Ep 111 Let’s UNRAVEL Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry | Book Reviews, Recap, Summary

Rites of the Starling, Rites of the Starling, Rites of the Starling…if you say it three times, does The Guardian appear? 😂 

We jest, because we know this second installment in the Shield of Sparrows series by Devney Perry is highly rated, but definitely somewhat polarizing because of its unique storytelling style, and the introduction to completely new characters for half of the entire book! You either love that or hate it… or begrudgingly love it by the end because the payoff is more than satisfying! 

Missed our Shield of Sparrows Recap? Watch it here https://youtu.be/Zq5SB3g-yT4?si=QZQjskGa8q4HB8_J

Shield of Sparrows LIVE Book Club Discussion | https://www.youtube.com/live/iMUSO75MiIE?si=L_5EicK5LAUP6RUe

Today we’re bringing you our spoiler-free reviews and recommendations before we move into all the spoiler-y details including (but not limited to) our “Five Sentence” Plot Summary, notable characters, monsters, places, lore, and Easter eggs. And our usuals like favorite and least favorite parts, characters, and tropes, reviews, audiobook tea, and unanswered questions. Because what DO we know?! That book three will be released on March 9th of next year, and we’re coming to the party prepared! 

Check out our deep dive AND Book Talk Live coverage of Shield of Sparrows and our ongoing Fable chats for both books if you need a refresher, are trying to decide if this series is for you, or even if you just need someone to scream at once you put the pieces together! We’re here for you. And trust us, you’ll need this support group, just like Odessa could probably use one right about now. 😬

We’re bringing you all of this, plus a weekly fave and fail current NON-Pod reads, and an entirely Rites of the Starling themed smash or pass! 

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Check out these narrator interviews? ⬇️

Anthony Palmini gives us the lowdown on what it’s like to voice act Rhysand, Kingfisher, AND Slade Ravinger! 

https://youtu.be/zcCyrlZ5Jcc?si=2k7ULbRPgZl_5pUJ

Check out these author interviews? ⬇️

Penn Cole talks with us about Strong Female Characters, Feminist Themes, and her debut bestselling Spark of the Everflame Series! https://youtu.be/7ukNImyoObw?si=7C3Y9kOUMN4hfcKb

We interviewed Callie Hart all about her NYT Bestseller Quicksilver! Watch it here! https://youtu.be/CED5s7qDBdQ?si=8xtIRO1IzX6Rsld4

Check the official Follow Up Author Interview with Lindsay Straube of the Split or Swallow Universe all about Between Two Kings! https://youtu.be/OW1cxXTVcTc?si=oOxVIzbIheET_bNE

Nikki St. Crowe, the queen of spicy fairy tale retellings chats with us about diving into the land of Oz with West of Wicked! https://youtu.be/wwFYSDKcbtE?si=X6iNmUVAE6Xhmv7B

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Transcript

Oh, you don't like the dual point of view? Well, you should. You should. And so, yeah, they're so cryptic. They talk in riddles. We're like, "Dude, we're already confused. What's going on?" So, I don't forgive him. That's the Aquarius in me. I think also crazy, but I will believe you. Other brothers from other mothers.

