What I’m Reading: The Court of Silver Flames

Second, this book is not epic fantasy as I expected, but romantic fantasy. This is now the second romantic fantasy book I have ever read, after Sworn to the Gods, which I reviewed last year. This one had stronger fantasy world-building elements than Sworn to the Gods, giving it more of a traditional fantasy feel, but still there were many erotic scenes with explicit sexual language and depictions. I have seen this series shelved in the YA section in bookstores, and while I can’t speak to the first four books in the series, for The Court of Silver Flames this shelving is wholly inappropriate. This is an adult book that should not be read by younger readers.

It’s also something of a character study, and the object of that study is one Nesta Archeron. At the beginning of the book, Nesta has hit rock bottom. She is haunted by memories of a war that took place the year before (I believe those are the events in the third book): the awful things that were done to her, the terrible things she had to do to survive, and most of all, her failure to act when it would have kept her sisters and friends from harm and her father from death. Moreover, Nesta was placed into the Cauldron, which seems to have been some sort of magical item that transformed her from a human to a high fairy, giving her a resilient, near-immortal body but taking away her humanity. In her rage at what the cauldron was doing to her, she mentally/magically grabbed some of the cauldron’s power for herself, giving her an inner cold, silver fire that she can barely control.

Unable to come to terms with all that happened to her and all she’s become, she has turned to alcohol, loud music, and one-night stands to cope in the year since the war, and ample amounts of all three. In fact, any moment she’s not drunk, dancing, or screwing, she finds her thoughts returning to the war’s events, and that she can’t bear, so she relies on her three crutches during every waking hour. Her sisters Feyre, who is recently married to the High Lord of the Night Court, Rhysand, and Elaine, are worried about her. (Both Feyre and Elaine were also turned into high fairies in previous volumes.) Rhysand is especially irritated at the excessive bills for Nesta’s bar tab which keep arriving at his and his bride’s new home.

After one truly astronomical bill, Rhysand insists on cutting Nesta off and holding an intervention. She is to be separated from alcohol and live at the royal palace, the House of Winds, which is separated from the city of Velaris below by a staircase with 10,000 steps, which should be enough to keep Nesta from the taverns. Rhysand’s brother, Cassian, the general of the Night Court’s army, has sympathy, not to mention the hots, for Nesta and suggests that if he trained her, she could learn to discipline her powers and possibly her emotions. Rhysand likes the idea but adds that Cassian can train her in the mornings, but Nesta must work for the forbidding librarian Clotho in the palace library in the afternoons.

Nesta has a bad attitude and does not take well to the new lifestyle enforced on her. At first, she refuses to take part in Cassian’s training at all, preferring simply to watch him resentfully while he goes through the two hours of exercises and drills by himself. In the library, though, she does carry out her tasks rather than further burden the rather overworked library staff. She also soon becomes friends with Gwyneth, the personal assistant to a taskmaster scholar, Merrill, who is writing a book on the ancient Valkyrie warriors.

When Cassian has the idea to take Nesta to a more private area where other warriors won’t be able see her first, faltering attempts at getting in shape, she finally starts taking part in his training. She soon finds that she enjoys it and the improvements she sees in her new fairy body, which builds muscle and loses fat far more quickly than a human body. She and Cassian also fall into bed together before many weeks have passed, as well. As her fitness improves, she’s able every night to advance farther on those 10,000 steps to the city of Velaris, dreaming of when she’ll be able to return to the taverns and her old life.

Nesta learns that Gwyneth and the other librarians all have traumatic pasts and that many of them have not ventured outside in decades. On a rare trip when Cassian flies her to Velaris to buy some better fitting armor, she also befriends the storeowner, a young woman named Emerie, who has her own traumatic past and whose cousins are trying to eject her from the store so they can take over the property. Nesta suggests to Cassian that Gwyneth and Emerie be allowed to join her in training, and he agrees. Gwyneth, who is learning all about Valkyries from her assistance to Merrill, introduces some ancient Valkyrie meditation and fighting technique to their regimen. Soon, other librarians are joining their training.

Meanwhile, the human queen Briallin, an enemy of the Night Court, has teamed up with an ancient wizard named Koschei and the Autumn Court and they are apparently gathering their forces for war. Braillin is also seeking a trove of three ancient artifacts of great power, and has already the first item, a crown which gives her mental control of those who come within a certain distance of her. If she finds the other two objects in the trove, she will be unstoppable in her desire to take over all the fairy courts and human kingdoms. It’s almost inevitable that Nesta and her band of nascent valkyries will have a part to play in the upcoming conflict. Nesta may even lead them, if she can learn to control her powers.

Despite all her flaws, I found Nesta to be a sympathetic and even endearing character. She just feels so deeply and passionately that she can’t help her extreme actions! Early on, when her self-confidence is at its lowest ebb, those actions are rude and self-destructive, as is her sarcastic (but often funny) tongue. Later, when she gains confidence and self-control with Cassian’s help (and sexual healing), her intense devotion to those she loves comes through. I don’t know about the earlier books, which apparently focus more on Feyre and Rhysand, but Nesta was a worthy heroine for this one.

Of course, coming into the series at the end did mean I missed out on certain things that were explained in earlier books. I never did quite the politics of the world completely straight. Another thing is that I never quite understood the “siphons” that the fairy warriors were described as having on their arms and that glowed when they used magical powers. Do the siphons focus their power somehow, or tamp it down, or amplify it, or what? But overall, I don’t coming in late hampered my understanding.

The Court of Silver Flames is definitely a book I can recommend to an adult fantasy reader who doesn’t mind the presence of some quite explicit sex. I’m not even sure if I would recommend starting earlier in the series. Feyre and Rhysand come across as kind of boring, although maybe that’s just because they’re settling down, and they had better adventures earlier. In any case, this was a fun book with a fascinating, unpredictable, and sexy heroine at its center.