The Siege of Skyhold by John Bierce
The Siege of Skyhold picks up shortly after where The Lost City of Ithos left off, with the apprentice mages recovering from the gruelling battle they just survived. Everyone's a little shaken and channelling that, in typical progression fantasy style, into getting guder.
The first half of this book is dedicated to that process, with everyone focusing in on different areas. Sabae is working on her lightning affinity, previously subject to the same neglect as her healing affinity. Talia is busy coming up with something typically gruesome. Godrick is struggling to come up with armour that will take him once and for all out of his father's shadow, and Hugh is doing a thing with wards. It's, as always, fun to watch them all working and experimenting with the exceedingly complicated magic system of Mage Errant, and whilst there are definitely times where the exposition dumps drag, they do just sort of come with the territory in this series - someone clearly likes them if Bierce keeps leaving them in, skim reading them doesn't leave the reader at too much of a disadvantage when it comes to following the plot, and they do add a level of credence to the feeling of Skyhold very much being a school as opposed to just a place to have adventures.
One thing I would have liked to have seen be explored more would be the psychological impact of what they all went through. We get a couple of scenes of this, but it isn't really consistent. We're told rather than shown in a lot of cases how this is affecting everyone. The exception to this would be Sabae, who is definitely one of the more consistently interesting characters. Her quest to free herself and her friends from the manipulations of the great powers is engaging and ties neatly into both the revelation she had at the end of TLCoI and the final twist of the book. Her arc is the one we're getting to see some of the broader political themes through, and it's very interesting. Also she continues to be a disaster bi and I love it.
Aside from the main four, the other two characters I really enjoyed were Kanderon and Loarna of The Vault, especially the friendship and respect between them. Kanderon is perhaps the most shaken of all by the events of the last book, and it's clear why whilst also being clever foreshadowing. Pacted to Hugh, she is now more than ever realising just how vulnerable that leaves her - not just physically, but emotionally.
Loarna is a character we never actually saw in person before this book, and we quickly find out why. She also has social anxiety, as well as an autism spectrum disorder. As someone who also struggles with pretty bad social anxiety, it was really heart-warming to see the way everyone is just accepting of the accommodations she needs to be able to do her job, and it was nice to see her connecting with Hugh over that shared struggle. The way Mage Errant handles disability has hands down always been utterly fantastic and miles ahead of any other sff I've personally read when it comes to this topic, and this book really takes the cake. In combination with Hugh's use of his spell book to talk whilst he recovers and the continuing theme of the main cast having to work around their magical encumberments, this book gives some really cool examples of how magic can be used to creatively explore disability accommodations as opposed to disability cures.
And then, we come to the second half of the book. Which OMG WTF AHHHHHHHHHH
This was one of those books that had me screaming into my pillow at THE SHEER AUDACITY. I don't want to spoil anything, so won't go into specifics, other than to say OH MY WORD. It's rare to find a twist as well executed as this one was - so many elements that had been hinted at beforehand just coalescing for the perfect gut punch that feels as true to the characters it is devastating. The only thing I really have to say beyond that is this - where the fudge is book six?
Representation: Major POC characters, MC with social anxiety disorder, neurodivergent side character, bisexual secondary character in F/F relationship, gay secondary character
Content Warning: Very mild discussion of previous abuse
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