Please note this review contains spoilers for the former book in this series, Voidwalker, and contains references to some of the events in this sequel. Read with caution.
A year after revolution, Fionamara, part time smuggler and Voidwalker, has settled down in the winter city of Tomaskweld. Alongside her Daiyari partner, Antal, and their allies, they have built the city into one free of the sacrifices to the creatures of the void. This year of peace draws to a close when Antal receives an invitation from his family requesting his return. After several decades away, they want him to come home. Determined not to let her partner wander off into danger alone, Fi is more than ready to travel to a plane filled with cannibal beasts—some of whom definitely want her dead. Even knowing the tormented past of Antal’s former partner, she is not willing to leave him to face his family’s demons alone. Thus, Fionamara and Antal pursue this homecoming as they do all things: dramatically and with style. Arriving on the Twilit Plane, the couple soon find Antal’s people are more than willing to eat Fionamara alive. The toughest adversary is none other than Antal’s father, a man who bears no understanding for humans nor patience for what Antal and Fionamara have built. If he learns the truth about their new governance, he will not hesitate to undo all they have fought for. When a dangerous threat emerges from beyond the darkness—one that could doom even the daeyari—Fionamara and Antal join the hunt. The beasts of the void care not for family rivalry, but it is Fionamara who may not emerge unscathed in a clash of deadly immortals; at least, not without being forever transformed.
Sunsplitter asks what else there is to confront after successfully toppling the government and falling in love with a cannibal? Daddy issues. It wasn’t enough for Fionamara to successfully pull off a revolution and unite humans and Daiyari alike. Now she has to fight the realest villain of them all: her partner’s father (and source of his trauma). The dark fantasy duology that first took shape in the yawning void and the cusp of revolution returns to ask the eternal question: what happens after the happily-ever-after? For author S.A. Maclean, this gets a bit complicated, as happy-ever-afters are so rarely without the real work of partnership itself. In Voidwalker, Fionamara and Antal forged ahead with revolution, one that required fostering trust to reclaim their world. Now a year into rebuilding, old ghosts threaten newfound security and their flourishing relationship. Sunsplitter ushers in a new era for our disaster bisexual duo. We have a wardrobe change and a new dye job for Fionamara (emphasis on the red), numerous personal injuries, confronting the trauma within—and surviving—and the unification of two separate worlds. Sunsplitter proves who exactly can match a cannibalistic immortal race from the void, particularly in the monster-hunting arena. And the answer is whatever Fionamara has going on. It’s pure chaos condensed into one novel. A finale that had me more than willing to traverse the impossible void and back for one last adventure.
Sunsplitter is a book for the dark fantasy lovers who endlessly crave more after the initial closing of the pages. As someone who often wonders how her favorite couples would fare after facing down revolution, grief, and death, Sunsplitter was the perfect kind of sequel. S.A. Maclean knows what she plans to uncover in this second and final chapter. In Sunsplitter, the details of her characters we missed uncovering amidst the saving of the world are brought out into the light of day, or more specifically, the Twilit Plane. Here, Maclean examines the families who shaped our two leads so profoundly, and the traumas endured. Sunsplitter brings readers into the mysterious world of the Daeyari, their culture, and the customs which have dictated centuries of tithes and sacrifice. Antal and Fi are there to shake things up and bring it all crashing down (as only they know how to do). Sunsplitter increases the angst in a wonderful storm of humor and heartache. This book is a reckoning, a homecoming, and a comedy all at once. In one moment I was crashing out at Fionamara and Antal having to reference their meeting as: “So I blew up his capitol building” and “So there I was just chilling in her rafters, and also the snow bank, and also I was in my bathrobe” (paraphrasing). And in the next, I’d be moved to tears over Antal facing down his father and Fionamara just constantly throwing hands on his behalf. Fionamara and Antal face numerous adversaries in this finale to the Beasts of the Void duology, but most essential are the demons they face from within. While these demons are truly their own, they don’t have to overcome them alone.
This sequel is basically monster hunting, monster fucking, and several near-death experiences condensed into one installment, and I could not ask for more. Additionally, facing down your father, who is essentially Thranduil if he were an immortal cannibal on the Twilit Plane. Sunsplitter is a cathartic reading experience for anyone who has experienced similar parental dynamics to the cannibal creatures from the void, but it’s also a reminder for us to never diminish ourselves. Nowhere is that more evident than in our own fierce and slightly unhinged heroine, Fi. Despite being out of place in the Daeyari world, Fionamara never allows anyone to treat her as less. Her self-worth is such a bright spot in this novel, the way she demands it from her partner and holds him to task when he falters. These two aren’t just in it for the short term, they are consistently asking the other to be better in the here and now. If you love odd expressions of devotion, like crafting your eye in the image of your beloved or a character worried about the other while an arrow protrudes from their skull, you may love this novel. These two have me so goofy; I just love them so much. Sunsplitter is certainly different in tone to its predecessor, but as with all things, it’s the ripening of a plant long seeded—a fruit which is all the sweeter for having taken its time. S.A. MacLean wraps you in the embrace of the void, one that is merciless and comforting in conflicting measure. Sunsplitter closes the chapter on our havoc demons in an emotional send-off I’ll be thinking about for a lifetime. Or until the void claims me.
Thank you to Orbit Books for providing me with an advance review copy.
Trigger warnings: death, blood, violence, narcissistic abuse, murder, confinement
