The publishing industry's obsession with The Trilogy™ needs to die already. There are countless series I've read over the years that were done a disservice for being structured this way and I'm convinced the world would know true peace (and by the world, I mean me) if we could just embrace the narrative flow of a tightly woven duology or, better yet, an expanded four book saga. Fevered Star perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about.

In a nutshell my biggest issue with this book, and most second books, is events just don't unfold as organically as they do in the first one. We spend the bulk of Fevered Star treading water and just kind of meandering through Meridian as Roanhorse forcibly moves all her chess pieces into place in preparation for the final installment. Things often happen here just because without obeying any kind of discernible logic because the writer is sticking to her script. And while that's not necessarily a bad thing (okay outliner look at you) it makes me feel like character was often sacrificed for plot. For Example: Why the hell was Xiala compelled to follow Iktan... at all? They'd literally just met and this stranger being secretive was really none of her concern. Why did she care? And why would the assasin on a top secret mission let her live after being followed? And are any of these choices even in character for either of them? No, not really... but both Iktan and Xiala needed to be moved to Hokaia for plot reasons. This kind of thing happens over and over.

Another issue for me is nothing happens here for roughly 70% of the damn book. Which I wouldn't mind...except there wasn't a lot of introspective character work happening either. And worse, by the time we time we get to the truly interesting parts of this story...it's abruptly over. You're killing me. How are we sacrificing character for plot when the plot is barely there.

I will continue reading but I am a bit disappointed!