Cassie

  Following the excellent Skin Game, the next book on my journey through The Dresden Files was to be Brief Cases, the second short story collection Butcher has released. I didn't go in with high hopes for it, as I found the first collection to be rather middle of the road. Some of the stories in Side Jobs were noteworthy in their quality, or lack thereof, but most were just incredibly forgettable. Others annoyed me, either because they included important reveals that hadn't been in the novels (Gard being a Valkyrie was the most notable of these) or because they just weren't very good. 

So, it was my hope that Butcher might actually be able to do it right the second time, as the one constant for this series has been improvement. So, did Butcher manage to land an anthology this time, or is it better to skip it altogether? Assume spoilers for everything up to and including Skin Game 

A Fistful of Warlocks was fine. It was a generic western story, where a gunslinger (Warden Luccio) walks into town to deal with some criminals that have been on the run. I enjoyed the decision to set this during the Wild West era, showing us Luccio before she got old, or bodyswapped with a psychotic warlock. 

The use of Wyatt Earp as a character feels a tiny bit strange, almost like a Doctor Who episode. Just because you go back to that era, doesn't necessarily mean you need to include a notable name from it too. The appearances from Kemmler and Grevane were fun, however, especially since we seemingly got to see one of Kemmler's many deaths play out on screen. 

3/5 

B is for Bigfoot was a lot of fun. I always enjoy seeing Butcher's take on mythological creatures, since he tends to put these little twists on them that go against the more common depictions of them. Giving Bigfoot an accountant, and having the first story about him focus on his son being bullied in school is a prime example of this. 

I also just found it incredibly pleasant to return to a less jaded, hurt Harry, who was still free of the scars the Red Court War gave him. He's in a relationship with Susan, Karrin doesn't hate him anymore, life is actually reasonably decent for him. And that reflects in his character. The later paranoia that starts forming is completely absent, he's able to take people at face value. 

The villain is another thing that I really appreciated, since thus far, we haven't really seen much of these in the main series, at least not in any meaningful capacity. We get told that they're really dangerous, and should be tread carefully around, but this actually kind of shows why. 

3.5/5 

AAAAWizardry is great. It's an incredibly low stakes story, where Harry is teaching a class about the 4 As in Wizardry to a class of would be Wardens, while telling them a story about a case he worked to help a member of the paranet. We cut between the class, and the case itself, with each cut signifying a different A. 

This is a story with a decent amount of heart, and you could use it to demonstrate to someone exactly the type of character Dresden is. The side characters in it are also established really effectively, each one feeling fully realized very quickly. This one plays to a lot of Butcher's strengths, being fast paced, action heavy, and almost entirely focused on the characters, and how they react to the situation's they've landed in. 

4/5 

I Was a Teenage Bigfoot is the second of the three Bigfoot stories in the anthology, and while not being as strong as the first in my opinion, I still really enjoyed it. It has a more fun opening than the first Bigfoot story, having Bigfoot fuck with a group of him hunters, just to facilitate a meeting with Harry. Once again, Harry finds himself fixing an issue for Bigfoot regarding his son. He's gotten sick, which isn't supposed to happen. 

This leads to Harry deciding to don a full suit, something that is exceedingly rare, but always funny for the image it conjures, as it's so anathema to who Dresden is. He comes to blows with the school repeatedly, who refuse to allow him in, and he has to use all his charm and wit (and a little bit of forzare) just to be allowed to help this kid. Naturally, shenanigans ensue. 

This was a solid story, up until the motivation for the villain was revealed, which I thought was a little too goofy, and took me out of the story. 

3/5 

Curses is a story that was always going to be doomed to fall a little bit flat for me. I don't care about sports in any way shape or form. I care even less about baseball. So when I copped that this story was going to be about a superstition surrounding baseball, most of my interest seeped out of me 

All the parts are in this story to make it really work for me, with the exception of Harry's ogling of Jill, which, weirdly enough, 17 books in, still has yet to grow on me. The primary antagonist of the story is great though. Gwynn is a genuine delight when he's in a scene. The final scene is also very sweet 

2/5 

Even Hand was fantastic. Johnny Marcone has long since been a favourite character of mine, stealing every scene that he's in. I'm also incredibly partial to his goons, Gard and Hendricks, so getting to see more of them will never be a pain point for me. I'd never have guessed that Butcher would let us directly into Marcone's head, so this took me by surprise from the get go. 

