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.