Sons of Day & Night
Chronicles of Twinsbane, Book 1
Mariposa Aristeo’s rich novel Sons of Day & Night is filled with dramatic foils as doppelgängers fight for justice.
The realm of Twinsbane is inhabited by the sons of the day and the sons of the night, twins whose lives are intertwined. If one dies, the other’s death follows soon after. Each group forms a caste system with mutual distrust and power imbalances. The King is the only person without a double. He guards the Separator, a potion that can sever the doppelgängers’ connection.
The novel alternates between the dueling perspectives of King Daccias, the tyrannical teenager who assumed the throne upon the premature death of his father, and Waruu, a cunning, heroic outlaw who was adopted by a rebel group, the Separatists, that aspires to secure the Separator and create a better society. After Waruu learns that he is, in fact, the king’s twin, the Separatists hatch a daring gambit to kidnap Daccias and replace him with Waruu. Making the situation more dire, a deadly disease, the midnight plague, takes hold of the kingdom, compromising the lives of both the sons of day and night.
After Waruu assumes the uncomfortable identity of the tyrant king, Daccias works to escape his imprisonment. Both undergo interesting changes: Waruu, aiming for generosity, finds his good intentions subverted by his court; Daccias demonstrates resourceful determination, defying the Separatists’ perception of him as spoiled, selfish, and pampered. The two are linked by their stubborn righteousness. The complex secondary cast includes Sydnee, the leader of the Separatists, and Brissbane, the lead advisor to the king, whose contributions propel the narrative forward. The contrasting motifs of dark and light also suffuse the book with tension.
Sons of Day & Night is a memorable, adventure-filled novel in which teenage rebels face a bevy of moral quandaries.
Reviewed by
Mike Good
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