More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

The Bear and the Nightingale – Best to Read in Your Warmest Room

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Russian winters are long, long and cold and full of snow.  In the days of the Rus winter was terrifying; even rich nobles risked starvation and freezing.  Roads were closed in fall and spring, open in winter for sleds and in summer for horses.  Winter was a time for fear and staying close by the fire, with whole families sleeping on top the oven to survive.

Katherine Arden’s new novel, The Bear and the Nightingale, is set in the late 1200s, after the Mongols conquered the Kievan Rus kings who ruled semi-autonomously from their wooden palace in Kiev.  Vasilisa. the main character, is the daughter of a rich Boyer and the granddaughter of a prior Kievan king.

Vasilisa has a happy life with her close family and kind father until he remarries, this time to the fiercely devout and unpleasant daughter of the current king, his brother-in-law.  (Apparently the Rus nobility weren’t concerned with degrees of consanguinity because Vasilisa’s sister marries the king’s nephew, her first cousin.)  Her new stepmother wants Vasilisa gone, married if possible, cloistered if not, or dead if all else fails.  She gains an ally in the new village priest, an ambitious man.  Vasilisa is willing to marry but would prefer to remain single, to visit her sister in Kiev or to stay and care for her young half sister.  Unfortunately she doesn’t get a choice.

Primary Conflicts

The story moves along in small plot incidents, much like daily life does for everyone.  We have several conflicts, both open and simmering, that intertwine around Vasilisa and her affinity for the household and nature spirits that most people cannot see.

  1. Vasilisa to be married/cloistered or Vasilisa to be free
  2. Stepmother/priest vs. the household spirits
  3. Winter as a deadly force vs. everyone
  4. Winter as a nature spirit vs. his brother

The story is easy to follow as conflicts rise to the surface then subside.  There is not a lot of drama.  Vasilisa saves the small son of her father’s serfs at the cost of scaring off her betrothed a day or two before the wedding by out-thinking and out-riding him.  She flees her stepmother’s plans to force her to a convent and runs into Winter’s brother who takes the form of a rich, normal man. All these events just happen, although each has ramifications that follow.

Arden does an excellent job showing Winter as man’s deadly enemy.  The Rus live in a cold, inhospitable land and must force nature to allow them to live.  They plant and harvest – even the priest helps harvest – and they cut wood.  They put up thick shutters and keep the oven running day and night.  They eat what they can and when the ground freezes and it’s safe they hunt for meat during the short winter days.  We see the effort it takes to create and retain any sort of civilization in this wild land northeast of Kiev.

Writing Style

Arden writes in a natural, unaffected manner that is easy to read, enjoyable, but also understates the high moments that could have used a bit of drama.  It is as though we see the events through the eyes of a child who sees what happens but doesn’t recognize the import unless it directly affects him.

Overall the story is good.  I particularly liked her personification of Winter as a force and an enemy, and Arden did a nice job characterizing Vasilisa and her father as people.  We could understand their hard choices and the depth it took to retain one’s decency in the face of harsh climate and a miserable wife or stepmother.

Not Like Uprooted

The blurbs on Amazon and NetGalley compare The Bear and the Nightingale to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted but that is unfair to both novels.  Uprooted uses a character’s name from a Russian fairy tale but is set in a created fantasy world and the main character works magic.  The Bear and the Nightingale is based on a Russian fairy tale and is set in the real world, the Rus Kievan kingdom of the 1200s and magic is the background.  Both feature young women with unique gifts who must fight terrible enemies to save their homes and families, but otherwise they have little in common.

Overall

The Bear and the Nightingale is good, well worth reading, especially when you remember that it is Katherine Arden’s first novel.  Had I not been expecting more fantasy, more on the lines of Uprooted I would have liked it better, but it is still a fine novel showing family and home in the depths of Russian winter.  Older teens and adults will enjoy the flowing style and interesting characters and setting.

I received a free advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

4 Stars

The Wretched of Muirwood – Just OK Fantasy by Jeff Wheeler

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The Wretched of Muirwood has almost 1900 Amazon reviews with a 4.5 star average and it’s the first novel in a fantasy series that also has high scores.  I didn’t care much for the story.  Setting and back story are so-so, characters are so-so, setting and magic system are a quasi-religion where faith will let you do stuff and fear or jealousy will keep you impotent.  Real faith is not utilitarian.

