Saint Death's Herald by C. S. E. Cooney is such a good book. It's a masterpiece! I just loved the storyline, the characters are fantastic. It's truly a masterpiece.

With Grandpa Rad freely roaming the world in Cracchen's body, Lanie and her family pause Makkovian's pilmigrage to hunt down and return his ghost to Saint Death. Leaving with just Duantri and Stripes, Lanie follows him north, where they finally believe they have cornered. He is, however, able to "jump ship" at the last minute and take over a skinchangers body, which is basically the worst-case scenario for Lanie. With Cracchen on the brink of death, Grandpa Rad heading for Leech to possess an even more powerful skin changer, and now the Storm of Souls bearing down on her Lanie is truly in the fight of her life.

While Herald isn't as light and feathery as Daughter was, it was still excellent. We get to truly see how much Lanie has grown over the last two books. She is so much more confident in herself and in the love and trust her family has in her. Not only that, she is absolutely badass. I mean she was in the first book but her abilities have just exploded in this one and it's not just that she's stronger but it is her love for the dead and her goddess and trust in her family and friends that allow her to do things that quite frankly Grandpa Rad would never even conceive. Makkovian explains it perfectly at one point by saying that Lanie just makes death seem friendly, and I think that sums it up perfectly.

The world is expanded upon as well as we learn more about the skin changers and the Skakdi in the one. I genuinely didn't even remember the skin changers being mentioned in the first one, so I'm glad we got a pretty in-depth course into who they are and how their magics work. And once again we have Lanie's infectious appreciation of anything new and novel that takes something that seems scary on the surface and makes it intriguing, it's just impossible to *not* be excited as she is to learn more about how skin changer magic works even if it seems very wrong on the surface.

Grandpa Rad is actually far worse than I could have possibly imagined, though. I mean far worse. The difference between how he wields his necromancy and how Lanie wields it are night and day, and I'm so glad we were able to clearly see that contrast here. Lanie is absolutely light and love and beauty, and that's always clear, but it becomes so much more clear when in direct opposition to Rad's violent, almost abuse of death. He simply doesn't care. The dead are a means to an end for him. When Lanie does finally put an end to everything, how she does it is such an important testament to who she is as a person and as a necromancer as well. It was a culmination of everything we knew Lanie to be, and it was beautiful.

What I really loved here, though, is Lanie expanding her group of friends and finding her place within it. She's absolutely gobsmacked at one point that it never even crossed her mind to just send letters to Hakken, and that's genuinely such a Lanie thing to do. Shes just a little bit outside of everyone else all of the time and by the end of Herald I think she found her place within her ever growing circle of friends and that she's finally comfortable in that spot. Comfortable enough that she actually goes back to Nurr on her own, and that seemed like a monumental step for me. I am very curious if we will ever pick up anything with Cracchen, though. I just really feel like there needs to be a morally gray character hanging around. With the changes he goes through in this book I definitely feel like he's no longer the evil assassin he was in the last book, but, he's also pragmatic enough to make the tough decisions Lanie wouldn't be able to.

Overall, I *hope* there's a book three. I want to continue to roam this world with Lanie and her family and friends and watch her grow as both a person and a necromancer. And yeah, of course I recommend this series! There is simply nothing else like it that I've ever found!

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Solaris

Death is one of the great mysteries that has fascinated mankind throughout all our known history. Naturally, there’ve been no shortage of fantasy novels exploring it either. Necromancy is a way of exploring it in fantasy novels, and I’ve seen death and necromancy portrayed in so many ways in various settings. I’ve read about necromancers wielding death as a grim and terrible weapon, using their powers as a gruesome method of gleaning information from the dead, they’ve been solemn figures respectfully laying the dead to a final death, and I’ve even read about necromancers who use their mastery over death to act as supernatural lawyers.

