Winter has come early to Korslakov, City of Spires, and Lukan Gardova has arrived with it. Most visitors to this famous city of artifice seek technological marvels, or alchemical ingenuity. Lukan only desires the unknown legacy his father has left for him, in the vaults of the Blackfire Bank.
But when Lukan’s past catches up with him, his key to the vault ends up in the hands of a mysterious thief known only as the Rook. As Lukan and his companions race to recover the key, they soon find themselves trapped in a web of murder and deceit. In desperation, Lukan requests the help of Lady Marni Volkova, scion to Korslakov’s most powerful family.
Yet Lady Marni has secrets of her own. Worse, she has plans for Lukan and his friends. Plans that involve a journey into Korslakov’s dark past, in search of a long-lost alchemical formula that could prove to be the city’s greatest discovery . . . or its destruction.

My Review:

Lukan Gardova has a knack for getting himself into trouble – and an even bigger, or perhaps that’s more frequently necessary – knack for getting himself out of the trouble that he’s gotten himself into. While underneath a facade of gallows’ humor, crackling cynicism and behind a tongue that isn’t half as silver as he thinks it is, there’s a man with a cracked heart of gold wrapped in more marshmallow than he’d willingly admit, even to himself.

And as we saw in the first book in The Last Legacy series, The Silverblood Promise, Lukan is a man who lost his way, his purpose and very nearly his life in an endless series of crooked games and emptied bottles. Until he learned the true cost of a mistake he thought he’d already paid for more than enough.

When news of his father’s death finally catches up to him, Lukan is presented with a third road when he’s already at a crossroads where both paths lead to his inevitable death. This new one might, too, but at least this has a purpose attached with the possibility – however slim – of vindication or redemption at the end.

All he has to do is follow the meager clues that his father left him, to an unknown and uncertain legacy. Whatever is at the end of that trail, it’s what his father was murdered for. The quest itself might get Lukan killed as well – but he’s already headed that way anyway. He might as well go out swinging – even if it’s in the dark.

As part of his (misadventures) in Saphrona in the first book, Lukan has picked up not one but two hostages to fortune, the thief Ashra and the young street-rat Flea. They don’t completely trust each other. There are plenty of occasions on their voyage to the next stop in Lukan’s quest, the far northern city of Korslakov, where they don’t even like each other.

But they are all each other has got. Even if their association is likely to get them all killed along the way. Whether by the murderers Lukan is chasing or the bad luck and worse decisions chasing him, well, that’s yet to be determined. But it will be – one way or another.

Just not yet.

Escape Rating A-: I grabbed this one the minute it popped on Edelweiss, and was fortunate enough to get an ALC (Advance Listening Copy) from Netgalley when those became available. I adored the first book, The Silverblood Promise, and not only because the narrator, Brenock O’Connor, was immediately added to my “will listen to read ALL the grocery lists” list. Brenock O’Connor AS Lukan Gardova is a match made – well, probably not in heaven because Lukan’s admittance to any such place in ANY theology is a bit doubtful – but certainly somewhere that great tastes come together.

In other words, I came into The Blackfire Blade with high hopes that turned out to be, for the most part, realized.

Howsomever, this is the second book in what will be AT LEAST a trilogy – if not more – and it does have more than a bit of middle book syndrome. Meaning that Korslakov is cold and dark and this entry in the series is a bit dark right along with it. The story does lift at the end, but even that dramatic rise has a bit of tragedy woven through it. Properly and rightfully so, but still not an ending and not precisely a triumphant pause, either.

Lukan Gardova’s motto, or raison d’etre, or battle cry, or excuse – and sometimes all of the above, is “Passion before reason.” This is NOT the motto of a sensible or serious person, which makes it perfect for Lukan because he’s pretty much never either of those things. Those words are also not the key to living a long life – although they certainly do lead to an interesting one.

The thing about that phrase, and about Lukan himself, especially in the first third of this book, is that that sort of motivation leads to what Flea would probably call a whole lot of stupid. I’m not saying that Lukan IS stupid, although he generally doesn’t make good choices, but rather that he does a lot of stupid shit and pulls a lot of stupid stunts because he never looks before he leaps. He ALWAYS leaps and hopes the net will appear – IF he’s sober enough to think even that far ahead.

Which means that everything that happens in this story is pretty much all Lukan’s fault all the time. Maybe not 100% his fault, because plenty of others commit their own versions of stupid, but Lukan, Ashra and Flea get into this mess because Lukan is self-centered, self-indulgent and yes, stupid. The reader sees the outline of how this thing is going to go from their first night in Korslakov, because Lukan never met a temptation he could resist – particularly not if said temptation involves a drink or six. Or more.

So Lukan’s stupidity nearly gets them all killed in the first third of the story, surprisingly Ashra’s stupid pride nearly does them in in the second. I half expected Flea to lay them all at death’s door in the final third. But Flea is smarter than either of her adults no matter how often she puts her foot in someone else’s shit – usually Lukan’s. However, by that point there are plenty of other adults available to send them to that very same location even if Lukan and Ashra have gotten a bit better about it.

While that kind of out of the frying pan into the fire story makes for a fantastic adventure, that in this particular case so many of the fires and the frying pans can be laid at the feet of the protagonist got just a bit predictable. Which made this second book in the series a case where I was both enjoying the journey AND wanted to reach through the audio and wring Lukan’s neck.

Then again, so did Ashra and she was in a much better position to do so. Unfortunately for Lukan, so were the host of enemies he gathered along his erratic path.

In the end – or at least the ending so far – The Last Legacy series is about power and pride and hubris. In the beginning, it was Lukan’s own pride that brought him low and kept him from redeeming himself – or even seeing himself as he really is. It’s because of his father’s hubris, pride and quest for knowledge that Lukan is forced to hunt the entire breadth of the ‘old Empire’ to carry out his father’s last wishes. And it’s the quest for power that brings this second book in the series, along with the city in which its set, to its epic and catastrophic conclusion.

Which is absolutely not the conclusion of the series – nor should it be. Lukan’s quest is far from over, while his companions have chosen that their motto is “Together or not at all” and are willing to enforce that decision at the point of a blade – or a crossbow bolt. At least Lukan has finally admitted to himself that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

One final note, because there were a few things in this one that drove me crazy in a good way. The golems of Korslakov are created the same way that the golems of Dragon Age Origins are created, with an artifact of long-dead genius and the soul of a living person who probably didn’t volunteer for the job. And it’s every bit as chilling this second time around. Secondly, dear old General Razin, who befriends and supports Lukan and his friends in spite of his own reduced circumstances, will, in the end, remind readers of King Theoden from The Lord of the Rings in all the best AND worst ways. Last but not least, the ending of this story, with its heartbreaking but redemptive boatload of resolutions for Lukan, reminds this reader of Francis Crawford of Lymond from Dorothy Dunnett’s Game of Kings series, in that it’s starting to look like Lukan’s ultimate redemption is going to involve his learning about all the things that he needed to know while only being able to get most of the things he’s been searching for all of his life – and that it is right and fitting that not all of his wants and wishes are granted.

We’ll certainly see in the book or books ahead in this series. Hopefully this time next year.