Wretched of Muirwood follows the traditional unknown/poor/underdog person discovers he has magic and an important fate.  In this case the underdog is Lia, an orphan left at the Muirwood abbey where she lives and serves in the kitchen.  Lia tells us from the first chapter that she wants to read, to be a learner more than anything, but it’s forbidden.  After 287 pages we don’t know much more about her, although we trudged through a nasty swamp, rescued a young Earl, fought off the evil sheriff and suffered homesickness.

The novel wasn’t catalogued in our system as YA but it’s obviously meant for younger readers.  It’s short with plenty of white space and big print to fill 287 pages and the characters are youths.  None of the emotional conflicts feel real.

Let’s say 3 stars, not horrible but not recommended.

 

To Hold the Bridge – Old Kingdom Novella and More by Garth Nix

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Garth Nix published Sabriel, the first novel in his Abhorsen fantasy trilogy in 1995, ending with Abhorsen in 2003.  Since then we fans had to subsist on a novella, Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case, published in Across the Wall in 2006.  The series is rich in world building, excellent characters, unusual use of fantasy themes, and quality of the writing.

To Hold the Bridge – Title Story

Nix used the same world but completely new characters in the novella To Hold the Bridge, published with other short stories in 2015.  We don’t see the royal family, Abhorsen or Clayrs.  The main character, Morghan, is a destitute orphan, bright, ambitious, tough and hard working.  He is handicapped with a bum arm but learned math, reading and some Charter magic by trading his work to an innkeeper in exchange for lessons.   The innkeeper was formerly a royal guard and thus educated and a minor Charter mage.

Morghan is taken on as an cadet in the Bridge Company, a firm that is building a great bridge that will increase trade and travel in the northern part of the Old Kingdom.  The company personnel combine engineering and magic and must be able to defend themselves against the semi-wild tribes people and Wild Magic practitioners.

Morghan worries about his future with the company, knowing he has nowhere else to go, and works hard for the Bridgemistress and his fellow engineers.  As often with Nix’s characters Morghan discovers unknown strength and character as he earns his place in the world.

This story was excellent.  It felt like a prequel to something else set in the same world but perhaps featuring regular Old Kingdom citizens.  My quibble with the novella was I wanted a map and there was none.  The newer E versions of the original Abhorsen include maps which I referred to a couple of times.

Other Stories in the Collection

A Handful of Ashes was my favorite.  It too featured young ladies coming of age, growing into their character and strength while defeating evil.

Infestation was an unusual twist on the vampire novel.  I was glad that these vamps were just plain icky, no glittering sparkling sexpots here!

An Unwelcome Guest was a funny take off on the Rapunzel story.

The other stories varied and I read two of them before.  Iron and Holly is a twist on the Saxon vs. Norman fight, and has been published elsewhere as was Old Friends.

This was categorized as YA fiction, mostly because several characters were 18 or so, just beginning their life’s path.  I’ve felt the Abhorsen books should have been categorized as adult fiction, although older teens will enjoy them too, and believe To Hold the Bridge also will appeal to adults.

Overall I recommend this collection of short stories and longer novellas.  Like all anthologies you may not like each story but will certainly enjoy some and likely find one or two that resonate in your heart.

4 Stars

 

Marry the Queen, Get the Kingdom: The King of Attolia

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Megan Whalen Turner delivers another solid novel in her The Queen’s Thief fantasy series.  The King of Attolia picks up a few months after The Queen of Attolia with Eugenides married to Attolia, but reluctant to assume the king’s power or take authority from his wife.  Unfortunately, just because Gen is reluctant does not mean others are squeamish about usurping power; all it does is make him look weak.

We see the action through Costis, a member of the Queen’s guard. The King of Attolia opens with Costis sitting in his room contemplating execution and disgrace after hitting King Eugenides in the face.   Gen comes into see him and decides to make Costis his bodyguard instead of hanging him.

Costis then witnesses Gen’s approach:  Gen lets his gentlemen/courtiers run over him; he never is seen seeking his wife’s bed; he seems bored and flighty during court; he does nothing when a noble composes a witty song about what (supposedly) didn’t happen on his wedding night.  Despite Gen’s past escapades as the Thief of Eddis, the nobility and court believe him lightweight.

