C.S.E. Cooney — BLOG — ANTHONY R. CARDNO

TITLE: Saint Death’s Herald (Book Two of the Saint Death Trilogy)

AUTHOR: C.S.E. Cooney

430 pages, Solaris Books, ISBN 9781837864492 (paperback, e-book, audiobook)

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

C.S.E. Cooney’s Saint Death’s Herald, the sequel to her 2023 World Fantasy Award winning novel Saint Death’s Daughter, is an action-packed, fast-paced, often dark but always hopeful, fantasy adventure. Despite the difference in focus from its predecessor (Saint Death’s Daughter is more coming-of-age novel than adventure story, but no less exciting for that), the tone of the first book carries over. No matter the pace of the story, Cooney’s prose is always lushly gorgeous, her wordplay intricate yet accessible, poetic phrases side by side with everyday speech. Cooney is one of those writers who make me want to linger over individual sentences, to reread aloud, to feel the words physically and emotionally. Even her character names are joys to speak aloud (Cracchen Skrathmandan! Ynyssyll Brackenwild! Tanaliin idden Fa’nim’wai! Duantri! Makkovian! Sacred Datura Stones!). Cooney makes me laugh, cry, and gasp in equal measure. Saint Death’s Herald had me doing all of those. Repeatedly.

This is a story of possession and possessiveness, of control and of giving up control (willingly and unwillingly), of understanding history (both the personal and the societal) and breaking the cycles of trauma that are caused by both. It starts with a man possessed by a ghost being run to ruin, the ghost intentionally heedless of the cost inflicted on the still-living man he’s taken over. And throughout the book, Cooney revisits this concept of the powerful ignoring the cost to the powerless. We see it at the personal level (with the man and the ghost), we see it at a governmental level (in the past history of Skakmaht). And we also see what it costs someone like Miscellaneous Stones, our main character, to care enough to try to make a change.

Miscellaneous Stones, as established in Saint Death’s Daughter, is the latest in a lengthy line of necromancers who have served the rulers of Liriat for generations. But Lanie is also unlike her familial predecessors, in that she is allergic to violence; she literally cannot cause injury without experiencing it herself. This makes her mission (tracking down the ghost of her genocidal great-grandfather Radamanthes Stones and preventing him from further genocide) all the harder. Watching the creative (and sometimes whimsical) ways she finds to defend herself is one of the great joys of the book, along with how she willingly puts herself in harm’s way to do battle when she absolutely must, regardless of the cost. Lanie, as her friends call her, has come a long way since the start of the first book in understanding just how far she can push herself in these situations as well as how far she’s willing to go to protect others.

I would be remiss if I did not mention just how chock-full this book is of representation: queer characters from across the spectrum abound, as do characters with pretty much every skin tone imaginable. Cooney’s fantasy world, Ayth, which appears not just in these two books but in almost everything she’s written (see: my reviews of Dark Breakers; Desdemona and the Deep; The Twice-Drowned Saint, and more), is one of the most diverse and enjoyable fantasy worlds I’ve ever been immersed in. (I would also be remiss if I did not mention that I have an especial fictional character crush on the aforementioned Makkovian. My Catastrophic Attraction Complex to redheads strikes again!)

Final thoughts: Saint Death’s Herald is certainly a complete novel unto itself. You could jump right in without having read Saint Death’s Daughter and you’d be able to follow along pretty easily. But reading the books in order will absolutely enhance your understanding of not just Lanie, Cracchen, Grandpa Rad, and Duantri, but also Makkovian, Datu, and a host of other characters who were vital to book one but play a more supporting role in book two. And here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long for the final book in the trilogy (Please, Solaris, make it happen!).

NOTE: C.S.E. Cooney will be appearing at Kew & Willow Books on July 12th, to discuss the Saint Death’s books, and other interesting topics, in conversation with author Mike Allen. I’ll be there as well!

I received an electronic advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley well before publication date in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. The book released in April 2025.