But C.S.E. Cooney’s Saint Death series has probably been my favorite portrayal of death and necromancy that I’ve ever read. Here death is a tender comfort granted by a loving god. Here Lanie stones is a necromancer possessed of such overflowing compassion that she’s actually allergic to violence. And it’s just…such a comfortable thing to read. I adore how death is explored as a soothing balm. I love seeing how such a compassionate and pure protagonist moves through a world that does not deserve her. I love seeing how she continues to come into herself, and wield her necromancy in such a wonderful way. Her journey in this novel isn’t something to be missed.

Saint Death’s Herald is a book that, even at it’s most frenzied and chaotic, manages to remain soothing and comforting. It is a book where death is a link that allows love and compassion to flow back and forth between the necromancer and the dead. It is a balm for us readers stuck in a world that is so much harsher than the pages of this novel.

This novel is a wonderful adventure, and it is a gentle embrace that everyone deserves to languish in. Do yourself a favor and read this book, wrap yourself in its words and let them comfort you. You deserve it.

Two months after the events of Saint Death’s Daughter, Miscellaneous Stones is upon a quest… to seek down her rogue ghost ancestor, Irradiant Stones, who has possessed the body of Cracchen Skrathmandan, to release “Grandpa Rad” to his long overdue rest, and to free Cracchen: as she promised to Sari, his mother.

But Grandpa Rad has no intention of going quietly.

What follows is a riotous, gloriously rendered tale, richly populated with characters both beloved and new. Lanie must follow her quarry into the dread lands of Leech, home of skinchangers; win challenges unheard of; wield magics ancient and experimental, and face both herself and her god.

Spiderwebbed with poetry, laced with verse, this is bouncingly robust prose, a feast of good things to consume. Written with gleeful verve, shivering with spooky anticipation and rich with delight, tenderness and romance, this is a story to love and devour - a triumphantly transformational epic.

featuring:
- the return of Underwear Stones, world’s best undead dog (He’s named after his primary diet)
- the return of Stripes, world’s best undead tiger rug
- Flying houses
- Romantic entanglements and passionate yearning
- Found family
- Magical duels
- Crimes against gods and men
- a kinda sexy crab (don’t ask

I saw the necromancer in the description and I knew I was sold on this story. The story is well written and the journey of the characters will have you puzzled yet hooked.

This was a strong sequel in the Saint Death's Daughter series, it had that element that I was looking for from the first book. I thought the characters worked well and enjoyed had that necromancer element worked overall. It was such a great overall concept and was invested in what was happening. C. S. E. Cooney wrote this well and am excited for more.

Saint Death’s Daughter remains one of my favourite necromancy books despite strong competition in recent years, so I had high expectations for the sequel. I’m pleased to report that every one of them was met. Lanie Stones remains a beautiful, compassionate, distractable delight and the prose as always sings with unrestrained glee. It’s inventive , warm and optimistic as Lanie herself, and I loved it. My only complaint is that there isn’t a third book.

I loved Saint Death’s Daughter from the first moment I started reading the ARC I received from Netgalley, so it’s been a long, excited wait for Saint Death’s Herald – and it was absolutely worth the wait.

There’s more of all my favourite characters from the first book; Duantri and Tanaliin, Datu and Mak, the Skrathmandan family, Saint Death and the other gods, Lanie herself, of course, and even Grandpa Rad, who is the absolute worst but has such fun and takes such glee in being the worst that it’s impossible not to enjoy him. The only one who doesn’t show up much is Lir, whom I adored in the first book – but, of course, given what happened at the end means them being largely absent only makes sense. And what there is of them, when they do show up in the narrative, is just… *chef’s kiss*. Once again, the wait was entirely worth it!

And then of course there’s more of C. S. E. Cooney’s just blissfully gorgeous worldbuilding – Athe and its various cultures and societies and nations and people and cities and gods and magic is so rich, so layered, so varied and strange and ordinary and beautiful that it feels like a real world, a real planet full of real people. I think there’s something particularly special about seeing it through Lanie’s eyes, because she’s so utterly in love with her entire world, so thrilled to discover new things and learn about new people. Everything is interesting to her and everything that has even the slightest potential to be wonderful is wonderful to her, and it makes travelling with her a constant joy.

