Mistlight is a sumptuous high fantasy exploring friendship, loyalty and how power corrupts. It’s book 2 of the Aenigma Lights trilogy by indie author, JA Andrews.
Mistlight picks up immediately where Runelight ended, with Kate and Venn reeling from the recent events and revelations in Renault’s Cave. They’re still on the trail of Kate’s brother, Bo, and head off to the White Wood to seek the assistance of the volatile and powerful elven king.
From there, things go pear-shaped, leaving Kate at the mercy of the king, whose own, seemingly unrelated agenda becomes increasingly entwined with Kate and Venn’s. It gradually becomes evident that, alongside Kate’s mission to save her brothers, the health of the White Wood is at stake. So too is Kate’s magic, and her life, due to the elven king’s manipulations.
Around the moments of exciting drama, Kate and Venn spend much of Mistlight hunting for answers to mysteries surrounding the long-dead mage, Renault, and recent inexplicable events. The novel is replete with historical accounts and magical theory and, by the end, Kate has answers to many of her questions — several of which pose new conundrums.
Venn, meanwhile, faces her own challenges of loyalty — to Kate, Bo (to whom she owes a life debt), her people, and the White Wood itself.
I love and adore the friendship between Kate (an accomplished woman of 32) and Venn (being an elf, considerably older). Through shared adversity, they’re forging a lifelong (presumably platonic) bond that’s the heart of these books.
The smallish but mighty support cast includes: Tribal and Silas, the incorrigible twin dwarves introduced in Runelight; Crofftus, the mage reliant on the bodies of wild creatures for survival; and Fix, a shy, mute gnoblin who joins the group.
Like Runelight, Mistlight is an intimate book of layered characters and complex motivations. The scope is confined at the surface, but the story goes deep, building and building to an exciting climax.
Aside from the main goal (find the Warden, find the box), I have absolutely no idea what is about to happen next in the third and final book, Lastlight, but I’m looking forward to finding out!
(Once again, I listened to the fabulous audiobook and freely availed myself of the maps on the author’s website, which help with the geography of the relatively small area in which most of this book is set.)
Highly recommended for those who like a deeper fantasy book with a slower pace that rewards.
Ellen Gregory 