Over time Costis sees that Gen is in fact aware of every slight and we watch along with Costis as Gen is wounded fighting off an assassin team.  One of my favorite episodes is when Gen tracks down a finance minister for a crash course on types of wheat, then hustles one of the wheat-growing nobles out of bed to confront him with tax evasion for reporting the wrong type of wheat.  Of course no one believes that it was Gen who did the legwork; even the cheating noble thinks someone must have betrayed him.

Slowly, very slowly, Gen believes his wife when she asks him to take on his authority, and slowly he digs himself out of the hole he let the court push him into.  Eventually Gen assumes his proper place as the King of Attolia.

Summary

I enjoyed all three books in The Queen’s Thief series.  Turner gets the cultural and geographic settings just right and captures the feeling of menace and danger hanging over Gen.  The court scenes are delightful as are the confrontations with various villainous wanna-bes.  She built Gen into a real person and in this novel, also brings Costis to life.  He’s a foil for Gen, but takes on a more solid character through the novel.

The King of Attolia is fantasy because everything takes place in Attolia, an imaginary country based on ancient Greece and because the gods are active now and then.  There is no magic, no quest, no talisman to seek or to destroy.  Using a fantasy setting without the heroic trimings lets author Turner spend her time on making the people and the setting and conflicts interesting and believable.

Libraries classify The King of Attolia as YA along with the previous two books, The Thief and The Queen of Attolia.  The Thief is a bit lighthearted and has younger characters, fun for older teens.  The Queen of Attolia is more sober, with more serious conflicts and character development, suitable for teens and adults.  Likewise adults will enjoy The King of Attolia as will teens.

5 Stars

 

The Queen of Attolia – Megan Whalen Turner – The Queen’s Thief Book 2

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Like its predecessor, The Thief, Megan Turner’s The Queen of Attolia is engrossing, a novel targeted towards older teens that mature readers will enjoy.  (Read my review of The Thief here.)

The Queen of Attolia opens several months after The Thief, with our friend Eugenides once more skulking through a royal palace, this time the queen’s palace in Attolia.  The queen is furious at losing face when Eugenides escaped her earlier and is determined to capture Eugenides.  Eugenides escapes the palace chased by a mob of soldiers and dogs into a fence, gets a concussion and the queen captures him.  The queen decides to teach him a lesson and get revenge on her fellow ruler, the queen of Eddis, and cuts off his right hand.  Once Eugenides is healed enough to survive the journey the queen returns him to Eddis.

Attolia’s revenge sparks a low-intensity war, with raids and blockades, one that neither country can win while both further threatened by Sounis and Mede.  Eugenides and the Eddis queen divert Sounis, leaving the Medes embedded in Attolia’s court and eager to take over.

A Novel For Adults

The Queen of Attolia is a more mature, more thoughtful book than The Thief.  Publisher Harper Collins marketed it under their YA imprint and it’s listed that way in our library system and on Amazon.  Older teens will love the story but it is written for adults, even more so than The Thief.

Eugenides narrated The Thief in the first person, letting us revel in his cleverness and his success outwitting Sounis and Attolia.  Author Turner presented each episode developed and finished it as we expect in novels for adults, but with a sense of fun and lightheartedness.  The Magus talked of the looming threats from Mede that could rip to shreds all three kingdoms’ security ad freedom.   But overall The Thief avoided deeper issues or emotions.

The characters in Queen of Attolia are older, more thoughtful, more aware of the larger geopolitical landscape.  Turner uses the threats to each country’s future and to each individual to show tension between duty and love, imperatives and desires.

Turner relates the story in the third person, covering Eugenides and Attolia in turn, then shifting to the supporting characters while the plot steadily narrows their choices. The Mede ambassador manipulates a way to inveigle Attolia to welcome (more or less) the Medean forces – since treaties prohibit the Medean forces from landing on the mainland without an invitation.  Attolia must then decide whom to ally with, Eddis or Mede, and to what extent to build the alliance.

Characters

The Queen of Attolia deals as much with Attolia (the woman) as with Eugenides.  Turner develops her character by showing us how she responds to threats now and how she dealt years earlier with the problem of succeeding her father without being supplanted by her unloving fiance and erstwhile father-in-law.  She learned to be ruthless, direct when needed and discrete when that served.  She has forgotten how to love, if in fact she ever did.

