TL;DR Review: A massive level-up from Book 1! Powerful found family vibes, a great adventure, and a beautiful hook for what’s to come.
Synopsis:
Winter has come early to Korslakov, City of Spires, and Lukan Gardova has arrived with it. Most visitors to this famous city of artifice seek technological marvels, or alchemical ingenuity. Lukan only desires the unknown legacy his father has left for him, in the vaults of the Blackfire Bank.
But when Lukan’s key to the vault is stolen by a mysterious thief known as the Rook, he and his friends race to win it back―and find themselves trapped in a web of murder and deceit. In desperation, Lukan requests the help of Lady Marni Volkova, scion of Korslakov’s most powerful family.
Yet Lady Marni has secrets of her own. Worse, she has plans for Lukan and his friends. Plans that involve a journey into Korslakov’s dark past, in search of a long-lost alchemical formula that could lead to the city’s greatest discovery . . . or its destruction.
Full Review:
Well, hot damn—that. Was. AWESOME!
The Silverblood Promise was one of my favorite debuts and top reads of 2024, and I’ve been looking forward to The Blackfire Blade ever since it ended. But what I got…what I got was something WAY better than I expected.
The Blackfire Blade follows Lukan, Flea, and Ashra as they journey from the scorching south to the frozen north, to a city on the edge of civilization where Lukan will find the answers to the mystery of his father’s death in the Blackfire Bank. Only, the day he arrives, he gets blind drunk and the key to the strongbox gets stolen. Cue hijinks, heists, and adventures!
This book follows many of the same cues as its predecessor: bodies turn up dead with Lukan and co. being in the wrong place at the wrong time, mysterious double-dealings and political intrigues abound, and the ancient and powerful artifacts of the Phaeron are being utilized for nothing good.
But let’s get one thing clear: The Blackfire Blade is an absolute level-up from The Silverblood Promise.
First, it’s eminently clear that the real hero of the story isn’t really Lukan (far from it, in fact). Really, the hero here is Flea. Badass with a crossbow, clever and cunning, and just the most precocious young street urchin, she’s a true delight every time she’s on the page. A MAJOR scene-stealer, and a character who I absolutely adored even more than I did in Book 1.
The addition of Ashra also adds a layer of professionalism and seriousness to the story that forces Lukan to step up his game and actually be smart about things. But more than that, it introduces a really lovely “found family” dynamic that has me absolutely addicted to watching this trio eventually find their way to embracing each other as fellow outcasts. It’s got major Spy X Family vibes in the way each of the characters has their own storyline and skills and desires, but as they slowly come together, they’ll actually become that family we can all see they’re going to be. That is the journey I most loved in this book and am most excited for in the books to come.
Another thing I loved about this book was the time we got to spend in the mysterious plague zone. One of the things I was most curious about in The Lies of Locke Lamora was that whole plague storyline, but it hasn’t yet been explored (and may never be). But we get a taste of that here, with our heroes even venturing into the dark and evil plague zone—and, naturally, chaos and violence ensues.
By the end, I was tearing through the pages to find out what happens next, and even after the climactic ending, there’s still more goodness to come. We take another marvelous step forward in the mystery of Lukan’s father’s death—and in so doing, plumb new emotional depths of their fraught relationship. This part, in particular, hit me right in the feels and promises to change both Lukan and the story overall moving forward.
All that to say, The Blackfire Blade was truly spectacular. It has earned its place on my Top 10 of the Year list, and absolutely has me engaged in the adventures of Flea, Ashra, and their hapless sidekick Lukan. I cannot recommend this one highly enough!
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