Welcome to the Besties in the Books podcast, guys. I'm Liz. And I'm Ashley. And we're back. Ha, with more Shield of Sparrows series coverage. This is going to be the deep dive for book two. So, we are talking Rights of Starling by Debne Perry. Are you guys done reading it? I hope so. If you're not yet and you want to hang out for the first 15 minutes spoilerfree, we get you. You can save it to your playlist and watch it later. But spoilers are going to be commencing after that. We'll give you a full warning, but we are going to be deep diving. It is going to be such a good time. Listen, the obsession, it's running deep. It's running hard. And we know your guys' is too. And we need to talk this out together as a team. We do as a team. In case you want some more though, we do have a recap that we put out a few days ago. If you want a refresher before diving into the rights of Starling with us, we did a full deep dive Shield of Sparrows, including characters. Liz built us some lore. We go over countries. It's a little bit more like recappy, but then we still do our faves, fails, and tropes and all of that. And then uh we have a YouTube live because this was a book club pick in 2025 shortly after it was released. So you can go check out that as well. Get all the Shield of Sparrow things before diving into this full length deep dive. We are so excited to talk about everything. Holy moly. Literally, I know. I just put here um we need something to sustain us for the next almost year while we patiently wait for book three on March 9th of 2027. Yeah, don't you worry. Friday's are coming. We got we're going to have a lot to sustain us. So, that's good. That is good. Yes. Um but yeah, so and then also we've got conversations for Rights of the Starling and Shield of Sparrows on Fable over at best in the book besties in the book club. So, check that out. Well, Ashley and I haven't even talked about this book yet. So, we're so excited to dive into all of the craziness because this book took turns that literally I don't think anyone could have predicted. Yeah. Um, so so exciting. So, the first 15 minutes or so of this episode will be spoiler-free. As per usual, we're going to get into our faves and fails, current reads, nonpodcast related, behind the scenes, um, just to spice it up a little bit for you guys. Um, before we get into all the spoilers and our usual deep dive stuff, but before we get into that, we just wanted to say thank you so much for being here. Seriously, thank you guys so much for taking time out of your day and your book to come and join us weirdos over here at Besties in the Books podcast. Find out what we have to say about Rights of the Starling. Go ahead and like, follow, and subscribe anywhere you like favorite podcasts, including YouTube. If you haven't yet, come join the Crow fam. The water's fine, and we'll have a good time. We are also Besties of the Books podcast on Tik Tok and Instagram. And like Liz mentioned, if you would like a non-committal virtual book club where you guys do the choosing, we do the talking, and you guys also tell us the reviews, we share your reviews, too. We talk it all out together. Go check us out on the Fable app. It is free to download, and we are besties in the book club there. So, there you go. Oh, and if you guys are wondering, because I feel like Rights of the Starling, at least what we've seen so far, um, you know, the reviews have been kind of a little bit like hit or miss, polarizing a little. So, you know, if you're kind of if you read Shield of Sparrows and you're unsure if you want to read Rights of the Starling, then we do include a spoiler free our spoiler-free star and spice rating right on the top as well before we get into spoilers. So, you can stick around to see if we would recommend reading it or not. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. So, Ash, should we tell these people what we read in our spare time? Oh, yeah. What do we read when it's not for the f the podcast? What do we choose? Would you like to start us off, Liz? Yeah. Um, well, here's the thing. If it's not for the podcast and it's not for So, you know, obviously with the podcast, we have our bonus series, we have our regular deep dives, we have popular book releases, and we have interviews. So, that's a pretty like full schedule at that point. And then we also have book club, too. Um, so I had to actually like go look in my good readads because if occasionally I sneak in a different book, I often forget what it was or when I read it or what happened. So we use good readads as a chronicle of the past. What happened in my life? It comes in handy. Yeah. Yeah, it does come in handy. Um, non-podcast related, I would say. My faves of late of the last like month or so, few weeks. Um, I read Christina Applegate's memoir. I listened to it on Audible. She does narrate it. It's called You With the Sad Eyes, and I gave it five stars. Oh, yeah. It was amazing. I have been obsessed with Christina Applegate since I was probably 10 years old. Yeah. Um, you know, she's played some of my favorite characters like throughout the years. I mean, it all started with um, you know, Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead. That evolved into Anchor Man, which then evolved into The Sweetest Thing. Um, so yeah, it's she's definitely been there for me through all the different chronicles of my life. Um, and so it was really interesting to listen to her memoir because she has been so private personally like for her whole life. Um, she didn't even have social media until she started proving this book. Um, so it was very real and you know for anyone who doesn't know she was diagnosed with MS and um that is definitely like it informs her storytelling style because she basically is like I used to care what people think but now that you know I'm dealing with something much that has altered my entire life. I no longer give a crap so I'm going to tell my life as it actually happened and I don't care what people have to say about it. So it's very genuine and real. Yeah. Um, so yeah, five stars easily. Nice. Um, on the flip side of that completely to take a a hard right or a hard left. Um, I have been trying to get through the audio, which I will say is literally the audiobook narrators are amazing. Okay, we're dealing with like the freaking top cast like Shane East, Teddy Hamilton. like we could not have better narrators, but for some reason I have been struggling to get through book two in the Edge of Darkness trilogy by Lee Rivers called Insatiable. Um, it's a dark romance kind of mafia adjacent. And for some reason, it just like wasn't clicking. Like I liked it, but it was taking me forever to listen to it cuz I was just I'd listen to like, you know, 30 minutes here, 30 minutes there for literally like the last like 6 months. Like it was just well I got to that last 25%. And literally it was like the light bulb went off in my head and I became obsessed and now I'm almost done with book two. Um and I've been doing it all on audio. But yeah, so everyone says that this is a dark romance trilogy that will like literally emotionally wreck you. And so I am afraid but also excited for that. Um, so yeah, I ended up reading book one four stars based on literally that last 25% and like I said, I'm almost done with book two and at this point I would give it a five star unless it took like some crazy turn. So I'm very excited to listen to book three as well, but also afraid. So there's that. Yeah. So those have been my faves of late. My fail, which I am very sad about and that I briefly mentioned on my Bookstagram account and also texted to Ashley because I was having a complete crash out over this. Um, if you guys know me, you know that I love HD Harlton. Like, I love her. I've read everything she's written. Um, even if I didn't love that particular book, like there was something about it that still like changed my brain chemistry, you know? It's like she's just one of those authors. And so, I mean, how excited was I when her new book came out that I'm like literally blanking on the title of it. just came out and like hit my Kindle a couple weeks ago. It's called My Dreadful Darling and it's part one in the Hollow Graves duet. Part two comes out I want to say like early next year or maybe not. Maybe it even comes out sooner. I don't remember. Um but I made it a couple chapters in. It's the audiobook isn't out yet. So, I was reading it on my Kindle, and it is like a dark romance, but the two main characters are very young and in college, and like the main male character is like maybe 20, but maybe even 19. And he's a real he's a real human boy, right? It's like he's not like a fay, he's not a vampire, he's not a werewolf. Like, he's literally human. Yeah. like he's a real human boy. And I'm like, listen, there's nothing about a 19-year-old quote unquote man being mean to me cuz it's also bully that like is even remotely interesting to me. Like it's gross. It just everything gives me the I'm like like I can't even read it. So, um I don't want to Okay, I'm not calling it like a full DNF right now. It's a soft DNF because when the audio comes out, let it happen. Like just it's okay. Just DNF. It's not okay because what if see I have all these like things in my head I'm making up right where I'm just like what if they're young now but then they get older later maybe because that's actually how insatiable was and I think that was one of the reasons I was having a hard time connecting with it now it's amazing because they are older it was like told in flashbacks kind of oh and so that might also just be being in denial also though. Yeah. Yeah. cuz some people like the bully trope, you know. So, also like, okay, you're 19 years old. Like, what do you have to bully me about? Like, I'm almost 40. Get out of here. Yeah. Like, gross. Um, but so I'm keeping an open mind. I think what I might do is soft DNF it at this time and then when the audio book comes out, if it has good narrators, then I might download it and try doing the audio and see if that clicks better um for me. But at this time it is a soft DNF and I am sad because I have never done that to HG Carlton before. Yeah. Mhm. Sorry. Yeah. It's sad. It's sad. Uh so what do you have? What have you been reading off off the books lately? Liz came to the rescue cuz I was kind of spiraling because I'm like, "Okay, we have all these things that we need to read from the podcast." like heavy hitters, too. But I needed an audio book because I was physically I had just finished When the Moon Hatched reread on audio and I had already no I was physically reading this book, right? So Starlink. So I'm like I need an audio for the downtime when I'm doing laundry and stuff. Yeah. And we went through the list and everything. I didn't want to do audio for the other stuff we're going to be reading. And she's like, "Oh dude, read the followup to Ananthemma cuz book three is coming out this fall." I'm like, "Oh my gosh, yes. I'm waiting for the perfect time to read that." What was that one even called? Um Eldrich. Eldrich. Okay. Oh man. Okay. I'm not No spoilers, but guys, it picks up right where we left off. Okay. Okay. So, that's what's happening. And the voice, the narration. Oh my gosh. Creme to la creme. That was something that I didn't listen to the audio I think either till later or to find out or at the end for some reason. And I was like, what have I been missing out on? Yeah, Zavander is like top tier. It is. And it is just as good as I remember. So, I'm just right back in it. Now, I'm curious, who even is that narrator. I have it downloaded also cuz I'm hoping to get to it someday. James Cassidy and Melissa Bar. I don't I don't recognize James Cassid's name, but dude, she's great. Okay. Yeah, it's a long one. So, I did put a pause on it to focus on Rise and Starling cuz more lore was starting to come up with it. Uh, cuz you do have a lot of creatures in that, too. And I was going to start getting confused. So, I did pause it again. So, now that I'm done, I can go back to listening to that cuz I'm about probably 20% in. So, um, yeah. But love, if you're looking for a good dark fairy tale, like romanty style though, like so you get both of those things, definitely check out Ananthemma if you haven't yet. It is so good. and it is part of the eating woods series by Carrie Lake and the third one's coming out this fall. So, you got time and yeah, audio book is great. Awesome. So, yeah. And then I'm gonna be starting from CJ Lead Headlights also this week. So, that is I cannot wait to get commentary. Yeah, I'm terrified. Liz is making me do it. So, I'll do one a year, one horror book a year. And so, CJ Lead is the one that will stick with you. So, do you have any books that you've read lately or that you tried to read and just like were not good? Yeah, I couldn't think of any because we have had a lot of high fantasy this year. So, I haven't had a lot of time to fit in anything else. Um, so that's just my only fail is that there's just not enough time for all the books. I think that is relatable, right guys? To all of us all the time, forever. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's time for our still spoiler-free star rating and review. And of course, Liz will bring us our spice rating cuz she's our honorary Spice Girl. So, I'll start. Five star reviews. Holy smokes. Can't stop thinking about it. Absolutely love it. Wow. Um here's here's the deal. People are 50/50 right now, so it seems in the review sphere of Rights of the Starling. you know, they're either loving it or they're hating it because they're this dual POV and some people don't like it. Could it be me? Could it be us? I speak for both of us here. Absolutely not. Um, and if you're if you're reading it right now and you're struggling, stick with it. Don't give up. I know we say that a lot, but we mean it truly like it is all for a good reason. And I think once you get there, you're going to be like, I can't believe I ever doubted Miss Devany Perry, you know? So, hey. Yeah, for sure. Who's it good for? People who read Shield of Sparrows for what and want to find out what happens next. Um, and then of course anybody that likes fantasy, romantic, same things that we all said in last Friday's video, Shield of Sparrows. So, um, wait, you said you gave it five stars, right? Yes. Five solid stars. I cannot freaking wait till the next one. I see what everybody was freaking out in the book club over because now we have to wait another year just like we always do. And um but that's long enough for all of us to forget everything that happened again. Well, now we have all these recap episodes. So, I'm happy that we've done these. I'm so happy that we've done these. Same. Same. They've helped put my brain back together when these authors make them crumble and fall apart, you know. Yeah. No, I do know. It's like I actually Yeah, the way that we structure these now, I'm like, "Hey, if we find them useful, I'm sure you guys find them useful." It's like because I'll literally go back and be able to recap these like re rewatch, you know, before next March when book three comes out. That's a while. Yeah. And there will be a lot of books read in between now and then as well. Yeah. Um Okay. Well, I rated it five stars as well. I mean, hello. Come on. Like, this book was so good. You guys know that I'm already like a sucker for like a multi-pov, but this was a multi-pov on a different level since we're keeping this spoiler-free um on like a a way that we have full circle moments that just make me so happy. So, for that reason, and I also like um a certain amount of I feel like there was so much like mystery going on in this one where it was like a lot of like, you know, all of our characters trying to like solve the world's problems, but as a reader, it's like we also don't know what's going on. So, it's like no one knows what's going on. So, it's like I feel like that can be frustrating for some people, but I love that because it's like just a next level of I don't know like twists and turns around every corner. We're not sure at all where she's going to take us. So, I really appreciated it for that reason, too. Mhm. Lots of surprises, but like in a good way. It's a trust the process kind of book. For sure. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. You can't like every single time I was like, "Wait, is it this? Is it this? Is it this? Am I overthinking it? Am I like thinking too deep about this or like am I on to something? I don't know, you know. Um and so I love that process of watching the pieces just like slowly come together. Um yeah, it's definitely like a lots of Easter eggs, lots of lore that's important kind of book. So yeah, five stars for me. Can't wait to read the next one. And then surprisingly enough, I gave this a two spice as well. I felt like there wasn't very much spice in here. Um, and the spice that we did have, like we even had some like fade to black scenes. We had some closed door scenes. I was a little bit surprised by that cuz I thought this one would get a little spicier. Um, but I didn't feel like it did. So, you know, but that didn't make me like it any less. I felt like it was still so well done. And it made sense, you know, other than Yeah, I was surprised some more fade to black. But again, it makes sense, but I was expecting a little more spice as well. Yeah. But I think this one was like it was about that's not what this was about. Without spoiling anything, this was not what that this book was about. It was about some other more important things right now. I think we uh we were distracted by the zillion other puzzle pieces we were trying to put together. Yeah. Mhm. For sure. For sure. Okay. Well, that being said, should we get into our spoiler section for Rights of the Starling and just get into it? Buckle up, you guys. Are you ready? How did you do it this time? Is it clear and concise? No way. No way. Okay. Well, hang on. Here is your official warning, guys. Spoilers coming in hot for Rise of the Starling. You don't want to be spoiled. I'm telling you, go get to reading if you haven't finished it yet. Just trust us. Just trust it or you're like us and you'll forget anyways. But I don't think you'll forget these spoilers. They might stick with you. So, um, be careful. Okay. So, for this book, I only did two sets of five sentence summaries because we only had two. I mean, we had like one chapter with Ransom's point of view, but like that's not enough to matter. Yeah. And and uh the dad, but nonetheless, it's still Yeah. Yeah. It was minimal. It was to the point where I was able to work their very minimal point of views into these five sentence summaries. So, basically, I have one from Odessa and then I have one from Caspia. So, this was my question, however, to you. Which set of five would make sense to read first? Caspia. Okay, sure. Let's not overthink it. Well, here we go. Well, as I was writing it, I was like, I don't know which one I should read first because I don't know which one I would want to know first. There's going to be people on both sides saying one or the other for different reasons, and there's pros and cons to each side. So, let's just make a decision and let's go. Here we go. Okay, so we've got five sentence summary of Caspia's point of view. Okay. Princess Caspia lives in a castle in the city of Shiao or SH in the country of Nelanex on the distant continent of Ken where she and her cousin Xandra both wait to go through their writest where they will advance from being a quiescent warrior to a starling a royal woman who can shapeshift into any creature often choosing their beloved companions gigantic gentle and powerful birds called swifts. But she finds herself having visions of the past. one in particular of her sister who traveled away from Ken years ago and never returned being murdered by a man with silver eyes. She hires a ship and travels with her cousin Xandra the stowaway to where the thrum in her heart directs her to Kandra. Hey already, wow, you just put so much information in that one sentence. So, good job. Good job on that. Yeah, they find themselves feeling increasingly strange and unwell, especially when they take refuge in a gigantic cave. And shortly after, they're surrounded by barols and Xandra completes her writing into one, but doesn't know herself or Caspia and cannot change back. So, Caspia jumps off of a waterfall to save herself and washes up next to the cabin of a kind man named Andreas, who nurses her back to health and who she quickly falls in love with. However, she decides to leave him to continue her mission and is attacked by a fenic almost immediately because in her country, Starling have deep meaningful connections with creatures. So, Andreas saves her. They save an orphan boy named CS on their travels and they decide to ultimately go to Quentis, Andreas's home together, her leaving her revenge behind in order to start a new life and destiny where her visions of death and destruction will hopefully not come true. Two. Two.

Mhm. They reach Quentis and she and Andreas are forced to reconcile his perception of the migration in the crux with her reality of Starling and Swifts. While she secretly fights the feelings of her own right approaching, but they ultimately believe each other and decide to try to research the magic and Kandra to figure out why the Starling and creatures in general are responding this way to it. She writes her own book to add to the collection in the library, adding history about Ken and Elanex since none can be found at all and none of the history of Kandra can be found prior to the first migration. Asking the librarian who adopted costs to hide it in the library. Then mysteriously, a Voster she doesn't recognize comes and gives her another book. She reads it three times and is still not sure what it means until he until he returns to help explain the history of the six magicians.

three. Because of this, she decides the best course of action is to find the orbits and destroy them. So, we're going to have to talk about the magi magicians, just a little side note, in the war section because that would make the summary like insanely long. Okay, so because of this, she decides the best course of action is to find the orbits and destroy them, starting with the most dangerous and remote place possible, the Evan Ravine. At this point, Andreas has called off his betroal and married Caspia. And she is aware that he is actually the crown prince. So, he uses his riches to hire a huge company to take them there, where they have several casualties, but ultimately find the first orbit, which they lock away in an iron box and concede to pause their searching in order to look for more people to help because Caspia is pregnant. Four. Caspia realizes her visions have been of the future this whole time. So, she leaves her elfaltered necklace and journal for her daughter Odessa tucked away in a secret compartment in her room and entrust her ladies maid Margo with keeping her baby safe and her husband from completely descending into despair. When one day, four Voster priests come to the castle presumably to kill her and Odessa for their magic and ability to expose them for what they truly are. So Andreas kills her after she completes the writer

five.