Eugenides is very well done.  One thing I particularly liked was he was afraid, terrified in fact, of dying by inches, of losing his sight, being maimed.  So often heroes in YA fantasies are too caught up in their nobility to feel fear, and this was one reason I felt the book appealed to older audiences.  He too could be ruthless or charming, whichever he needed.

Nahuseresh, Mede ambassador to Attolia, is masterfully done.  He is wise, yet so constrained by his expectations for a proper female role (i.e., not as Queen Regnant) that Attolia can manipulate him – while he believes he is the puppet master, whispering advice and insinuating himself into Attolia’s favor.

Summary

I enjoyed The Queen of Attolia very much.  It is not a challenging book, no strange names, fairly short, straightforward plot, but the characters were well done and the plot moved along.  I’m looking forward to borrowing book #4, The King of Attolia.  4 Stars.

 

 

 

The Glittering Court – Review of Sneak Peek – YA Fantasy with Romance

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NetGalley offered a sneak peek of The Glittering Court, a novel of romance and intrigue set in a fantasy world similar to ours of 500 years ago.  This is considered fantasy due to the imaginary world, but there were no magical events or any of the other elements we think of as “fantasy”.

The story is straightforward:  The Countess of Rothford has a title and ancient family name but little money.  She is to marry a distant cousin and quickly decides this man is not for her.  She sends her maid, Adelaide, back to her family and takes Adelaide’s name and her place in the Glittering Court.  The Court is a school to train lower-born girls to act, dress and talk like upper class ladies so they can find rich husbands in the New World.  Adelaide’s only challenge is to not succeed too much because she needs to remain safely anonymous.

Adelaide faces the threat of exposure and forced return while around her society and her country Osfrid are churning with religious strife and the fallout from the civil war in neighboring Sirminica.  She is intrigued with man who recruited her, Cedric, and it’s clear from the sneak peek that they are falling in love.  That’s a problem because Cedric’s family runs the Glittering Court to supply classy wives to the frontier men, not to find a classy wife themselves.  And Cedric adheres to the outlawed religion; discovery could mean he dies.

The Glittering Court is aimed at teens, 7th grade and up.  The writing style – language, scene changes, themes – are sufficiently engaging that many adults will enjoy the book too.  I didn’t find any of the “and a miracle happens” events nor the abrupt switches among viewpoints that make some teen novels so disappointing and hard to read.  Author Mead does a good job presenting the situations, giving us reasonable dialogue and events, then finishing the scene before moving on.

While I was not intrigued enough to seek out the full novel, I do recommend this to older teen girls and adults who enjoy a romance with fantasy elements.

I received a free copy of the sneak peek in the expectation of an honest review.

The Thief – Megan Whalen Turner – Fantasy with a Touch of Greece

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Author Megan Whalen Turner states she was inspired by Greece and used bits and pieces of Grecian history and geography to write The Thief.  These basic blocks plus good character development and an intriguing plot with unexpected twists made The Thief an imaginative fantasy while avoiding a retelling of Grecian myths.

The plot features Gen, a braggart and thief currently imprisoned in the King’s royal prison in Sounis, a smallish state south of Eddis and west of Attolia.  Gen made the mistake of bragging about stealing the king’s seal, then doing it and then getting caught, so he’s in chains and unable to escape.  We can tell from the get-go that there is a lot more to Gen than these bare facts – anyone who reads fantasies will recognize the noble-born-but-pretending-to-be-common character.  Turner doles out bits and pieces of hints to clue us into Gen’s real status but holds out the complete story until the end.

The king’s Magus retrieves Gen from jail to steal the Gift of Hamiathes, the stone that is the kingship symbol in Eddis.  The king of Suonis wants to Gift to force the queen of Eddis to marry him.  The magus has two younger men, Sophos and Ambiades and Sophos’ man Pol along on the journey to retrieve the Gift from its hiding spot.

So far this sounds like a normal quest fantasy, enlivened with humor and questions about Gen, and The Thief is a quest on the surface.  It is more.  The characters are well done, with betrayal, mystery, and a background of geopolitical reality that drives the magus on his hunt.  If the magus is right then the three countries must ally to keep themselves whole.  Turner left enough open to write several sequels but The Thief is a complete novel on its own.

Most of the libraries shelve The Thief under YA fantasy.  The book will appeal to teens but it has enough complexity and interesting characters that adults can enjoy it too.  It’s not long, about 220 pages, and a fast read without a ton of elaborate writing.  The small number of characters, about 12 altogether, keeps it easy to follow, no hunting back and forth to remember who is who.

