5 Stars
Of Things Unknown is a bonus novella at the end of The Brightest Fell and is written from the perspective of April O’Leary, Countess of Tamed Lightning, first mentioned in A Local Habitation.
Her voice is beautifully different from other narrators of the series, but doesn’t fall into the trap of being robotic, as one might expect from a computerized being.
In Of Things Unknown we see how April has been forced to grow up and take over both her mother’s company and her County after the events of ALH. We also see how much she hates it. On top of her unhappiness at the literal adulthood that has been forced upon her, we also see how she makes leaps of logic based on her limited knowledge of how the world outside her company and servers works. For example, April connects marriage with libraries.
One of her mothers, Li Qin approaches April with a plan. A plan that would change everything for April – and others at Tamed Lightning. An unlikely, dangerous plan that couldn’t, shouldn’t work. If this plan works, and I’m not going to spoil anything and tell you whether or not it does, the results would have effects both near and far. April’s whole world will change and the effect on Faerie would reach far and wide. This plan is a bomb – and it’s up to April to decide whether or not to set it off.
Alex Can Read 