Review: Ophiuchus Flinched by Z. Bennett Lorimer

A riveting second installment from Z. Bennett Lorimer, Ophiuchus Flinched (Tales of Ciel Book 2) expands the fantastical realm of Ciel as one young woman’s destiny begins to unfold. In this high-flying realm of conspiratorial plots, airborne battlefields, and sociopolitical drama, a young generation of heroes persist in the fight for survival under an oppressive regime of elite overlords.

Following on the dramatic events of Book 1, Effie Strait leaves the only sky island she has ever known after proving herself to be one of the most Gifted plebiscites in a generation. As a result, she has fallen into the manipulative care of Kelestina of the Celestials, the all-powerful ruler who can deliver Effie into the grand destiny she always imagined: piloting a Leviathan through the Eight Skies of Ciel.

While possessing powerful Gifts makes Effie an invaluable asset to the ruling class of Patricians, it also makes her an ideal weapon to be launched into the shifting battlefields of an unrelenting war. Breaking the traditional rules of the Crystal Throne to keep her Gifted prize close, Kelestina returns the newly elevated Effie to Volturnus, where she is to be trained and tutored by Muldoon, a young Patrician with unclear intentions and mixed feelings about his defiant ward.

Still reeling from her sister’s Gifted blossoming and miraculous homecoming, Vanna continues to navigate the changing winds of Ciel with her squadron of dragoons, including investigating the return of a two-faced pirate and the unpredictable threat of a rogue Leviathan marauding through the skies. The newly strained relationship with her comrade Kai and her beloved sister, along with lingering doubts over loyalty to the Celestials, complicate these core bonds and the life-or-death decisions ahead, as alliances shift both on the ground and in the skies.

Lorimer’s storytelling shifts smoothly between four different perspectives – Muldoon, Effie, Vanna, and Kai – offering readers a comprehensive view of the tangled narrative, from a silver-tongued noble and a uniquely gifted warrior to a rebellious dragoon and a deeply conflicted commander. Every one of these voices is compelling and entertaining in its own way, maintaining an insistent momentum as each chapter builds on the next. The secondary characters are fully developed players that drive the plot forward as well; rather than archetypal placeholders, such figures as Dama Sigyn, Kendy, Sire Ansel, and Bael are functional foils that reveal the internal complexity of Kai, Effie, and Vanna, forcing their character growth and impacting their allegiances.

The writing is immersive and engaging with the same electric energy and storytelling vigor of the first book of this imaginative series, where each setting and character is richly imagined and vividly described, resulting in an atmosphere that is both fantastical and engagingly believable. The authenticity of each scene continually raises the stakes, while the thematic undercurrents of colonialism, conscription, and class struggle are immediately recognizable, with Lorimer creatively blurring the traditional binaries of Patrician, plebeian, or pirate.

On a technical level, the writing is clean and concise, with clear evidence of a tight edit and intensive draftsmanship to avoid dropped subplots, while still leaving the door open for the author’s next installment. All told, this second installment fully establishes this series as an impressively innovative and entertaining work of fantasy.