Turner so vividly describes the terrain with cliffs, ravines, arid volcanic residues, olive groves that you feel you would recognize the country if you saw it.  A map would have been a plus.

Overall I enjoyed The Thief.  The tension between Gen and the magus, Gen and the two young nobles, and finally between Gen and the goddess make the book lively and the rich characters make it an enjoyable, satisfying read.  4 Stars.

 

The War of Words – YA Fantasy Fiction by Amy Neftzger

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The blurb for The War Of Words sounded so intriguing I had to try it despite it being YA fantasy.  An evil sorcerer has enveloped the land in a spell of confusion and unreality, sending mysterious shadows to battle the king’s army.  I love words, how could I not want to read a book about a war on language?

Main character Kelsey, whom the king assigned to the army, discovers a man burning reams of paper, each covered with a single word, during a battle.  She knows this is somehow related to the unreality but not how or how to stop it.

Kelsey works with her friends to find out the sorcerer’s plans and weaknesses, all while battling the never-ending shadows and trying to stay out of trouble with the army general.  Her friends are students at a school behind the castle wall, protected from the confusion spells, and an apprentice wizard Nicholas, his teacher Moss and gargoyle Newton.

Good Points

The scenes with Kelsey and the sorcerer, and the general with the sorcerer and finally the king with the sorcerer were well done.  Amy Neftzger imagined how words would look if we could see them colored as to intent and meaning, a very good way to show the tension among the enemies.

Neftzger did a nice job coming up with a plot that is a true problem:  How do you fight against a creeping sense of unreality, when no one can trust what they see or hear, when one’s words and speech are misheard and lost?  I would like to see her use this same plot idea in an adult book with better characters and interesting back story.

YA Fantasy Problems

The War Of Words jumped around, things seemed to just happen, it felt out of tune.  Characters came and went without introduction nor did we find any time to learn about them as people.  Kids took the lead to find the problem, devise the solution, then lead the fight, just as a kid would imagine things to work.

The book felt like a sequel, although the NetGalley blurb did not say it was.  Author Amy Neftzger’s wrote two prior books, The Orphanage of Miracles and The Orchard of Hope, in The Kingdom Wars series that used the same characters and back story.  Perhaps if I’d read those the characters would have felt real.

On the good side The War of Words did not have the romantic tripe that keeps slithering out of YA fantasy, no 16 year old girls who capture the hearts of immortal demigods, no love triangles, no gonadal driven decision making, no histrionics.  The kids were good kids who want to do what’s right.  That was a huge plus.

Summary

Reading The War of Words as an adult and rating it for adults I’d give it 2 stars. I would not have finished it had I not gotten it from NetGalley, but it wasn’t a bad book, just not a book for adults.

Trying to put myself in the reading chair of a teen longing for challenges and the chance to be heroic, I’d say 4 stars.  I don’t think kids would mind the way it jumps from character to character nor the sense that scenes were unfinished, discarded too quickly.  Kids would enjoy it more if they were familiar with the characters already from the other two books.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik, Excellent Fantasy for Adults, Magic vs. Malevolence

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Uprooted by Naomi Novik is one of the best novels I’ve read in the past year.  It has the emotional depth that adults enjoy along with the straightforward story of good vs. evil, magic vs. despair with great characters.

Author Novik  sets Uprooted in the kingdom of Polnya, a standard late-medieval place threatened by the neighboring kingdom of Rosya on one side and the malevolent magic of the Wood on the other.  The Dragon, foremost wizard of Polnya, lives in the tower in the Spindle Valley to guard against the encroachment of the Wood.  When the Wood takes over people or animals they are corrupted, lost inside of themselves and a grave danger to everyone.

Characters

I loved Novik’s heroine, Agnieszka.  She has internal strength that even she doesn’t realize and she’s not afraid to put her life on the line for people, especially her friends.

The growing love affair between Agnieszka and the Dragon feels real.  When they work magic together they blend their hearts and work together intimately.  Agnieszka can see beneath the Dragon’s scowls and snide comments and she knows he loves beauty, whether in people, or things or magic.

Agnieszka’s magic is very different from the Dragon’s.  Hers is song and ad hoc, nothing formal while his is sharp, crisp, clean edged and powerful. They are stronger together than separate and the intimacy grows each time they combine magic.

