Written by contributor Christina ‘DZA’ Marie
Stormsong is the second book in C. L. Polk’s Kingston Cycle Trilogy. It’s an epic fantasy series taking place in a world inspired by Victorian England, in a country called Aeland. Witches are real, but if they’re born poor, they’re carted off to an asylum under the belief that they’re dangerous to themselves and others. The rich witches—called mages—remain secret from the public while working their magic within the government to temper massive storms that hit Aeland every year.
The first book, Witchmark, is about a witch named Miles trying to solve a mystery of magic, war, and politics. Stormsong is about his sister, Grace, cleaning up the mess they left behind. As C. L. Polk said in her interview with me, Miles is in no position to run around and “protag,” given his injuries from Witchmark‘s climax, so the baton of main character must be passed.
In Witchmark, Grace went from being a toxic relation to Miles to his full-on ally. She didn’t understand that witches and mages are the same, different only in their paycheck. Nor did she understand that binding Secondaries (that is, binding mages to other mages to serve as their personal battery pack) is slavery. She was that person who thinks she’s an ally but really isn’t, and spent the majority of Witchmark trying to convince Miles to be her Secondary even though he literally ran away from home to avoid that fate.
It wasn’t until going on adventures with her brother, finding out her father is a monster, and uncovering a conspiracy that revealed the horrible origins of the country’s source of electricity (aehter) that she did a proper 180. Witchmark ended with Grace, Miles, and Tristan breaking the seal that kept aether going before being forced to retreat.
Now, all of the country’s electricity is out just in time for winter. Almost all of the storm mages are imprisoned for their crimes as massive blizzards threaten to tear the country apart. Oh, and the fae show up to pass judgement on the country of Aeland for their crimes against Laneer, witches, and the souls of the dead. We’ve also got a murder mystery and coup to deal with.
By the way, this book is not kind to people who have not read its predecessor, Witchmark. There’s very little exposition and almost no recap of previous events. So if it’s been a while since you’ve read book one, you’re going to want to re-read it before Stormsong. I say this because it’s been months since I read Witchmark, and found myself scrambling to keep up with the names and events of the last book. It sucked some of the enjoyment out of it, so bear that in mind.
Grace is promoted to Chancellor–basically second-in-command of the entire country–early in the book, but has two major problems right out the gate: the queen and herself.
The queen is stubborn, doesn’t believe she has to bow to the fae, and basically thinks she’s totally right 100% of the time. She’s yet another obstacle Grace has to overcome.
The other problem—Grace’s personal hang-ups—tie directly to the theme of the book: moderate action versus radical action. Grace is a moderate. Yes, she’s passionate about fixing Aeland’s problems, saving it from its own sins, and overall improving the quality of life of everyone who lives there, be they witch or mage. But she wants to do it slowly. Because if she tosses all of the skeletons from Aeland’s closet into the world, there’s a very real chance of revolt, rebellion, punishment from the fae, and other problems. However, her brother Miles, all the fae, and a few other characters–several of them witches–tell her they’ve waited long enough and demand immediate change.
If you’re seeing parallels to today’s modern political climate…yeah. That’s on purpose.
There’s this great part in the book where Grace is trying to convince a radical witch to alert all the storm witches hiding in the country to help them gentle the next massive blizzard coming their way, saying that it’s a crisis, national emergency, hundreds of people will die if they do nothing, all of which are completely true. To which the radical replies that the oppression of poor witches has been a crisis for the last five decades, and everyone was fine with sitting on their thumbs. So Grace and all the other mages can shove it.
It’s one of those books where, while you want the main character to succeed, it’s also really satisfying seeing her put in her place.
Like Witchmark, Stormsong features a same-sex romantic subplot: Grace and a reporter named Avia (another minor character from the first book). Unlike Witchmark, I wasn’t as invested in this one. Miles and Tristan are a really cute couple, and we get to see them go from strangers to friends to lovers to power couple to fiances over the course of two books.
I’m not entirely sure why Grace and Avia are different. It could be because this book is already so jam-packed that we couldn’t really take the time to properly delve into the relationship the way we could with Miles and Tristan in Witchmark. Grace’s relationship with Avia is almost like checking another item off of her never-ending to-do list.
However, Avia herself plays a very important role and is an intriguing character, as Grace utilises the press to further her own cause. It’s also used in her own narrative arc, because the press is all about sniffing out the secrets she’s trying so hard to keep hidden under the rug until she feels Aeland is ready to hear them.
(Quick question: when exactly is it a good time to tell the nation that their electricity is harnessed from enslaved witches that–surprise!–are not crazy or a threat to society? Asking for a friend.)
Polk has left some breadcrumbs of a fresh mystery concerning the fae that she didn’t get a chance to properly address in Stormsong, and I’m really looking forward to the third and final instalment, Soulstar.
Stormsong is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
Will you be picking up Stormsong? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
After spinning an enthralling world in Witchmark, praised as a “can’t-miss debut” by Booklist, and as “thoroughly charming and deftly paced” by the New York Times, C. L. Polk continues the story in Stormsong. Magical cabals, otherworldly avengers, and impossible love affairs conspire to create a book that refuses to be put down.
Dame Grace Hensley helped her brother Miles undo the atrocity that stained her nation, but now she has to deal with the consequences. With the power out in the dead of winter and an uncontrollable sequence of winter storms on the horizon, Aeland faces disaster. Grace has the vision to guide her parents to safety, but a hostile queen and a ring of rogue mages stand in the way of her plans. There’s revolution in the air, and any spark could light the powder. What’s worse, upstart photojournalist Avia Jessup draws ever closer to secrets that could topple the nation, and closer to Grace’s heart.
Can Aeland be saved without bloodshed? Or will Kingston die in flames, and Grace along with it?
