Book Two: The Last Reformation
The Holy Roman Empire is alight with a new Reformation. Nell Blythe is on the run from the Church. Again.
She is out of Dresden, but far from safe. The refuge given to her by the eccentric Elector of Saxony bears an unknown price, her dark gifts are growing harder to control by the day, and a powerful adversary has bound her to an ancient rite that ends only when one of them is dead.
Her only hope is the mysterious Order of the Shard’s sixth ritual. The most dangerous. The last. To reach it, she must rely on a man she barely knows and does not trust: her own father. To survive it, she must kill the only person truly like her.
Unless she finds another way.
The ebook for Archive of the Sixth is exclusively available on Kindle in South Africa. Click here to buy the ebook version. Note: You have to be signed into your Amazon account to view the book.
Select Bundle to buy Archive of the Sixth and the new edition of The Tilted Pentagram, the first book in this series, for R500.
“This is their true power: not to lock you away or burn you, but to slowly eat away at you until you forget that you are worth fighting them for. Their greatest weapon, to convince us to love their god but hate ourselves. They have worked for centuries at it. And they have bought their very worst to bear on you, for your entire life. Again and again and again.” A pause. “And yet here you remain.”
So I just finished Archive of the Sixth by Matthew Macdevette, and I absolutely loved it.
Archive of the Sixth is the sequel to The Tilted Pentagram, and is the second book in The Last Reformation series. This series is set in an alternative history where the Roman Empire never collapsed and Catholicism is law. We explore this world through the eyes of a young woman by the name of Nell, who happens to be an actual witch. AOTS takes place directly after the events of the first book, where Nell along with Jacob manage to flee Dresden and find refuge by an Elector. And it is here where she deals with her growing dark powers, and trying to avoid becoming the very thing she fears. While poor Nell is having to deal with this inner turmoil, Dunn, who is part of the Inquisition, is still hunting her and the world seems to be on a massive political change.
AOTS is genuinely everything a sequel should be. In fact, I think it is a book that could be used to set a standard for a sequel. Firstly, I found The Tilted Pentagram to be a meh experience. I enjoyed it enough to want to read a sequel, but I wasn't hooked. I had an issue with the weird tone of the book, because despite its subject matter, it had a weirdly light tone that had darkness sprinkled throughout it. AOTS is the complete opposite, it has a dark tone with moments of light sprinkled throughout it, and I honestly think this is what the series desperately needed.
Nell and Jacob's non-romantic relationship is absolutely superb. I absolutely love how messy it is, and how relatable it is too. Nell in general seems to be wiser and tougher and is fun to read. The Elector and his butler were definitely the stand out side-characters for me in this novel. The politics is so rich and intriguing here, they were my favourite parts. Dunn, while not being as present here as he was in the first book, manages to be far more sinister and intense here. He is on to being one of the most intriguing antagonists in a series for me. We also get so much witch-related lore, I loved it so much.
The prose. Omg. The prose. Matthew Macdevette must have been held at gunpoint or something because there are so many quotable passages here, the dialogue is superb, and the book is just so beautifully written. You can see a clear growth as a writer he has undergone from The Titled Pentagram to Archive of the Sixth.
Get it now.
Nell's story is all about balance, how to master the roaring, self-destructive violence of the flames within her without smothering the lightness in her soul when she opens herself up to the fire. It's quite fitting then that ARCHIVE OF THE SIXTH is, in my opinion, a perfectly balanced sequel. Picking up exactly where THE TILTED PENTAGRAM left off, it answers A LOT of the questions I had lingering at the end of the first book.
At the same time, it expands the scope of the series beyond Nell's inner turmoil and the work of one upstart preacher in Dresden; ARCHIVE OF THE SIXTH zooms out to consider the entirety of the Catholic Church's control and how it rubs uneasily against the secular ruling families of Europe. I appreciated how nuanced the alternate history MacDevette has constructed is. The Elector is one of my new favourite characters. Seeing the Machiavellian maneuvering required for even the most influential people to carve out resistance to the Church underscores how high the stakes are in what Jacob is fomenting.
Similarly, where book one saw Nell desperately seeking a connection with the mother she never had a chance to know, in ARCHIVE OF THE SIXTH she looks further for more clues to the Order of the Shard. Friends and family remain close - emotionally, if not always in physical distance - but there are challenges Nell still feels the need to tackle alone. Throughout this series, MacDevette's handling of mental health has been raw and honest. The hopelessness that threatens to consume Nell was too real. I cried. Declan's circumstances also continued to weigh on me. I started THE TILTED PENTAGRAM as Team Don't Trust Declan but ended ARCHIVE OF THE SIXTH feeling way too many emotions for him and his part in the story.
Fantastic, fantastic read. Definitely read THE TILTED PENTAGRAM first. This isn't a series where you can jump in blind to book two.
Archive of the Sixth is no less scandalous than The Tilted Pentagram, and it is all the better for it. We delve deeper into Nell's psyche and her fragile grip on herself whilst more of her past and certainly most of her present tries to devour her whole. On the run and now thrust into a world brimming with even more political unrest while still reeling with the revelations of book one and juggling with what has to be done against what she can morally bear, Nell undertakes a journey to harness her gifts whilst battling memories she'd rather not unearth.
Fast-paced from the very first page, this sequel leaves no room to breathe in the most satisfying way, and, of course, ends on a cliffhanger leaving one wanting.
Archive of the Sixth introduces us to a cast of new characters while re-establishing the old, simultaneously allowing us to fall in love and re-evaluate our first impressions of every single one. And, looming, are the threats around every corner and lurking in every shadow.
A big thank you to Mirari Press for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review. I am forever grateful.