Especially I loved the way the world is expanded in this book – the author isn’t just satisfied with the glorious, delicious delights she’s already given us, she brings in whole new ways of doing magic, whole new societies and ways of being a person. I could eat it with a spoon!
And all of this fabulous fascinating detail is hung on a plot that’s simple, yet entirely compelling: find Grandpa Rad and stop him. The complications that happen kept me on the edge of my seat and the way the story was finally resolved was so satisfying and opens up so many intriguing questions about where the story will go next. I love this world, and I love these characters, and I would happily read new stories about them for the next thirty years if C. S. E. Cooney so desires!

Other things I loved about this book but only get an honourable mention because otherwise this review would be as long as a novella:

- Stripes!!!!! I love that lil undead tiger rug nearly as much as Datu does, what a good good boy
- Datu using the Worst Word and the adults finding it hilarious
- the whole skinchanger idea, and their culture, and the characters there, and oh, I hope we come back to them because they’re just so fascinating!
- The love and adoration and gentleness with which death is treated, like it’s something just as wonderful and precious as life, and when you’re reading this book, you really do feel that way
- the twelve apologies!!! I was so thrillied to get a list of them at the end of the book and I love them so so much and I wish English had a list of apologies like that because I think we could use them
- Mister Underwear Stones, another good, good boy
- Lanie being terrible with heights and yet constantly being forced to transport herself in various flying devices
- Hakken!
- Saint Death/Doedenna’s various forms throughout the book; she’s so tender and loving and I would like to be loved by her
- I’m super excited to obtain and listen to the audiobook, the author reading the first book is just wonderful and I know this one will be equally gorgeous

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

This was a wonderful continuation of the storyline after Saint Death's Daughter. I was so excited to be back in this world and Saint Death's Herald didn't disappoint. It's just as beautifully written and I loved every bit.

I loved book one in this series and so I was so excited to get to read and review book 2 and it wasn't a let down at all. It continued perfectly, I couldn't put it down and I didn't want it to end

Oh YES!! this book is absolutely amazing. I was so glad to get the review copy of the second book after devouring the first in a weekend. This book is just as interesting and fun and immersive as the first. Cooney is quickly becoming a favorite author. As with the first book character development is great and world building is done excellently.

CSE Cooney did it again, a beautiful, lush and lyrical fantasy novel mixing the exactly right dose of gothic and whimsy.
This second volume in Saint Death's world goes deeper into the lore and lets Leni discover and accept more of herself.
The plot itself is less surprising than in the first, and arguably covers less grounds than the first one, but it gives just as much in terms of found family, acceptance, embracing our differences, duty, growth, and just makes me impatient to see the third book.

I am also one of the big fans of friendship books versus romance, especially in adult books, and while this book is absolutely brimming with love, it is very much all about family and friendships.

If you haven't read the first book, get it now, it's a beautiful wild ride.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this arc


I was so excited to read what happens next; how Lanie would defeat her Great Grandpa Rad because she has to right?

We get to learn more about about Irradiant Stones to see how he came to be how he is as a person/ghost.

We get to interact with old characters and even get some more background on them as well.

The ending is chefs kiss

I continue to be stunned by the lyricality of Cooney's prose, and to see how she chooses to focus on the more alien consciousnesses here and the sheer absurdity of how necromantic powers can work (limestone!!!) as Lanie's story continues to unfold is amazing. There's more to come the way it looks, and I can't fucking wait to see where it goes. Pick this up and read the book before, Saint Death's Daughter, and enjoy the sheer wonderland of the prose.