Every single line was an absolute joy to read, and shows just how gifted with character voice Butcher really is. I've seen a good few writers struggle to capture multiple distinct voices in first person, and he's certainly not one of them. Marcone's inner monologue instantly has a different texture to it than Harry's, and I'm here for it. 

Seeing his first encounter with the Fomor (and knowing they were active in Chicago even before the events of Changes) was also something I had no expectations of seeing. It also explains why they had already moved on Chicago even before Harry's death became a widely known thing in the supernatural community. They had beef to settle. 

The only downside to this story was that I'm not getting a full Marcone novel anytime soon 

5/5 

Bigfoot on Campus is our final Bigfoot story, and by far and away the strongest of the three. It manages to be just as fun as the last two, while having some serious heart to it. The White Court vampires are always something I'm going to enjoy seeing outside of Chicago, since it means the story doesn't have to be centralized on the Raiths. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the Raiths, but the White Court is constantly built up to be so much more than just them, yet we never actually seem to get the chance to have that realized on the page. But here, we get that, and it's fantastic. We see that not all White Court leaders are built the same, some of them are actually quite pathetic. 

And of course there's River and Irwin, a meeting that we've been waiting for all book at this point, and unsurprisingly, considering Butcher's history with pay off, it lands spectacularly. 

The framing of the story being Dresden telling it to a cop who isn't familiar with him is a really fun one, the little cuts to him actually telling the story serving as nice breaks from the main event. Once again, Butcher showed off his character work, having Dean be an incredibly likable character in what amounts to probably less than a thousand words. 

4/5 

Bombshells was a solid story that faltered towards the middle. Following Molly after the events of Ghost Story, we find her still struggling with the fact that she helped facilitate the death of Harry at the end of Changes. This premise offers a lot of really tantalizing potentials, most of which sort of go unanswered, which is a massive shame, since for the most part, we don't really get to see Molly deal with those feelings in a meaningful way. 

The dealings with the Fomor, and the infiltration into the Svartalf party were mostly mixed. The initial break in was incredibly lackluster, mainly just serving to be an extended Charlie's Angels reference. This was, for the most part, lost on me, since I've never consumed anything relating to Charlie's Angels. The story acting as a sequel to the Marcone story earlier in the book was a nice little treat that I hadn't expected. 

However, I'm incredibly tired of Molly pining for Harry. It's been going on since Proven Guilty, and I'm just finding myself inordinately bored of the whole thing at this point. It's not a pairing I enjoy the implications of, I hate the semi-justification's that even Karrin has been doing in recent books, it's just gross and boring. And even now, having been inside the head of the character who's doing the pining, I don't get why she wants to be with Harry outside of him being tall, hot and a badass. Molly spends a page or two talking about it, without actually saying anything. Contrast this to Dresden thinking about characters he's had romantic interest in, and I get what he sees in them outside of attraction. I know that the next story is another Molly focused one, so if that appears in the next one, a lot of my opinions are likely to remain the same. I hope not, but lord only knows with this “pairing” by now. 

The best part of this story was how it concluded, with us getting to see Molly find out that Harry was still alive. However, this didn't hit as hard as it probably should have, since due to where this book falls in the reading order, I've already seen the payoff for that back in the early stages of Cold Days, which was 2 books ago. This is arguably one of the biggest issues with these 2 short story collections. A lot of the revelations throughout were already referenced in the mainline series, taking the oomph out of these shorter entries. 

3.5/5 

Cold Case was excellent. Following the events of Cold Days, it's another Molly PoV, this time showing her first outing with the mantle of the Winter Lady. A highlight of the last two books has been Harry battling the urges of the Winter Knight's mantle, and this is a fresh flavour of that, which tastes just as sweet. The Winter Lady's mantle encourages Molly to be a lot colder towards people, on top of also having an incredibly pushy libido. Molly constantly thinks about sex. 

Seeing Ramirez again was a complete treat. He was one of the highlights of the back half of the war with the Red Court, even when I'd grown bored of the war as a whole. Seeing him put in a more low stakes situation, where he doesn't necessarily have to be fully locked in was a very fun time. 

I've been wondering what the deal with Cthulhu and the like was in Dresden, since the Necronomicon had been referenced a few times in the early days of the series, so getting some concrete answers on that was a lot of fun. If I had to guess, we'll probably end up seeing that become a more central part of the series overall mythos as it hits it's final entries. 

I really enjoyed the Miksani as well. It's rare that we get to see Faeries of Winter stand up to the queens, since most of the stories that we read about the Fae are based in and around Mab's powerbase. 

