Anne Bishop’s Shadows and Light, the second book in the trilogy, continues the story about the slaughter of witches and the closing of the shining roads that lead from the Fae’s in Tir Alainn to the human world.
Shadows And Light Overview
The deaths of the witches and any humans aligned with witches increase as the number of inquisitors and their allies grow. As the witches are killed or driven from their homes, the situation for the Fae, also becomes more urgent.
The story continues with Aiden The Bard, and his lover, Lyrra The Muse, with the help of The Gatherer of Souls, as they embark on a journey to find one particular Fae, who may be able to convince the rest of the Fae to help the witches, before they are all dead and all of the shinning roads have closed for good.
Shadows And Light Review
Every time a witch is killed or driven from her home, a shinning road closes, and a piece of Tir Alainn is gone forever. For the most part, the Fae continue with their arrogance and selfishness, with the exception of a few, such as The Bard, The Muse and The Gatherer, who go in search of help.
These three characters were introduced in the first book, The Pillars of the World, and have a more prominent role as main characters in this second novel, while some of the main characters form the first, take a back seat.
There is the addition of many new characters of course, but this book is slightly slower paced then the first. The inquisitors continue to dominate Barons, forcing them to do awful things to their women to keep them subservient, while they continue to seek out and torture witches.
The Muse and The Bard travel from clan to clan seeking help and imparting knowledge of the situation, but few Fae will listen. They realize they must find the one Fae that will have a greater influence over the Fae, so they head to the western clans in search of the Hunter.
Bishop creates a plethora of new characters, each as interesting and deep as those in the first book. The story is well written, while a little slower paced, and the ending is not so final, so as to ensure the reader will want to continue and read the third and final installment.
Shadows and Light was first published in 2002 by Roc and again in 2004 by HarperCollins (ISBN 978-0-732-27987-5). Bishop has written a number of books in addition to the Tir Alainn Trilogy (The Pillars of the World, Shadows and Light, The House of Gaian), including The Black Jewels Trilogy, The Invisible Ring and Dreams Made Flesh.
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