Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones is on the trail of her great grandfather, Irradiant "Rad" Stones, a many times over murderer and bully. And very powerful necromancer. Rad escaped from prison, and stolen a body. He's headed to Skakhmat (the site of a war and the murder of a prodigious number of wizards) to finish what he started years ago.

Author C.S.E. Cooney returns us to the dazzling world she introduced us to in book one. It's full of magic, shapechangers, flying houses, assassins, fascinating cultures and beings, and the Stones family of powerful necromancers.

Cooney gives us banter, witticisms, wordplay, and moves easily between beauty and horror as we follow Lanie on her seemingly impossible task of recapturing Rad, who proves himself incredibly adept at jumping bodies, and wielding his magic against anyone who gets in his way.

And even though this is predominantly a chase story, it's also a story about Lanie's growth as a person, and as a necromancer. She's on her journey, begun in book one, to open her heart and honour her obligations.

There is a surfeit of whimsy (which I liked) and impossible creations; there is great deal of violence, but also gentleness and care, and a lot of humour. I love this world. I love Lanie Stones. I love her relationships with her family (particularly young Datu) and friends. It's a welcome return to this world, and a terrific story of kindness in the face of extreme cruelty, and it ends with warmth and hope.

I cannot wait to find out what happens next with Lanie.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Rebellion Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Saint Death’s Herald is just as quirky and cooky as the first book in the series!
While it has a much more linear plot some of the journey felt a bit repetitive at times.
It expands on all our favourite characters beautifully and it felt like coming back and catching up with old friends.
My biggest criticism is that it just felt a little too long for the plot, however I still think that if you loved Saint Deaths Daughter’s charm and wit you will find much to enjoy here!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This had a lot of the same things that I liked about Saint Death's Daughter, including the glorious language play, both in Quadic and also in Skaki (which leans towards Anglo-Saxon alliteration). I also liked learning about the other countries -- less about Leech (which, despite all the determined tolerance just seemed far, far too creepy for me to get behind), but the sequence in the flying houses in Skakmaht was lots of fun. I also enjoyed the sequences from Irradiant Stones's perspective, because the mechanics of the death magic are very cool, and his approach is so different from Lanie's. And I loved how the eventual solution to all the problems rests, naturally enough, on appealing to love and affection between people -- even the most horrible of people. That is deeply true to the whole vibe of these books.

The problem with this book, is the interminable cage-fight between Lanie and Irradiant that goes on for far too long in the middle of the book, and seems uncharacteristic of everything that makes this story, world, and characters work. First, a rule-governed cage-match feels like a very weak way to constrain the stakes of a battle between necromancers. Why make it into a spectacle? Why put rules on it? Why take something wild and dangerous, the core of the entire book, Lanie's pursuit of Irradiance, and tame it into something with contracts and spectators and codes of conduct?

Second, Lanie doesn't fight. That's not her thing. Her whole thing is she can't be near even the thought of violence. Forcing her to fight in this way seems kind of pointless. The reason I like these books is not because of pitched battles, but because of cleverness and ingenuity in death magic.

Third, it just went on too long. Like, it could have been a brief blip of a plot point that occupied a chapter, but it wasn't. It took ages. I got so, so bored during this sequence. I put the book down and read two other books in the meantime before picking it back up again and slogging through to the end of the battle, after which things picked up beautifully again.

So, in sum: people who like Saint Death's Daughter will probably want to read this. People who thought it needed more cage matches will probably love it. I was a bit disappointed, but at least the whole beautiful Part III allowed the irritation to fade before I sat down to write this review.

One of the trends I've been really enjoying over the last year or so is "academic" main characters - Emily Wilde, Lorelei Kaskel, Judy Wallach-Stevens... (Bonus points if you can name the books 😂) Fantastic, smart women passionate about their fields of study. MORE PLEASE.

