Jacqueline Carey's cover blurb for The Five Daughters of the Moon calls the book "a lyrical elegy to the fall of an empire," and the book description is clear that this duology is inspired by the 1917 Russian revolution and the final days of the Romanov sisters, so you must know going in that this story doesn't have a happy ending. In alternating chapters told in first person from the perspective of each of the titular five daughters--ranging in age from six to twenty-two--Leena Likitalo brings

The Sisters of the Crescent Empress is the second in a duology by Leena Likitalo that tells a mysterious, magical tale inspired by the Romanov sisters and their downfall. It’s a powerful debut series from Likitalo that tells me she’s a powerful emerging voice on the fantasy scene, but I was still left with mixed feelings about the way the duology wrapped itself up.The technical things that bothered me about the first book continued in the second, while much of the magic drifted into the backgrou...

And what a bleak little series this turned out to be! It's beautifully told and beautifully written, evoking moonlight and darkness and raising questions about truth and trust and connections between sisters. The fantasy empire is based on Russia or China or something Eurasian; some of the reviewers say it's the story of the Romanovs. Anyway, the Empire is coming apart at the seams, and Celestia, the eldest of five sisters of the Imperial family, is supposed to become the next Crescent Empress.

Strong finish to the Duology. Some great world building in limited space (due to the novella format)

I still feel that the first book ended too abruptly, and really the two should have been published together. The first might’ve been a novella, but this was definitely long enough to qualify as a novel, leaving me really wondering why it was published as part of the novella line (though I see others in that line-up now that I wouldn’t have called novellas). Does The Sisters of the Crescent Empress satisfactorily complete what The Five Daughters of the Moon began? Well, sort of.I did enjoy this a...

3.5/5 stars.Mon Avis : Il y a quelques mois je me suis lancé dans la découverte de ce diptyque de Fantasy qui se basait sur la révolution Russe de 1917, ce qui changeait selon moi des récits de Fantasy médiévaux, et dont le premier tome m’avait offert un très agréable moment de lecture, même si certains points m’avaient paru pas complètement maîtrisés. Il était donc logique que je me laisse rapidement tenté par la suite et fin de ce cycle en faisant entrer ce second tome dans ma PAL. Concernant

This is a stylistically pretty book - but the ending leaves a lot to be desired.The location of the book is the same: the sisters in the house. Celestia squirrels away food in preparation for an opportunity to escape. They're also haunted by (view spoiler)[their aunts, who were killed when their mother took the throne. The aunts mainly communicate with Alina and Merile, distrusting the older sisters. Sibilia reads the scriptures, and learns about the words of power. Elise tries to connect with t...

I really didn’t like the ending. And Elise went from being one of my favourites of the sisters to being the one I hated the most. She’s such an idealistic idiot.

3.5 stars. Knowing of the bloody end of the Romanovs, I knew I wasn’t getting a happy ending from the author. The ending she provides is kind of heartbreaking and horrible, even knowing how the girls’ mother had terribly mistreated her people, and how hard Celestia had hoped to get them all out of their increasingly tense imprisonment.There were a couple of story threads left open at the conclusion, leaving me wanting a bit more closure.

Review on my blogReview of book 1 in the seriesI enjoyed this book almost till the end. The prose is beautiful and the relationships between the sisters are portrayed in a very realistic way. Some sisters get on better with each other, some not so much. Things that one does or says affect the relationships with the other sisters.It did have flaws that stopped me from really loving the book and most of them were understandable, considering the author has only written short-stories so far and I wo...

I didn't like this part as much as the first - mostly because the confinement experienced by the sisters was just too frustrating. Likitalo wove a powerful feeling of being trapped and helpless throughout the novel, and of course the sisters did try to change their fate (view spoiler)[(and succeeded to some extent) (hide spoiler)], but I just wish that they'd had more power to do something. I'm not super fond of imprisonment storylines, and of course this whole book was basically one.(view spoil...

The second in a duology, I enjoyed this last outing far more than the first. Because it was highly focused on the sisters and took pains to really depict and examine their relationships and the consequence of the younger ones of being sister to the Crescent Empress.Based on the ill-fated history of the Romanov sisters, the narrative never lacks for the sense of dread as these five girls wait what might be their inevitable end.The emotion in this book is unrelenting. Most surprisingly is how my l...

4* Bolo to komplexnejšie, lepšie podané s väčším množstvom mágie...a...je to veľmi krátke. Mnohé veci jednoducho sú, a na malom priestore sa ťažko dajú podať striedmo a uváženejšie. Často sa zdalo, že niektoré prvky sú tam navyše, iba aby bolo. Ale ku koncu sa mnohé z toho pekne využilo. Odhliadnuc od mágie a istých dejových línií, ktoré sa už iba kvôli povahe tohto diela nevyriešili (haló, v realite sa tiež veľa vecí nevyrieši uspokojujúco. S týmto teda nemajme veľké očakávania. Je to smutný

3.5 stars

The atmosphere and relationships in the book deepened what was introduced in the first one, but unfortunately there is still no satisfying resolution and much of the book is running in place. I think, similar to my thoughts on the first one, that this would have been better as one book, and then perhaps something afterwards but to my knowledge there are no further sequels planned.

What an awful, terrible and disappointing ending.I don’t mind sad or ambiguous endings. But here the author barely resolves anything of the main conflict.Bad people remain bad. The villain is a caricature. The book is poorly paced and the writing at some points was horrible (Merile’s narration was riddled with unnecessary punctuation). After two books I expect some answers. I don’t want to feel like there is a huge, vital portion of the story missing. Specially if it is the resolution what the n...

Quite a heartbreaking conclusion to this story. The multiple viewpoints from the first book were continued in this one, and their occasionally odd syntax is very charming. The confined setting and character list is rich in detail. One consequence of hearing the story only from the perspective of the sisters: they all like each other, so their flaws are somewhat hidden from the reader. Its necessary to read between the lines to get the complete picture.

http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2017/11...The second book in Likitalo's duology, a fantasy/alternate history inspired by the Romanovs, left me almost breathless! I loved the journeys of the five sisters (though Elise is more sympathetic and compelling in the first one) and the end had me going “oh whaaaaaaat” but like in a good way. I a, pretty sure this is the end of the story, and while I found the ending fitting, I would one hundred percent read more in this universe. And will definitely read m...

Strangely pacedThe story is an odd mix of anti communist fantasy and historical fiction reimagining. What felt gleaming and original in the first half of the duology was done to death. Merile's speech pattern made me want to scream, and after nothing much happening for the first 60% or so of the book, suddenly plot threads are dropped and the characters race to an inevitable finish line. I really thought this book would be much more unique given how promising the first one was. Disappointed. I'm...

Video review here: https://youtu.be/yRGlt6Iiwj0This deeply character-driven sequel to The Five Daughters of the Moon is where the story of the Waning Moon duology really finds its strength, as each of its five protagonists come into their own under the most trying of circumstances. (You can read my review of book one here.)In The Sisters of the Crescent Empress, the Daughters of the Moon arrive at an isolated house in the far north of the empire where they are held prisoner, as their distrust o...