All right, Caspia. Okay, that was great. Good job. Thank you. Odessa's time to shine. Let's go. Okay, Odessa's point of view. Ransom arrives in Trow to meet with Odessa and Eevee after the devastating Krux attack they fled from, but finds they aren't there. having taken the journey with brother Dime and later passing them off to Brother Score, who leads them the long way to Quentis, refusing to sail directly, stopping to meet Damon, the man with a lion with claw around his neck, the woman in the woods who cures herself of a snake bite. The great warrior Thora, Kathleen's niece, and one of the mavens, a group of mercenaries working for a man named Salem, a traveling merchant named Wells, and Striker, the oneeyed man with three scars. finding that many scenes and scenarios would play out with these people exactly and mysteriously like the stories in Luella's journal told them. At the beginning of the journey, Brother Score saves them from a bearwolf ambush by evaporating all of their blood from their bodies, killing them. Then later takes Odessa into a secret maze of caves to find a pool of water, but she passes out when she touches it from the intensity of the magic. And when she wakes up, he leaves them without a clear explanation of what happened.

Was that one? Yeah. Okay. Great.

Thora and the Mavens agree to escort Odessa the rest of the way back to Quentis for a significant amount of gold that they that may help free them from their corrupt boss. And on the way, Odessa fills them in on her identity and tells them all about Lysa before they are ambushed by a rabid pack of bearwolves. One of the mavens and Odessa's horse, Freya, are killed. And when all seems lost, Ransom finds them and slays the monsters. And immediately afterwards, they sail for Quentis. and Odessa and Ransom fill each other in on their missed time together, but Ransom omits what he saw when he killed the Krux scout.

Two, they meet with King Cross, and he is not only disappointed in Odessa's inability to complete her missions, but still refuses to divulge any information that he has regarding Liza, which he knows about, and the migration. So Odessa starts looking more into a cure herself, explaining the entire situation to the castle's head healer, Allore, and taking her a vial of Ransom's blood to test because he seems to only be getting worse and losing more control over himself. May also seems unusually angry and resentful. And Margot seems to be more open with Odessa, telling her about her past and even trusting her with the knowledge of her affair with the new captain in the King's Guard, Hawkley. When Odessa accidentally catches them secretly meeting three, we find out that there is a secret faction of Voster quote unquote zealots called Kenan that are traitors to the Brotherhood, the High Priest, and therefore the royals. So Ransom insists they leave Quentis right away before getting caught up in it. But because Xavier, who really is alive, Katherine, Jonas, Samuel, and Gizela only just arrived from Tura, they haven't had any time to travel just yet. And in the meantime, Odessa and May are attacked by a group of drunk castle guards wanting to steal FaZe. And in his rage, Ransom kills them and is then imprisoned by her father until he can be exiled after the migration. Margot comes to give them a book to read together. And Odessa realizes it's her mother's journal. or

I know Odessa confronts her father about the journal and he confesses the truth. Her mother Caspia was from the country of Nelanex on the continent of Ken. She traveled to Kandra originally for her writer sister's death which he saw in a vision and to possibly find out what happened to her mother who disappeared. But they met and fell in love changing everything. At the time he was a prince but not long after getting married his parents passed and he became king. Then they brought Odessa into the world. But because the magic of Kandra corrupts sparrows from Nelfex when she did eventually go through heritis, transforming into a swift or a crux depending on what continent you're on, Andreas killed her to save them and hid Odessa away so that the Vostaster wouldn't murder her for her challenge to their magic and power. Now all they have to do is find the remaining orbits to rid the continent of this cursed magic. But the high priest, most of the Voster, and King Ramsay are protecting it. H five done.

Crazy times. Oh, crazy times. Crazy, man. So crazy. The first thing that I like texted Ashley last night was like, if you guys watched our uh Shield of Sparrows episode, I was like, "Hey, I specifically fancasted Jessica Chastain as her mother, not knowing who her mother was going to be." And so when we read this and we found out Caspia was her mother, I was like, "Oh my god, that would be so freaking cool." And I already knew when you said that, I was like, "Yeah, yeah, it's perfect. It's so good." Excellent job, Liz. That was amazing. So great putting our brain back together. Maybe a recap for the future, future us, future whoever's watching this. I hope that was helpful. It was helpful for me. I know it. I'm speaking for my future self, too. Um, we have done a loosey goosey uh characters, new characters to take note of as well. So, that was super informative that that went over a lot of characters. I'm not going to include everybody, but just a couple things to like note and why they're important right now. Um, literally, I just flew by the seat of my pants on this one cuz we did it for, you know, when the moon hatched and everything. So, I was like, I want to I want to try doing this when we can cuz it is probably useful. So we have obviously Caspia new POV Starling from Nephex that will be able to shift into the crux once the right is complete the writest whatever. Uh obviously we find out that is Odessa's mom twist crazy. I thought that the whole time I thought they were going to be sisters like separated at birth or something. Figuring Yeah. I was trying to figure out I was like oh no. And then I put it in the fable chat. You know our virtual book club. Besties in the book club. I put in somewhere in a chapter I put like a prediction and then I said don't keep reading, you know, if you don't like guessing games cuz I do like to try to figure things out. I was like I have a strong inkling that this might be her mom. I'm not sure but I just want to throw it out there. That is that way if I'm I'm right, I know I was right. So, but then I don't really want it because then it's like, well, what do we know of her vision? You know, you're thinking maybe it's her that died. Then I'm trying to remember, did he get a good look at her? you know, like, well, he would she would look like her, so it could be her mom. And so, I didn't figure out who it was that her vision was yet. That was crazy. I didn't really figure out that twist until we hear from later on. Um, Emry, the woman that she was going for, trying to save, you know, her sister. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, I was uh I was proud of myself on that guess. I pretty much can never guess twists in books. So, it doesn't make it any less good because I I had a good prediction, you know, and it was pretty it was like probably 10 chapters before we find out. So, it wasn't like super early in the game. So, um and then I saw um Fantasy with me, guessed it a few chapters later. So, I was like, "Oh, I think I'm on to something here then." And then, yeah, it all connect. So, pretty cool. So then of course she is mercy killed by you know Odessa's dad King Andreas Cross when he when she turns into the crux and that land turns him into monster. So sad. So Andreas as we know now Odessa's dad on is King Cross. He fell in love with Caspia. And then Xandra, which I think we'll see again, Caspia's cousin, who we went who she went traveled to for the Writis and who turned into the Berry Wolf, who everyone is assuming right now is probably the Berry Wolf that attacked Ransom and stalks him. Oh, so it's all connected. That twisted. That twist right there. I was like, like when I read because Yeah, I think it was Fantasy and Me. I think it was Heather who was like Literally, that has got to be Xandra. And I was like, like I was screaming. I was like, "That's crazy." But you're totally right. Like, it has to be. It has to be. It has to be. So, that's crazy. I mean, I guess it doesn't have to be, but if it wasn't, that would be crazy. Yeah. Even um even uh Odessa herself makes that guess, right? Like, oh, I wonder if it's her after reading these journals. Okay. So, then we have Emry. We we find out Emry is actually the one that was slain by uh Ransom. Sorry, everybody has so many names that's why it's like crazy. So we'll call him Ransom still. So that is who he slayed. Um and but they are okay because it was a mercy like not it was again it's to protect all these people. So it's an understanding. We don't have like a weird animosity growing. It's like we did what had to be done. Honestly was It was so refreshing. That was one of the things that I loved about Andreas and Caspia's relationship was the fact that like they're from two different countries. I mean, she's literally from a continent he never even heard of before, which is crazy to think about, too. Yeah. And I loved that like they were able to see that they had completely different perceptions of reality and history without casting judgment on each other or assuming that the other person was lying or getting angry. It's like no, we literally grew up across the world from each other and see things completely differently because of our lived experience. And I was like, that's amazing. Like wow, that's like such an evolved thinking. We didn't get bogged down by the [ __ ] So that was nice. Yep. That was nice. And then same thing even with u finding out, oh no, you basically killed my what would that my my cousin my aunt somehow you know you killed one of my ancestors. Ransom did to you know uh golly these names swear. Um Odessa. So she doesn't hold anything against him when she finds out. Yeah that as well. Yes. Like what are you supposed to do? But yeah what are you supposed to do you know? So that was so heartbreaking though that we basically read that perspective from Queen Olina who is the queen starling and Emmery where she comes back with her beloved Max and then they have a baby but they go back and we know that they are the ones that get killed. So so sad cuz they don't know that if they go to that land that's what's going to happen but they're being pulled. They're being drawn and they're pulled and I think they're being harvested for their magic. I think that's what the There's got to be some Yeah, we'll get into that with the Vosters later, but there's got to be some There's It can't just be as simple as that. There has to be some kind of like nefarious like dealings going on that like Ransom's dad also is a part of, right? You know, like what's Ramsay doing? Yeah. Yep. So, um, then we're kind of reintroduced to Margot and May, which I also enjoy the way that that was handled, too, you know. So, we have Andreas saying they never even shared a bed together. So, no, those aren't your biological siblings in any way, but it actually makes their bonds even stronger. I feel May, you know, is dealing with not having this uh life goal accomplished anymore and trying to figure out her place, but Odessa is still wanting to openly embrace her. You know, if anything, I think it's going to make the relationship stronger. You know, May kind of comes and tries to save her as well. Um, honestly, the second the second that she hands her baby to Margo, I was like, "Oh my god." like my brain like shortcircuited. I was like, "Oh my god." It made you see I think that that also was really I This is why I love dual POV, okay? Is because it's like now you see the king in a completely different light. It's like dude held her dead body for two days. If that's not Heath Cliff, I don't know what is. Like no wonder. And he just can't look at his own daughter because she looks like a you know the same. It's like you see Margot in a completely different light. Like you Yeah. It's like May, you know, you're introduced to General Hawkley who's literally been friends with the king since the olden days, who is the father of May. It's like Yep. It's crazy. So good. So well done, you know. And then we have other people that I definitely think are going to come up, friends and things like that. I love that little that little full circle treat that she gave us where Odessa meets grownup um CS with still faxen who adopted him. Yes, that was so sweet. Oh my gosh, I loved that too. Yeah, those little things. So, let's go over the gods real quick. So, the gods of Kandra, I'm going to say gods and air quotes. So, they were mortal men, magicians, which it is hard to take seriously, not going to lie. Um, I know like just using using the ter I I get it because she uses the terminology magicians because their power is a farce basically, right? Like Yeah. And so yes, like while it makes sense, it also is like you just picture a cape and a wand and a pulling a rabbit out of a hat. And so it kind of did pull me out a little bit too, I got to admit. Yeah. Yeah. But that's all right. We're we're we're powering through it. We're looking past it. Magicians. So, these magicians made paths with demons and they store their power in six orbits which must be destroyed to end this curse. They're hoping. So, we have the Kennan who are a faction of the Voster. They all came from Kennan, but they call the Voster High Priestess call them the Kennan who they believe are working to they paint them as like extremists. So the Kennan are seen as negative and bad and they're going against the Foster who everybody is believed to be good holy saints that just want love and peace and happiness, right? Cuz we're all confused on the Voster. It's like are they good? Are they bad? Well, there's both and it depends who it is that we're talking about. So, okay. So, maybe can you clear this up for me a little bit because I was a little bit confused by this. So Ransom's basically like we need to get away from brother Score and um brother what who was the other man name I can't remember his name like we need to get away from there them because they're obviously like essentially working like with the Kenan which are the bad guys but are they really bad guys or are they like hail and are they basically like the resistance

