A review by lizbusby
Lies and Prophecy by Marie Brennan

3.0

Marie Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent series and its standalone sequel Turning Darkness into Light are some of my absolute favorite fantasy ever. I was hoping to repeat the magic with another academically-focused series by her. Unfortunately, I didn't end up liking this one. The setting of this book was amazingly intriguing and yet underdeveloped. It was like going to Hogwarts but almost never talking about the classes and there are only a few mentions of quidditch. I wanted a much more immersive experience. The concept for the series--that some ancestral fae part of humanity suddenly awoke and gave half the population magic powers--is barely hinted at rather than fully explored. I felt like lots of things were happening to the characters but the characters themselves had really no choice or motivation in the matter. Disappointing. I still give it three stars for the potential to be awesome.