Saint Death’s Herald by C. S. E. Cooney is a delightful and fast-paced fantasy book filled with quirky characters, dark magic, and plenty of adventure. Lanie Stones, a necromancer with a passion for books and pastries, is called upon to serve Doédenna, the god of Death. While Lanie may not be the most traditional necromancer, her growing powers and her ability to lay the unrestful dead to their slumber make her the one person capable of stopping her powerful great-grandfather, the necromancer Irradiant Stones.

Irradiant’s goal is nothing short of world domination, and Lanie is the only one who can stop him. Along the way, Lanie embarks on an epic road trip across the realms with an unlikely group of companions, including an undead flying tiger rug and a former enemy-turned-ally. Their journey takes them through strange and dangerous lands, from negotiating with witches to saving missing children, all while staying one step behind her devious grandfather.

This book is an enjoyable escape into a vibrant fantasy world. It may not be the most complex work of fantasy, but it delivers a fun, engaging adventure with plenty of heart and humour. If you’re looking for a light-hearted, action-packed read with a touch of magic and a lot of charm, Saint Death’s Herald is a must-read.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

Thank you so much to Solaris and NetGalley for the ARC!

I am a HUGE fan of Cooney. Massive. I've read, thanks to this ARC, all of her works. She manages to surprise me so often with how EFFORTLESSLY everything comes to her, how natural every dip into a different genre is for her.

When she announced Saint Death's Daughter, I preordered it at my local store and was there on release day to pick it up. It was my pick for my book club. I was beyond ecstatic for that release. When she announced she was already working on the sequel, I knew I had to simply sit on my hands and wait; Cooney would deliver.

And in the meantime, the world of SDD lived in my head rent free. I found myself returning to and thinking of so many scenes from that book, and often. I requested the ARC for Saint Death's Herald fully prepared to not be allowed it, but remaining hopeful and when I got the email at work I had been approved, I was in disbelief!

The only thing I can say I disliked about Herald was that it ended. This world Cooney writes, with as much death and violence as it comes with, is genuinely so tender and so beautiful! Lanie and her found family, hot off the end of Daughter, are chasing down her undead grandfather, Irradiant Stones, who is hellbent on finishing the job he began in eradicating the Skaki sky wizards. Lanie being Lanie takes it upon herself to deliver Rad back to Saint Death's cloak.

Along the way, we find out more and get more worldbuilding. I thought Daughter did a fabulous job with the worldbuilding and explanation, but Herald shows Cooney has really got this whole universe mapped out. From the fascinating city of Tam to the Skaki tundra, Cooney knows her universe and shows it to us in such beautiful ways. It's the way nothing is alien or scary for Lanie, but fascinating and worthy of admiration and respect. The way love is so simple and natural in this universe. The beauty of family and friends and being able to talk to someone when you need your emotional support person.

We see what Datu, Makkovian, and Tanaliin have been up to and how they support Lanie's journey while finding out what the places they're in are like. We see Lir and the royal life they've been thrust into. We see Sari and the love she has for her children. We see Irradiant's past and the rare things he treasured. It's such a beautiful, funny, soft universe. As bleak as things can be, love truly does save the day here.

I loved seeing Lanie discover things about her necromancy, I loved seeing her grow as a necromancer and a person. I adore her, I adore her awkwardness and I adore how she has found her people and they love her, so much so they team up to take down a villain who could delete them as people.

The book ends perfectly, but I am crossing my fingers for a sequel. You can just see how much Cooney has poured her heart into these novels.

Long story short: if you loved the first book, you won't be disappointed by this one.

Laine remains such an interesting main character who really stands out from any other type of main character out there (especially in a necromancy-based magical world). The found family dynamics were strong in the first book and are ever stronger in this book. The world is vastly expanded upon as this is partly a travel/quest narrative, and I really enjoyed getting to experience the more "global" magical perspective in this book. The first book felt more "local", by contrast, and so this was a nice escalation of stakes. In fact, the tension was fantastic in this book, never letting you look away or stop reading (particularly for the first half).

Overall, I can only recommend this book for staying true to its predecessor while still offering up something wholly new and immersive!

