Rant (Part 1): Small Science
okay so let's start with the very basics: the Grisha. although the concept of Grishas is nothing new, as the idea of people controlling elements has been seen before, there is certainly something fascinating about them. Afterall, they are an elite section of the army with incredible powers, that dresses differently and sophisticatedly and is trained from a young age in a place called the Little Palace. That's really cool! Who would not want to be part of that! One of the things that Bardugo introduces in an attempt to distinguish the Grisha from other magic world systems is the idea of Small Science. Small science basically explains that what the Grisha do is not magic, but manipulation of matter in its most basic form. It's not any different than what a chemical reaction does or what happens inside stars or our bodies: matter is manipulated. There are multiple attempts by the author to push the science narrative. An example is the mirror gloves that Alina has to wear to better redirect her light rays by using reflective surfaces. Another attempt is in R&R when she tried to turn a boot invisible by reflecting light away from the boot surface As the act of seeing is nothing more than light rays bouncing from an object inside our eyes, if light never bounces in the first place on the object, it is as if it becomes invisible. This is, of course, all very cool and it fits with the science narrative, however, it is much more common throughout the books that the Grisha powers seem more like magic than anything else. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that, who doesn't love magic, but then don't try to spin it off as science. For example, what differentiates a Heartrender, a Healer, and a Tailor? Talking about small science they all work on cells, heartrenders harm cells while healers cure cells and up to here everything makes sense. But the actual processes through which they heal and harm are never explained. Is it a matter of energy taken away or inserted? Does one block the processes necessary to the life of a cell or is it something else? Do healers incapacitate bacteria to prevent infections or do they just recreate cells or what? Do they simply mend ruptures between cells (wounds) or more? and tailors, can they only work on the skin and surface-level cells? could they possibly cure skin cancer as it is also surface leveo? Also, talking about cells, is it the same for animals and plants or are these powers limited to human cells? If these things had been explained, talking about small science would have made more sense.
I know that probably Leigh Bardugo did not want to ruin the fantasy feel to it, as there was a risk of the story becoming too much like science fiction, but still, throughout the trilogy it has been many times pointed out that the grisha are not witches, so this kind of details should have been explored more.
Then let's talk about the Summoners. While Inferni fit in the idea of manipulating matter (they work with inflammable gasses and still need a spark to manipulate fire), tide makers and squallers basically deal with energy and energy is not a particle (sure you can think of energy = mass and matter has mass so maybe somewhere there is a connection but honestly I don't think Leigh Bardugho really delved in E = mc^2) For example, squallers work with air pressure to manipulate the weather. Pressure can be changed by either adding or removing molecules or also increasing or lowing temperature. If it's by manipulating molecules their powers do fit with the idea of small science, however one has to wonder what kind of molecules they can exactly manipulate as the atmosphere is composed of many elements (among which water vapor, so can they also manipulate water?) Tidemakers on the other hand manipulate temperatures so to obtain ice or liquid water from the atmosphere, but that has nothing to do with matter manipulation and more with energy.
Now as you can see I could rant about this for a while, as a science geek all these details fascinate me, but the overall point is that some parts of small science clearly don't make sense or are just not explained in a way that truly fits with the idea of science, where everything can usually be categorized in terms of processes.
Let's talk about the Darkling. As a shadow summoner, he summons shadows (pretty neat huh), however shadow molecules aren't really a thing. As others have said before, a shadow is the absence of light. As a sun summoner, Alina controlled photons (or so I suppose as they are the particles that compose light waves), so that makes sense, but summoning shadows does not. One thing that could have been cool is to have made the Darkling a type of sun summoner, who rather than using light as a primary weapon, preferred to use light to indirectly control shadows. That would have also rendered all the moments in which he compared himself to Alina much more powerful and would have explored the possibility that the Darkling sort of decided to be a villain ("make me a villain") because he thought it was the way to go to save ravka, not only because his shadow powers immediately make one think of evil.
Overall, although it may seem the opposite, I do quite like the system and the idea of small science, however, I do not think it was well executed, or at least not as well as it could have been. If Bardugo had just called it magic then there would have been nothing wrong with it, but calling it small science honestly did not add anything as this notion and its implications weren't even fully explored. A book that I think does a better job at comparing science and magic is The Worldwalker Trilogy by Josephine Angelini, which I definitely recommend.
This is just the first of many rants regarding the S&B trilogy, so be ready for more!