Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Soliloquy of Seasons
SERIES: Lacuna Chronicles #4
AUTHOR: A.M. Daily
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 182 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 30, 2016
BLURB:
The cycle of seasons on Ceres, a temperate and bountiful spring and summer season followed by a horrifying and extended freeze, rules the minds and lives of all inhabitants of Earth’s third sister planet completely. Cereans are an industrious people bound strictly by tradition and by their original colonization directive– be fruitful and provide the much-needed sustenance for the sister planets.
In Whitewater Valley, Attis is something of an outcast. Born a spring child with the mark of fire, a telling sign of misfortune, Attis knows firsthand the horrors of the freeze and the deadly consequences of the sleeping sickness. However, it is not the dangers of the freeze that haunt Attis, but the lingering childhood memories of a mysterious onyx-eyed boy in the marketplace.
When memories once again become reality, and Attis finds himself behaving in ways that break every Cerean tradition, he must discover for himself his place on Ceres and in the universe.
REVIEW:
Two releases in one of my all time favorite series on the same day? Sign me up! Taking a slight step back from the previous story arc, Soliloquy of Seasons focuses on Attis, a character that showed up briefly in the previous story. When he was first introduced, it wasn’t hard to deduce that he had previous experience with Xiah and even easier to see what that experience consisted of. Hard, somewhat standoffish and pretty blatantly unwelcoming to Caden and the rest, Attis wasn’t the easiest character to like but I still couldn’t help but empathize and feel sorry for him.
This book pretty firmly takes a step back from the events of the first three books while keeping them in mind as you not only get to see Attis as he grows up, but you get to see snatches of time with Xiah, as well. Attis has had a hard life; born onto a planet where his birth and coloring are considered a bad omen, and his refusal to conform to the expectations of society have labeled him an outcast among his own people. Like all the other characters in this series, you get to see as Attis grows and continues to evolve over the course of the story. Starting off carefree and full of fire, time and the harsh realities of life on Ceres, not to mention his revolving door relationship with Xiah, have worn Attis down until he becomes almost a shell of who he used to be. Watching him come back from that and then go on to do something good for others was great and I’m only sad that I didn’t get to see more of Attis and his life once he’d finally let go of Xiah for good.
This is a slower paced book and while I didn’t connect with it as much as the previous stories, I still really enjoyed it and relished the chance to get to know a character I never thought I’d see again. While some small parts of the book would be better understood if you’ve read the rest of the series, I do believe that you could read and enjoy this one as a standalone if you so choose. It was really interesting seeing this author focus on just one character instead of an entire group but I’m looking forward to seeing who she decides to play with next. 🙂 If you’ve enjoyed the rest of the series, you’ll most likely enjoy this one, as well.
RATING: 
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