The Salt-Black Tree: Book Two Of The Dead God’s Heart Duology by Lilith Saintcrow (book review).
‘The Salt Black Tree’ is the second book in the ‘Dead God’s Heart’ duology, which began with ‘Spring’s Arcana’, and you must read that before this one or it won’t make any sense. The story picks up exactly where the first book left off, with Nat Drozdova travelling across present-day America with Dimitri Konets, god of thieves, in search of certain objects of power and, ultimately, the dead god’s heart of the title.
There’s a complex backstory here. Nat was raised in Brooklyn as a normal human by her mother, Maria Drozdova, but she has the potential to become a divinity herself. Dear old Ma is the goddess of spring. Years before, she stole the precious dead god’s heart from Mrs. de Winter, ostensibly a powerful businesswoman in a Manhattan tower, but actually Baba Yaga herself, the goddess of winter, at least in this story.
Maria is dying in a hospice and sent her daughter Nat to see Baba, whereupon Nat is dispatched on this cross-country mission. It seems that the gods at the heart of the story are all Russian and came over with emigrants from the old country at the start of the 20th century or came into being when those migrants came with their beliefs. It’s mentioned that the major divinities have more than one aspect, so there is probably a British winter goddess, too. But what happened to the American winter goddess when Baba Yaga came over? Who was she? Barbie Yaga? It’s all a bit vague, but, with fantasy, you just have to roll with these things.
In the course of her adventures, Nat has already discovered that there are divinities living among us, many and varied, with different abilities and power levels. Some are distinctly American, like the Rancher, a powerful cowboy, and the Homemaker, who runs an eatery in Deadwood, South Dakota. This is a great idea. In olden times, there was a wide assortment of gods and powers representing different aspects of nature and humanity. It was fun. Monotheism is boring. Dimitri, Nat’s principle guide to this new reality underlying our own, does mention Jesus a few times, but in disparaging terms as a ‘pale milksop’ and ‘cross-hanging mummy’s boy’. Dimitri, the god of gangsters, isn’t very nice, but he’s a great character.
Nat herself is becoming the goddess of spring, one of the fundamental, eternal divinities, and is slowly discovering her own power, which could be considerable. But will she work things out in time to save herself? As her mother slowly fades, Nat’s power increases, but her power increase may be causing her mother to die, which makes her feel guilty as she was raised a Catholic. Also, Maria has been scheming for years to use Nat and outwit Baba Yaga. She may have surprises in store.
The plotting is sound. The writing style is full of description and often beautiful, but a little overdone for my taste. It takes a lot of words to get through a simple scene, and, by the end of it, quite often, nothing much has happened. However, many people will love it as it’s a classic gothic, romantic fantasy with lush prose. Lilith Saintcrow, surely a pen name, is a talented, professional author who has many fans and has written many books, some of which I’ve enjoyed in the past. I wouldn’t want a steady diet of this stuff, but it’s fine in limited doses, and, at under 300 pages, this is about right. A solid story with great characters and an interesting, if rather vague, mythical background blended into a modern urban setting. Worth a look.
Eamonn Murphy
March 2024
(pub: TOR, 2023. 288 page enlarged paperback. Price: $17.99 (US), £11.99 (UK). ISBN-13: 978-1-25079-156-6. Ebook: Price: $12.99 (US), £ 9.68 (UK)
check out website: www.tor.com
