ARC Review: The Song Rising

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Title: The Song Rising

Author: Samantha Shannon

Series: The Bone Season, #3

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Release Date: March 7th 2017

Rating:

Following a bloody battle against foes on every side, Paige Mahoney has risen to the dangerous position of Underqueen, ruling over London’s criminal population.

But, having turned her back on Jaxon Hall and with vengeful enemies still at large, the task of stabilizing the fractured underworld has never seemed so challenging.

Little does Paige know that her reign may be cut short by the introduction of Senshield, a deadly technology that spells doom for the clairvoyant community and the world as they know it…

– Blurb courtesy of goodreads.com

I received an ARC of this book free from Bloomsbury Publishing. It in no way affects my views on The Song Rising.

This review may contain spoilers for previous book(s) in the series.

My Thoughts On…

…The Plot

“Some people believe that if they keep their heads down and stick to their safe routine and trust that nothing bad will befall them, then it won’t. They see things happening to others, but they think they’re different; they’re special; it could never happen to them.”

Paige has won the Scrimmage and is now the Underqueen of the syndicate, however her reign is not going to be easy. After betraying Jaxon in the Scrimmage plenty of the order don’t see her as the rightful leader, and as she struggles to turn the syndicate into an army she is forced to make some difficult decisions to keep control over the Unnatural Assembly.

However the syndicate are the least of her problems. Jaxon is now working with Nashira, and has revealed that he was the traitor who derailed the first Ranthen rebellion. Paige is now not only going up against Nashira but also Jaxon, a man who knows her and her abilities better than anyone else, and with Terebell questioning where her loyalties lie Paige finds herself fighting a battle on too many sides.

Before dealing with Jaxon and Nashira, before dealing with Terebell and the Ranthen, there is a more dire threat on the horizon; the Senshield. The Scion have started using the Senshield in London and voyants in the first three orders can no longer walk the streets for fear of being discovered and arrested by Scion. When Paige runs headfirst towards a possible solution only to find a trap waiting for her she makes things worse for her people and faces dissention in the ranks.

“We should have never let you have the crown. This wouldn’t have happened under Binder!”
Others chimed in with their agreements. My commanders were at the back of the gathering, watching tensely, but I’d told them not to leap to my defence. I needed to handle this on my own.

Knowing that she needs to make the voyants of London safe before they can properly fight back Paige knows she needs to take down the source of the Senshields’ power, a time sensitive mission that becomes all the more urgent after the discovery that the portable scanners are closer to being ready than anyone thought. Paige’s mission takes her all over the country – from London, to Manchester to Edinburgh – searching for a solution before the situation in London becomes too deadly, but with ScionIDE and Hildred Vance being brought in to maintain control it may already be too late.

The Song Rising was one of my most anticipated releases of this year. After the way The Mime Order ended I was excited to see where Samantha Shannon would take the story, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. From the very first page there was action, tension and enough twists to keep me hooked, a trend that carried on until the ending. The Bone Season series has been one that I have constantly been surprised by, every time I think I know where the story is going it turns in a different direction and creates a bigger world for us as readers to explore.

…The Characters

“You have risen from the ashes before. The only way to survive,” he said, “is to believe you always will.”

Paige has taken control of the syndicate and now she is Underqueen she’s determined not to make the same mistakes that Hector did. She wants to turn them into an army, to fight back against Nashira and Scion but it seems like she can’t get a handle on her people. Half of them think Jaxon should be the Underlord, their rightful leader given Paige betrayed him in the Scrimmage. It becomes  a battle for Paige to make either what she believes are the right decisions or the decisions that will keep her people happy.

The development Paige has gone through since the first book is amazing. The Paige we met in The Bone Season is nothing like the Paige we now see in The Song Rising. She embraces her role as Underqueen and leader of the voyants, and despite the fact that she makes some very deadly mistakes she learns from them and tries in vain to make things right again. Paige is still determined to prove her worth, rushing into danger to prove to the voyants she is a leader who takes action, but she is smart enough to know when to back down as well.

“You can convince yourself that you are nothing like me. Tell yourself you are the black to my white, the queen that stood on the right side of the board. But one day, you will be faced with a choice, as we all are. On day you will have to choose between your own desires, your own darkest impulses, and what you know to be right…and it will harden you.”

Despite now being the Underqueen Paige still feels like a puppet. Terebell and the rest of the Ranthen hold a lot of power over her after supporting her in her journey to become Underqueen. Terebell is constantly demanding Paige prove herself, still believing her loyalty is to Jaxon, the traitor, despite Paige assuring them otherwise.

The relationship between Paige and Jaxon is always an interesting one to read. Paige cut all ties with Jaxon when she turned against him, and split the Seven Seals down the middle, and despite Jaxon now working with Nashira his motivations are still hard to read. He seems loyal to the Rephaim but he risked his life saving Paige from Sheol I in the first book. Jaxon sees Paige as his Dreamwalker, a view shared by plenty of people both among the syndicate and the Ranthen despite everything Paige says to the contrary, and his words still hold a lot of sway over Paige’s thoughts.

“Hiding what I feel for you, being forced to do nothing to support you in public—this is the price I pay for change. And we must pay a price.”

Warden is still on Paige’s side, but with Terebell and the other Ranthen around it is dangerous for them to be too familiar with one another. Warden’s loyalty needs to be to Terebell and the Ranthen first, knowing that if they discover his and Paige’s relationship the support Paige has from the Ranthen will vanish. The romance between Warden and Paige is not easy, it never has been, but in The Song Rising it seems to get harder for them to be with one another. Both are being torn in different directions; Paige in the direction of the syndicate and Warden in the direction of Ranthen.

…The Setting

“Panic. I remembered the taste of it, the smell of it, like it was yesterday. The crowd jostled and shoved. A wave of movement undulated from one end of the street to the other, passing from person to person, knocking them back like dominoes in a line.”

Samantha Shannon created an amazing world in The Bone Season and The Mime Order, but in The Song Rising she expands on it. Before we only saw what the situation was like for the voyants in London; we learnt about their history alongside the history of the Ranthen and the Rephaite. Now that has been established Samantha Shannon introduces new players and new cities. We travel with Paige to Manchester, where the threat of Scion seems far away and where the Scuttling Queen is determined to bury her head in the sand like Hector did, and to Edinburgh, where the rebellion was a powder keg ready to explode. Paige and Nick, alongside other voyants, have seen what happens when ScionIDE and Vance take control of a country and squash a rebellion and that is a threat that is creeping ever closer in The Song Rising with the introduction of the Senshield.

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The Song Rising was amazing. I was constantly trying to guess what would happen next only to have the story go in a completely different and unexpected direction. I was on the edge of my seat and now I’ve finished all I can say is that I need the fourth book.

I can’t wait to see where Samantha Shannon takes the fourth book of the series, but wherever it goes I’m sure it will be an unforgettable read.

What did you think of The Song Rising? Was it a favourite of yours or could you just not get into the story? Let me know.

All quotes have been taken from an ARC and may differ in the final publication.