The final scene in the hotel was quite sad to read, Butcher sells the distress of a dissociative episode very well. I hope we get more short stories of this new version of Molly, since it was really fun to explore what these changes mean for her. Molly's realization about what she was actually there to collect from them was a powerful moment, where she has to deal with the relative powerlessness that she has, despite the new station she's arisen to, while also still showing the effect that Harry's tutelage had on her. 

4.5/5 

Jury Duty was one of my favourites in the collection. This is a story where Butcher decided to let his inner Spider-man reader show, and it fits so well. Harry gets called up for jury duty, sees an injustice being done, and refuses to let that happen. This story was chiefly focused on Harry just being a decent human being. It was super low stakes, so much so it could have been a cold open to one of the first books in the series. And that's a really good thing. 

This is set just after Skin Game so having something low stakes following that is, in my opinion, a really important thing. Harry needs to return to some degree of normalcy after his multi year absence from society. He also needs this small win, that shows that despite the horrible whispering of the mantle, he is still, fundamentally, a good man. There really isn't too much too say about this story, but despite that, it still remains one of the best in the book 

5/5 

Day One focuses on a PoV I never would have guessed we'd see, that of Waldo Butters, ME, reluctant medic, and now Knight of the Cross, as he gets given his first quest from God. It's a fun little story that lets the reader focus on a character that for the most part, has always been in the background of stories, patching people up. 

At times it can get a tiny bit too self indulgent with the whole Butters being a gamer thing, and the Star Wars metaphor feels a little stretched by the end; but this is a story that pays off Butter's series long arc of overcoming his fear in the face of the supernatural. It adds a fun new monster to the mix, and has a genuinely sweet moment between Dresden and Butters, calling all the way back to Dead Beat. 

4/5 

Zoo Day is probably my favourite of the bunch. This is Harry's first proper day of being a dad. He's bonding with his daughter on a trip to the zoo. But, because it's Harry, naturally something comes up that forces him to leap into action and solve a problem. He comes across a warlock who he thinks he can help before things get bad. Maggie, his daughter encourages him to do so. Dresden worries about being a bad father, but Maggie reacts positively to him throughout. Had that been all this was, it still would have been really solid. 

But about a third of the way through, we get a PoV switch. To Maggie's PoV. This covers everything we'd seen in Harry's PoV, showing that a lot of the fears he has, Maggie also has. She's terrified that Harry is going to reject her out of hand because of the PTSD and Anxiety that have come on because of the traumatic events she experienced in Changes. Butcher's description of this had me crying at one point in the story. 

We also get to see that she's already turned into a monster hunter in her own right, showing that the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. We get introduced to a monster type that only children can see, and this gives Maggie a little win where she's able to overcome some of her problems. 

And if that's not enough, we then get yet another PoV switch to Mouse, which is just wonderful. We're able to see just how he thinks, and the love he holds for Harry and Maggie. Harry being called “My Friend” by Mouse brought a smile to my face each time it was said. 

This story has nothing but heart, and sets up the future of the series really well. I'm incredibly excited to see more of Dresden as a dad. He's delightfully awkward at it, while refusing to do it by half measure. 

5/5 

Overall, this collection of short stories is a slightly mixed bag. It has a kind of weak first half, but the back half is filled to bursting with incredibly strong offerings that enhance the world of the series significantly. If down the line we end up getting another one of these, I hope that it manages to dodge the pitfalls of this and Side Jobs, while zeroing in on just what this book did well. 

Focusing on PoVs outside of Harry is a must for future short stories, since being given the opportunity to look outside of a walking WMD's PoV is a treat we don't get anywhere near enough of. 

  

 

  Peace Talks had a difficult job. It was the first mainline entry into the series following Skin Game, arguably one of the best books in the series thus far (second only to Changes in my opinion). Whether or not it did this, I'm still not entirely sure. I'll probably need to read Battle Ground to get a full grasp on where this book succeeded or failed. Because for once, this is a Dresden book that doesn't stand on it's own. That alone makes this book stand out from the rest of the series thus far, by extension making it very hard to gauge within the wider context of the series. It just feels incredibly different, breaking at this point, 15 books worth of tradition. 

The standard formula for a Dresden book is, a decent chunk of time has passed since the last one, Dresden's doing something small, a thing happens, Dresden has a shit couple of days, then we get a final chapter which wraps up the book, and sets up what Harry will be doing in his time between books. And arguably, this book does follow that structure to the letter. Except we know the next book is an hour later, not a year. 

