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Reviewed by Christian Sia for Readers' Favorite
Long Leg is the second book in the Blighted Earth series by R.M. Tembreull. It introduces the eponymous character, a gifted burrowing owl named Long Leg, who doubles as Keeper to the dying Earth Elemental Okaraxta. In times of uncertainty, the only thing that grounds her is the certainty that she can never leave her elemental. She sets out on a dangerous odyssey across the drought-ridden Great Plains to deliver a cryptic message to the Guardian Spirit Ithilbor Moonfist, traveling through the “Windswepts,” ravaged by the sentient winds of Chaos and the vengeful Corrupted spirit Waŋží Sápa. Long Leg relies on the fellowship of the loquacious prairie dog Khúta and the stalwart mole Augee for success in this mission. Their journey takes them through subterranean highways, the geologic wastes of the Badlands, and the Lakota sacred sites like Wind Cave, in a desperate bid to restore ecological balance before the Great Cascade destroys the world and ends humanity.
To say that Long Leg was refreshing would be an understatement. It was hugely entertaining for me, utterly absorbing, and I was thrilled at how R.M. Tembreull used “small” beings to shoulder cosmic burdens. Long Leg had my sympathy, and I was torn between admiration and empathy as I watched her deteriorate from her “lanyafae” bond with the fading Okaraxta. Her fragility had something heroic that kept me following her. Khúta’s encyclopedic pride was another element in character development that was noteworthy. The antagonist Waŋží Sápa, a Corrupted buffalo spirit manifesting as obsidian shale and black thunder, was well-depicted to inspire sentiments of hatred. This book is a perfect allegory of the struggle to save the cosmos, and the setting is finely drawn. This eco-fantasy hits all the marks for fans of the genre.