I’m tired of books with girls who are strong in the sense of physically strong, or extra special strong in magic or whatever, standard kick-ass types.  I like reading books about people who are strong because they have strong characters.  Courage, determination, honor, love, cherishing people, generosity and stewardship are all qualities that make people strong, and Agnieszka and the Dragon have these.

Plot

The book begins when the Dragon selects Agnieszka to serve him for 10 years – but he forgets to tell her he selected her because she has magic.  Agnieszka and everyone else assumes he will choose her best friend, Kasia, and she can’t fathom why he took her.  After a couple days the Dragon begins teaching Agnieszka – but once more he doesn’t tell her that’s what he’s doing – and she hates it.  Doing magic the Dragon’s way leaves her exhausted.

Agnieszka realizes her magic is valuable when her home village summons the Dragon to stop corrupted cattle and wolves, but he has left to attend another monster.  She stumbles into the type of magic that she can do – ad hoc, more wandering and less of a highway – very powerful.  She and the Dragon begin working together in earnest.

The plot is excellent, fast moving, with lots of intrigue and blind alleys along the way.

Mood

Uprooted is excellent at conveying mood.  We feel Agnieszka’s fear and loathing early, then the ever-present threat of the Wood keeps a sense of worry and drives her and the Dragon to develop her skills. Novik does a great job with setting the Wood up as a dark, evil force that is just there, never goes away, never stops being a threat even when it is not overtly challenging.  We feel Agnieszka’s terror when she fights off the wolves, when she rescues Kasia, when she flees the capital with the royal children, when she and the Dragon fight the Wood together.

Then the Wood turns and becomes more a normal forest, still a bit scary with dangerous, hate-filled creatures, but not the malevolent entity it had been.  We feel lighter along with Agnieszka.

Uprooted isn’t all danger and fear.  It has love and even quiet humor.

Other Thoughts

Like many novels with younger characters, Uprooted is classified as YA Fiction.  It is not.  It is a novel for adults, one that older teens will love, but one that we older people will find richer and deeper.

Be aware there are 2 sex scenes.

Overall this is 5 stars.  Excellent book with deeply realistic characters and a memorable sense of mood and emotion.

Personal Note

Uprooted is going to stick with me a long, long time.  It spoke to something important.

Something about the relationship between Agnieszka and the Dragon reminded me of something I read long ago but cannot recall, perhaps something by Patricia McKillip.   I kept hearing an echo but cannot remember what it is an echo of, rather frustrating since I enjoyed whatever the earlier book was and would like to reread it.

The Shadow Throne, Book 3 of The Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer Nielsen

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Jennifer Nielsen kept the same frantic pace with The Shadow Throne, the final book in her Ascendance trilogy as with the first two, but this third book felt flat, predictable and a bit silly.  Jaron, now the king of Carthya, knows that Avenia captured Imogen only to use her as a tool against him, yet he insists on going himself to free her.

Of course he gets captured, then tortured, which was the weakest and least readable part of the book.  King Vargan and his army commanders vacillate between wanting Jaron to cough up his military plans, or to force him to agree to bind his country to King Vargan of Avenia or, apparently they just wanted to hurt him.

Jaron acts like a clever thief, not like a king and the book is weaker for it.  Some of Jaron’s escapades are entertaining, as when he blows up the cannons sent to destroy his capital.  Some escapades reminded me of the nick-of-time rescues in the old Robin Hood television show.  He has an healed broken leg the whole time he’s prancing around Carthya and Avenia, dodging armies, rescuing friends, blowing up dams.

The characters didn’t seem important, more like pawns set up to fill the action.  I didn’t much like Jaron, he was a bit too selfish to be the real king he felt he was meant to be.  The ending where he somehow pulls a rescue out of the woodwork was fun reading but contrived.

I read The Shadow Throne right after finishing the second book, The Runaway King.  It was sort of like the feeling you get after eating a bunch of Halloween candy, yummy at the time but you really do know better.  I mostly enjoyed it even while recognizing the faults and despite getting bogged down in the very long section where Jaron is imprisoned.  (You can read my reviews of the The Runaway King here, and of The False Prince here.)

The Shadow Throne: Book 3 of The Ascendance Trilogy is the final book in the series, and wraps up the loose ends.  If you read the first two books you’ll want to read this just to find out what happens but be warned, it isn’t as good as the first two novels.

3 Stars