Customer Reviews

The Burning City (Spirit Binders)

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When I read Johnson's first novel, "Racing the Dark", I appreciated her original characters and divergence from standard fantasy tropes. I ordered "The Burning City" hoping it would be a continuation of the originality in her previous novel. Wow, I was blown away by the complexity/struggles of the characters and the effortless way she world builds. There is a lot going on in this story and Johnson manages to convey the temporal shifting (regarding the Black Book) smoothly and without confusion. Also, I found myself really loving her construction of the female protagonists in the story. Enough cannot be said about the way she writes her ladies! I wish I could speak more eloquently about how good this book is, but really, you should pick it up for yourself and experience the wonder of being immersed in this haunting, fascinating, and beautiful world.

This is a strong follow-on to Racing the Dark, though the reader should be prepared to let some of the core conflicts remain unresolved as Lana, the main character, learns more about the magic of spirit binding and sacrifice through both her own experience and an anonymous history contained in a little black book given to her by the water sprite Ino. The feel of the narration shifts compared to Racing the Dark, since chapters of the little black book take up a lot of the text, and Lana does not travel so much in this second book of the trilogy. The Quest format does not completely go away, but here Lana enters the world of some of the characters who were introduced in the first books - the island where her parents had settled, home of the new fire spirit M'oi, whose people (and possibly his wife) are now in rebellion against him. Someone, possibly the M'oi himself, is loosening the binding of the fire spirit; volcanic eruption and tsunami kill thousands, and the Water and Fire spirit guardians themselves get involved in the question of what should happen next. Lana, as the black angel, also becomes an influential figure in the conflict on the island, despite her overall focus on figuring out how to save her mother's life and save her, if that's what needs doing, from Lana's former teacher.

I've found myself appreciating the depth of the characters in this series, the way loss and dificulty have profound impacts on people and shape their lives and decisions. The cast is diverse and creative. The magic system is also exceedingly interesting, if sometimes the cause of exposition that can be repetitious if you've read the first book.

Three years after the release of the first volume, "Racing the Dark," Alaya Dawn Johnson's Spirit Binder trilogy remains a welcome relief from the cookie-cutter novels that dominate the shelves of YA fantasy. "The Burning City" builds on the promise of "Racing the Dark," drawing readers deeper into Lana's wild and rapidly destabilizing world. Johnson paints characters of such heartrending complexity that you find yourself constantly pondering the "right" course, just as Lana is forced time and again to question her own choices and the path she must take to rescue her mother, a city, and perhaps even all of humanity. The black book and the past it reveals is masterfully interwoven with the present, greatly enriching the already intricate plot and adding unforeseen depth to Lana's plight and the woman who betrayed her. The novel's true strength lies in the cast's dimension: No character is wholly "good" nor "evil"--all are painfully human, struggling to do what must be done, what they believe is right, in a situation that seems increasingly hopeless. No one is irredeemable nor wholly unsympathetic. Readers who enjoyed "Racing the Dark" will find even greater riches in "The Burning City" and Lana's startling epiphanies coupled with the enticing cliff-hanger finale will have you begging for the final volume. Here's hoping it won't be a long wait.