Cast in Fury **** by Michelle Sagara

Cast in Fury is follows Kaylin Neya as she deals with several different problems at once. The series is set in a complex world of Aerians, Leotines, Dragons, Barrani, Tha’alani, and Humans. The Aerians are birdlike, with wings that Kaylin has always dreamed of having. The Leotines are lionlike and are warm but rough around the edges. The Dragons are actually dragons who can take on human form, run the Empire of Elantra, and live forever. The Barrani are beautiful, perfect looking, but cold with a love of court intrigue and a violent society for all they appear to be the perfect immortals. The Tha’alani are a minority race of telepaths who share everything. There are no secrets, no lies, and no hiding. Most people are afraid of them because they can read minds and most of the Tha’alani are afraid of other people because they hide what is in their minds.

While each race is in each book in one way or another, the books each have a racial focus. Cast in Shadow is the Human book. Cast in Courtlight is the Barrani book. Cast in Secret is the Tha’alani book. Cast in Fury is the Leotine book. It is the fourth book and Kaylin is really starting to grow up in some ways.

Because of events in Cast in Secret, the Tha’alani are suspected by people around the city of nearly causing the death and destruction of everything they hold dear. As a result, the Dragon Emperor orders Kaylin and Severn to the Palace in order to work with the Imperial Playwright. This means that Kaylin is going to have to remain mostly polite and figure out how to work with someone she doesn’t like much about events that she had a major role in, without letting him know that she had a major role in them. Severn is there, of course, to keep her in line.

To make matters worse, Marcus, is accused of murdering a friend and has been replaced with Mallory, an obnoxious and self-important bureaucrat who never wanted Kaylin to be a Hawk in the first place. This means that while she deals with the official business of the Playwright she also has to deal with the unofficial business of rescuing Marcus and the complicated laws of the Pridelea as well as ancient magic that only the Leotines possess.

While this book does not do as much character development as the other books, we are starting to see Kaylin come into her own. While she has failed virtually everything she considered impractical as a young teenager, she is a Hawk still. Her observations and instincts are top notch. Her power as the Chosen is something she still doesn’t understand but she is beginning to see that she really does have a major role to play in whatever is coming. Sagara drops some major hints about what is to come and some major hints about whatever Kaylin is so ashamed of in her past. You finish reading this book with the knowledge that Kaylin needs those etiquette lessons desperately because she will be meeting the Emperor in the next couple of books and you really don’t want her to get eaten for being unintentionally rude, Severn will stay with her no matter what she has done, her teacher and the friends who she has made into family want to protect her, and the final showdown will be in the heart of the fiefs between Kaylin and the Outcaste Dragon or whoever he serves.