Title: Requiem Moon (Scarlet Odyssey #2)
Author: C.T. Rwizi
Publisher: 47North
Publication Date: March 23, 2021
Genre: Fantasy
Salo’s queen has finally accepted his desire to be a mystic despite taboos concerning men’s use of magic. But her acceptance is not support; it is strategy.
Under a disguise of the queen’s making, Salo enters Jungle City as a pilgrim to the Red Temple, only to find a magical barrier barring his entrance. Left at the mercy of the warring political factions that run the city, Salo faces a series of obstacles wrought by an unseen hand, knowing he cannot return home without completing his pilgrimage.
But Isa, King of the Saire clan, has her own plans for Salo. She needs his help to extract the Covenant Diamond from the Red Temple’s inner sanctum—an artifact with the power to end her tribe’s divisions, prevent a genocide, and even save herself from her fate. His new task in hand, Salo navigates a cursed maze of invisible authority—and when he encounters shocking revelations about the power residing in the depths of the undercity, he must wield his magic to finally bring the truth about his world’s history to light.
Why This Book
Requiem Moon is the second book in the Scarlet Odyssey trilogy. Typically when I think of endings and series, the last book is what springs to mind. In this case, it’s the second book. This trilogy follows Salo as he travels from his tribe’s land straight into the heart of political intrigue that opens up to a much bigger story that will eventually take some of his companions to more far flung lands in the last book. There are a lot of tendrils wending their way through this series, but it’s all centered around Salo, a young man capable of powerful magic, and his traveling companions, a female warrior who shouldn’t be one as her tribe frowns on it and a mechanical man who appears almost fully human.
It’s the end to Requiem Moon that makes my metaphorical jaw drop every time I think of it. The way this book ended left quite an impression and a shriek of “You can’t do that in the middle of a series!” I spent months, months, waiting not so patiently for the third book for some kind of resolution to something absolutely shattering that happened right at the very end of this book. I was furious for a long time about it, but, thankfully, it faded to an intense need to find out what could possibly be in the last book. So of course it’s going to stick.
Reviews
My review: “The writing erred more on the tell side and it all felt a little blunted when I remembered the first book reading so prettily. But there were so many bits and pieces that ended up building to bigger things and more complications all while moving each part of the story forward that I couldn’t help wanting to find out what was going on and what was happening with Salo”
Infinitefreetime dot com said “I am pleased to say that while I don’t love Requiem Moon quite as much as I loved Scarlet Odyssey, and it and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue are battling it out in my head for my favorite book of the month, it is still a phenomenal novel and is absolutely a worthy sequel to the original”
Salon Futura said “There is drama, plans come to fruition, and plots within plots are revealed. Rwizi has certainly set things up nicely for book 3”
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Check out all the other books featured this month on The Curated Bookshelf.
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