I was SO hyped when I found out Saint Death’s Daughter would get a sequel, and this did not disappoint! It is funny, it is thrilling, there are great battles, amazing magic, and amusing dialogue. And it is one of the few books I can think of that there is not a single character I dislike. I mean, there are villainous characters, but they’re so well written!
In this book the world building is expanded and the character development is so fun to read. This is a lighthearted comfort read to me, and I am really hope we will get more books in this world.

Highlights
~Stripes the flying tiger-rug!
~limestone is officially the Best Rock
~shapeshifters like you’ve never seen
~a very sparkly hivemind
~ice, ice, baby

:minor spoilers for Saint Death’s Herald!:

Saint Death’s Herald is a very different book to its predecessor, to the point that I think some readers will be initially startled by it. But if you hang on long enough for the story to sweep you away – and it won’t take long! – then you’ll find that Cooney has penned another beautiful, brilliant, beguiling epic to enchant us.

There’s no gradual build-up this time: Herald hits the ground running (or should I say: flying?) and thereafter never slows down. The blurb covers the skeleton (pun absolutely intended) of the plot, but is a bit misleading: Lanie and Duantri are close on the heels of Lanie’s ghostly grandfather as the book opens, but although his plan is to head for Skakhmat, he gets side-tracked and ends up leading them into Leech, a nation of terrifying shapeshifters. Grandpa Rad has big, horrifying plans, and he means to use the very soul-matter of the shapeshifters to bring them to fruition.

The showdown, throwdown, is epic.

If Daughter was extravagantly sprawling, Herald is tighter, far more direct, all the glittering opulence of the first book distilled down to a blinding but laser-focused radiance. Herald is faster, more streamlined, all of Lanie’s natural exuberance – not reined in (never that!) but turned to a single purpose, from which nothing is going to sway or distract her. Where Daughter dances, Herald runs, not with a sprint, but with the unflagging determination of a persistence predator hunting a dream.

I do not mean to imply for even a moment that this means Saint Death’s Herald is a more boring book than its predecessor! It is, perhaps, slightly less wiggly (I cannot say, ‘more straightforward’, because ‘straightforward’ implies a conventionality that I doubt Cooney is capable of, even were she interested in trying)(this is a most adoring compliment) – but that is not to say that Herald has been pared away to the strictly functional, that here all Daughter’s gleeful whimsy has been sanded down to dull and plodding Sense and Seriousness! That is most certainly not the case!

Saint Death’s Herald is effervescent, glittering, as fizzy and breathtaking as a shower of shooting stars. It abounds with muchness, marvellously so; it is a magic carpet to rival Stripes himself, woven out of love and wonder and rainbow-streaked wildness, and it soars.

>Issue of ill-mage, heir of our arch-foe,
meet is our meeting, midst sky-road and soil!
Vengeance and vanquishment at last are upon us
Capitulate, craven–extinction ensues!<

No book where one language is presented in iambic pentameter (Quadoc) and another is in the alliterative verse of the freaking Norse epics (Old Skaki) is not spilling over with citrus-pink zest, okay??? This is, like its predecessor, a book that is not only endless fun to read, it was clearly also immense fun to write, and the joy and glee and delight that went into its writing radiates from the pages like sunlight. Saint Death’s Herald is so perfectly FREE: unselfconscious, uninhibited, entirely unashamed of its larger-than-life* lavishness. It glories in that lavishness, revels in itself and invites us into the revel too.

This is not a go big or go home book: it’s a go big because big is BEAUTIFUL! book.

And that is so much better.

*There’s a necromancy pun in there somewhere, I know it!

>Undeath, in Stripes’ opinion, was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him. He was supremely pleased to be operating on the z-axis after a lifetime of apex predatoring on the ground.<

I will never get tired of how these books about necromancy are fundamentally a celebration of life and living. That remains so impressively subversive, and creative, and inspiring – and such freaking FUN.