In the Saint Death books this is Miscellaneous "Lanie" Stones, necromancer and disciple of death goddess, Doédenna. While in book 1 we're just starting to explore necromancy along with Lanie, in book 2 she has really come into her own as a devotee of the necromantic arts and her passion for her field - even if it is death - was just so wonderful to read.

Unfortunately (for Lanie, not for us) she can't just be left to her studies in peace - she has a powerful ex-necromancer ghost great-grandad to subdue! In Saint Death's Herald we're following Lanie and a handful of familiar friends / found family as we tackle this nefarious foe - together, of course.

I don't often *love* a second book, but Saint Death's Herald is the exception to that rule. Cooney's wonderful characters really shone in this book, alongside a unique world, fantastic magic, and a plot that builds nicely on book 1 while still very much standing on its own two feet.

If you enjoyed 𝘚𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩'𝘴 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳, read this, NOW. And if you haven't yet, well what are you waiting for? I promise it'll lift your spirits. 👀

I loved the first book and was delighted to have the chance to read it early through NetGalley. Returning to the world Cooney built felt like a surge day for me despite not having any magic. There was so much to love about the first book, so surely the second would be more of the same.

Unfortunately, this did not quite prove true.

A lot was still the same: Strong worldbuilding, whimsical prose, lovable characters, adventures galore. But it all felt stripped and pared down. Instead of multiple threads of plot and pressure building on all sides, it was Lanie trying to fulfill one main goal and being thwarted at every turn, seemingly for no reason but to lengthen the book.

The choice to focus on Lanie hunting down Grandpa Rad seems to me like a risk that didn't pay off. Perhaps the book could have been better had there been more subplots going on, but it seemed quite one-dimensional. Whereas the first book was driven by so much, this one seemed to only proceed for the purpose of getting to the end.

Still, it was a good read, if a bit tedious. I'm looking forward to the next book and hopefully some more Lir!

Late review but fully loved this and had a rocking time with it!

I truly loved the bridge of limestone (such glorious hazy writing) and I think the character growth by Laney, Grandpa Rad, and the Scratch family was very interesting to read-- and we cannot forget Undies!

Excellent book with a cast of vivid, fabulous characters. Watching them adventure was as thrilling as ever, and their characters and relationships were expanded on with finesse. Can’t recommend enough for anyone looking for an insane book that’s full of fun!

I really enjoyed Saint Death’s Daughter. I found there some inconsistencies in pacing and the worldbuilding, but the characters were so charming, and their relationships really drove the story. Imagine then, my disappointment when most of this story was just Lanie with one other on a road trip without the larger community.
I found this book way longer than the plot needed. There was a single goal of finding and defeating Grandpa Rad and anytime they got close before the end of the book, I knew it was going to fail since there still was the rest of the book. The first book was stronger by non-being so linear. The fight scene/ competition since in the middle felt endless and really added nothing to the plot/character development. I loved the last third of the book but that was not enough to give it more than 3 stars.

Narwhals are the most darling blubber-de-bloop mammals.

Saint Death's Herald was my most anticipated release of 2025, and it didn't disappoint!

Okay, it disappointed a little, but literally nothing could have lived up to my expectations after the gloriousness of book one (and I kinda want to read the 90,000 words that were cut from this draft).

But still. I loved it.

The plot is thin—Lanie and Duantri are chasing Irradiant Radithor Stones, a constant battle of losing and losing and losing as the artist formerly known as Grandpa Rad gets more and more powerful on his undead bid to take over the world. They are joined by friends near and dear and new and old, and and Lanie comes more fully into her power as the greatest necromancer in the world.

I love how Cooney takes fantasy tropes and breathes new life into them, while also spinning them a little onto their heads. There is the hero's journey and hero's quest, subverted each time into something new. The big bad is defeated, but not in a full out battle. Full out battles, we learn, are perhaps not the way to win wars—or let the dead rest.

