1. Characters are divided into three types that you need to keep track of: human regulars (amaurotics), human voyants (commune with spirits), and Rephaim (weird humanesque beings from a neighboring world).
2. The book is set in London.
3. Voyants are technically illegal, but are allowed to live in certain areas of the city, where “mime-lords” fight for power and commerce.
4. Voyants are captured when they are found in the wrong place at the wrong time and they “disappear” – assumed killed.

Our 19-year-old main character Paige Mahoney is a rare kind of voyant, a dreamwalker. She can send her spirit into the minds of other people or animals, and she can sense spirits around her. She is a member of the Seven Seals, followers of the most powerful mime-lord in the Dials, the center of the city where the voyants can live fairly openly.

Paige gets captured on the subway and is taken to the Tower of London to a cell with other voyants that are being held, not killed. They are transported to the city of Oxford, which is off limits to all citizens because of some kind of radiation rumor, but really it’s a walled in slave city run by the Rephaim, who feed off the auras of voyants and use them for entertainment and protection. The leader of the Rephaim is able to kill and absorb the abilities of voyants, and is searching for a dreamwalker to complete her skills. She assigns Paige to her consort, the Warden, for training and safe-keeping. She is expected to strengthen and expand her gift, and once she does she will be killed and her git absorbed.

We also find out that there was an uprising where some of the Rephaim (the scarred ones) tried to help humans escape this slavery back in the 8th year of this weird harvest (called Bone Seasons) and it was quelled but there are Rephaim among them that were a part of it and are working on earning their forgiveness.

This book was good, but there was WAY too much going on. For example, Paige is apparently famous for her involvement with the Seven Seals, but they only talk about it like 3 times. She’s referred to as the Pale Dreamer but it has no weight because they don’t talk about it. Also there is no sense that she and the Warden have any kind of romantic connection, but then suddenly like 40 pages from the end they do, and they heal a flower and it makes the leader of the Rephaim really angry but we don’t understand why outside of the fact that her fiance is making out with the human she’s about to steal an ability from?

When you read this book, there isn’t a lot of backstory. You’re placed right in the middle of the action at the moment that you enter, and you just observe Paige as she moves through her plotline. The author doesn’t do a whole lot of exposition, which isn’t such a big deal until she tries to fit in a million things in the last 100 pages that mean nothing without some kind of buildup or information. I am going to give book 2 a shot to see if maybe I get what I want there, but there are other YA books that do this kind of fantasy dystopia much better.

Legend (Legend #1)

Our story picks up right where it left off: with our heros on a train bound for the border of the Nevada district on their way to meet with the Patriots to arrange for safe passage to the colonies. They meet up with Kaede and the Patriots who talk them into being part of an assassination attempt on the new Elector Primo of the Republic, Anden, who became the new leader after his father’s death.

June is torn between her lifelong (15 years) devotion to the Republic and her need to get revenge for her family and to protect others that might be harmed. Day is still angry about his family’s murder and his younger brother’s capture, and is highly motivated to work with June and the Patriots to carry out this plot and overturn the Republic.

Still simmering is this idea that plague viruses are being created, tested, and vaccines developed as mutations occur, but that theme was far in the background in this second novel of the trilogy so I’m kind of worried about whether everything is still under control.

Once June is with Anden, she discovers that he’s not his father and that something isn’t quite right about how the Patriots are planning to kill him. She signals Day to call it off, and they escape through the tunnels into the Colonies.

I don’t want to give away the ending to this book. The twist took me completely by surprise and, given our current situation in the U.S., hit a very raw nerve. I was surprised and shocked and enjoyed the fast journey through the last 50 pages. The first three quarters of the book definitely suffered from the sophomore slump, but the story was still compelling enough to keep me interested and reading.

I don’t understand the title. Legend I got, because Day was a legend in the Republic and his mystery and June’s dilemma drove the plot. Prodigy doesn’t really link to anything we see in this second book, so while it’s exciting on the outside, it’s really unhelpful when gauging what the book might be about.

This is a fun trilogy so far and I’ll be requesting the third book to see how it ends. If you’re looking for a dystopian version of America that isn’t our current reality, with an interesting storyline that asks a lot of important questions, then go get you some. You won’t be disappointed.

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1)

The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower #2)

The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower #3)

Our ka-tet manages to outsmart Blaine the Pain Train and make their way back toward the beam which will lead them to The Dark Tower. They find themselves in Topeka, KS, but not quite the same Topeka (where and when) as Eddie, Susannah, or Jake. As they make their way through the city, taking note of the differences, Roland finally begins to tell us the story of his past before he set out on his quest.

And I give up. UNCLE!

Goddamn this may be King’s magnum opus but jesus I am 22% through BOOK FUCKING FOUR and I have ZERO knowledge of why any of this is happening. WHO. CARES??? I mean, I get who is doing this, I have a very vague sense of what they are doing and where they are going (going to The Dark Tower to…pick roses?), and the multiple whens are getting a little muddied but they are manageable. But the largest void in this series is the gaping lack of a WHY. I’m sorry. I need to be invested in a WHY to continue reading. I was patient. I got further in this series than I have ever gotten before. But I’ve been stuck at 22% for about a month and it’s time to face the reality that I’m not going to pick this book back up.

It’s hard to recommend this series. People either love it or they hate it, but I am prepared to create a third category of disinterested readers. It’s okay, the story has potential, but without a stronger antagonist or clearer why, I just don’t care enough to keep going. The achievement can remain locked.