Moon Shades is a bit of an odd book in that plotwise, it doesn’t actually have much to do with either The Fallen or especially the big events of Harbinger, at least not until the last few chapters of the book. After everything, I expected more.

But it’s still an interesting enough book on it’s own merits. Essentially, it’s a fairly standard ‘something took the children… and our neighbors are WEREWOLVES!’ type story (which is amusingly specific enough to be a trope) with Chivali and the Fallen as an entrypoint into the world. We learn a very little bit about magic in this world, along with the aforementioned werewolves (pretty standard).

We do get to dig a bit more into the relationships between Chivali and the other Fallen–in particularly Colby, Eliot, and newcomer Sean while also dealing with Chivali’s clan beliefs as she begins to induct new members. There’s a lot more going on there than even what we get in this book, so I’m glad to see it hasn’t been dropped.

Which brings to mind one of the things that continues to frustrate me about this series:

Chavali hadn’t yet learned what price the Fallen paid to bring people back from death. She guessed it must be a significant, substantial sacrifice. Prior to being revived, she had no idea such a thing could even be done. The research that must have gone into discovering the process would be fascinating and probably also quite grim. At the least, she doubted that one life could be traded for another, as that made no sense.

I have a few theories… but there is only so long you can keep something that big and important to the main characters of a series hidden. There are also other questions, such as digging more into the different theories on the ‘Greatest Sin’ between various sects and why/how the Creator’s Towers function that I’d rather see explored, but I guess I can continue to be patient.

Overall, a good read and a good sequel. I’m looking forward to the next, although hoping for a bit … more.