TITLE: Dark Breakers

AUTHOR: C.S.E. Cooney

291 pages, Mythic Delirium Books, ISBN 9781732644069 (hardcover, also in trade paperback and e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from the publisher): A young human painter and an ageless gentry queen fall in love over spilled wine—at the risk of his life and her immortality. Pulled into the Veil Between Worlds, two feuding neighbors (and a living statue) get swept up in a brutal war of succession. An investigative reporter infiltrates the Seafall City Laundries to write the exposé of a lifetime and uncovers secrets she never believed possible. Returning to an oak grove to scatter her husband’s ashes, an elderly widow meets an otherworldly friend, who offers her a momentous choice. Two gentry queens of the Valwode plot to hijack a human rocketship and steal the moon out of the sky.

DARK BREAKERS gathers three new and two previously uncollected tales from World Fantasy Award-winning writer C. S. E. Cooney that expand on the thrice-enfolded worlds first introduced in her Locus and World Fantasy award-nominated novella DESDEMONA AND THE DEEP.

MY RATING: 5 stars out of 5

MY THOUGHTS: C.S.E. Cooney’s Dark Breakers collection has been a long time coming (she self-published two of the novellas herein in 2014 and 2015), but it has been worth the wait. These stories beautifully illustrate the overlapping layers of creativity, love, ambition, and self-identity that propel us as individuals and thus as a society.

The “thrice-enfolded worlds” mentioned in the book’s description are Athe (the World), home of humans, which is in the midst of an industrial revolution and all the societal upheaval that comes with it; the Valwode (the World Beneath), home of the Gentry, which is in the midst of a political upheaval; and Bana the Bone Kingdom (the World Beneath the World Beneath), home of goblinkind, which doesn’t figure heavily into any of the stories in this volume. The ways between these three worlds were once open but are now sealed off, travel between them limited to certain powerful individuals like Nyx the Nightwalker (Queen of the Gentry) and Kalos Kantzaros, king of all the koboldkin. And even for them, the crossing can only be done at certain times and certain places (as in the titular Dark Breakers / Breaker House). To most people in Athe the other realms are fairy stories and cautionary tales, the stuff of authors and artists.

It is not accidental then that the lead human characters of these stories are creatives: Elliot the painter, Ana the author, Gideon the sculptor, Salissay the investigative reporter. In their own way, each tap into the old beliefs, molding those tales into paintings, books, and sculptures that bring change, as art so often does. Change to Athe and change to the Valwode (and by extension, to Bana), although the extent of those changes is not immediately evident to the characters or to the reader.

So much of the characters’ creativity is tied up with their ability to love not just others but themselves. It is Elliot’s instant connection with an unassuming maid who goes by “Nixie” on the night of a grand party at Breaker House that sets the first novella in motion, but it’s the friendship between Elliot, Ana, and Gideon (and later Nixie) that underpins everything. Even when they don’t believe in themselves (and low self-esteem runs rampant among these three), they believe in each other, and at key moments that support makes all the difference in what they are able to accomplish with and for each other. I recognized a lot of myself in each of them: Elliot’s social anxiety in large crowds, Ana’s fears that her work isn’t as good as people say it is, Gideon’s attempts to hide what he really feels behind a bit of witty repartee (okay, I use dad jokes, but same thing), Nixie’s dislike of one she thinks is unworthy of the woman she comes to love like a sister. But also their unwavering support for each other even when they’re not getting along, their teasing and gentle prodding, their willingness to deprive themselves to help their loved ones out of tight spots. Along the same lines, I recognized in Salissay’s sense of social justice some of my anger at the way things are in our own world and my urge to make things better. (Salissay also seems to lack any self-doubt, which works against her a bit, but hey, no one is perfect!) The best fantasy books are centered around people we can relate to and recognize despite the otherworldly or supernatural setting, and Dark Breakers is very much among the best fantasy.

You do not have to have read Cooney’s novella Desdemona and the Deep to enjoy these stories, but if you have (or when you do), you’ll pick out the connections easily enough. They all stand alone very well, and all feature Cooney’s trademark love of language. If you’re like me, you’ll be so invested in the stories that you won’t notice the amazing craftwork, but it will hit you afterward how amazing is Cooney’s knack for the right descriptive word in each moment.

I’ll say again here what I said at the end of my review of Desdemona and the Deep: the stories of Elliot, Ana, Gideon, Nixie, and Salissay may or may not be concluded, but I hope we still have many more visits to the worlds of Athe, the Valwode and Bana in our future. I think there are many stories left to tell.

I received an advance reading copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.