Voice of the Lost: Medair Part 2

I’ve been working my way through Andrea Host’s work. This duo amazed me!

At first, I was not as impressed with this second novel - there was too much happening all together and it seemed a bit trite. The author pulled it around, however, and made the story so much more than it first appeared. Excellent, excellent story.

(Cross-posted from the Adarna SF book blog) Voice of the Lost is the perfect sequel to The Silence of Medair. The first book is a political fantasy thats epic in scope, and Voice continues to develop the themes of colonialism, empire, and sacrifice and a controversial romance is set in motion. Medair chooses to side with the descendants of her invaders while facing an oncoming apocalypse brought on by wild magic. Talk about raising the stakes! I loved this book, and it has the strengths of The Silence of Medair, but with a slightly different focus. Its still character-driven, but theres less brooding introspection and more political intrigues. Medair is thrust in the midst of a war and makes tough choices, possibly earning her place as a villain in history. What makes it interesting is how she deals with it, and how she views heroism, sacrifice, and ethics in herself and the colonizers. Medairs character development is one of the best Ive seen in the fantasy genre. I must commend the author for how she handles magic in the world-setting. Magic systems are best explained in some books, while in others, its best left as a mysterious force of nature-whichever helps the suspension of disbelief. Höst treats it as the latter, and it works. Magic is a messy thing in this world-it merges parallel worlds, triggers a looming apocalypse, and even changes peoples ethnicity-which is a big deal in a historical reality of heated colonizer vs. colonized dynamics. While those are all crazy, its believable because the emotional consequences for the characters are so real, and thats the key achieving verisimilitude in fantastical literature. I dont know how the author pulled it off, but she deserves mad props. With sacrifice as a key theme, it mostly reads like a tragedy. Whenever I cheered for the small victories, things became infinitely worse, but none of it came off as melodramatic. I was on the verge of tears in some parts, unable to decide whether its best to read on (and feel that screwdriver to the chest) or put the book down (and be unable to think of anything else!). Medairs internal dialogue sometimes summarizes what just happened and her reaction to it instead of only the latter, and its a little redundant. But other than that minor quibble, theres nothing Id change about the book. Its rare to find an epic fantasy thats ambitious in scope and yet ties the story together succinctly. Theres no filler subplots or unnecessary scenes, it hits hard but ends with a satisfying conclusion. The story is emotionally involving and deals with heavy themes, but its worth it. I highly recommend this duology if youre looking for an epic fantasy thats character-driven, different, and thought-provoking. Note: A free review copy was provided by the author.

So this is the second book in a two-parter. So if you havent picked up book one then you will probably be very lost. The books (both 1&2) raised some very interesting questions, and really showed the thought process and pain the main character was going through. I really liked that it made me wonder how I would go about the situation if I was in it. The romance was a bit predictable and kinda abrupt but I liked it. So the ending bit was a bit odd. I have read other says that the second book was more focused on the romance and the story suffered for it. I think I Iean toward that thought as well. The story did feel like it was stuffed around the edges of the romance between the two main characters, and some of it was only to drive their relationship forward. Overall I recommend the 2 books they were very interesting, even if I feel the second book missed the mark a bit.

Good story - enjoyable premise but the writing style is bulky and stands in the way of an enjoyable story.

Andrea K Hosts The Silence of Medair was definitely one of my top reads of this year, and I was very excited to get my hands on the sequel so soon after I read the first book (score for self-publishing!). This sequel is a very enjoyable continuation of the story, but one of the things that kept jumping out at me is how weird the pacing is compared to most fantasy novels (not that thats a bad thing!). The storys highs and lows are based on Medairs emotional investment in events--thus the last book ended on a momentous decision she made, not the conclusion of war, and in this book the war started and finished in the very beginning. In most books, I think, the first book would have just been a bit longer, and the story would have ended there. But Medair still has some major emotional issues to work out (did she support the right side? is she a traitor? is it okay for her to deeply care about some of the White Snakes?), so the story continues. There is another potentially world-shattering event that functions as the climax of this story, but even that seems to matter most in the context of Medairs personal growth. The conclusion was wonderfully unexpected--and showed how much Medair has really grown over the course of the two novels--though in retrospect I can see how it was somewhat hinted at throughout the story (Im not telling you how it ends; read and find out!). All in all, Medairs story is a very satisfying example of how to write about epic and fantastical events without being epic fantasy--this is a character-driven novel through and through, and Id love to read more stories written in this manner. That being said, I still want to find out more about Medairs later life! Ms. Host leaves herself plenty of room to write another book set in this world--Id say most likely from the princes perspective--and while I dont think such a book is in the works, I will keep hoping!

Sequal to the Silence of Medair. Not as interesting a book. Does try things up nicely. Some my find the ending unsatisfing.

E-publishing definitely has advantages and one of them is being able to read this author. I read both the Medair books recently and have ordered everthing else this author has written. Excellent character creation, great new world, -- just enormously appealing books. Ill buy everything else she writes in future as well. Style is somewhere between Michelle Sagara and Robin McKinley but her voice is her own. One of my best reads this year.

I liked it.

Honestly anything this woman writes I devour. This duo was so epically amazing and I can’t tell you how much I was pleased with the ending. A fantastic book and a fantastic way to end.