Book Review: Dark Moon by Meredith Ann Pierce (Firebringer #2)

 

Been a hot minute since I looked at these unicorn books, huh? Ah well, we're back! Spoiler ahead.

Jan returns in this second installment as he is separated from his herd, taken captive by humans and suffers from amnesia. Here, he learns about the human's ways, and will have to find his way back home. Meanwhile, back at the herd, King Korr is being driven mad by grief and turning the herd into an almost cult-like place where his word reigns supreme and all who go against him will be punished. In the middle of all this is Tek, Jan's partner who is now pregnant with his offspring. 

Yeah, a solid second installment. I can't quite pinpoint if I like this just as much or maybe more than the first, but I think it's overall really well-done and I liked seeing were things went next.

I liked Jan's journey in this, how he ended up at the human's place and forgot his true self, and had to learn their secrets and who he really is. He also befriended some horses, among them Ryhenna, who is probably one of my favorite characters to come out of the series so far. The world-building of the human world definitely feels very different from the unicorn's/griffin's/wyvern's realm, but at the same time it does still feel believable that this takes place in the same world (though probably on a different continent/island). I personally wasn't too invested in the human side of things, but stuff like Jan's character development and Ryhenna's character made me want to keep going.

I personally preferred Tek's subplot in this book though. The first reason for this is simple: Tek is easily the best-written character out of the entire series so far, at least to me. I love how she's both tough and brave and a warrior, but also really compassionate and kind. She's just super neat and I loved her POVs here.

But what also made her POVs more interesting was that I was simply more invested in the unicorn's side of things, rather than the human's. Korr transforming the herd into pretty much a dictatorship was just pretty intense and I liked seeing characters like Sa, Dagg and Tek stand against him even if their chances of succeeding were small. 

Overall I'd say this was a really good second installment. Even if the human-aspects didn't interest me too much, Jan's plotline still made me want to keep going. Now I look forward to seeing how things end in book three. 

Rating: 4/5