Alina wants the three classes of Grisha–and their further subdivisions–to find equal footing and work together. The people of Ravka are oppressed and even those with means have few choices. (The Darkling is using his power for personal gain. Have you ever noticed that a lot of fantasy books are actually an argument for equality hiding behind a magical world and colorful people and dangerous situations? No matter how different the characters are from people in our real lives, no matter how bizarre the rules of the fictional world, many fantasy books feature someone who has used their power for evil and someone who’s been oppressed and someone who wants to rise up and put things to rights by evening the balance.

The future of Ravka is at stake, and everyone has different ideas of what to do about it. The future is no longer quite so mysterious–everyone knows what the Darkling has in store, the only question is when he will strike, and which direction he will come from. This second book is more political and more foreboding that the first. Can she accumulate enough power to face the Darkling? Even with the power, does she stand a chance? She seems to be hallucinating the Darkling everywhere she goes, which makes it hard even to trust her own mind. Even if he might be helpful, Alina is having trust issues. Along the way she meets an enigmatic pirate/privateer who may or may not be on Alina’s side of the conflict. If Alina wants to defeat him and thwart his dastardly plans to rule all of Ravka, she’ll have to beat him at his own game, and the only way she’ll be powerful enough to do it is by finding the amplifiers first herself–with Mal’s help for the tracking, of course. It’s not her shining personality he wants her for, though–the Darkling plans to make her powerful so that he can use her for his own gains, and he plans to do it by making her the first Grisha in history with a set of amplifiers rather than just one. I won’t spoil anything from the second book here, but as usual I’m going to talk (write) like you already know what happened in the first volume.Ībout the book: There is no escaping the Darkling’s clutches once he has someone in his sights, and now his sights have been set on Alina Starkov. If you haven’t read the first book, Shadow and Bone (or my review of it) yet, check that out first. This is a post about the second book in the Grisha trilogy.

Siege and storm book series