A riveting second installment from Z. Bennett Lorimer, Ophiuchus Flinched (Tales of Ciel E book 2) expands the fantastical realm of Ciel as one younger lady’s future begins to unfold. On this high-flying realm of conspiratorial plots, airborne battlefields, and sociopolitical drama, a younger technology of heroes persist within the combat for survival below an oppressive regime of elite overlords.

Following on the dramatic occasions of E book 1, Effie Strait leaves the one sky island she has ever recognized after proving herself to be one of the vital Gifted plebiscites in a technology. Because of this, she has fallen into the manipulative care of Kelestina of the Celestials, the omnipotent ruler who can ship Effie into the grand future she all the time imagined: piloting a Leviathan by the Eight Skies of Ciel.

Whereas possessing {powerful} Items makes Effie a useful asset to the ruling class of Patricians, it additionally makes her a perfect weapon to be launched into the shifting battlefields of an unrelenting struggle. Breaking the standard guidelines of the Crystal Throne to maintain her Gifted prize shut, Kelestina returns the newly elevated Effie to Volturnus, the place she is to be educated and tutored by Muldoon, a younger Patrician with unclear intentions and blended emotions about his defiant ward.

Nonetheless reeling from her sister’s Gifted blossoming and miraculous homecoming, Vanna continues to navigate the altering winds of Ciel together with her squadron of dragoons, together with investigating the return of a two-faced pirate and the unpredictable risk of a rogue Leviathan marauding by the skies. The newly strained relationship together with her comrade Kai and her beloved sister, together with lingering doubts over loyalty to the Celestials, complicate these core bonds and the life-or-death selections forward, as alliances shift each on the bottom and within the skies.

Lorimer’s storytelling shifts easily between 4 completely different views – Muldoon, Effie, Vanna, and Kai – providing readers a complete view of the tangled narrative, from a silver-tongued noble and a uniquely gifted warrior to a rebellious dragoon and a deeply conflicted commander. Each one among these voices is compelling and entertaining in its personal manner, sustaining an insistent momentum as every chapter builds on the following. The secondary characters are absolutely developed gamers that drive the plot ahead as nicely; relatively than archetypal placeholders, such figures as Dama Sigyn, Kendy, Sire Ansel, and Bael are practical foils that reveal the interior complexity of Kai, Effie, and Vanna, forcing their character progress and impacting their allegiances.

The writing is immersive and interesting with the identical electrical vitality and storytelling vigor of the primary guide of this imaginative collection, the place every setting and character is richly imagined and vividly described, leading to an environment that’s each fantastical and engagingly plausible. The authenticity of every scene regularly raises the stakes, whereas the thematic undercurrents of colonialism, conscription, and sophistication wrestle are instantly recognizable, with Lorimer creatively blurring the standard binaries of Patrician, plebeian, or pirate.

On a technical degree, the writing is clear and concise, with clear proof of a good edit and intensive draftsmanship to keep away from dropped subplots, whereas nonetheless leaving the door open for the creator’s subsequent installment. All advised, this second installment absolutely establishes this collection as an impressively revolutionary and entertaining work of fantasy.

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