Saint Death’s Herald by C.S.E. Cooney: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

Saint Death's Herald by C.S.E. Cooney

The second book in Saint Death series (trilogy?) took its time to arrive. The first book, Saint Death’s Daughter (2022), blew my mind and I was eagerly waiting for the follow-up. In many ways, it was worth the wait. In others, a slight let down.

Miscellaneous Stone, the best and only necromancer in the world, is on a hunt for her great-grandfather Irradiant Stone’s ghost. Problem is, he’s a necromancer too, even if not alive anymore, and her teacher, so he’s not easy to catch. She’s followed his trail towards north. She knows he’ll head to Skakhmat where he has unfinished business of genocide kind to take care of.

She’s accompanied by Duantri, the gyrfalcon lady bodyguard, and Stripes, the tiger rug she accidentally brought to life in the previous book, and—once Grandpa Rad abandons his body—Cracchen Skrathmandan, the once enemy who is now filled with spirits of dead Skakhmat wizards bent on revenging on Grandpa Rad.

The hunt is difficult, but they almost catch Grandpa Rad several times, only for him to pull a disappearance act by jumping to a different body. It becomes especially difficult to best him when he finds the city of skinchangers and can become anything he wants after jumping to them. But she’s not above asking for help, from her gods and friends alike, and eventually they manage to best him.

This was a very straightforward book from start to finish: find Grandpa Rad and lay his spirit to rest. No side quests, no distractions from subplots. And while it worked as a story, with good twists and action scenes, it was not quite compelling enough to hold my full interest. It took me over a week to finish this as I kept putting it down.

The first book had two elements that made it one of the best reads of the year it came out. One was Lanie as an underdog, trying to prevail against her murderous family in a very macabre house. The other was the found family of her brother-in-law Makkovian and his daughter Datu, and the falcon ladies Tanaliín and Duantri.

Here Lanie and Duantri were mostly alone, with brief visits from the rest of the family or chapters from their point of view showing what they were doing elsewhere. Mak is on a pilgrimage that he apparently can’t abandon for his sister, and for some reason Tanaliín needs to stay with him and Datu, which strains her bond with Duantri. Mak is the third in their relationship, so they both pine after Duantri, but that’s as emotional as it gets.

The narrative was from several points of view, unlike the first book which was mostly from Lanie’s. Most of the time, they didn’t add anything to the story as such. They only seemed to highlight the fact that Lanie didn’t have enough to do in her own story to carry it like the first book. Even the final battle is mostly from other characters’ points of view.

But the biggest reason why this wasn’t as compelling is that Lanie is now overwhelmingly powerful. She’s not the underdog; she’s the final boss. And I never find characters like that interesting. She had no true enemies throughout the story to keep the reader fearing and rooting for her. Even Grandpa Rad was merely fleeing. She never had to face a true opposition like in the first book, where everything was stacked against her.

For every problem, she had a larger-than-life solution, or a literal deus ex machina in the form of her goddess, Saint Death. Even when her friend, Haaken Skrathmandan, rushes in to a rescue, he shows up with a flying tower he’s only now learned how to create. It’s nice that things go well, but it’s not very interesting if a reader knows everything’s going to be all right from the start.

That being said, this was a well-written, good book; cozy rather than gothic. Lanie was as lovely as before and endearing in her enthusiasm about bones. The ending was good and open enough that there will hopefully be more books. Something was building between Lanie and Haaken, and while he’s not my favourite love interest, (Mak would’ve been better, but he’s happy in his threesome) and he wasn’t as interesting a character as in the first book, it’s something to look forward to.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.