Why must our great miracles spring from such ugly circumstances? Why must they be born out of our direst need? Shouldn't beauty's sake be need enough? Instead, we make magic to thwart the perpetuation of cruelty, or deliver tardy justice after a crime is committed.

In this world, love wins.

Love always wins.

It's a celebration of friendship. Of changing enemies into friends and allies. Of pinkness and being yourself. Of finding beauty and radiance in the most putrescent of rotting things. Of expressing forgiveness and true apology. Of doing the best you can. Of living. And changing. And being. And I adore it and hope for a next installment.

Duantri's eyebrows stretched for her hairline, each yearning for the other like two lovers parted by an infinite river.

The WRITING. Just incredible. AND humorous! We get lots and lots of fart jokes!

May farts waft out in praise of your fine stew—their perfume is my gift unto the world!

I received an ARC from NetGalley

The second book in Saint Death series (trilogy?) took its time to arrive. The first book, Saint Death’s Daughter (2022), blew my mind and I was eagerly waiting for the follow-up. In many ways, it was worth the wait. In others, a slight let down.

Miscellaneous Stone, the best and only necromancer in the world, is on a hunt for her great-grandfather Irradiant Stone’s ghost. Problem is, he’s a necromancer too, even if not alive anymore, and her teacher, so he’s not easy to catch. She’s followed his trail towards north. She knows he’ll head to Skakhmat where he has unfinished business of genocide kind to take care of.

She’s accompanied by Duantri, the gyrfalcon lady bodyguard, and Stripes, the tiger rug she accidentally brought to life in the previous book, and—once Grandpa Rad abandons his body—Cracchen Skrathmandan, the once enemy who is now filled with spirits of dead Skakhmat wizards bent on revenging on Grandpa Rad.

The hunt is difficult, but they almost catch Grandpa Rad several times, only for him to pull a disappearance act by jumping to a different body. It becomes especially difficult to best him when he finds the city of skinchangers and can become anything he wants after jumping to them. But she’s not above asking for help, from her gods and friends alike, and eventually they manage to best him.

This was a very straightforward book from start to finish: find Grandpa Rad and lay his spirit to rest. No side quests, no distractions from subplots. And while it worked as a story, with good twists and action scenes, it was not quite compelling enough to hold my full interest. It took me over a week to finish this as I kept putting it down.

The first book had two elements that made it one of the best reads of the year it came out. One was Lanie as an underdog, trying to prevail against her murderous family in a very macabre house. The other was the found family of her brother-in-law Makkovian and his daughter Datu, and the falcon ladies Tanaliín and Duantri.

Here Lanie and Duantri were mostly alone, with brief visits from the rest of the family or chapters from their point of view showing what they were doing elsewhere. Mak is on a pilgrimage that he apparently can’t abandon for his sister, and for some reason Tanaliín needs to stay with him and Datu, which strains her bond with Duantri. Mak is the third in their relationship, so they both pine after Duantri, but that’s as emotional as it gets.

The narrative was from several points of view, unlike the first book which was mostly from Lanie’s. Most of the time, they didn’t add anything to the story as such. They only seemed to highlight the fact that Lanie didn’t have enough to do in her own story to carry it like the first book. Even the final battle is mostly from other characters’ points of view.

But the biggest reason why this wasn’t as compelling is that Lanie is now overwhelmingly powerful. She’s not the underdog; she’s the final boss. And I never find characters like that interesting. She had no true enemies throughout the story to keep the reader fearing and rooting for her. Even Grandpa Rad was merely fleeing. She never had to face a true opposition like in the first book, where everything was stacked against her.

For every problem, she had a larger-than-life solution, or a literal deus ex machina in the form of her goddess, Saint Death. Even when her friend, Haaken Skrathmandan, rushes in to a rescue, he shows up with a flying tower he’s only now learned how to create. It’s nice that things go well, but it’s not very interesting if a reader knows everything’s going to be all right from the start.

