The Last Lumenian

The Last Lumenian is a wonderfully written fantasy series that leans heavily into political fiction as well as turning normal tropes on their heads. S.G. Blaise is a prolific author that has already released 4 books in this series and we are supposed to be getting a special announcement at San Diego Comic Con this year. So naturally I read all four books over the span of two weeks so that I can be properly excited for this new announcement. The first book in the series accomplishes many things and we will be doing this both with and without spoilers.

OVERALL -SPOILER FREE

S.G. has a way with details. The way that she describes the characters, the world and the action makes it so easy for readers to visualize. It's like you are walking through the story with these characters.

I love the political side of this book, it feels very Game of Thrones to me. Not always wall to wall action but does a great job of giving us down to earth, real stakes.

The book changes perspective a couple of times, not too much so that you really can’t keep track of what is going on. And not for so long that you start missing your favorite character (again I’m looking at you GOT) but just enough to give the audience much needed context and keep the pacing of the story interesting.

The next part is kind of a double edged sword, there is a lot going on in this book. There are two wars brewing, interpersonal relationship drama and the political side of things. Now it never gets super convoluted and I think that it's relatively easy to follow but if you lean more towards simple and straightforward then this might not be for you.

And last but not least in the spoiler free section, I love the characters. Even if your eyes glance over it, it's very easy to tell who is speaking because all of the characters have a very individual and well defined voice.

DETAILS AND SPOILERS

Okay moving into specifics, there will be spoilers in this section. Let’s start with our main character, Lilla. I love her. I think she is super relatable and easy to identify with while also clearly being special. We have about a million and one stories that feature a chosen one, another million that feature a rebellious princess, but combining those two storylines is truly a stroke of genius. Because the reality is that those two sides to Lilla’s story actually have nothing to do with each other but they are so specifically tied to the two major plotlines. It’s brilliant. The rebellious princess joins the local, planetary cause. The rebels that are gathering an uprising. The chosen one was picked on a galactic level and the stakes are much higher. Amazing. Then we move into the fact that she is young, but not YA fiction young. 19. She still has a lot of growing to do but she is an adult. And of course we can’t have a pretty, powerful main character without having a bunch of men fawning over her. I love the way that this was handled because at no point is she in a love triangle, at no point does she not know who to choose. Callum is her choice and it's obvious but all the men do a really great job of representing different parts of her life.

I love that the rebellion story was the one that was really wrapped up by the end of this first book. The Era War is obviously going to be more of an overarching conflict for the series, as it should be. And because the stakes were so high, our characters didn’t come out unscathed. Lilla’s brother, Nic is dead and her best friend has to fight being turned, everyday. Excellent conflict set up for the next pieces in the series.

My only gripe and it is a small one, is that I wish we had more time for the relationship between Lilla and Callum to develop. It happens so instantly that it feels more like attraction and lust than love to me right now. Everything else in the book was so well paced and so well balanced I feel like I’m nitpicking. Especially since romance was not the point of the novel, but we got it so I just want more of it.

Overall I think the book gets an 8/10, definitely made me want to keep reading which is it's job as the first in a series. I actually think the standout character for me was Arrov’s mom who only appeared in like 2 pages, but I am super in love with her and I really hope that we get more of her as this series goes on. The Last Lumenian was first published in 2020 so S.G. has cranked out 4 books in less than 4 years and I can’t wait to see what she has next for us at SDCC.