Defiant: Towers Trilogy Book Two

Picking up shortly after where Radiant ended, Xhea is still in Edren Tower, injured with little hope of proper healing. Bright magic, the kind that nearly everyone has and thus the kind that is used for healing spells, hurt her, and her body seems bent on destroying even the most carefully set spells upon her. The council of the tower seems to want nothing to do with her and everything to do with Shai, the Radiant ghost who is still attached to Xhea and whose excess power is currently being used by Edren because nobody else is using it, and magic is needed to fuel almost every aspect of life in a Tower. But then inter-Tower politics get complicated and violent, Shai and Xhea are separated, and Xhea comes face to face with her own mysterious past and just what her dark power really means.

There’s a lot to like in Defiant. First, I do want to take a moment to talk about how Xhea’s disability was handled. And I think it was done rather well. From personal experience, at least, I think that her reactions to the whole thing were pretty understandable, and well-expressed. I can’t say I’ve experienced permanent physical disabilities like Xhea’s, but I’ve dealt with tenporary-but-long-term ones, and the experience was remarkably similar. The initial denial, the drive to not do much of anything coupled with the insistence that no help is needed. The willingness to do something that will hurt like hell and may not be permanent if it just brings even a bit of relief. The frustration over experiencing how your body doesn’t want to cooperate when there are things that you need to get done and it doesn’t feel like playing nice. It’s ever-present, but it doesn’t stop her from doing what she can do when it’s within her limits, and it doesn’t stop her from pushing those limits when she deems the situation worth it (such as being life-threatening if she doesn’t ignore the screaming tearing pain in her knee and walk faster). I think it was presented very well, as a part of the character that she had to learn to work around and work with, but never something that defined her or so drastically changed her that she became her disability.

Secondly, I really like the way Xhea’s dark magic was expanded upon and really used to good effect here. No longer is it presented as an entirely unique ability. Just a really rare one. We get more information about what it does, how it works, what can be done with it that wasn’t expected. We get to see both the negative side of it and the positive, and I really liked the way that played into how the novel ended. I don’t want to go into too many details, but suffice it to say that I was surprised. It may have been a little deus ex machina, but it all still fit very well into the world that Sumner-Smith created.

Xhea and Shai, as before, make a wonderful team, even when they’re apart and working independently of each other. I love their friendship. I love how they have such a close strong bond, and I love that (at least as of this book) it hasn’t turned into romance. I see so much in media reinforcing the idea that someone close to you can only either be family or a romantic partner, and it’s rare to see people so close and still fit firmly into the friendship category. Rare, and so very refreshing and welcome when it does happen. Honestly, these two are probably the best example of friendship I’ve seen in SFF in a long time. They were thrown together by circumstance, but since that event they’ve grown closer and rely on each other. They’re like the poster children for committed friendship! It’s great!

One of the biggest problems I had with the first book in the trilogy, the feeling that I’m really coming in the middle of the story and the feeling that I should already know what a lot of hints are referring to, happily doesn’t occur here. Much of the specifics I felt that about last time, too, get fully addressed, and instead of feeling like plot points were being dangled out of reach, I felt like I finally had all the pieces and they were all in the right place. There was still plenty to reveal and to hold back until the time was right, making a good sense of mystery throughout the novel, but it didn’t leave me feeling like I was floundering in some places, like I had last time. The additional upside to this is that now I also want to go back and read the first book over again, with all this newfound knowledge, to see if some scenes make better sense now than they did before.

When people say that this is a series with strong female protagonists, they aren’t kidding. They aren’t strong in the sense that they carry big guns and can kick the butt of any problem they encounter. They’re strong in the way that they’re very much themselves, reliant on nobody else to define them, and so powerfully real that you can’t help but be even a little bit motivated to emulate them.They stand out by not standing out, by being themselves instead of being the opposite of a stereotype (which, in itself, has pretty much become a stereotype), and it’s wonderful to see. If strength is defined by being your own person, then Xhea and Shai are fantastically strong.

This is a series that should be getting more attention and hype than it is. It may not be a ground-breaking game-changer for speculative fiction, but it’s got so much to it; a rich story, a future that isn’t obsessed with being defined only by its past, characters who are complex and real, and politics and magic in spades! It’s one of the best post-apocalyptic urban fantasies I’ve ever found, and in that meld of genres it’s got a fairly wide appeal. I can’t wait to read the trilogy’s conclusion, and to see what Sumner-Smith will do next.

Actual Rating: 3.25 out of 5

With her debut novel Radiant, Karina Sumner-Smith introduced readers to a frightening beautiful world of magic-rich Towers, a crumbling Lower City, ghosts, nightwalkers, and an unlikely friendship between the living and the dead. Now, with Defiant, readers reunite with Xhea and her ghost-friend Shai as they're hiding in Edren's skyscraper so Xhea can heal from her injuries. Both girls know they're only biding their time. The Lower City's other skyscrapers envy Edren's newfound wealth from Shai's Radiant magic. One, however, seems more interested in Xhea's darker, more sinister powers - powers that she finally begins to understand after she's offered a chance for the privileged life she dared to dream of when homeless.

That latter thread is Defiant's greatest strength: Xhea, and therefore the reader, learns more about her rare abilities as well as her origins, all while confronting a haunting moral dilemma. Shai also comes into her own, as she develops a new understanding of being a Radiant and communicates with the living in Xhea's absence. Defiant plods along, however, and relies heavily on exposition and character thoughts to carry the story. This didn't surprise me; Sumner-Smith used the same approach for Radiant, but it's more noticeable with Defiant and not totally to my tastes. I also had trouble connecting with some of the secondary characters this time. That being said, I was still fascinated by the build-up to all-out civil war, and with how Xhea and Shai come to terms with their roles in that battle. I can only guess how things will end in Towers Fall - but finding out the "how" is part of the fun of trilogies, right?

I found this absolutely impossible to put down! Sumner-Smith delivers with higher stakes, darker magic, and a bond of friendship that proves unbreakable--even in the face of war. Highly recommended for all lovers of SFF, post-apocalytic, and dystopian--or just anyone looking for a great story. The author is a skilled story-teller, with vivid imagery, superior world-building, and a fascinating page-turner of a plot.

I adore this series so damn much, and the second book did not disappoint me. While the first book was about what happens when two completely mismatched people come together and form an abiding and remarkable friendship, this one explores what happens to each person when those friends are then separated. Really deep, really meaningful friendships can change the people within them, often for the better, but how do you adapt when you've come to depend on someone so much, and suddenly they're not there to support you? Perhaps it's just that I'm at a time in my life when all my close friends are dispersing, moving elsewhere to settle down, but that resonated so deeply with me, and the friendship between Xhea and Shai just keeps getting richer. Add to it all the secondary characters who get a chance to flourish and develop, and I tore through the book in a day. It's a book that takes its time getting where it's going, pulling together loose threads from the previous book and weaving new avenues for the conclusion, and I loved it.

This was a beautiful, character-driven fantasy anchored by deep magic. The story always hinted at a larger world: full of pain, yet hopeful too.

The setting is stunning: flying towers and a fascinating blend of asphalt and glass, medieval and modern. There is rich description and a consistently dark tone.

The characters were compelling, if a little juvenile at times. There was believable development and growth. I am excited to spend another book with these characters.

The story itself came to an epic, adrenaline-filled climax worthy of a Sanderson novel.

Overall, a great experience. Pair with a little bourbon and the Child of Light video game.

We learn more of this world first introduced in Radiant, but the plot very much thickens as more characters emerge.