Thank you to Random House Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing this book as a digital galley in exchange for an honest review.
One-Sentence Summary:
The protagonist of book one, Tess, joins an expedition to find another Serpent in the polar circle along with crew members and old enemies.
My Review:
As civil as this review will be, I do consider this book a waste of my time since I didn't realize it was a sequel and ended up reading 1,000 pages of this series, most of which I'd consider maybe 2-2.5 stars. I have a very complicated relationship with this book. I just barely managed to keep track of Tess of the Road, and while this book was more my speed in terms of the concept, it was harder to follow. I did like the characters that I could recognize and understand (Spira, Marga, Hami, Kikiu, Pathka, Jacomo, etc.) but there were so many that were so new and I could even remember when they were introduced. If I knew about 75% of the characters, I knew 40% of the plot, TOPS. I understood the basics: Tess is here to act as a Goreddi spy on a Ninysh expedition to the polar region to find the Polar Serpent and see if the Goreddi should interfere with Ninyah colonization. Everything beyond that was a mystery. “This man is evil” Okay but WHO IS THIS MAN??? There was just so much to keep track of, and I could not, no matter how hard I tried. I didn’t find the book itself unpleasant, but the lack of understandable plot to me hindered my enjoyment of it. I also do understand the lack of romance, but just a minor plot line would’ve made it better for me because while I loved the platonic relationships of this book, the overwhelming world and character building made me need something to grasp onto. Overall, I liked this one less than the first book, but I didn’t hate it. I’m giving it this rating simply because I didn’t find it that readable.
⭐⭐/5
The Fiction Feature 