I thought Stina Leicht’s opening book of the Fey and the
Fallen, “Of Blood and Honey,” showed a lot of promise. The second book, “And
Blue Skies from Pain” ($14.99, Nightshade Books ), though delivers exactly what
I hoped it would.
With the background of the story and the political
volatility of 1970s Ireland established in the first book, this one gets down
to the business of the supernatural war. Liam Kelly, after discovering he is
half-fey in the first book, has submitted to be tested by the Catholic Church
to prove that he is human and stop the church’s violence against the fey. For
ages, the militant arm of the church, charged with hunting down and destroying
fallen angels, has made no distinction between the fallen and the fey. Now, at
the urging of Liam’s friend Father Joseph Murray, the church has called an
uneasy truce until it can be determined whether the two are different.
Naturally, there are elements in the church that don’t want
it proven that the fey are not fallen angels. It’s an uncomfortable question
for the best among the warrior priests and a downright onerous thought for many
who have spent their lives cruelly executing what they thought were evil
beings.
Of course, that’s not all that Liam has to contend with.
He’s still coming to grips with the fey side of himself, which up to this point
he’s considered a monster, and he’s yet to deal with the grief over the loss of
his wife and friends who died because of his participation in the IRA. And of
course, as much as he wants to be, it’s hard to remain free of his former
political affiliations, and he gets pulled back in against his will.
Where “Of Blood and Honey” seemed like a set up book, “And
Blue Skies from Pain” really gets to the meat of what this series is going to
be about. Leicht held back much of the supernatural element in the first volume
while focusing on establishing who Liam was and putting into the motion the
events that will drive him in the future. Though I questioned the backburner
for those elements in my review of the first book, as I read, “And Blue Skies
from Pain,” I began to see how it all worked together and how the focus on
Liam’s character and surroundings rather than his heritage helped me understand
him a little better.
In this one, the fantasy elements move to the forefront as
he begins to discover more about that side of himself, and they take the
forefront. We’re more than halfway through the book before we’re thrown back
into the political conflict of the time, and at that point, we begin to see
just a little bit about how that conflict and the one between the fey, the
church and the fallen are connected. It sent my mind down several intriguing
possible paths. It will be interesting to see how Leicht advances that aspect
of the story in the future.
Leicht’s series has one of the most intriguing settings of
any urban fantasy series that I’ve come across and gives the main character a
real-world threat and problems that put him in just as much danger as the
fantasy elements. I like that approach. “And Blue Skies from Pain” was a great
read and everything that I hoped we would get from the subsequent books in the
series. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Liam.
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