Down comes the night by Allison Saft

The Danubians and the Vesrians are sworn enemies in spite of a recent armistice, but there have been disappearances of soldiers along the border and the Vesrians are suspected. Wren, under her commanding officer Una Dryden (who is also her girlfriend) capture a spy while on patrol. Wren, a Danubian army medic, can’t resist the urge to disobey orders and use her magical abilities to heal the boy spy’s badly broken arm; the boy escapes and Wren is in trouble. As the illegitimate orphaned niece of the Queen, their relationship has always been troubled, and this incident results in Wren being suspended and sent back to the convent where she was raised. When a letter arrives from a Lord Lowry of Cernos, Danubia’s neutral neighbour, asking Wren to come to find the cure for a strange illness killing his servants in exchange for diplomatic help, Wren follows her feelings and in spite of orders to ignore the offer she escapes to the Lord’s Gothic mansion in Cernos.  It turns out the patient is Danu’s arch enemy Hal Cavendish, 'the Reaper of Vesria’, whose gaze can kill. Wren uses her considerable skill as a healer to identify and eventually cure his illness, planning to redeem herself by taking him prisoner. As expected, close contact results in a strong mutual attraction and a questioning of many of the things each thought were true. Far from being a weakness, Wren starts to realise her compassion and empathy are positive qualities and that her love for Una can be just as strong while she is romantically attracted to Hal. As they search Lowry’s mansion for clues as to the disappearance of the soldiers and source of the mystery illness it becomes clear that Wren and Hal are trying to save their countries from an unjust war and their people from needless sacrifice. The concept of two countries at war for so long that a lasting peace seems impossible and the lost clarity of what individual duty and sacrifice mean, even bending magical gifts to gain a wartime advantage, will resonate with readers in today’s troubled world. However I found the world building sketchy and unconvincing, Danu, in the grip of industrialization with pollution and no electricity but some magic, seemingly limited to healers and a very sophisticated health system, while Cernos has no magic but a more luxurious lifestyle and Vesria seems to be a bit more pastoral but with magical weapons, but it is all a bit vague. The plot was a bit confused, including a great deal of medical detail, the gothic mansion was one minute crumbling and mysterious and the next a swirling social hub and the sexual attraction between Wren and Hal climaxed in the single sex scene and then moved on. I wasn’t invested in the characters enough to really care about the outcome, and to believe that the exposure of Lord Lowry’s plot would solve a 300 year old war would be a fantasy in itself.

Themes: Fantasy, War, Love, Duty.

Sue Speck