Yeah, exactly. So, we have the high priest cuz that's who that is who Ransom has always worked with is the high priest because he is in Alisaria, the hidden city. So, yeah, it's propaganda. We're dealing with propaganda right now. We're dealing with conspiracies and you I feel like I left the book wanting to believe that Dime and Score are the resistance. I think that is what we're supposed to be believing too. So we're we're leaving Shield of Sparrows being skeptical, not really understanding their place. And that's maybe because we are meeting other brothers, so we don't really know. And then they're very tight-lipped as we know, frustratingly so. Um, so yeah, I kind of left the book as this is what we're supposed to believe, but I'm still waiting for more information. So, from what I gather, you know, we have a few brothers in the resistance. It could still be one of those situations where they're manipulated to go and collect these things and they're not supposed to, you know, but I just don't know. The evidence right now is showing me that they're part of the resistance and because of the curses and everything. So, we have all that other um what's it called? Evidence that this land used to be fine. They're destroying all the history before this crux start migration started happening and now there's illnesses and now it's spreading and things are getting worse because we're finding out that basically the orbits are polluting the waters and everything. So because the magic is basically like a type of poison leeching into the land. So it makes sense that Dime and Score and a few of these other brothers that we were introduced to are like it's not worth it. This is bad. This is bad news bears. I don't want this anymore. And are trying to pedal back and try to save the land as best they can. But they can't find them on their own. So that's hard. Well, because they don't Yeah. It's like they need the um they need her. Yeah. They need a Starling basically to like seek them out or whatever, just like Caspia did um in the creass and just like you know Odessa did um presumably in the cave. So okay. So, like the Voster who we meet at the end who ends up getting his head chopped off in her vision. That's what leads me to believe that it's like they're part of the underground resistance and basically like the head Voster or the priest or whatever is like working with the king and maybe other kings too um to keep all of this going. Um because really it seems pretty simple. You find the things that contain their blood. What are they called again? I forgot. the orbits. Orbs like the orbits. Yeah. So, it's like you find the orbits and you get rid of those and then you h you no longer have a crux migration. It solves the whole problem. And Lisa, so Lisa is a direct result of that magic ruining the world. So, Luella isn't even fully responsible for that. So, I'm still a little murky on that. I mean, it sounds like Lissa literally only exists in the first place because of this magic poisoning the land, but Luella did have a hand in maybe altering it just enough that it can go to humans now, right? So, we still have a little bit of responsibility there. That's how I took it as. But, nonetheless, we're hoping that if we get rid of that magic, also it'll save ransom and stop this spread and it can reverse all of these damages that are made. We're hoping, but we don't know, right? So, yes, all those things lead me to believe that Brother Dime and Score, as far as we know, are good guys. I have here. So, we have Brother Hayne, who was in Caspia's first, you know, POV. RIP guy depleted his magic to tell her all that was his name. Yeah, I think that u my auto correct corrected it to hail. So, sorry if that's what I called him. That's all right. It's auto correct sucks. Um and then we have obviously brother Dime. So right now I said marked marked trusted for now worked as a shield also for King Andreas Cross. So Dime stepped in after the loss of Caspia and all of that. So he basically stepped in as a secret resistance guy just enough to keep away the priests from coming and bothering him. So then we have brother Score who is Kenan officially. He actually has been going all these years with I forget his name. Uh the one that Marggo's with, isn't it? To go and try to find and to narrow down locations on the orbits. Um Oh, with I know. Oh, with Hawkley. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. With Hawkley. Yes. So, she he's going off with Hawkley. That's why people don't really know much about him cuz he seems to have a lot of power cuz he's the one that can control and pull his power in. So, there we go. I also believe, correct me if I'm wrong or whatever. Um, I believe he was originally brother Nol and changed it to score. I thought I read that would make sense to me as well cuz I had that down too, but that I was a little bit fuzzy on that also. I actually have I believe that he said your mother knew me as brother. Exactly. So, let's just confirm that him to knowing. Yeah. Yes. So, just to clarify for anybody that was confused on that too because it's a quick sentence, you might miss it. Um, yeah. So, and then also to clarify, Alisaria. So, that was the mystery land in the first book, but now we know that is where the priesthood resides. They built their temples and castles, if you will, over the land, and that's presumably at least where one of the orbits is stored. And then there's a couple other guesses of where the other three are. So, that would make six. So, we're going to go on a little scavenger hunt in the next book. That's for sure. I think it'll be a good one, though. Don't worry, I'm not scared. Yeah. I'm wondering, too, like just, you know, to go back to like the characters because we obviously have a ton of characters that live in this new place, right? To So, last time we went over just like the basic countries for Shield of Sparrows. Now, we're adding in a whole other continent which is called Ken. The people that we know of. So, Caspia and her family, the royal family, live in a town called Show, which is in Nelanx. Okay, so that's all we know, aside from the fact that there's another continent named Azon, south of Ken, and another continent named Elium, which is also south of Ken. So, there's like all these places that like we haven't even really explored. And I remember also Caspia's aunt, the queen. So, Aunt Oana mentioning that there were several corrupt kings on their side of the world, too. Yeah. So, it's like, so I think that's the problem that it's not cut and dry and it's not easy for us yet cuz we don't even have all the information yet. Yeah. Intentionally. So, yeah. It's like I think that's why I loved this book so much though cuz and I think it's a reason why a lot of people didn't, right, is like this idea that um a lot of people were like, "Wait, I don't care about this other point of view and these new people." And it's like, no, now we're getting like this whole other instead of just looking at this one world, one continent. It's like we have all this other stuff that's going on, which makes complete sense because they're essentially like clashing and there's all these issues going on between them. Also, something I wanted to bring up too is that we don't know how long I don't think like do we know how long Starlings live? No, I don't think we know. So, I keep thinking who's still over an NFX who's related to obviously everyone else now, right? To Odessa. Like, who who what family does she have over there? I don't know. Like, I wonder. I I said that actually with too much confidence. I don't know. I have no idea. Like, it might have been clearly stated, you know, in the early chapters where we weren't fully paying attention. So, I don't know. Yeah, maybe maybe they are longived. It makes sense that they would in like a fantasy series, a FA series. Uh because especially because, you know, 20 years passed between the death of Caspia and the return of Emmery to that land. So, it makes sense that she's got a bunch of family over there. And what I like about it is we're not dealing with two separate realms. We're literally dealing with another continent across the sea. So, it's not like they have to figure out how are we gonna magically transport into this other realm. It's like, yeah, okay, it might be hard to navigate to get there, but not without Odessa. Odessa might be drawn to Neelyex if they put her on a ship and sail out there far enough. And so, I love that thinking about that. Yeah. Where's that going to go, guys? Oh. Oh, you don't like the dual point of view? Well, you should cuz it needs to happen, literally. And just trust us, you'll love it. Well, and I think it was also a really perfect way of showing through fantasy how depending on where you grow up, the same objective history can look like two completely different realities. Yeah, that's like fascinating like to see that, right? It's like to Caspia, she's like, "Oh, the Swifts are like our freaking companions. Like, we love them. They're so wonderful. We try to turn into like we turn into them because they're amazing." Um, and then obviously over here in Colandra, it's like all the people are afraid of them cuz they're these huge monstrous animals that kill a bunch of people all the time, you know? It's just that's how I felt like it was a good example of showing how easily like I said the same thing can mean two very different things to groups of people depending on where you are right. Yeah. Yeah. And you even see that play out in the histories that are told of basically where the brotherhood comes from. So we are kind of like still questioning that like the war that they were in who was really the bad guys. Is it the other continent that pushed them out because they were doing bad things? Like, I can't wait to know more history about that. Yeah, I have a lot of that down in like the lore section that I was kind of interested about because it's like, yeah, I what we get lore from Ransom's point of view. We get lore from um who was the Voster who like battled his magic to be able to like tell Caspia the truth. I can't remember his name. There we go. I have to write it down. Hayne. Hayne. Yeah. Brother. Brother Hayne. So, it's like we get obviously some lore from his perspective, but we don't know yet what's exactly true. Yeah. And I gave like a pretty obviously watered down condensed version of some of the Brotherhood's history that we're told from his point of view. But that's chapter 50. I've read it twice now and I will read it again. It is a lot of information. And it's not long, but chapter 50, if you're like, you know, watching this re as a recap or something like that, I would recommend I'm going to reread as a future note to myself to reread chapter 50 um to get a better grasp. It's going to come up. Yeah. Um and info dump in a good way, but a but confusing because it's coming from these freaking priests and they are confusing and so yeah, they're so cryptic. They talk in riddles. We're like, "Dude, we're already confused. What's going on?" So yeah, and at the end when I share the lore section, I definitely have a handful of things I'll bring up, but it's like also take it with a grain of salt because what are we realizing now that it's like the narrative is going to be completely different depending on where you're coming from and who you are. So yeah, exactly. Yeah. And that's all intentional, I think. So Oh, yeah. For sure. Yeah. So the difference like Okay, it's fine. Side side note, the difference between something like this that's crazy and all over the place and info dump, but it's not all over the place. We still have a natural progression and something like Iron Flame is that we don't have all the drama in between. Yeah. If it was just like this because I feel like um the last one Onyx [ __ ] stom was that was it what it was? Um that one also had like all the different continents and all the craziness happening but I was so distracted with all the drama that I didn't care about that it took away from that heart that people I think do like also. Well, it was more about the way I like it done. It was more about like the characters on page like and their personal issues as opposed to like this is very much about the lore and the history because they're trying to solve this major problem and the characters I feel like in this series and Shield of Sparrow series are more interested in figuring out the truth and solving the issues. Whereas I felt like in the Imperion, it kind of went down the rabbit hole of it seemed like the main characters in that series became more interested in their own personal like petty problems. And so that's what lost us, I think. You know, cuz cuz I feel like Yeah. the plot in both is really interesting because there's a lot of like obviously political um scheming and propaganda going on. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Something I just realized when we're talking through it and all the craziness. Yeah. Okay. All right. Well, is there anything else that we should go over before we get into tropes and a little bit more light-hearted things of this series? Sometimes, I already brought up all the new places, so those were already mentioned. This time, we didn't have very many. So, um, that was pretty easy to go over, you know, and then I just put new monsters. Okay, we only had one new monster, the Cheroptus. And I think other than the crux, just for obvious reasons, I think the Cheroptus might be my new favorite, right? I'm hoping they get so cute and nice when they get rid of the bad magic. I know. They're so like vicious and cute. I am the knight. I know. I mean, they're they're terrifying, but like in a cute way. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Cuz we know that they're not really bad. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Okay. just drawn that way. Oh no. Yeah. So that's it though. I think we Yeah, we went over major characters. Oh, uh before we forget though, I did think it was important to also note too that some new characters that will probably my assumption would be become more important moving forward are going to be the Mavens. Um and so I really liked them and I want to make sure that we mention them. So, there are the mercenary warriors that are working for some, I don't know, some guy named Salem that we don't know anything about this person. Okay. So, I feel like that's definitely going to come up again, too, cuz all we know is that he's like this terrible person who basically like holds these things over their heads and makes it very um hard for them to escape his grasp or buy their freedom. Um, and uh, Thora is obviously also Kathleen's niece, so I feel like we're gonna find some things out about that as well. And they did come back around at the end of the book. I thought they were just going to like wander off and be gone, but then they came back. So, I'm excited to see what goes on with them, too. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Okay, so what about some tropes you loved, Ashley? What are your three faves?