And since I haven’t yet said so outright: everything I loved about Saint Death’s Daughter is here in abundance. The footnotes; the dazzling prose; the vocabulary, full (but not overwhelming so) of words unfamiliar to me, each one small and precious and perfect as the surprise in a Fabergé egg – a treasure within a treasure. (I love looking up new words from this series, especially because they are always such marvellous new words; but I do think readers who do not enjoy consulting the dictionary can get by perfectly well deducing the meanings from context.) And hey, all the incredible characters we fell in love with in the first book? Prepare to love them even more! Saint Death’s Herald isn’t only from Lanie’s POV; this time, we also see through the eyes of characters like Duantri and Datu (and several others I’ll leave as surprises!) I didn’t expect that – it’s a big change from Daughter, where we only have Lanie’s perspective – but it’s a much-appreciated addition! I loved getting to know these characters even better than we already do, and discovering what Lanie looks like from where they’re standing? Wasn’t just fun; in a few cases, it was a very necessary reminder that she appears very differently to other people than she does to us.

(We know Lanie as the adorable twitling who cuddles mice skeletons and nerds out over all things Quadoni and will forget to eat if she has cool bones to play with. It’s difficult to think of her as scary. It’s only by seeing her as others see her that we realise how – how world-changing she is, or has the potential to be. Which does mean terrifying, to some.)

>She is splendid, murmured the crystalskin. She is a walking terror of Athe.<

Not everything is all love and glitter, though. Because Grandpa Rad is the worst kind of monster, and he is, unfortunately, what Saint Death’s Herald revolves around.

>So there they were, his literal flock of siblings. Near at hand, easy to catch, fully matured. Cattle fatted for the slaughter. A massive resource, just waiting to be tapped.

And they all underestimated him.<

The dream Lanie is chasing, persistence-hunter style, is of a world where a necromancer’s powers are about a love of life, are for joy and helping and healing. Her Grandpa Rad is her opposite in almost every way, something that becomes more and more obvious the longer he’s running free; they are a study in contrasts, opposing forces that cannot coexist, cannot balance, because Rad wants to own the world and Lanie wants to love it. Lanie wants to let the world be beautiful, in all its wondrous strangeness; Rad doesn’t see beauty at all, and wants to subjugate or destroy everything that is different from him, that is Not Him.

>I can’t feel her anymore. Usually, with dead accident, I can feel the echo of the substance inside it. A link to Doédenna’s cloak, where the memory of life is kept stitched. That’s how I can sing the substance back, temporarily–through that link. But with this”–she gestured at the corpse–“there’s nothing to call back. It’s gone. He ate it. It’s all wrong.”<

Rad is so disgustingly awful that I wish it was harder to believe someone could really be Like That. He is obviously a villain, and anyone who didn’t already despise him from the first book will definitely do so after just a few minutes of Herald. In that, he is…not boring, because he’s not predictable, and he’s depressingly clever, but as an individual, he holds no interest for me. (Even if his narcissism has, at times, the can’t-look-away factor of a train crash.) The man has one layer (which makes his disgust with the physical makeup of the shapeshifters deeply ironic), and there was never a moment I even sympathised with him, never mind sided with him. But I’m curious to see how other readers react to some of his actions, because even if he’s unremittingly evil, he…might not always be wrong?

Because the shapeshifters of Leech are extremely Other. They are so alien that they don’t even eat food – they eat souls.

Stop for a second and think about that.

They EAT.

SOULS.

Rad might be one of the novel’s driving forces, but I think the shapeshifters are its fulcrum; are, in a very real way, a kind of test case for the themes of Daughter. We were happy to embrace the messaging of the first book, which can maybe be distilled down to celebrate Life. But can we walk the walk when we’re confronted with beings who, by any human measure, are unspeakably monstrous?

Do you still think Life is always worth defending? Can you treasure strangeness that is this strange? Will you love the monsters, too? CAN you?

Lanie can. Lanie does. This is why we love her.