That being said, this was a well-written, good book; cozy rather than gothic. Lanie was as lovely as before and endearing in her enthusiasm about bones. The ending was good and open enough that there will hopefully be more books. Something was building between Lanie and Haaken, and while he’s not my favourite love interest, (Mak would’ve been better, but he’s happy in his threesome) and he wasn’t as interesting a character as in the first book, it’s something to look forward to.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!

I LOVED Saint Death's Daughter, so I was thrilled to receive an ARC of the sequel!

Sadly, this was a bit of a letdown for me.

Don't get me wrong, it's not that Herald is bad by any means, it's just that it might be suffering from a case of Sandwiched in a Trilogy Syndrome, where the middle book of a trilogy is spent getting the characters from the end of Book 1 to the start of Book 3.

Where much of Daughter is spent with Lanie learning necromancy and spending time with her found family, Herald is singularly focused on the plot—taking down Grandpa Rad. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but defeating Grandpa Rad turns out to be a task of Sisyphean proportions, resulting in Lanie rarely getting to just spend time with her friends and family. (Which is, like, my favourite parts of these books.)

Again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but what I loved the most about Daughter was how, even with so many dark and terrible things going on, it still felt joyful. In comparison, Herald was a constant downer, with few moments of levity.

We also get new points of view, which is cool, but unfortunately, aside from Lanie, the most prominent PoV is from Grandpa Rad, who sucks. Grandpa Rad is evil and a relentless schemer, and while those are traits I appreciate in a villain, I found him to be kind of one-note, and his PoV became grating to read after a while.

I did love how Lanie's magic has developed! No spoilers, but there's some new surprises that were very cool.

As a whole, I didn't love Herald as much as Daughter, but I'm still happy to be able to spend time with Lanie.

The weird and wonderful Miscellaneous (Lanie) Stones is back! Herald starts where Daughter ended, with Lanie trying to hunt down her undead great-grandfather, grandpa Rad. I won't say much more because spoilers.

I love the worldbuilding and characters in this series. It's thorough and well thought out and I've never read anything quite like it. The plot in this sequel is a lot more straightforward than in the first book, which I liked slightly better, but it's a worthy successor. The light tone offsets the fairly dark happenings well, and Stripes is the star of the show as far as I'm concerned. I did miss some of my favourite characters from book 1, but then that's what happens with sequels. all in all, i had a great time and i want an undead tiger rug to fly around on. This series deserves to be far more popular than it is.

Saint Death’s Herald is the second book in C. S. E. Cooeny’s Saint Death series. In the first book we meet Lanie, a girl born into a family of assassin’s who has the peculiar ability to bring back the dead. To make things more complicated her close relationship with the goddess of death has made her a target. This first book sets up the incredibly detailed world and a large cast of characters. Whilst that made it quite complicated to read, in the sequel it means that the world-building can pay off.

The stakes are high in this thrilling book as Lanie tries to hunt down her own great-grandfather. He has managed to steal a body and plans to finish his unfinished business (unfortunately, he means to do this by killing A LOT of people). This is a unique path for the plot to follow and I appreciated the thought that Cooney put into making this an original story with plenty of intrigue.

I would recommend this book to fantasy fans that enjoy good writing, strong world-building and a focus on deities and death.

This is every bit as excellent as the first book. It stands alone, but also builds well on the world-building of Saint Death's Daughter. Most of the main characters reappear but also develop, for good or ill.
I love the dark academia aspects of the book. There's a flying library. And footnotes!
I also relate to the story from a neurodivergent perspective- echo wounds are like being over-empathetic and a surge/being drained of energy is very relatable.

A fitting conclusion to the story that began in the excellent Saint Death's Daughter! This is the kind of book that truly benefits from having read the previous entry recently or through the possession of an excellent memory for characters and their respective plot beats, so while returning fans will absolutely love the unique world and characters, don't be surprised if it takes a little while to ease back into this wonderfully creative story.

