Book: And Blue Skies from Pain by Stina Leicht
Reviewed by: Joe T.
And Blue Skies from Pain, the follow up to last year’s highly acclaimed debut novel, Of Blood and Honey, firmly sets local author Stina Leicht on the road to well-earned success. Like Charles de Lint and China Mieville, she sets her urban fantasy well within the drab, oppresive reality we call our own, thus ensuring that when the fey start appearing the book still posesses a sense of wonder and bewilderment.
This novel picks up just where the last one left off: Liam Kelly is stuck in the hell that is Northern Ireland in 1977. He’s young but he’s already been a political prisoner, an IRA wheelman, and a husband. And he’s the shape-shifting son of a Puca warrior who is being hunted by the Catholic Church. Life is not easy for Liam and it’s going to get worse as he submits himself to Inquisitor scrutiny to keep a truce between the Fey and the Church.
Like Of Blood and Honey before it, I completely adored this book. Stina Leicht’s writing has improved dramatically between books. There is a sense of confidence that only comes from having your words read and appreciated by both peers and an audience and it shows in this book. Northern Ireland is still the gritty hellhole that it was before but, with this book, Leicht spreads out and begins to introduce us to the world of the Fey, a world that appears to be just as harrowing and maybe even more dangerous than the mean streets of Belfast.
All in all, this is a great book and a must read for any fans of urban fantasy and gaelic mythology and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for those that walk away from the events in this story. Cheers!
Stina Leicht will be here at BookPeople to speak about & sign And Blue Skies from Pain on Tuesday, March 20,7p.
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