Michelle Sagara’s Chronicles of Elantra series is a bit different than most in that rather than a collection of related stories it’s more like one continuous story; the breaks between books are not much different from the breaks between chapters. As a result it can occasionally be somewhat frustrating to read, due to creating the illusion that the character development should be greater than it is.
Cast in Flame isn’t as abstract as the previous book in the series, and I’m immensely thankful for that. That said, the whole ‘heart of the house’ activation scene felt like a copy-paste of the Tiamaris claiming. The follow-up, Cast in Honor, is on the borderline when it comes to abstraction and features some interesting developments regarding both the shadow and Bellusdeo.
Cast in Flight is one of the more stand-alone books, which is to say that its central plotline is relatively self-contained and it doesn’t really leave any major loose-ends behind. It’s a nice change of pace after the previous two entries. The 13th book on the other hand both leaves several major loose ends dangling and starts off badly. Very badly. It’s not until about a third of the way through that events and character behavior become less… grating. But they do indeed get better and I’m definitely looking forward to the continuation.