The Speaker by Traci Chee (Sea of Ink and Gold #2)
Published by GP Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on Nov. 7th, 2017
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Page Length: 512 pages
How I got my copy: Borrowed
Amazon - IndieBound - Book Depository - Barnes & Noble - Goodreads
Purchases made support this blog
Having barely escaped the clutches of the Guard, Sefia and Archer are back on the run, slipping into the safety of the forest to tend to their wounds and plan their next move. Haunted by painful memories, Archer struggles to overcome the trauma of his past with the impressors, whose cruelty plagues him whenever he closes his eyes. But when Sefia and Archer happen upon a crew of impressors in the wilderness, Archer finally finds a way to combat his nightmares: by hunting impressors and freeing the boys they hold captive.
With Sefia’s help, Archer travels across the kingdom of Deliene rescuing boys while she continues to investigate the mysterious Book and secrets it contains. But the more battles they fight, the more fights Archer craves, until his thirst for violence threatens to transform him from the gentle boy Sefia knows to a grim warrior with a cruel destiny. As Sefia begins to unravel the threads that connect Archer’s fate to her parents’ betrayal of the Guard so long ago, she and Archer must figure out a way to subvert the Guard’s plans before they are ensnared in a war that will pit kingdom against kingdom, leaving their future and the safety of the entire world hanging in the balance.
Note: I received an advanced copy of The Speaker from the publisher. Some things may have changed in the final version.
So I got to 248 before deciding this just wasn’t working for me. I LOVED book one, so this hurts. But this feels like major second book syndrome.
Thoughts:
- They find some impressors, they fight, rinse and repeat. I can’t really differentiate the battles in my mind at all even just shortly after reading about them.
- Three other story lines are also shoved in featuring Captain Reed, Sefia’s parents, and the dying king of another country. Sefia didn’t even feel like a main character by the midpoint. I like Sefia, I want to read from her perspective! Archer’s perspective just wasn’t as much fun either.
- There aren’t as many cool text effects. One thing I loved about the first book is the smear of blood on one page and the erased and blacked out text on another. I miss that.
- There isn’t much focus on the magic. Sefia is using the book fairly frequently to get information and there are some scenes with her gold magic, but it just didn’t feel like a main focus (since she wasn’t usually the PoV) and that seems a waste.
- This is very much a book about everyone preparing for a war and that is honestly pretty dull (to me!).
Have you read this one? What did you think? Are you excited for it if you haven’t gotten to it yet?
– Anya
The Speaker by Traci Chee
© 2017, Anya. All rights reserved.
