Sacred Scars: Shifts focus, still a pleasure

Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey

Sacred Scars, the second book in the A Resurrection of Magic trilogy, picks up immediately where the action in Skin Hunger leaves off. Told with the same style of focusing on the two main characters, Sadima and Hahp, in alternating chapters, the book starts with Sadima, Franklin, and Somiss living in a mysterious complex of caves and tunnels outside the main city of Limori, and Hahp trying to figure out how to survive the magical training he is undergoing at the hands of sadistic wizards.

Kathleen Duey writes beautiful sparse prose that evokes a stark and terrible world while still illuminating quiet moments of peace and happiness.

My only complaint with Sacred Scars is that the story drags. While Duey does flesh out the Erideans, a third alternative to the wizards-versus-kings dynamic set up in the first book, it feels like the main characters don’t grow throughout most of the story. There is a lot of repetition in both main plot lines. It feels as if Sadima spends the first part of the book trying to convince Franklin to run away with her, repeating many of the same arguments from the first book, and the last two thirds making cheese. Hahp spends most of the book worrying that he is going to get killed for the things he is learning. Sacred Scarssuffers from the lack of Somiss — both as a villain and as someone who can explain his side of the story. Without him, the book feels more like a documentary than a drama. However, the last few chapters finally pick up the narrative pace, and some shocking events thrust the action into the forefront again. The battlefield has definitely been set up for the concluding book.

This is a common problem for second volumes in trilogies — the action can’t be resolved yet, but the author needs to get the story from the introduction set forth in the first volume to the conclusion in the third. While Sacred Scars does suffer slightly from that affliction, the quality of the writing is high enough that it is still a pleasure to read if you are willing to shift from the character-driven first novel to the politically-driven second. I was willing, and I am eagerly anticipating the conclusion to this dark and gripping trilogy.