To Burn All Belief
Seeing is not believing when your eyes belong to them.
As the newly risen and fiercely determined Head of the Agency, Grim must unite the squabbling factions of Liwokin to save the city from the evolving Benefactor threat. But bad blood runs deep in the city and Grim struggles with his own descent into madness. How can he save his home when he’s not even certain he can save himself?
Lorelay returns home to the capital of the Bright Empire, where she must convince the future Emperor to aid the Agency in the fight against the infested. With the Emperor’s interest piqued by her beauty and wit, she traverses a dangerous game of politics and passion — all while struggling with the grief of losing her brother.
Garret and Sentyx journey to the exotic Peeker Mounds hunting for Prost, the insidious stranger who unleashed Benefactors on the land. Garret needs all the help he can get while they track their quarry, but he also must tread cautiously. A Skardwarf cannot be trusted. Betrayal is only a matter of time. The only question is: who will betray whom first?
As characters’ paths converge and the future of the Bright Empire hangs on the actions of Grim and his allies, the stage is set for a symphony of war and intrigue in the Second Dance of the Sibling Suns.
-Goodreads
Title: To Burn All Belief
Series: Dance of the Sibling Sun #2
Author: Joshua Scott Edwards
Page Count: 614
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.5/5.0
Date Read: October 26th, 2024
Opening
Joshua Scott Edwards hit my radar in 2023 with An Ocean of Others which took me a couple of tries with the audio to settle in. Once I did though I really enjoyed the story and characters. I’ve been keeping up with Josh since then thanks primarily to his fantastic newsletter he puts out monthly. If you aren’t already signed up to receive this, you need to. It always includes more than just what is going on with his writing. It’s just a solid industry update for me. He always has an interactive question for the readers each month as well which those that respond typically go into a drawing for some kind of prize.
I knew that book number two To Burn All Belief was out but I haven’t been able to fit it into my TBR with a visual read. As soon as the pre-ordered audiobook was released though the timing couldn’t have been better as I was finishing up another audio the same day. I settled in much quicker this time around. This could be due to being more familiar with the contents from book one but also with the narrator who returns for another performance. Regardless, I strapped in and enjoyed this wild ride!
Pacing
The pacing of To Burn All Belief felt on the slightly faster side of things but honestly that might just have been because I was so into it and flew through in just a few days. It didn’t feel rushed and I certainly didn’t feel any slog moments. Being a bit more familiar with Danny Gavigan helped me focus better on the story this time. I struggled with his style a bit in my initial attempt with book one last year. I can now pinpoint a bit more. Danny does an excellent job with voicing multiple characters. Where I tend to lose him a bit is when he is simply in his general narration. I put some thought into this and assume this is by design as to make more of an emphasis on the character moments. This is just my opinion and observation on why I might have struggled with him in the past.
Another thing that helped me enjoy this read was the fact I finished up my other current visual read and spent a day immersion reading where I was listening to the audio while following along visually on my Kindle which really allowed me to dial into the moments as they unfolded.
World Building
The world building continues to grow even stronger in To Burn All Belief. The geographical and environmental aspects are very immersive. Add to that a very deep political system and unique magic and you’ve got a winning combination of ingredients. On top of that the history continues to unfold as the story keeps going. I’m such a sucker for a series with a solid history as to why things are happening in the story and this one checks that box.
Character Development
As much praise as I’ve given above, I think the character development was still the strongest part of this book. If you’re familiar with book one and the numerous characters introduced, that continues in book two. Even with that being said, the author and narrator do an excellent job in helping us follow along yet keep characters straight for the reader. There is some nice recap or flashback moments to help this old reader recall events from book one. I have trouble at times either due to my own memory issues or the fact I might read too many books for my head to keep stories and characters straight but I was brought back into the welcoming arms of the Dance of the Sibling Suns.
Another recent trend of my reads is complex characters. This one falls into that camp as well. I will do my best not to include spoilers but I want to mention a couple of things. Many of these characters who we might feel are trying to do the right thing may or may not follow that path in this story. This is definitely keeping me on my toes.
There is also a relationship between two characters that I was truly annoyed with for the longest time but it did grow on me. Without saying too much I will simply share that once a moment finally happened, I knew bad things were going to happen to at least one of them. Sure enough, I find myself no longer able to trust authors regardless how much I may love them as human beings they are constantly destroying me emotionally. As great as it was, the very end of book two didn’t help me with that trust either.
Closing
When all is said and done, this was a great book for me. I’m really falling in love with this world and so many of the characters. That’s what makes it so difficult when some of those characters might not make it to the end of the story.
If you haven’t checked out this series yet and enjoy darker fantasy with plenty of twists and turns, a grand world and complex, flawed characters trying to do what they think is best, this might be a good one for you. If you already read An Ocean of Others and haven’t started To Burn All Belief, what are you waiting for!?
Scoring
Pacing 4.25 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.5 / 5.0
Character Development 5.0 / 5.0