uh propaganda and conspiracies. Conspiracies. Yeah, that's what that's what made this book more set apart from the first one because we're getting more into the why. Um so I'm loving that. Loving the way it was done. So cool. Can't wait to find some answers out on who really the bad guys are, right? Yeah. Um, obviously dual POV, but not just that, simultaneously a different timeline. Yes. Oo, this was might have been my favorite way it has been done so far. Yeah. So cool. So cool. Um, and then we have emotional twists. It's not just twists, but like, oh, heart-wrenching like, oh, say it is in so that means she's dead. They'll never meet. Oh, it's so sad. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Um, yeah. I mean, I put dual timelines. Um, even more than that, it's like, yeah, dual point of view, dual dual timelines. It's like that's just, yeah, super satisfying the way that this was done for sure. Um, I mean, I would have been satisfied if they were, you know, sisters separated at birth, but I was like, this is even better because it's like she thinks that her visions are of the past and they're actually of the future. It's like, oh my god. It's like wrapping your head around that for a second like can be a little like I just sat there and kind of like thought about it cuz I had to like absorb it. I was like, okay, so she's not seeing what she thinks she's seeing. She's seeing what we know is now the future. Oh my god, my brain's exploding. Okay. Right. Like a reread of this would be so fun cuz it's like, oh, the snake girl that she was like, dude, why did I just read about that in this journal? That is crazy that that happens, I guess, a lot. That's what I was thinking. Like, oh, it's like a it's like a healing uh journal. Like, how to fix this if you get bit by this thing. I knew it had to be something. They were premonitions. Premonitions, but now like, dude, that's crazy. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Wow. Um, and then I put secret lineage. That's a good one. That was very fun to find out about. Um, for sure. And then I put hidden lands because it's not really a hidden land, but like to us it is, right? And so I loved that as well. Yeah. I also put cursed lands cuz the land is cursed and they got to fix it. They got to cure it. Mhm. And the only the only uh cure is more cowbell. So [ __ ] He's just going to come in there, save the day. Yeah. If only it was that easy. And then and then Ransom just gets better and everything's great and the big bats are nice now. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Um I couldn't think of a trope that I hated, so help me out here. What is one trope that you hated? Maybe it'll spark something in my brain. Okay, I have two. One of them is necessary. So, hey. Um I don't really like the whole like religious zealot thing. It's like gross to me, but also it's supposed to be. So, there's that. Um, yeah, it's like I feel like it's very common in fantasy, but usually it's like witches and they're usually female. So, I kind of like that this is a little bit different. Um, the one that I didn't like that might actually be an unpopular opinion is I felt like there was a little bit too much insta love between Andreas and Caspia. And I didn't love that. Yeah. But I like that she kept leaving him. Yes, but I was kind of like because that helped my brain because I was also like don't don't do it yet. No, no, no. I just struggled with Yeah. She kept on leaving him because obviously she's her allegiances are to her own family and whatever. Yeah, for sure. But like here's the thing. I'm like, first of all, you haven't known each other for very long. You don't really know much about this guy. All he tells you is that he's like wealthy and is from Quentis, but he hasn't even told you who he really is um or who his family is. and he's nice, but it's like you guys also have limited communication because you literally have had to learn each other's languages to talk to each other. He doesn't know who you really are because you can't tell him that you're a Starling for fear of what that might mean. And he's going to come save you from a monster and then you're going to be like, "All right, it's fine. You can just travel with me." Even though she could turn any day. I don't know. That I didn't love. I felt like she built trust with him in my opinion too fast. Yeah, I was skeptical of him though the whole time. I don't know if that's intentionally so, but I do feel like what we ended up finding out, he could have had some better character development. Yeah. But I wonder if that would have changed in any way cuz we don't know a lot about him in book one and obviously he's an a-hole so it didn't help his cause in my opinion. I feel like we could have found more out about him in a way that didn't spoil who he was. Yeah. And we didn't. And I And I don't know if that was intentional because of the fact that it's like they they could only communicate so much in the beginning and it took them a while to get to know each other because of these barriers of culture and language, etc. But then at the same time, it's like, well, then that should be reason enough to maybe not like invite him on your special journey. I don't know. I was like a little bit weirded out by that. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe unpopular opinion. I feel like by the end of it, it made sense. It made us see the king in a completely different light. We now have a lot more empathy for his story. Um but I do feel like his character could have been built a little bit better personally. Yeah. Okay. Not that we need to like um debate, but I will say what I like about the religious zealot trope, the way it's being done right now, is that I think that the Brotherhood is under the guise of religion. Uhhuh. And it's not that at all. It's just them hoarding magic and being able to live forever. So, I like where that's going. Totally. Yeah. And I feel like that's common when it comes to that quote unquote. It's almost like the line between what's considered religious and what's considered magic, I feel, or what's considered science are very blurry, especially if we're dealing with fantasy/medieval times. Um, and so I feel like it's kind of all one and the same, right? It's like what is magic? What is science? Like what is religion? Is everything all of the above? Is everything nothing? Like I don't I don't want to get too philosophical, but like really. And so I agree with you. It's like they're using it to advance their station and protect themselves. So I do like that. I think it just creeps me out. I'm not saying that I would choose for it to be different. It's just every time it's like comes up, it just creeps me out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um Okay. Okay. So, a trope that I didn't like is uh you know, all knowing beings will say um withholding information in an annoying way and only giving one-word answers like the whole time when you have all this time. I understand like it helps a little bit that they're under these blood o and they have to ask the right questions. So, maybe they're frustrated because nobody's asking the right questions that they can answer, but figure it out. like you've had I don't know let's it's said generations 11 generations or something to figure out how to communicate for your cause because this is taking too long people are dying grandpa like let's go yeah I I struggle with the like I can't tell you because I'm under a blood oath but just so you know it rhymes with like you know what I mean like I just I hate that the charades like figure it out you know the language like let's go but it's also like That makes blood oath seem kind of stupid to me because I'm like, you know, it's just it makes it feel fli the magic is flimsy. If you're able to like ask me the right question, wink wink, cough, cough, and like we'll come up with the answer, you know? I'll give you this book and highlight the passages that are important. It's just Yeah. I don't know. Like that's weird. Like, oh yeah, I'll write myself a letter and give it to myself. Yes. But then you're going to steal it. Yeah. I will write it in code but then give you the key to the code. Yeah, it just seems flimsy. I don't know. So that's why it a little wrong. Yeah, that's a little flimsy. That's a little flimsy right there. I will say that. But it's not I mean but that happens in so many books like this. I mean so many Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um do you have It is what it is. Was that your Was that your micro trope or do you have a micro trope? That was the trope I remembered that I hated. Okay. Okay. my niche micro trope that I actually enjoyed this time. Magic is bad. When do we when do we read fantasy books where magic is bad? Mhm. I mean, oftentimes it's used for bad for evil. For bad. Yeah. But this is like literally poisoning the lands. Yeah. Yeah. So, will magic exist in this land at all? What is the like what are the starlings? How can they turn? Is that just a separate thing? You know, like does magic exist in this world without this Voster situation? Because we're not really seeing it with other people, but maybe the other continents do have magic or some form of it. And um I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. Mhm. What about you? Um I put hidden identity, but not really because we just didn't realize who they were talking about. Yeah. But that's intentional from the author, so still hidden. Yeah. Yeah. It's hidden identity, but I it's it's different. I don't know what to call that. It's like Andreas is King Cross, but we don't realize that it's younger version of him, right? So, it's like it's hidden identity, but only hidden from like us, I guess, the reader. The reader. I like that a lot because it adds like a different element. It adds a different layer than just a straightup hidden identity where like the characters in the book don't know who they are. You know what I mean? So, yeah. Loved it. Yeah. This is going to be this is going to be a reread next year because now just like with some of the other recent fantasy rereads we did like when the moon hatched, we don't have to be bogged down, if you will, by trying to figure out who everybody is and the predictions and what they mean. Now we can like say, okay, what was this vision? This never happened in the book. So what is that predicting for book three? Like what is this saying? Who was this person? What was that history lesson that I breezed right over and didn't think about later? Totally. There's probably a lot of that in there. So, that's exciting. It is exciting. Mhm. Yeah. Uh, did you have a favorite part you wanted to call out specifically? I mean, I loved this whole book, but one thing you want to mention like Yeah. The part that stood out to me is officially figuring out that Caspia is Odessa's mom and Yeah. uh that her POV was all in the past, which means that Odessa is reading the predictions of her right now, her present like in future and like all of that being connected was my favorite thing. Yeah, that's what I put. Realizing who everyone was and what the timeline is. Yeah, it's time travel is confusing, but for some reason I was able to digest this okay with only not freaking out too bad. You know what I mean? because it made sense, but at the same time, it's like the visions can kind of start getting confusing if you overthink it. But we might, as you just said, not know everything yet. Yeah. This is It was literally And because she did uh Caspia, Odessa, Caspia, Odessa. It helped. I think it gets messed up for me when I'm reading the dual POVs and timelines and sometimes multiple POVs is when it's like too many chapters in a row of the same person and then we get a glimpse of the other one and then then it's like, okay, you got to stop doing that cuz it's whiplash. What I feel like Devany Perry did was she took two books and instead of having, you know, book two be Odessa's journey and then book three being, you know, like a partner novel or actually a sequel that has Caspia's journey. She was like, I'm just going to give you the, you know, I'm just going to give you, what is the word, what is the word I'm looking for right now? The t I'm going to give you the tandem read. Yeah. Right now at the same time. Um, and then I'm gonna probably give you, you know, even more of Multip POV, just maybe not different timelines, but we don't know that because we also don't know what's going on with Odessa's family over on Nephex. So, that's why I'm just like, uh, things could get even crazier. Yeah, that's possible. I Yeah, Oliana has to come in to play at some point, but I hope she doesn't try to come to the continent because she's going to get turned into a bad monster. So, well, or even like I was thinking about um her niece. What was her name? I can't I have it here because I have it in unanswered questions. Gracelia. Yes. Yeah. I feel like she's going to come back around. Something's gonna There's more. I They have to go there. They have to go there at some point. Mhm. For sure. Yep. Uh did you have a least favorite part? Yeah, the rapey soldiers. Yeah, I mean I do love that that was the moment where May and Odessa seemed to finally team up and they were so badass. I wish that they would have just kicked all their asses themselves, but you know, okay, fine. Have the guardian come in and like save the day. Sure. But like yeah, um yeah, they sucked for sure, but I did like that that definitely relationship built them together a little bit more. And it was interesting that May also literally said, "I want to go with you guys back to Tur when you go." Yeah. I was like, I love that. Exactly. So hopefully we get a little bit more of May in the future, too. I feel like she's a really cool character. Mhm. Yeah. Um I put here that my least favorite part was that at this point in time, I feel like the Voster lore was a bit convoluted for me. And so I struggle with that because my brain just goes like this. it just goes around and around and around and around because I can't like accept that I'm not going to get an answer for another like year, you know? Um, and so I was like, uh, okay, I just have to like be okay with it. I feel like the way that you described it too though, like helped me like talk it out as far as like we don't have all the information. Obviously, we're dealing with different points of view and propaganda at this point. So, like at this point, everything could be true or nothing could be true, right? Yeah. or it's it's probably just a mix of all of it, you know. That's what it usually is. And then obviously too, I put Caspia dying because that was terrible. