Cast in Courtlight

The other day I finished Cast in Courtlight, the second book in Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series.Again I was blown away by how expertly it functioned as a bridge to the preceding novels. Now, I'm not saying that Courtlight didn't have it's own engaging history and storyline, but it brought to light many of the themes and central ideas that the series has since focused on. In Cast in Silence the power of words is touched on but nothing more than that. Courtlight's entire plot, however, is centralized on the importance of words or, to be more specific, names themselves. To the Barrani, a race that inhabits Elantra along with humans, their true names are things of power and literally define who they are. To tell another person your name is to give away a piece of your very soul and, if they wished, the ability to control you. Kaylin's struggle throughout the novel is in completing the name of a dieing Barrani lord, and in discovering what her true name was.

I'm not quite sure why, but the Sagara's concept of a name really appeals to me. At any rate, I'm interested to see where Sagara will take the theme of words and power in her future novels. I want to reread the other four novels that follow Courtlight to see if I missed anything that might give away a hint or something!