Review Daughter of Smoke and Dust Trilogy by Laini Taylor - Spoilers!

Wow! This is a series that once I started the first book, I had get all three and I devoured them in the space of a week.

The first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, is a masterpiece set in the medieval city of Prague. Karou is an art student with a most unusual family. The book is magical and totally turns on its head the eternal conflict between angels and demons. The world of the novel is exquisitely wrought and wholly unpredictable. Are the demons, the chimaera, truly the 'bad guys?" And why do the celestial beings, the angels, have tattoed kill records on their arms. Then, there is Karou, herself, the biggest conundrum of them all. Who is she? She doesn't even know.

The book is lyrical in tone and richly imagined. It is truly magnificent a work of gothic art painted on a grand scale. Karou and Akiva, the star crossed lovers of the tale, are deeply sympathetic, flawed but enchanting. I desperately longed for them to be together, but recognized that their very world would have to change for that to happen.

The second book of the trilogy, Days of Blood and Starlight, is aptly named. It tastes of blood and gore and of the pit that is the dominant image of the story. This is a necessary book that builds the storyline, but it lacks the haunting luminescence of the first book. The moments and looks of longing exchanged between Akiva and Karous are intense and exquisite, though I will admit that I thought Thiago, Karou's evil nemesis, is too easily disposed of.

To be honest, I did not care as much for the third book of the trilogy in which an entirely new human character is introduced. Still, the main threads of the story are woven together in a very satisfying manner. And, most importantly, Karou and Akiva finally come together.

Despite my minor criticisms of this trilogy, I truly enjoyed it. It is superbly creative. Good books leave you with enduring images and emotions. Readers not only see but also feel the aching tenderness, pain, and love that Akiva and Karou  endure for each other. This is is the true magic of Laini Taylor's masterful work.