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Brutal. Brutal. Okay. Who was your favorite character? My favorite character was definitely Caspia in this book. For sure. I mean, I love Odessa. I love the Guardians still, of course. They're great. Um, but I I mean Cassie was awesome. Yeah, Cassie was great. I love that she had saw the visions and was like, "Okay, well, at this point she realizes there's nothing she can do. She can't stop this stuff from happening." And she decides to journal, you know, early on. So, that's great. and then obviously saw the writing on the wall and made plans and set her up for the best success that she could figure out except maybe talking to um Andreas a little bit more about what he should do moving forward cuz uh we'll talk about that in least favorite characters. Okay. Yeah, I was going to say I mean we could go straight into that if you want to if Caspia was your favorite. Yeah. Yeah. I mean special shout out I love I mean everybody that helped. Yeah. Faxen and Hail all that super fun. Thora. Thora. We better see more of her in the future. Oh, yeah. Yes. In May, so I think there's a lot more to be developed in there. I actually didn't love Ransom in this book. H I mean, he was kind of like not in it that much, I feel like. Right. Mhm. Yeah. But I just felt like, you know, cuz he was withholding information. She was too. Sure, but like now's not the time, guys. Like, let's we need to talk about this this stuff. Yeah. So, I felt like Oh, also because and we should put a clarification or we should talk about it real quick because it was being talked about in the book club chat that Ransom never saying I love you back. That's freaking weird. Okay. Um, obviously he ends up saying exactly what I figured. Well, like I'm scared to say it and blah blah blah. Like getting hurt. It's like, well, she already loves you. It's so much worse that you're not saying it back. So, get over yourself. Literally, that reminded me Okay, two things. reminded me so much of my husband cuz that's how he was in the beginning of our relationship. Okay. Two, it reminded me of The Witcher because we literally have to wait until almost the end of the second season or whatever the newest season. Was that three? I can't even remember. It all blends together. Basically, to the very end of the Henry Caval seasons for him to finally tell, you know, Yennefer that he loves her. And it's like and so same thing. It's like you obviously know that he loves her because he would travel across freaking realms and time to like do anything for her, you know, but he won't just say the words. So, I I don't know. I don't necessarily think it's like nefarious at this point or like hidden meaning. I think it just might like track with his character. Yeah. Yeah. But it might it might there might be more to it. I don't know. I'm not even saying that. I just It's annoying. Yeah. So, for sure. Yeah. Um, but overall, like I just wasn't as like connected to his character, but we just don't see a lot of them on page together. And that might be intentional for one reason or another. It's not his time, baby. Uh, but but my least favorite character is still Odessa's dad, even though we have all this information. Okay. Somehow it makes it worse. Okay, I understand. I get it. He's traumatized. I get it. He looks like your love of your life that you held for two days. This isn't one of the And it's not to excuse that either cuz it's not okay when a dad is like, "Well, you killed my mom. Like, she had nothing to do with this." You know, like what are you like, and that's kind of it's sad cuz actually I feel like she um Odessa even says, "I know my dad loves me, you know, but like he's cold." She's kind of like, "Well, same thing with Ransom. He's doing that to her. He's not saying I love you either. Um, but I think that he didn't need to be so cold to her. Like I get he explains himself and why he made the choices that he did and he's trying to protect her and basically make sure she's unfit to be the uh sparrow so that she doesn't have to go to Torah and be next to the priestess the priesthood because of all of this stuff probably. But you're not going to like say hey sweetie. You might turn into a scary crux one day. Hey honey, you're from a different bloodline. That's like crazy magical. So you might get visions like it's like uh it's like a dad never telling their daughter what a period is. You know, obviously it's not that extreme, but like hello, you can talk about it. Like I don't know. It's it did a disservice and I understand he's like well the less you knew the less like it's better to know. But it's like not really though cuz like what do we get at the very end of the book? We get a sudden thrum in Odessa's body and we know what that means. But does she I mean now she kind of does. She knows because of the journals. But so I don't forgive him. That's the Aquarius in me, I think. But um I'm mad. I wouldn't say he could have handled that better. Yeah. I mean he for sure could have handled that better. I wouldn't say that I forgive him, but I wouldn't say that I see him as negatively as I saw him before. Like I definitely have like more empathy for his situation. And he was probably also like the one thing that Caspia would want me to do is keep her alive. And by keeping her unawares of her situation and as hidden as possible from Yeah. the Voster and stuff like I'm hopefully letting her fly under the radar as much as possible. You know what I mean? So, it's like I can kind of see both sides of it, but no. Did he have to be like And he's still And he's still finding the orbits. Yeah. So, he's still hunting. Like, he's still trying to take care of that and say as little as possible, you know, and maybe it's just one of those things that just time got away from him. Like, I can relate to that as a parent. Nothing of what he did, but just that like, oh, you blink and they're 20 years old getting married off and they weren't expecting that. whatsoever. So, he might have thought, you know, once May gets shipped off, then I can tell her about all this stuff. Maybe he's thinking he has more time. Uh, I don't know. Oh, well, I mean, he even like said I don't remember who said. I thought it was him, but I think that he might also be living under the assumption that because she is half sparrow, half human that she might not have the same, I don't know, uh, like she might not go through the right, like she might not have the same biology like or be susceptible to the same things. Well, I think we're going to find out that that is not right. That's an incorrect assumption. Um, yeah. Mhm. Feels a bit um I lost the word, but not like a good idea. Yeah, like a bad idea for sure. Negligent. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Yeah, it is negligent, but at the same time, it's like when do you tell You can't tell her when she's a kid because if you tell her before she has enough agency, then she might accidentally tell someone and then the Vost are going to come and kill you. Do you know what I mean? And so it's like, yeah, I don't know. It's like a crap situation because then it's like, okay, do you tell her once she's what, 16? And you feel like she can like handle it. Like what do you Yeah, it's that's a great And you're probably hoping that you find all the orbits and then you can destroy them and then you never have to worry about it. Exactly. So I mean, he is obsessively doing that. I think I can see both sides of it. So I don't hate him as much as I did, but I also don't like him. He's kind of like a neutral to me at this time. But I do like that he has been searching for the orbits like in the background the whole time trying to resolve this. Um yeah because he's been obsessed for you know this whole time trying to keep it going for her. Yeah. Yeah. And I did like that. I mean hey he never even shared a bed with Margot so and he lets them have their thing and it's an agreement and they just it's just a facade and it works for everybody. That's That's though. And the way he held her. Okay, I get that. Okay. But I'm still mad at him as a father. As a father, he's made a lot of mistakes for sure. I feel like I I think that's also intentional though, right? Is like because we get Andreas. It's almost like Andreas and King Cross are two different people and I think it's because like they are Yeah. Well, yeah, they are. But still, just like you said, I didn't even love Andreas either. No, I didn't either. But he was defin I didn't love his character, but I think it's because it wasn't developed enough for me. Like um but it's not like he objectively did anything wrong, right? If anything, he was like kind of the perfect guy aside from not telling her that he was he's kind of bland aside from telling her that he was betrothed, but then he even like goes out of his way to enol the betroment. Um right. I mean, and she can turn into a scary rabbid monster crow. So I get they both held secrets from each other. Totally. Um I could accidentally kill you in your sleep. Oops. Yeah. Um we're we're equal. But yeah, but then he even resolves that, right? It's like cuz I was expecting that to go a different direction, too, where he was going to be like, I can't. I'm royal. My parents are going to make me do it. Blah blah blah. And he was like, "No, I'm actually going to do the right thing." So, it kind of I think might symbolize that like his personality like he became a shell of a man like after her death because of the fact that he was the one who had to literally kill her. Ah, that Yeah, it is. That's pretty bad. Yeah, it's pretty bad. It's a It's a both and, I think, for me, for sure. But he still has some redemption to do. Yeah, let's see him do it. Let's go. It's go time. All right, let's see then. Uh, do you have any quotes that you would like to share? Yeah, we'll go bounce back and forth. Good will always bottle. Evil battle bottle. I can't read. My eyes are going. It's getting worse. Okay. Gun blur. Good will always Okay. Good will always battle evil, but now I'm going through puberty. So that's great. I'm turning into a crux. Good will always b Sorry. All of a sudden, Ashley just flies away. I kind of want to. I kind of want to. This whole house is sick. I'm scared. It's going to be a bad week. Okay. Good will always battle evil. He said, "Light will always fight the dark. In those moments, you'll learn who you truly are." Mhm. One of the weird Boston dudes. Yep. Um, why have the six cursed us with these monsters? Why do they hate us? Because they are petty gods, he said. Because only humans have the power to make the gods insignificant. Whoa, dude. Wow. It's deep. Mhm. You told me to find a warrior. M you meant her. No girl, said school. No girl, I meant you. No girl. He does say that though. But you're right. No girl, I met you. Oh, get it. You're the always.

