Delight in the return to the Graceling Realm as Kristin Cashore paints a new view of the spellbinding world we've fallen in love with.
From the blurb;
'Seasparrow is told from the point of view of Hava, Bitterblue's personal spy and secret half-sister.
'Hava sails across the sea towards Monsea with her sister. Queen Bitterblue, the royal entourage, and the world's only copies of the formulas for the zilfium weapon she saved at the end of Winterkeep.
'During the crossing, Hava makes an unexpected discovery, about one of the ship's crew, but before she can unravel the mystery, storms drive their ship off course, wrecking them in the ice far north of the Royal Continent.
'The survivors must endure a harrowing trek across the ice to make it back to Monsea. And while Queen Bitterblue grapples with how to carry the responsibility of a weapon that will change the world, Hava has a few more mysterious to solve, and a decision to make about who she wants to be in the new world Bitterblue will build.
'What will Bitterblue's spy do in a world where Gracelings are no longer the ultimate power and kingdoms now have weapons of mass destruction.'
Seasparrow picks up exactly from where Winterkeep left off, with our hero's setting sail across a treacherous winter sea, while battling with the weight of the earth altering discoveries.
It is obvious that Cashore put a lot of work into learning the in's and outs of sailing and survival in the Northern cold, and that research pays off in an all embracing story filled with life or death realism which will absorb any and every reader.
Reading from the perspective of Hava, Bitterblue's secretive sister graced with hiding, gives us an insight into the childhood Bitterblue endured and a view of the other characters at play that only a spy could offer.
While this novel is filled with the fantasy elements we have grown to adore from Cashore's Graceling series it is also an action packed survival adventure story which offers devious plots, sudden twists, and cut-throat survival on a icy plain. All the while carrying the weight of the future as Cashore asks what technology will bring to a world of magic.
As our characters fight to maintain hope in their dire situation we are carried with them, enjoying every mention of characters previously loved, any nod towards the world which we initially fell in love with. Most importantly enjoying the tension of a budding, beautiful, love story while an older love takes bloom.
We Give Seasparrow Five Stars
ISBN - 978-1-3996-0080-4 Hard Back Cover Price - £20.00 Published by Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd 2022