>Lanie’s thoughts spun out in a ravelment of marvel.<

But it also might be the one moment in the entire series when readers really, genuinely struggle to follow where she leads. It’s not hard for me to imagine other readers recoiling from her reaction, when she learns about the soul-eating. Certainly the other cast-members have very different opinions on it!

And this – the invention of the shapeshifters, their placement in Herald, showing us the wildly different perspectives different characters have on them – my gods, this is why I will follow anywhere Cooney leads. Because she can create beings this alien to me. Because she is so clearly delighted by the creation of them. Because she so perfectly balances horror and wonder, in making them equally and genuinely horrifying and beautiful.

No, wait, that’s not quite it. It’s not that she can create something that appals and appeals. That is impressive, but it’s not an ability completely unique to her. What I think might well be is: she shows us, teaches us, how to look at horror and see beauty. Because she does make us see through Lanie’s eyes, feel with her heart, believe with her faith. Showing me a monster, and then showing me, teaching me how to see, that it is beautiful not despite the parts of it that terrify me, but because of them? So few storytellers can do that, can pull you so deep into the story that you become it, and it becomes you, so that you carry it with you long after you turn the final page, not the person you were before, transformed – shifted – right down to the marrow. Your perceptions are forever changed; you have a sixth sense, a seventh, an eighth you never had before, senses just for strangeness. So few storytellers can teach you to see a new colour, but Cooney can, and does.

What do you call that, except magic?

>Her magic, at once familiar and alien, sang in Lanie’s bones: notes like needles-of-water; chords like calvings-of-icebergs; progressions of thundersnow and sleet, of graupel and permafrost and salt-ice upon the shore. She grew dizzy with the immensity of the symphony<

It shouldn’t be a surprise; wasn’t Saint Death’s Daughter a magnum opus that took the frightening and unsettling, and showed us a wildly different way of looking at it? This is a series about a necromancer, about death-magic, with regular appearances by the goddess of death – and yet this story is optimistic, jubilant, heartfelt. Cooney has been subverting our ideas of ugliness and horror from the first page of the first book!

And I love her for doing it yet again.

>From within her deep senses, the pearly caress of those sleeping bones tidal-tumbled through her, cuddling closer, memory-to-memory, sharing the sweetness of their divine rest.<

I can’t make myself wrap up without talking a bit about the gods here. I fell head-over-heels for them all in Daughter, and I love them still – and just as we learn more about the mortal cast in this book, we get quite a bit more insight into, not just individual gods, but also how divinity works in Athe, what gods can and cannot do, their connections to their chosen wizards, the risk that’s posed each time they create an artefact imbued with their power. All of which is massively plot-relevant, because a big chunk of Herald sees Lanie caught up in situations that are a direct result of the choices made by one god or another – or choices that a god refuses to make.

I want to mention this because I found it distressingly confusing when I first read it. I didn’t understand (and felt betrayed by Saint Death, which is ridiculous, and yet) and I have the sort of brain that can’t let go of something that makes no sense to me. This was going to ruin the entire book for me if I couldn’t figure it out. And hopefully, I can preempt that happening to any other readers. Because what I eventually realised – after going over that part of Herald much more carefully than I did the first time, given that that time I was turning pages as fast as I could because it’s probably the tensest, most action-packed part of the book – is that I’d missed, or forgotten, what should be very obvious about any death deity, and most especially this one.

To you and I, any choice between Lanie and Irradiant, aka Grandpa Rad, is no choice at all. So why is it that Lanie has to prove herself Saint Death’s best-beloved? There’s no reason for the epic, horrifying, cinematic showdown in Leech – no rational reason for Saint Death to not declare Lanie Her champion and have done – unless She still loves Irradiant too.

>You can’t favor us both, she muttered, but the only answer was the sharp twinge in her wizard marks.<

GALAXY-BRAIN MOMENT. We’re talking about the goddess of death. Of course She can’t stop loving someone! She’s DEATH. Death is there for EVERYONE. Possibly other gods can reject mortals, but death? Even if you disappoint Her, hurt Her terribly…by Her very nature, how can She hate anyone? And so, how can She choose?