I love that. I wrote that one down, too. Like, dude, no. Girl, girl, I bet you. It's like inflection. so important. Oh my god. I love that though because like literally that's like how we leave off, right? Knowing that it's like she's meant to be the warrior, meaning Odessa is meant to be the warrior and she is feeling called to what we are assuming is her transformation. I loved that. Oh, it's like also you're kind of an [ __ ] but I still love it cuz you sent me on a wild goose chase for myself. Yeah, literally. Come on. Uh, but also does that mean she's going to be able to find Neelyex? I hope so. Yes, it does. I hope so. I do believe that. That would make her not only a princess of Quentis, but that would make her a princess of Nelanex also. You know,

Queen of England over here. That's beautiful. It's going to be so exciting. Okay. Um, it wasn't only monsters I had to fear on this journey. Men could be just as cruel.

Yep, they are. Rather be with a crux than a man in the woods. I'll tell you that religious persecution was simply the guys for slaughter and invasion. Tale as old as time, I dare say. Unfortunately, I liked this. She's talking about Andreas. Part of what made him so undeniably attractive was his acceptance. He believed everything I told him. That was the most refreshing thing to me about his character was she's like, "Hey, so here's the thing. I'm from this place you've never heard of." And he's like, "Okay." Like, you know, I haven't heard of every place. Yeah. Yeah. And then she's like, "Also, I'm magical and I'll probably turn into this crazy bird, which also are the crazy birds that attack and kill all the people that you know and love." And he's like, "Dang, also crazy, but I will believe you." Like that was just refreshing because it's like to not be met with resistance at every single thing. To have to prove your reality and your truth is like not something I feel like many of us experience in real life. And so to have Andreas do that was like whoa. Whoa. Yeah. With like the most simple menial things throughout our day. Yeah. Like I think we have chips at home. I checked this morning. No, I don't think we have chips. Oh, okay. Well, we do. Yeah, but it's like he's just like accepting all of this information because he trusts her. So therefore, if she says that it's true, then you would assume that it's true until you find out that she's trying to deceive you, right? Like that's what would make sense. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. This is a foreshadowing quote, I believe. May looked at me like I sprouted wings. Yeah. Mhm. Oh, I love those. I love those. Yeah, that's all I got for now. So, I liked this one. We'll give Ransom a little bit of a of some credit. Ransom bent and kiss my hair. You were always this woman. I knew at the day I watched you jump off that cliff. You were always my queen. It's not your fault they weren't paying attention. Oh, I loved that. Yes. Mhm. I was like, that's refreshing, too. Mhm. Okay. So, what did you think about the spice in this one? I Okay, so we'll talk about that because there is a lot of off page um or fade to black, whatever you said. I wonder if it's because it's uh Caspia and it's like we don't Maybe the author's like it's her mom. Like I don't want to weird you guys out and her dad who's still alive. I mean, and her dad. It's her parents. You know what I mean? Like let's not like let's just not But we're the readers. cuz we don't care. So you could have. Yeah. Um just saying I was I will say I was surprised by because that was that felt different in tone to me than um book one. Book one wasn't like super duper spicy either, but it definitely wasn't closed door fade to black. Not that everything in this book was like that. There was definitely some spicy scenes for sure. Um but it was I felt like it was a little bit more tame. Um, and I think that's because, you know, this book wasn't really about I don't think it was really about the guys too much, right? Like it was and it wasn't like they're there and they're important, but like it was really about Caspia and Odessa's journeys. And so I feel like that wasn't the main focus. Yeah. I think we're going to get stuff later. Yeah. She's going to make us work for it. Yeah. But I mean, I loved it. It was great. It was a perfect balance. I wasn't upset at all. It surprised me at first. I even commented in the Fable chat. I was like, "A fade to black?" Like, whoa. Okay. Um, but yeah, it might also be as simple as that. Like, these are her parents. Like, we don't need to go into details about that. I don't know. Maybe. So, do you have any other things you wanted to mention about why this book stands out before we get into some reviews? No. I mean, like I said, I still like I get why people get turned off by POVs and they're like confused and stuff, but I hope they keep reading cuz then they'll see. I just can't imagine you'd be like hating on it the whole time and then you find out why and that you'd still hate it. Unless you just I don't you just don't like it, which is fine, but like that specific reason. You know what I mean? It's like but you have to. It's okay. I feel like that's what makes this book unique because we get multi-povs and a lot of books but like the different timelines lining up like that was top tier and definitely makes this book so this is going to be one of sorry um this is going to be one of those books too that are like once the whole series are out I don't think it'll get as much criticism with that because people already know it's intentional I guess you know cuz it's like this is a we've waited a year situation we got to wait another year so when people go and open it and it's Caspia Uh, who's this me? You know, where's Ransom? You know, what's going on over there? Cuz that could be frustrating. I know that when we read read Plate Prisoner, you had mentioned one of the books that doesn't have a lot of our main couple together. People were super frustrated about that cuz it's like an entire giant book about it, other people, and them separate. So, uh, yeah. Then, uh, then it all works out. So, then it all makes sense and then people aren't mad anymore. But you got to go through a lot of crap to get there. Gotta go through a lot of uh you know negative to get to the sweet whatever sour to get to the sweet. Yeah. So that being said, even though I feel like a lot of the commentary that I've been been seeing on Bookstagram and stuff has been very polarizing, you know, the reviews don't lie. So right now, as of this morning, it has 86,411 reviews, but it gets a 4.52 star average. That's good. So that's very good. That's good. Yeah. looking good. And the audio has to be the best rated audio we have ever said on here for an audio book. It only has, so I'll say it with a caveat, 3,890 ratings on Audible, but it gets a 4.9. Crazy. Yeah, that's high. I don't think I've ever seen one that high. Well, because, you know, I mentioned this a little bit before, but it's like this one was a legit dual narration. And so even though we don't get, you know, very many chapters from um the point of view of Andreas or Ransom, they do all like the male narrator does all of the male characters and the female narrator does the female characters. So um I feel like that was an improvement over the last audio book for sure. Um so I did enjoy this one. I did the read and listen feature probably for the whole almost the whole thing and I did appreciate that a lot. Good. Yeah. Yeah, that's good because he's got voice. Yeah. I was like, "Oh, what a sad thing to only get it in one chapter with the last book." So, that's nice to know that he does all the main main male characters that come on to the page. Oh, how does how is the Voster voice? Um, that's funny that you asked that. It was great. And so, it was like one of those things where it wasn't creepy at all. And so, I had to keep reminding myself. Oh, it wasn't creepy. It wasn't creepy. So, I had to keep reminding myself the Voster were creepy because he like made the Voster voices hot, too. And I was like, "Dude." Oh, no. Yeah. Come on now. See, I was thinking it'd be like a No, it was like, "Okay, great. Now, I'm a mess. I'm a magician." No, no, he uh voice too hot, voice too gruff for So, the even sounded like that. So, I actually mentally noted that. But I was like, "The Voster could have been creepier sounding." That's my only complaint. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. For sure. All right. Uh, well, should we get into the lore Easter egg section? Let's do it. All right. Do you have any specific ones that you want to bring up or do you want me to just go right into the things that I highlighted and think might come up um as being important in the future? Yeah, I mean I would didn't know where to put the brother stuff, so I just put it already. We already talked about all that. So, I don't have anything else other than un unanswered questions I'd like to just mention, you know. Yeah. Okay, we'll do that after the lore section because I'll be curious. Sounds good. You have it. Okay, so we have this lore going on with Nelanx that I think is important to mention because it will probably come up later. So, we're getting a lot of this from Caspia's aunt, Ooliana the queen. So, in the Starling's written history, there was no record of the gift ever failing to manifest. To my aunt's knowledge, Oilia had been the first and Hara II. So, why is that happening?

