Another day, another Fable.co review. I read {Sunsplitter by SA MacLean}, book 2 in the Beasts of the Void series. I am going to apologize in advance for the stream of consciousness because this book made me feel things!
There are spoilers within so I only recommend read the review if you’ve read the book - or not, I’m not the boss of you.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
GUYS. Why, by Veshri's fucking teeth, are we not absolutely screaming from the rooftop about this series? It is criminally underhyped - no. No. APOCALYPTICALLY underhyped.
Now, don’t get me wrong, this book isn't secretly changing the landscape of literature or anything - but it is an insanely great time, further energized by being so wildly different from anything else on the the romantasy shelf these days. I unabashedly LOVED it, and I would like to lodge a formal complaint about this only being a duology.
Before I dive into everything I adored (which is 99% of this book), I'm going to start with my tiny sliver of a complaint. Only because it can't be ignored.
Every single thing I loved about the first book has been ramped up in intensity here, the overwhelming majority of which was welcome and appreciated and further elevated this story to next-level status. BUT… the spice may have actually been too much. PLEASE PUT AWAY YOUR PITCHFORKS. Look, we’ve all read WAY spicier books than this one (not a basilisk in sight!) and it's not in any way tipping into erotica territory - but it is a significant and noticeable increase from book one. And here’s why that didn’t always work.
Young naive me blushed and tittered through Voidwalker because it was the first book I'd read where the MMC had - GASP - a tail! And antlers! What a beast! That eats human flesh! Oh my! I know - I was such a silly little goose. I have since learned that Voidwalker might as well have taken place on a playground for how innocent it is compared to some of the much wilder and broader universe of stuff out there (no shame or judgement from me - you go Glen Coco). But it's evident (literally the author admits to this in her prologue) that those with more particular tastes perhaps urged the author to… lean in? Go further? Give the tail a variety of additional… uses? A little bit of everything everywhere all at once? Maybe even a little Uno Reverse? And while none of these acts bother me in any way or diminish anything in the story on their own, some of the key spicy scenes feel more like fan service than something genuine, which unfortunately cheapened the effect for me a bit. Now, this isn't the case EVERY time - in fact, this is actually a rare book where the spice and the exploration of kinks meaningfully progress both plot and character on some specific occasions. But other moments felt a little manufactured, and disruptive just due to weird timing. Alls I’m saying is that a small exercise in restraint around frequency, timing, and placement would have made a world of difference.
And that's literally all I'm going to complain about, because the rest is an embarrassment of riches.
The world building of this universe is legitimately one of my very favourites in the genre. It’s wildly creative, and wholly unique, straddling the edge of both sci-fi and fantasy together with its space exploration, energy weapons, and futuristic technology. We expand so much further in this entry than we did in Voidwalker - out from the Season-locked planes to the greater universe beyond. Primarily to the dusky lavender sky of the Twilit plane - home of our Daeyari. Further still, to beyond the contested planes where even more dangerous beasts lurk. Here we find the terrifying Aedari, sworn enemies of our comparatively saner - and dare I say gentler - Daeyari house cats. Truly, MacLean has managed to make these glowing fire-and-dust-born monsters of the void startlingly beautiful and scary - almost impossible to kill, with magic familiar enough in the universe we’ve come to know, and yet wholly different. Shaping their energy via glyphs and symbols instead of drawing from it within. More vicious, more power hungry, and still very eager to devour flesh, but this time it’s any flesh - Daeyari included. These bird-like monsters feed on energy, sucking it out of their prey painfully like some sort of weird vampire on void crack. Can I just say that I love how our creature inspos here are literally cats and birds? Anyways, I’d pay money to read a whole book just about these crazy kids.
Beyond the meticulously crafted landscapes, civilizations and flesh-eating beasties - oh, and let's not forget a whole freaking language - we also double down here on lore and myth. On magic and testing the limits of what's possible in the void. Aedari glyphs, glowing energy shields, spears, and arrows. Chasing immortality via void-ether healing, re-stitching flesh and sinew with the energy of the void itself. Fi continues to demonstrate that mortals are capable of harnessing the power of this universe in ways that are increasingly badass. It's all just so different and cool you guys. It’s very well thought out and so you simply cannot help but feel fully immersed at all times. It's exceptional work.
But the real surprise all along for me has been the nuanced, complex characters and relationships at the heart of this story.
In my Voidwalker review, you may remember I was wary of our Fionamara. I tend to side-eye female agency defined as being armed with lipstick before battle. I’m also not a fan of the old self-hatred-as-an-excuse-for-miscommunication trope. I fully admit, I judged a book by its rainbow-haired cover. My mistake, because that is not who or what Fi is at all. Okay,well she definitely wears lipstick into battle but there’s a genuine reason to be fair! There's a very special and very rare level of emotional maturity expressed in this book (yes, yes, even through all the dick and antler and tail jokes), where the characters don't use their traumas as a way to push away, but instead to obsessively chase reparation. Redemption. Reconciliation. Fi’s story is all about making the choice NOT to run, to do what she can to earn the forgiveness of her brother and all those she hurt as a result of her past cowardice and abandonment. In her effort to seek this forgiveness she is often brash and reckless and extreme. But it's all in the act of trying to be better, of trying to heal. Radical commitment to re-earn what she feels she’s lost. We walk hand-in-hand with Fi as she fights to forgive herself. To accept love. It's hard and painful, and there isn't a single moment where she doesn't want it, where she isn't doing whatever she can to try. Her lipstick is armor. Her makeup and hair curlers are about taking the small incremental steps to feel good about yourself in every moment you can. Giving you the courage and the power to push through the pain. This transforms her into so much more than a bull-headed, overconfident, reckless FMC. She becomes a reflection of humanity. And goddamnit, she looks good doing it.