(I have a feeling this was even stated explicitly in Daughter at one point, and I just forgot.)

Do I need to tell you that this – Lady Death being unable or unwilling to stop loving anyone – makes me incredibly happy? Not just because it makes sense of a confusion that bothered me, and not even just because it’s a wonderful worldbuilding detail. I love the theology of it. It feels deeply correct. I hope that makes sense, because I can’t figure out another way to put it.

(And I could write ANOTHER 10K word essay on how this plays into the theme of rejecting violence that was such an important part of the first book; how the situation Lady Death’s not-choice puts Lanie in showcases this so beautifully; what the results of Lanie trying to fight her grandfather mean for this theme of rejecting violence, especially as contrasted with Herald’s ultimate climax. The subversion of conventions and genre-norms!!! BUT I CAN’T WAX POETIC BECAUSE SPOILERS. Just. Take it as read that Cooney is a genius with this too, and pay attention when you read it!)

This entire deep dive into – the exploration of – divinity on Athe is one of my favourite aspects of Herald. One of the most beautiful moments in the entire book is when a character I did not expect to show up again communes with his goddess – a goddess who is, and is not, the Lady Death Lanie knows and loves. The multifacety of gods is something I always get excited about; the idea that, for example, Lucifer and Loki are different masks-and-costumes worn by the same Power is a thrilling one to explore or play with, and Cooney dances with it here, giving us such a deep, intimate look into the world she’s created, the workings of the world she’s created. It’s ridiculously cool from a worldbuilding perspective, breathtaking from a story one, and – honestly, kind of an honour, in being allowed a glimpse behind the curtain, especially when you remember that Athe is where all Cooney’s stories are set.

Which means this is not the last time we’ll visit it. Saint Death’s Herald feels like the second book in a duology, not the middle book of a trilogy, which makes perfect sense – and makes me feel very loved as a reader – when you learn that Cooney wanted to make sure we would not be left anxious or unsatisfied if for some reason Rebellion is foolish enough not to give her a contract for book three. I mean, I will riot if that happens. But if this is where this series ends, then my friends, it is a truly magnificent ending, and I will console myself with the knowledge that no matter what, we will see Athe again.

(But also, Rebellion, I will riot. RIOT.)

Truly, a more-than-worthy sequel to The Most Perfect Book to Ever Book.

A triumphant return to one of the fantasy genre's most spellbinding and singular worlds. In Saint Death's Daughter, C.S.E. Cooney gave us a world stitched from whimsy and macabre, rich with invention and heart. In Saint Death’s Herald, she invites us back for more uncanny cultures, more glittering godly encounters, more friends and enemies, more glorious magic and necromantic hijinks. It’s a world I never want to leave, a world I could explore endlessly and still be left in awe.

Masterfully balancing wit and the fantastical with the dark and horrifying, Cooney's prose continues to dazzle. Lush, lyrical and immersive, her voice is unmistakable — rich with metaphor, alive with rhythm, and utterly transportive.

As a quest that follows previously unresolved threads from Saint Death's Daughter, the plot is more linear with a smaller scope and cast of characters. Cooney explores themes of personal identity, intergenerational trauma, the echoes of war and the complicated legacies we inherit and resist.

But at its heart this is still Lanie Stones' story. Her evolving relationships with friends, enemies and her god, her deepening power as a necromancer, and her ongoing inner transformation. An utterly unforgettable protagonist, Cooney reminds us through Lanie that coming of age isn't a single arc; it's a lifelong process - messy, painful, full of heartbreak and grace.

Saint Death’s Herald lingers not just for its wild creativity or beautiful writing, but for the way it speaks to transformation, to love, to what we carry and what we choose to become. It's ferociously smart, achingly beautiful and gloriously strange. I can't wait for more.

Thank you Solaris Books for the ARC.