Book Review: The Battle of Medicine Rocks (The Crystal Calamity, #2) by Rachel Aaron
Review copy received from author in exchange for an honest review
Cover Art by Luisa Preißler.
The Battle of Medicine Rocks by Rachel Aaron
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Series: The Crystal Calamity (Book 2)
Genre: Fantasy, historical fantasy, alternate history
Published: 1st February 2023 (self-published)
The Battle of Medicine Rocks was a great sequel with a darker story that upped the stakes to drive incredible character growth and development.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous review for The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow, stories inspired by the wild west are not my cup of tea. But in the hands of Rachel Aaron and with her knack of creating some of the most engaging and captivating stories of highly relatable and likeable characters, even a historical fantasy inspired by the gold rush amidst the Great Sioux War became one whose sequel I was most anticipating to read.
When I say that this was a darker story, it did not mean that Aaron has completely changed up her usual storytelling approach. At the crux of it, this story is inspired by a great war and war has never been anything but the darkest creation of all. Stakes are significantly higher, and lines have to be drawn, and often at the cost of loved ones. Aaron, however, still managed to instill a lot of heart into the story. Found family after all, could even be stronger than blood ties because those bonds are forged despite diversity.
This is where the characterisation truly shines. Mary, Josie, Rel and Lucas – all had really compelling storylines even though they spent most of the narrative apart as compared to the previous book where their arcs intersected substantially. Nonetheless, the impact that each of them had on one another through the shared experiences made a difference in how the story unfolded for these characters. Though apart, the thread that bound these characters together in a way that made them greater. But at the same time, being apart and fighting their own battles helped to push their growth and development further than what would have been possible otherwise. I had hoped to get more of Lucas’ story and it pleased me greatly that he did feature a bit more prominently in this sequel.
Rounding up the engrossing story of these great characters was a great deal of the expansion in the worldbuilding and mythology. Well, part of why the narrative was so captivating was the insights provided into the lore of the crystals. The reason behind the erratic and mysterious happenings in the crystal caves was explained, and its implications were more significant than I could have imagined. I’ve always found myself impressed with Aaron’s worldbuilding, which could somehow feel both original and familiar at the same time. I could be mistaken as I’m not at all familiar with Native American lore, but I felt that the worldbuilding could have been inspired at least by some of it.
While the entire narrative in this sequel was the lead up to and the eventual battle at Medicine Rocks, the battle in itself didn’t feel as climactic as I thought it would be. There’s a very good character-driven reason for it, and somehow felt right given the paths that Mary, Josie, Rel, and Lucas had been set upon. In short, even though a lot happened, and some of great significance, the story here was very much a set-up for even more crazy and bigger things to come. And I’m very much looking forward to it..
You can purchase the book from Blackwells | Bookshop.Org | Amazon US | Amazon UK