Uptown Oracle Reads… Onyx & Ivory

They call her Traitor Kate. It’s a title Kate Brighton inherited from her father after he tried to assassinate the high king years ago. Now Kate lives as an outcast. When dark falls, the nightdrakes come out to hunt. Fortunately, she is a wilder, born with magic that allows her to influence the minds of animals. But she needs to keep hidden, as being a wilder is forbidden. And it’s this magic that leads her to a caravan massacred by nightdrakes in broad daylight—the only survivor the high king’s second son, Corwin Tormane, never asked to lead. But the peacekeeping tour Corwin is on has given him too much time to reflect upon the night he saved his father’s life—the night he condemned the would-be killer to death and lost the girl he loved. Which is why he takes it on himself to investigate rumors of unrest in one of the remote city-states, only for his caravan to be attacked—and for him to be saved by Kate. With their paths once more entangled, Kate and Corwin have to put the past behind them. The threat of drakes who attack in the daylight is only the beginning of a darker menace stirring in the kingdom—one whose origins have dire implications for Kate’s father’s attack upon the king and will thrust them into the middle of a brewing civil war in the kingdom of Rime.

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Onyx & Ivory
Mindee Arnett

Within the first few pages I was hooked on Onyx & Ivory. Anything that has drakes in is usually a book I love to read and Onyx & Ivory didn’t disappoint. With the introduction of day drakes, which can come out into the sun, our characters have to unravel the mystery as to why they’re appearing and attacking. The actual drakes part of the plotline was my favourite part, and as much as I love political intrigue and fighting for the crown, I didn’t feel like these pulled me into the mystery as much.

The world building in Onyx & Ivory is great. Arnett introduces us to the history of these people well and it’s structured to fit in within the story without info dumping. Before Corwin gets home we visit a few different places which have slightly differing cultures of people, and we see the different classes as separate people as well. The church style magists are also well weaved into the storyline with their different specialities and ways of living. I also loved the magic system, although did feel that some information was lacking about the magists powers. Kate’s powers of course are the ones most targeted on but I did feel that we could have seen more of the different wilders as well.

Both main characters of Kate and Corwin were interesting and had good plotlines, but often found that their interactions with each other were whiny. And by this I mean they were both complaining about not being together, but they never seemed to do anything and actually talk to one another about it. There was a lot of ‘we can’t be together because we’re probably not allowed’ and not much we can’t be together because X, Y and Z.  So our characters spent a lot of time pining when there were other factors that were more important were what they should be thinking of.

At the start of the book I felt that Kate and Signe would be much better strong female characters. There’s the fact they both work in a male orientated job as a relay rider and that they discuss moon belts (a contraceptive) easily and as if it’s the norm. Unfortunately, both seem to end up depending on the men in their lives a lot more than I first thought. So although they were still the sassy and stubborn heroine typecast, I personally felt that this was dimmed by their heroic male counterparts.

When reading this book I did keep thinking about forbidden magic. Is this already a fantasy trope is it becoming one? I’m not sure! But I do still really enjoy it as it’s a way to create conflict in books, but then I do question as to whether it will start getting boring or predictable. Anyone else had similar thoughts? Also this is in no way a critique of Onyx & Ivory, it was just the book I was reading when I thought about this.

As a whole, I enjoyed Onyx & Ivory even though there were a couple of issues I had with it.

POSITIVES

+ Nightdrakes

+ World Building

NEGATIVES

– Slightly whiny romance

I received Onyx & Ivory by Mindee Arnett from the publisher via Edelweiss. This is an unbiased and honest review