An easy recommendation and certainly almost a 'must-have' for any collection!

This is the second book in the Saint Death series by C.S.E. Cooney, and I cannot recommend it enough if you love necromancy! Would you look at that, that describes me exactly. And I might also say the names of the characters in this book are so fun (Miscellaneous), as are the characters themselves.

We follow necromancer Lanie Stones, poor thing cannot catch a break, if she had it her way she would be buried in books while enjoying some sweet treats; Laine is all of us. Picking up after the first novel, Lanie is exiled and trying to make things right by looking for her genocidal great-grandfather Irradiant Stones in Cracchen Skathmandan's body, and the journey takes off from there. Thankfully she doesn't go on this journey alone, friends old and new (people and creatures) lend a hand. I looked forward to the moments spent with Lir. The characters are enjoyable and whimsical, the lore of the necromancers and their powers in this book is interesting, and the found family aspect of the book is heart warming. I think Lanie's empathetic and compassionate views on death and the dead makes this book stand out from other novels that I have read with necromancy (often more grim dark in descriptions and world building). I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a descriptive and rich world with an endearing protagonist.

Thank you to Rebellion Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this advanced copy.

I loved this so much! I missed the colorful, grotesque, ridiculous and funny world of Saint Death's Daughter very much, and it was a joy to get to see more of it. It's quite different from the first book in the narrative structure: I imagine it would be hard to repeat some of the feats of the debut without making Lanie retrace her steps. Saint Death's Herald is, in a way, a more straightforward adventure, less twisty, but still very enjoyable for many of the same things that made SDD enjoyable: humour, worldbuilding, the cast of utterly loveable characters. I remain a fan of the author and will continue to clamour for more stories about this world!

I loved Saint Death’s Daughter a lot but somehow I liked this one even more! These books always take me a little while to settle into but once I get going I can hardly stop! The world and magic system is really immersive and I’m so glad that remained true in this one.

The worldbuilding gets a deeper focus in Saint Death’s Herald, with a new setting and several new character relationships to explore. Lanie’s growth was a major highlight for me here—she became confident and capable in this book yet still so kind and grounded and I really loved seeing her grow into herself.

I also really enjoyed the new locations and the lore and culture that came with this. CSE Cooney has created a world that is really rich in its history, religion and traditions and it’s so easy to get lost in it.

My one wish for this sequel is that we’d gotten to explore some of the relationships from the first book more - especially Makkovian, Datu, and Canon Lyr. I missed their interactions with Lanie (particularly in the first half) but maybe that’s just me getting a little too attached 😅 despite living in a fantasy world - flying around on a tiger rug with the ability to raise the dead - Lanie feels like a real human being and this change in her story reflects the ebbs and flows of real life (albeit with an extra portion of vengeful ghosts, divine visits and awkward family dynamics).

Overall I had a fantastic time with this one and I will definitely be rereading at some point!

This was one of my most eagerly anticipated reads of 2025 and I was not disappointed at all. Saint Death’s Herald lived up to everything I loved in SDD, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that I still love C the writing and world building, the characters are like old friends I’m catching up with, cannot recommend this highly enough, absolutely superb

I confess I didn't love [book:Saint Death's Daughter|57757152], though I did like it; amidst a certain degree of faffing about there were some pretty cool things, not least of which a pretty good sequel hook involving our protagonist (the wonderfully named Miscellaneous Immiscible Stones, or Lanie for short)'s great-grandfather's evil ghost flying off into the distance after having been released from a magic padlock (don't ask) and Lanie needing to track him down and exorcise his ass. To the extent that this book was mostly a series of chases and Necromantic Wizard Duels between Lanie and "Grandpa Rad", I thought it was a lot of fun. One sequence in particular really had the same vibe as the Merlin/Madame Mim duel from "The Sword in the Stone" (a movie for which I had a great deal of childhood fondness) so that's always going to be a winner for me.