Previous book here, review below the cut. Four stars, though.
After dropping off the rest of Thomas's dying bubble universe population, Thomas, Alice, and Sally go back to Earth. They barely get time to eat before being notified that they need to head to New York, where there's yet another Covenant war going on and Sarah, Verity and family (she's now got a daughter, Olive) are involved in it. Margaret Healy's back again and mistakes Alice for Verity, and there's lots of dragons, including wee baby boy dragons (awww.) I do like that this book explains that the Covenant of St. George originally started because of attacking dragons, which makes more sense...and then they went overboard on it. Which makes this plot work all the more. I'm kinda disappointed there's no William sighting, but also didn't really expect to under the circumstances. I stayed interested in the plot, but I'd note that most of it seems to revolve around re-orienting to the world, introducing Thomas to people, and adjusting Sally into the family.
I'd like to see sometime (who knows if we will?) what happens when Thomas and Alice reunite with their adult children. Especially Jane, who was abandoned as a fresh infant and is justifiably pissed as fuck. Likewise, would have liked to have seen James and Sally reunite. There is a short story at the end of this, "The Mysteries of the Stolen God and Where His Waffles Went." which is an oblique way of not exactly covering this topic because apparently somehow the three magically poofed in and out of the Oregon house while James was asleep and he finds out via a cryptic remark about "Sally ate your waffles." This hops back and forth between James and a new mouse of his priesthood, Acadia (note: someone missed proofreading because it's also Arcadia), and what it's like for her to worship a new deity and have another mouse join the faith but wonder if carpentry (hah) is more his bag. It's quirky and fun, but also I just kind of wanted to see more of what was going on, even if I'm happy James is adjusting well. There was a bit of a time jump or two between books, and there's some very concerning references to Artie, who is...not doing well at all after this book. That's going to need some very unpleasant follow-up, I fear.
Also, we find out some interesting/disturbing back history about the origins of the Carew/Healy family, including that the first priestess to discover the mice was murdered by her husband, who's so awful that the mice have chosen to deliberately forget him. (Also, Enid Healy was apparently adopted somehow.) I seriously want more of a family tree for this series...and labels as to which god and which priestess are which because I tend to forget who is who with the not-so-used names.
So the overall book is a fun, pleasant read, we get to see a few of the New York crew again (Istas!), baby dragons, a new Korean species of dragon ladies (I felt so bad for Sally just wanting pizza and then running into them), and the Covenant gets a whopping. But it's the follow-up story that really got me thinking for future implications of this world and wondering where it's going to go now. No hints on that yet. Kind of reminds me of reading Cryoburn, a book I wasn't too into compared to this, but one where the real kicker is at the end more than anything else.
Four stars.
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