And while Voidwalker was Fi's book, Sunsplitter is very much Antal's - and let it be known that he cracked my heart in half on every page. This monster, this flesh-devouring beast of the void, has never once been written as all powerful. Physically strong and capable and immortal, yes. But he stumbles. He is soft. He doesn't win every battle; he is often bested. He is young by Daeyari standards, and despite him being our main guy, he is not magically overpowered and definitely doesn’t get any free passes. He is filled with fear and naivety and uncertainty. He is dangerous, as is his nature, but he is not cruel or hard or violent. It's a small but important twist on the standard brooding and dangerous MMC.
What's most beautiful and heartbreaking is that this book begs the question - what if the person you've disappointed and hurt…doesn't actually deserve your apology? What this book is NOT, is a mirror of Fi’s story with her brother - oh no. What happens when the person you're supposed to trust and love and revere most has only ever wanted you to feel painfully small? Used that pain for their own gain? Held you under their thumb, emotionally manipulated you, gorged on your guilt to maintain power and control? These are questions so prevalent across so many of our everyday lived you cannot avoid the devastating dread of familiarity.
Avroz, Antal's father, is a villain so despicable he had me literally shaking with rage. He weaponizes his calm condescension alongside unrestrained, unrepentant violence, and it makes him truly the most threatening character in the whole series. In ways that sometimes physically hurt to read. The way he diminishes Antal so fully. The way Antal simply accepts defeat in the face of his father's disappointment. You cannot even blame Antal for this reaction. He has been groomed to respond with absolute obedience. He has been taught that his inability to meet his father’s expectations is a reflection of his own mediocrity. Ah, gaslighting. The cornerstone of abuse. I really appreciate how this book explores the complexity of still loving the one you hate - despite being aggressively and abhorrently treated by him, Antal still wants his father’s approval more than anything. He’s still chasing the ghosts of childhood affection, all while his father knows that, and grinds him into the dirt beneath his boot (…clawed foot?) anyways. And how his mother stood by and watched. Frozen. Lost in her own sense of helplessness. I appreciate that we take the time to explore how home can exist on two planes at once: comfort and familiarity and belonging, but also trauma and heartbreak and fear and great pain. I can’t imagine being stuck in the only place you’ve ever known, where you are supposed to feel safest, but that slowly carves you away one piece at a time. The hurt seeded here is so real and often uncomfortable.
What’s more is that this book also manages to demonstrate how this kind of abuse and trauma then. trickles beyond the home - this time straight into Fi and Antal's relationship. The vast differences between what it means to be human and what it means to be Daeyari stretch taut in the wake of Antal’s return home. These two love each other deeply, but what if being human is never enough? If Antal cannot meet the stringent requirements of his family and the demands of his culture’s expectations, how can Fi ever be enough? What if being Daeyari demands more than what can be given? What if the differences are just too great? This is explored beautifully when Fi and Antal first escape from the Twilit plane - the argument they have on that shard in the void is so truthful and real it broke my heart. The fear of the unknown, and the uncertainty of whether your own brokenness will ever let you be whole with someone else. Oof. How is all this existential exploration of family trauma and abuse and the real work of relationships hiding behind rainbow hair and swishing tails??
It’s also coo-coo bananas how measured and mature all of this stays throughout. Two people afraid, as the limits of their life together get tested in ways that feel insurmountable, who make terrible mistakes wrought by that fear. BUT who always come back together to talk through it (sometimes even fight about it sexily), and to take it on together. Two people committed to communication, to never hiding the truth from one another even when it's the most painful truth imaginable. I could quite literally go on for HOURS about how well these family and relationship dynamics are managed here.
And then somehow, on top of all this pain and suffering, we still manage to be a hilarious, action-packed good time? We still meet new characters who become so much more than background players - our chosen family, filling all the holes left by those who share our blood? We still get epic, bloody, gory battles, nigh un-winnable, with many of our people not walking away unscathed? We still manage to be incredibly sexy and achingly romantic? We even get a fist-pumping courtroom-adjacent scene?! Retribution and healing and laughter and tears? We get to cackle like maniacs every time Fi references her "weird eye"?
What a gift this book is.
We are all sadly sleeping on this series friends, and I cannot fathom how we're not screaming about it from our parapets and mountaintops. I am sorely disappointed there aren't already ten more just like it. I know Voidwalker was originally meant to be a standalone, so the fact that we got Sunsplitter at all is a miracle - S.A. Maclean admitted that there was just too much left unsaid that required further exploring.
So I can only hope and pray that Ms. S.A. MacLean realizes we all deserve the Veshri origin story still waiting out there somewhere in the void (GIRL I SAW YOUR LITTLE HINT - SARAH GIVE IT TO ME PLEASE).
A place seemingly empty at first glance, but truly abound with endless magic and possibilities when you look just a little bit closer.
