The Chronicles of Elantra is one of my favorite series thanks to the colorful variety of races, but Shards of Glass, the first book of the Academia Chronicles, was not my favorite because it focused so much on one of Sagara's creative arcane puzzles and this was one I couldn't quite grasp. So I was pleasantly surprised that Raven and her special "glass" were only a tiny part of this book and that it was much less complicated and made a lot more sense. There are no arcane mysteries here, just Robin attending classes in between dodging assassination attempts while the Chancellor Lanagaros, a dragon, and Teela a Barrani try to figure out how to expose his murderous uncle and get him safely in charge of the potentially world ending Gardianno legacy. Poor Robin would rather just forget all of that and attend classes even if Teela is now one of his instructors.

This is one of the slowest plots I've seen from Sagara. Sure, there's assassins but mostly this is about caste and politics. This is actually the first time the Elantra books have taken a close look at the human caste court since Kaylin is as far from noble as you can get. Robin however, is lord of the Gardianno family which, in addition to their hidden arcane duties, is one of the founding members of the caste court. There are two issues facing Robin. First, Teela wants him to petition to reopen the murder investigation of his family's deaths. They know his uncle did it but she strongly suspects that Barrani were also involved and wants them brought to justice because they are no doubt against her friends' return to court. Second, Robin as a minor would have a Regent but imperial law usually assigns the closest adult family member to that position which would be the murderous uncle. We get to meet the Dragon Emperor again, human nobles both duplicitous and loyal, and there is a magic sword of unknown enchantments that chooses Robin as it's new bearer. 

By the end, all of the various plot points are neatly tied up although Teela, in typical Barrani suspicion, believes there are some villains they didn't get. It just means I have no idea where Sagara might go with this series next. Ratings on Audible are 4.9 stars for both the story and Khristine Hvam's narration.