salvation and rescue. Is this even possible and will his heart-soothing healing talents be stolen by those in power before he can help Nhika? 

With the complexity of sci-fi fantasy with a touch of medicine, magic and romance, this book is far from mundane. Suspension of disbelief is compulsory, but there is also an intelligence to the weaving of the impossible that will appeal to YA fantasy lovers aged 16+. It has been some time since I finished book 1 in the series and it did take me a while to reconnect with the characters and the fantasy realm of this book. Consequently, I recommend that the duology be read together to assist in flow and to enable immersion in the depths of complexity of the characters and their struggles, but also the journey towards ‘peace, freedom and love’. This is not a book for the faint-hearted. Bodily resurrection is an uncommon trope in most fiction, but Vanessa Le has created an intelligent story for adept readers who love a complex fantasy that involves powers that are not necessarily magical, but restorative. Persistence, to move past the strangeness of the time setting (is it set in the recent past or in the future?) and the unknown place-setting of Theumas and Yarong, is necessary but worth the journey. This is a sharply striking story and yet also sweetly romantic. Early chapters are written with some backward and forward chronology, and the author has thus prevented a wallowing in grief, and discomfort of the travel with a coffin, by foreshadowing a more hopeful future.

Themes: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Romance, Resurrection, Love, War, Healing, Grief.

Carolyn Hull