Shauna Lawless reveals the full extent of her tear harvesting powers in The Land of the Living and the Dead, the heart-wrenching conclusion to her Gael Song trilogy, which combines fantasy, mythology, and real Irish history to both dazzling and devastating effect.
The Land of the Living and the Dead follows the remaining members of two magical races who live among the mortal beings of Ireland circa 1000 AD. Gormflaith is a Fomorian, imbued with fire-magic and scheming to seize power while taking revenge on her ancient enemies, the Descendants of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who believe all Fomorians to be dead. Fódla is a Descendant and a healer, grieving personal loss and struggling to find the right path forward for herself and her loved ones.
The Land of the Living and the Dead interweaves the longstanding conflict between the Fomorians and the Descendants with individual tales of love, loss, and betrayal. Meanwhile, changing alliances shape the already tenuous relationship between these two immortal races and the various human factions, also vying for power in Emerald Isle.
Although Gormflaith and Fódla are the two main protagonists of the novel, The Land of the Living and the Dead switches perspective among several additional point-of-view characters. Lawless expertly balances all of these perspectives while never losing focus on the main story.
Somehow, the Gael Song trilogy just gets better with each new volume. Shauna Lawless’s prose is compulsively readable, propelling the plot forward among multiple perspectives while deepening readers’ emotional connection to each of the main characters. For all of the action, there is also a quiet restraint to Lawless’s writing, revealing layer upon layer of nuance. All of this builds up to a devastating tear-jerker of an ending that will haunt your dreams long after closing the back cover of the book.
Altogether, The Land of the Living and the Dead is an emotional stunner of a novel, reaffirming Shauna Lawless as the Emerald Empress of Grimdark. The Gael Song trilogy is highly recommended for fans of nuanced historical fantasy.
