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Twighlight’s Dawn by Anne Bishop is a compiliation of four short stories set in the world of the Black Jewels trilogy. Two of them take place between Tangled Webs and The Shadow Queen, another ten years after that and the last spans the subsequent decades.
In Winsol Gifts, the SaDiablo family prepares for Windsol celebrations and has to deal with physical and psychological aftermath of the events in Tangled Webs. It is a mainly character driven story that adds to the depth of side characters like Surreal and Prince Rainer.
Shades of Honor deals with events in Lucivar’s domain Askavi. Still recovering Surreal and Rainier come there in order to train back to their old form under Lucivar’s supervision. They arrive just in time to see an aristo not satisfied with Lucivar’s rule start a rebellion, teaching Lucivar some lessons about proper ruling.
Family is responsible for this book’s grit. A family friend and her children are attacked by a demon-dead serial rapist and murderer. The SaDiablos hunt him down.
The High Lord’s Daughter tells a sad, but inevitable story: since Jeanell is shortlived she dies with Daemon still a young man. One year later, Daemon struggles to pick up his life again as he promised his late wife. His family helps but it takes him decades for him to let go.
On average, I quite liked the stories although they feel like light fare, especially for the full hardcover price. The books set in Shalador which were only loosely related to the SaDiablos were better as everything seems to be told about the family for the time being. I wonder what is next? The last story reads like an epilogue for the Black Jewels universe as far as Jeanelle’s arc is concerned, but it also opens up a lot of possibilities for further stories.
