Lumen by J.J. Fischer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lumen is the second installment in the Nightingale trilogy, and it picks up right where Calor left off. The pace is fast and the tensions are high from the very first page. The cast is still wonderful, and I’m enjoying getting to know them more deeply. Fischer does a wonderful job balancing their strengths against their weaknesses. She also does a lovely job of weaving subtle strands of Greek myth into her world in a way that only serves to deepen the story. There are subtle nods throughout, especially seen in the naming of places and even certain characters.

“Pain is everywhere… It is at the very heart of this world. It was woven into its fibers since the beginning, when the natural order of things was first undone, only to unravel more and more with every subsequent tug on the pattern. It is what you do with that pain—who you turn to and what you turn away from—that matters. How you respond to your heartache will chart the very course of your life.”

In this installment we are introduced to a fascinating new group of people—the Mysterium. These people, who live such beautiful lives mostly insulated from the larger world around them, brought to mind the early Church. It’s through them and our cast’s journey into their world in search of the Reliquary that we see the faith element of the series begin to become more central. This became even more true as we neared the halfway point of the book and were taken to the Garden, which is gorgeous, reminiscent of the Garden-that-was but not yet the perfected Garden-that-will-be. It is a powerful portrayal of Eden.

This is also where we’re introduced to the concept of the Three, the Trinity as presented in this series. We even get to spend time with the Son figure of the Three when He visits Sephone in a dream. I was profoundly moved by both that conversation and the portrayal of the Garden and the Mysterium. So much so that I actually read chapters 18 and 19 multiple times before moving on, both to soak up the loveliness and to ensure that I didn’t miss anything. There is so much spiritual depth here, reminding me of the works of fiction that have moved me the most profoundly, like Narnia or Ted Dekker’s Circle series.

I’m loving this series, and will be immediately continuing onto Memoria, the final installment in the trilogy, as Lumen follows Calor’s lead and ends on a cliffhanger. I have no idea what’s going to happen as the story reaches its zenith, but I do have faith that it will be an ending that shines light into the dark world of the story’s setting as well as into our own. Fischer has created something really special here, and I’m so grateful that I have a chance to explore it.

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