A-

Daughter of the Sun

Daughter of the Sun is the second book in the Tales of Inthya series, but it stands alone, and does not overlap at all with The Queen of Ieflaria. It is a simple, sweet story about the power of kindness to inspire love and change.

Orsina is a Paladin of the God Iolar, whose mission is to fight evil and in particular to banish Chaos Gods, who enthrall their worshippers and lead them into destructive pathways. She is kind, honorable, serious, and dutiful, and she is on a mission to defeat a Great (and unknown) Evil. Questing after her destiny, she encounters and defeats Aelia, a minor Chaos God, whose province is caprice and distraction – she is not malicious, but her followers suffer nonetheless because they forget to bring in the harvest or to feed their flocks, and thus risk starvation. Orsina believes that she has successfully banished Aelia, but in fact Aelia survives, though seriously injured and with a new face and body. And so when Orsina encounters an injured, frightened woman on the road the next day, she doesn’t recognise her as the Chaos God she just defeated. Instead she sees a woman fleeing a dangerous situation – and in need of a Paladin’s protection.

I adored this book. Aelia is fickle and flighty and naively fascinated with mortals, if a bit too Chaotic Neutral to make the ideal girlfriend for a Paladin. While she initially plans to use Orsina to help her get hold of a relic that will allow her to resume her normal shape and powers, she is (typically) distracted by her interest in the humans she meets and in their artistic endeavours. She unintentionally acquires new worshippers – her childlike, imaginative nature makes her ideally suited to provide inspiration to artists, though she lacks the focus to make art herself. She even begins to assist Orsina, since she doesn’t want her sibling Chaos gods to harm her new human pets. She becomes a better person (better goddess?) almost by accident.

Meanwhile, Orsina is Lawful Good personified, and I loved how her steady, reliable kindness not only inspired Aelia’s love but also prompted her to change and to learn to care about others. I usually dislike ‘changed by love’ narratives, but it turns out I am absolutely there for ‘changed by kindness and reliability’. And I loved how Aelia saw Orsina and valued her for her honesty and goodness, where others had seen these as attributes to exploit.

The one flaw in this book is how long it took for Aelia to confess her identity to Orsina. Given Orsina’s honorable and straightforward nature, this felt like a real betrayal, and I would have liked to see it addressed a bit more thoroughly. But if you are looking for a sweet, gentle comfort read which champions kindness and human connection, then this is the book for you.

– Catherine Heloise

Orsina of Melidrie is a paladin of the Order of the Sun, sworn to drive out corruption and chaos wherever she finds it. She has been ordered to leave her home and travel around Vesolda in search of a great evil she is supposedly destined to destroy. But after two years of fighting monsters and demons and evil gods, she does not seem to be any closer to her goal—or ever returning home.

Aelia is the Goddess of Caprice, the personification of poor decision-making. The Order of the Sun has classified her as a chaos goddess, meaning that her worship has been outlawed. During a run-in with Orsina, she is trapped in a mortal body, rendering her unable to leave Inthya.

Aelia is found by Orsina again, but this time Orsina does not recognize her in her new body. So Aelia pretends to be a mortal woman who is fleeing an abusive family. Aelia plans to use Orsina as protection as she hunts down the magical relic that will free her from her mortal body.

As Aelia and Orsina grow closer to one another, Aelia wrestles with her own desire to tell Orsina the truth about who she is, and her fear that Orsina will turn on her if she does. But the decision might not be hers after all, because their actions have not gone unnoticed by Aelia’s siblings.