Okay. So, unanswered question, but also a little bit of lore. Okay. Yeah. Then she says, "We must focus on our family. to this country. The beast and king has been pushing against our southern border. If he learns that starling blood is wilting, he may get reckless ambitions. I will not let a single Nelanx person suffer the same fate as the Voster. They call the Voster by their own name, but I'm not even going to try to pronounce that. Okay. We will not be driven from our own land and hunted to near extinction. We must stand strong together. So, there's discord going on over there as well. and she can see these other kings kind of like circling around like vultures waiting for something to happen. I don't know if this is going to end up being important, but we see a whole lot of the elf falter going on. Okay, so we see it in the necklaces, we see it in the rings, we see it in the bracelets. So she says, "I fished my necklace from beneath my tunic, letting the orange metal glint in or letting the orange metal glint in the fire light. You have gold and colandra. We have elf andex. It's the purest and cleanest of all metals. It's impossibly strong, yet it can be molded under exactly the right conditions. It's as precious to us as any gem or jewel. So, it just makes me wonder if perhaps that has something like mining that or stealing that might have something to do with this whole conspiracy possibly. Maybe they could use it to destroy the thing somehow. Yeah, like diamonds can cut glass. Maybe elf can cut Ver glass. We don't know. I don't know. Um, right here, I don't need to read the whole quote, but basically the gist is, "How do we not know of any explorer person ever from Colandra ever experiencing or coming upon the entire continent of Ken?" Right. Right. Right. because it took them a well the starlings you know um Caspia was the one were the ones that were able to find that continent yes so that otherwise they can't so it has to be shielded in some maybe the magic in some way maybe it has to be something like that something is shielding it's there but are keeping it a big secret from their people like a conspiracy because it's bad or something yeah or something well they know that they people leave and never return to wherever the crux go. They're swift or whatever. So, yeah, lots interest. You bring up some good points here. So, this is a little bit of the history of the Voster from the perspective of Caspia. Okay. I'd heard rumors of their unique appearance, but few people in Ephanex ever encountered their race. They become all but a myth in Ken and their history a warning for other countries. Ages ago, they lived in a country that bordered Bisa, the fifth country in Ken, a country that no longer existed. The Bons had invaded and waged a war against the Voster, persecuting them for their religion. After hundred summers of fighting, the Bons were victorious. The Voster had been slaughtered, their homeland stolen. Those who had survived had fled into hiding. Most lived deep in the wilderness. Though the Bons still hunted their people, but they must have fled to Kandra, too. Then, when? How many had come here? And how had he made those books float? So, it's like if the Voster literally traveled from Ken to Colandra, then on the bare minimum, you would think they would know. Mhm. You know what I'm saying? It's like I don't know. It just seems odd to me that it's like no one has I mean, if you're talking about Andreas, who obviously h is a royal, has access to all the information in the library supposedly all you know, he'd probably know most of the um becoming king. he would know all the insider info and he still hasn't heard of it except from Caspia. Like that's weird. Well, they started destroying the books and the history and stuff. Exactly. So they're basically Did they put them back into like pre-exploring times? You know, yeah, something something's going on there for sure cuz why aren't these continents communicating together? Yeah, there's something going on there in trade and all that. Well, yeah. And you know, even one of the Vosters, I can't remember which one, but I just made a note here. He says that they escaped the wars thanks to the help of three of your Starling ancestors specifically, and she says they came here and left. And he said only one, the other two, their Starling lives were claimed by the land. So, who were those three that helped the Voster escape the situation? We don't know that yet. Um, and then why would they let them escape? Oh, there's so much. It's so convoluted. It is. And then um another piece of that something about the journey to bring the Voster here, meaning to Kandra, must have changed their migration patterns. So my ancestors had led them to a new breeding ground. Here the crux were terrors. Here the Vostra had powers. Here the Starling were monsters. But why? Um, so it's like what are the connections between the Starling helping the Vosters escape this war over on Ken and then coming to Kandra specifically. Um, so there's that. Yeah, it's um then the perspective the one last thing I'll say is the perspective of this from Ransom's point of view. He says, "Generations ago, before the Shield of Sparrows Treaty was formed, there was a war within the Brotherhood. Few knew it happened. Even few were risked speaking of it, but my father felt it was important for me to know of the Kennan given Tur's allegiance to the Voster." "Aren't all kingdoms allied with the Voster?" Until today, I would have answered yes. He rubbed a palm across his beard. But then I saw a cannon walking through your husband's or through your father's halls. The Brotherhood fractured during the war. Those who opposed the Vosters's ideals, the Zealots were killed, but some escaped death and in their exile formed the canon. What do the Kenan believe? that they themselves should rule the five kingdoms, that those with magic should be in power. So, there's some crazy conspiracies going on right now, and we don't know. Like, I almost wonder, it's hard. I'm going to say this now, and it could just be me overthinking it, but I almost wonder if Queen Olana knows. I feel like she might have something to do with it. Yeah. In some way. Mhm. Yeah. How do you not Yeah. I mean, something's going on. Something's going on for sure. She doesn't want them to go do that. So, I think she knows something. So, there we go. Well, I mean, cuz if if all she knew was that if they go to Kandra, there's a magic that turns them evil. Then she would probably say something, right? She would be like, "Don't go there because then you'll turn rabid and they'll kill you." But it's like, so that's why I wonder almost if she knows something more about this and is part of this conspiracy somehow. Like maybe she's benefiting from it in some way. Yeah. I wonder like feeding the magic or something. Yeah. Oh no. Oh no. Maybe. All right. That's crazy. What happened to Max? Because they mentioned that they were tortured, but they actually don't mention Max being with them. Did he die? Okay. That was the the beloved of Emory. And they did not make any mention of Gracella. Yeah. Gracie Ella or something like that. So they don't make a mention of her. Yeah. So did she already fly off to the land? Is she trying to? Cuz she It's been 20 years. Where is she? Mhm. So that's going to come back around. And then um I think my conspiracy is that uh one of the Voster killed Andreas's mother. So because they said basically shortly after they got married, she randomly fell ill which was weird. Died and then and then the dad shortly died after of heartbreak. So, what did they know that maybe they were going to maybe maybe they were going to pass on the knowledge to him or something? I don't know. Oh, that's a good point. Because they he did make a mention that it was weird like weird timing. They were perfectly fine and then they were sick and died and it doesn't sound like that's a normal occurrence. Yeah. So, something's something's a miss there with that. Okay. And then my last one is, will Ransom actually become a Krux or a Swift? Is Alyssa actually turning him into one of those? Perhaps he won't die cuz they don't actually know what's going to fully happen. There seems to be a transformation. His eyes turn. Well, and he was bitten by, if our theories are correct, by a not just a monster with Alyssa, but by a Starling. Where's the red yarn? Yeah, that's a good theory. That's a good theory. He also in his POV flash, whatever that was that we saw. He is bowing to a crux and saying, "My queen," which we obviously assume is Odessa, but why does he call her my queen? What if they're shifting together? What if they can shift? What if Odessa can still shift because she is half whatever that bloodline is, you know? So, there's lots of things to be read next year. We'll see. I think that is very possible though that Ransom will actually shift. Whether he can shift back or not without the magic being broken, I don't know. But cuz why would he die? Yeah. Really? Yeah. I mean, maybe he would go Well, no. I think what he's thinking is he'll go so rabid that like he's not necessarily saying he'll just keel over but that he I mean he made his friends and family promise to kill him right which you came up with a good uh maybe flaw or you know I don't think flaw if she kills him she will too die. Yeah. So maybe what if that's what we're saying? Maybe he's like kneeling before her so she can kill him before he can kill her. And then they just kill each other on accident, but not on purpose. It's on purpose cuz they have an oath that they can't break. So she can't be the one to kill him and she can't be the one to kill her. There's too many there's too many blood contracts and magical contracts going on. It's like, how do we work around all these? Okay, I would literally just give up and be like, if I die, I die. Like I don't know. I can't follow all these rules. Yes. It's too much for me to remember. I know. What if you're in it? What if it was you? Like, oh, good luck. Oh, I would just be like like I would be just what is the word I'm looking for? Like when a god just like knocks you down from the heaven. Smited. Yeah. I'd be smited immediately and I wouldn't even know why. It would be like, "Oh, I broke an oath I didn't even remember I had because I have so many oaths I can't even keep track, you know?" Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. Here's my other question. Okay. Did you Did you go back and read the prologue after reading it at the beginning? Oh, did you? I did. And I am even more confused now. Oh, great. Um, okay. So, what do we know? We know that the original Here, let me pull this up to see. I'm pretty sure that I wrote just it down exactly so that I don't have to be confused about it. Okay. Sparrow Wolf of Tur is the first Sparrow made to marry King Tannis Oak of Genesis to seal the treaty and to ensure Kandra would rebuild after the devastating CX migration. Okay. So, we've got a wolf last name, which is Ransom. Ransom's last name is Wolf, right? Yeah. So, that's his ancestor of some kind. And then we don't know anything about King Tannis Oak of Genesis because we haven't really even explored Genesis at this point, at least to our knowledge. Who knows? Um, but I guess my question is

when was this instated? Who were these people? And are they connected to our current characters at all? Well, they have to be in order to include it. Well, yeah. I'm just I'm just asking the obvious question, but it's like But how? And obviously that prologue was not included for no reason. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right.

So I wonder and also you know and what's in it for the Voser? What if that's the magic that ties like the protection together for that continent? Maybe it's what veils the continent or something because it's some kind of like interlocking treaty essentially that all works together. So, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. We're all speculating right now. Yeah. But I feel like Yeah, maybe at the end, go back, reread the prologue, see if anything clicks. I feel like it just made me more confused because we don't have enough information. But, I mean, the fact that her name is Sparrow Wolf is really interesting to me because of the fact that it's like we saw with Caspia. Doesn't she give her name as Sparrow at one point in time or something like that? Like just because I feel like she gives it wolf. She gives her last name as wolf. So there's some kind of like connection that's going on. I feel like that we're going to find out with the lineage because it's just really suspicious that of the fact that literally the first Sparrow is named Sparrow Wolf White. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there was there's a lot of name games going on with this author. For sure. Exactly. And now she's made us paranoid, so we're going to pick apart everything even if it doesn't mean anything. Great. Yeah. But I feel like again like there would be no way that she wouldn't have included this prologue intentionally for a reason. So there's things that are hidden in here that I want to know about. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But I feel like Yeah. As far as unanswered questions, everything that you said already, obviously everything with the Boster, why do these continents not acknowledge each other? Um, yeah. What who's still alive from Ken, etc. These are all my big ones. Mhm. Yeah, for sure. It's crazy. Wow. Well, my brain hurts. I don't know about you guys, but ow. Feel like we talked about a lot of things, so that's good. Yeah. Well, this is a big This was a doozy. It was. Yeah. Do you have any any last words? Any final words on Rights of the Starling before we close this until next probably March? Not yet. But I'm sure I'll come up with something later on. Well, let's do something a little light-hearted. An Unhinged Smasher Pass. What do you got for me? Oh, all I was gonna This is what I It's because it's Rights of the Starling SOS related. I want to know your most smashable monster and your most passable monster. Okay. Most smashable monster.

The The Crux. Sure. That's great. And then also uh the most passable one would have to be the marrow wheels for me cuz yuck they're very worike. Yeah, that was literally my exact same answer. But then uh honorable mention for the bats, for the for the Cheroptus, because I mean honestly like it would be so cool to transform into a Krux or to like, you know, ride a Krux like they're like your little, you know, pseudo dragon. But we've not had anybody riding giant bats. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when was the last time we saw someone riding a giant bat? like the never- ending story. Like that was a long ass time ago. It's time again. So they're an honorable mention for me. You have to smash one of the Vosters. Which one is it going to be?

Uh probably Hayne because he was the one who seems most like the stick it to the man rebellious dude. Yeah. Who's trying to help who's trying to help out. You know what I mean? Or so it seems at this point. Yeah. Mhm. And he's just dash now, so good luck. Chopped his head off right into the sea. Yeah. What about you? Uh, get those hands away from me. They're so gross. Literally. Nails. I don't like I don't like a regular man foot. Yeah. And therefore like a regular man foot. And you wouldn't try to put me around a Voster foot. Yeah, dude. I'm just going to say score because like I don't know. He has more magic. I guess he can control it at least. So he could pull it in. I don't. Well, okay. So, this is another unanswered question. Just to circle back around because now my brain's just never going to stop going. If they have the capability because we knew that they had the capability to manipulate wind and water and liquid basically. Yeah. So, we didn't Yeah. So, we didn't realize though until this book that they could do that with blood. So, what is stopping them from just literally killing all the monsters by sucking all their blood out? Maybe they don't want to. Maybe they don't want to. So, we know that the high priestess was harvesting the Lissa blood, but brother dime, no score, whatever, one of them took it out and just like did away with it, you know, just like whatever. It's gone. So the first thing cuz that was mentioned that like he did it without any thing in exchange basically like he just did it on his own generous generosity. Well, it's like the first thing that I thought of was like, oh, if you're able to kill an entire pack of bear wolves by sucking out all their blood and turning them into husks essentially, why would you not do that with a crux? Yeah. Well, they say they don't care about them. Something it's feeding off something. Something with the ecosystem. This is what they're doing. Something like that. I'm just saying if it's that easy, it's shady. This is shady. One last question. I keep getting confused. So, just tell me that I'm an idiot. The the priesthood that we have, they're more than six of them. They're not the gods, right? Because those ones were transformed into their orbs. So, these brothers are just other brothers from other mothers. So, and then they harvest their magic some but there's not very many. Okay. Yes. So, but there we have feed the lands therefore feed the priests. So, the priests are feeding maybe off the Lissa and the blood. Maybe they're sucking their blood. Um, but to answer your question, we don't know how many Voster there are. Okay? Because the only Voster that exists that we know of were the ones who had to flee their homeland because it no longer exists because it was taken over by the other people. And they have never reproduced on this land either. Exactly. And they're not fully immortal, but they're very longived. Yeah. So that's the thing. Are there more Voster like maybe in secret somewhere else out in the lands? Do they all come to Alisaria or do they have some other places like and no, we don't know how many there are um on the continent, but they are very dwindled in population because they're basically genocided is what we found out. Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. I don't know. All right. That's open to questions. Yeah. just in case uh you guys don't have a million questions. Just know we have plenty for everyone all the time. It helps to talk it out. It does because then because I kept getting like wait six six orbs, six priests, you know, so it helps talk through it. Yeah. So, thank you. Well, you guys, thank you so much for joining us on this journey today. Which animal did you pick to ride off into the sunset with us? Let us know down in the comments. Make sure to like, follow, and subscribe anywhere your Lex's favorite podcast, including YouTube. We're besties in the books podcast everywhere, including Tik Tok and Instagram, Besties of the Books Podcast. And that Fable chat was lit over on Fable, Besties in the Book Club. So, go join it. So that way you get notified for the next ones and you go to Instagram, too, where we'll announce book clubs and all that. But you guys, we'll see you see you next Tuesday. Bye.