More gifts, more magic, more friends, more enemies, more adventures, more emotions, more themes, more stakes—more everything! Hang on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, because once you open the cover of Lumen, the second installment of J. J. Fischer’s The Nightingale Trilogy, this book will suck you into a maelstrom as wild, powerful, and beautiful as one of its magical thunderstorms.
What if erasing the past cost more than you were willing to pay?
Having narrowly escaped their enemies, Sephone, Dorian, and Cass continue their search for the elusive Silvertongue, the only one with knowledge of the Reliquary’s whereabouts. But time is running out for Sephone, and with Dorian accused of high treason, the quest takes on a new urgency.
As secrets from each of their pasts drive a wedge between them, Sephone invests all her hopes in finding her homeland, Lethe—where her family may yet be alive. But nothing about Lethe is as she expects, and disappointment, betrayal, and danger await her at every turn.
As the truth about the Reliquary’s curse comes to light, the fragile bonds between the unlikely companions are tested like never before. Meanwhile, Dorian faces a terrible choice: to save the life of one who is beginning to mean more to him than the past he’s so desperate to forget, or to save his beloved Caldera from dangers outside and within. 
What I loved about Lumen (without spoilers):
We see more of all the characters, with one character in particular. More backstory, more motive, more of who this character is and why, with surprises I never saw coming. The other characters deepen too as they continue on their individual journeys as well as their relationships with each other. In Calor I met these main characters and liked them; by the end of Lumen I knew them and loved them, even if I disliked parts of them too. (No one is perfect in these stories.)
Lida had been like the sun, warming the day. But Sephone was born for the night, to shine in the darkness.
We see more magic and more types of magic. Though I love fantasy, I’m picky with the magic I like. My threshold of credibility is very high and it’s easy for me to raise that skeptical eyebrow or pooh-pooh something that’s too “out there” for my tastes. Fischer’s magic system, however, works, and it works so well. It’s deep, it’s grounded, it has rules, and it varies from character to character. It’s the kind of magic that I wish we had in real life, even if the bad half of it terrifies me as much as the good half enthralls me.
We see more places. The journey continues to a variety of settings that not only broaden the worldbuilding and give platform to Caldera’s history but also move along the plot in key ways. From underground cities and river caverns to treetop dwellings and mountain towns, we travel with the characters through a broader landscape that shows off more of Fischer’s stunning creativity and skill. Even though it’s a post-apocalyptic world on a clock, fractured and imperfect, it’s the kind of world I want to be in.
“Remembering, after all, is only a type of forgetting. As you remember the world, you forget yourself.”
~Sephone Winter
We see more emotion. I mean, Calor had plenty of emotion already, am I right? But Lumen takes those emotions to the next level, and adds even more on top. I felt with every character everything they felt, and it alternatively thrilled me, broke my heart, inspired me, moved me, and resonated with me. (Mostly broke my heart. But there were good things too.)
We see more stakes. The enemies from Calor get bigger, closer, and realer in Lumen, and the cracks that started to splinter through Caldera in the first book are now gaping fissures between countries, individuals, and ideals. By the time this book ends, things have gone from bad to way worse, and I can only hope Fischer will somehow put the pieces back together in the final book.
“One does not unmake the past by repeating its mistakes.”
~Dorian Ashwood
Finally, we see more spiritual themes. I wasn’t expecting a direct spiritual element in this story, but knowing the rest of Fischer’s books, I’m not surprised. And it works. With the same tact and artfulness displayed in her other stories, Fischer delicately crosses from unique imagination to profound truth, twining the two together as closely as the light ribbons of Cass’s and Seph’s gifts. 
In short, fairytale (Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Nightingale”) + myth (Hades and Persephone) + profound spiritual themes = one of the richest stories I’ve ever read. My respect for this talented author has increased yet again, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the final installment of this beautiful, creative, and thought-provoking series!
P.S. While I was a given a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review, I bought the hardcopy entirely of my own volition. Cass will show you I’m telling the truth. 😉
