Queen of Candesce: Book Two of Virga

4 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Venera Fanning, having barely escaped the sun that lights the strange airborne worlds of Virga, enters a weird, creaking old structure known as Spyre, where she is rescued by an exiled former gigolo. Together, they use their wiles to try to survive Spyre's secretive ancient nations.

Review
I've been burned a few times buying a pile of books from one author or series (looking at you, Jonathan Carroll and L.E. Modesitt, Jr.). But I keep doing it, because I'm an optimist and sometimes it works out. Fingers crossed, but so far, the Virga series is working out well.

I read the first book a long time ago and loved it, but somehow didn't follow up for a decade or more. Now, I'm finally digging into it, and this second book doesn't disappoint. It follows Venera Fanning, a character from Sun of Suns that I didn't particularly like, but does a fair amount to round her out (and make her more likeable as well).

The scale of the action is much smaller here – just one world in the huge Virga agglomeration – but just as epic in intensity. There's a certain piratey, steampunky feel to it all, though there are few ships involved. Schroeder relies a little too heavily on coincidence, but it's largely forgivable. He does miss a trick or two, though – for example, he explains the origin of a certain mysterious bullet, but does so so quickly, almost in passing, that I found it a substantial disappointment after all the build in in this book and the previous one.

All in all, a fun book, and a strong entry in a promising series.