This leads to some mild issues in my opinion. The first of which is that a lot of stuff that's set up as part of this story, is left entirely unresolved. This includes the main villain, who's only introduced in the final act of the story. Speaking of the final act, I wasn't all that into it. The big fight Harry has towards the end has really strong emotional beats, but it does also feel like we're retreading ground with that particular relationship being strained, albeit in a much more interesting way this time. 

The pacing also feels a tiny bit off in this one. Not a whole lot really happens. Most of the book is concerned with the political aspects of the world, which, while being incredibly interesting, just doesn't really fit the vibe of the series thus far. Long term, this is probably going to pay off in spades, since it feels like we're seeing the endgame for the series beginning to fall into place. 

It was a lot of fun seeing the White Council return to focus, who've been absent since Changes, as their reunion with Harry has been getting built up for the last two books. And lo and behold, the more things change, the more they stay the same. They're still the same group of sanctimonious assholes who seem to constantly have horse blinders on. I enjoy the White Council's presence, but the lack of nuance that some of them have, is getting to be tiresome after 16 books. I'd expect Merlin to have at least an ounce of good characterization, especially given how often he's an antagonist, but thus far, he's just a total prick, with little to no actual justification for it anymore. When we started the series, it made sense, but for fuck sake, even Morgan came around. MORGAN. And he was the king of dickheads for 11 whole books. 

Ebenezer was a highlight, as per usual, especially getting to watch him and Harry struggle against each other in relation to Maggie. As I said in my review for Brief Cases, I really enjoyed seeing Harry as a dad, and seeing Thomas as an uncle was really cute. 

In terms of plot, this is probably the single most tense book in the series. Any type of tension you can think of, this book has it and then some. From the first few chapters this book constantly feels wired to blow, but you never know which bomb it is that's gonna go off first. Harry is constantly on the verge of getting caught in a major fracas, either at the hands of enemies, or his erstwhile allies in the White Court. It's great. 

Thanks to this, it's yet another page turner, and unlike some of the books in the series, it's a page turner from the word go. 

Overall, I don't have too much to say about the book, as a lot of my feelings are in escrow while I wait to see how some of the dominos fall in the next book. Given the slightly off pacing, but overall enjoyability of the book, I'd rate this a 3.75/5. It's closer in quality to some of the early books, like Death Masks, and, if not for the huge amount of characters, would feel a tiny bit out of place in this era of Dresden. 

I went into Red Rising mildly apprehensively, as I'd heard a criticism common to longer series like this. “It gets good after x amount of books”. Usually I'd seen people say it was after this book. I would just like to say, with a great amount of chest, that that's bollocks. This book starts strong from the first line.

“I would have lived in peace, but my enemies brought me war.” Admittedly, after this, it did slow down for a bit. But it never stopped for even a second. Every single page had some amount of forward thrust, which was glorious.

This did however, lead to one of my few issues with the book. I didn't fully grasp the society's hierarchy as well as I would have liked. This is likely because of a combination of issues. For one, I don't think it was much of a focus for this book (the focus mainly being on Reds and Golds, with almost all the notable characters being one of these 2). The reader really only needed to know about 2 ranks at the very least, and have cursory knowledge on the rest.

The second is reading through an audiobook, meaning I didn't have access to any potential charts that show it off at the front of the book.

And thirdly, I straight up could have missed it, or just not been paying enough attention.
This wasn't a barrier for my enjoyment of the book, but it was something that I hope I don't continue to feel throughout the series, as from what I did grasp it seems to be a very interesting hierarchy.

However, the inequity in the society is put across perfectly. It manages to drip that kind of depression dystopian menace that Cyberpunk tends to have, while actually being an idyllic post-scarcity utopia at the same time (at least on the surface). In any other framing of the story, Darrow would be the villain, the monster stood ever so slightly off in the shadows, waiting for the sun to go down.

And the characters reinforce this brilliantly. It would have been so easy for Pierce Brown to make the golds all monstrously evil bastards without a shred of decency, and that is here, though not to the degree that Darrow (and the reader) might assume. The majority of the characters are actually pretty alright people, if not a little more arrogant than they have any right to be. But a good chunk of them are reasonably moral. Or at least as moral as you can be in a society that calculates how many cot deaths they should have in a given year.

Some even tacitly reject the ideals of the society, not seeing the point in engaging with the rules as they're laid out, due to the inherently broken nature of them. Like Sevron, for instance, who just so happens to be my favourite, and I'll scream myself hoarse if a single hair gets harmed on his little goblin head. He's a social outcast, who doesn't want power, he wants to be around people he deems worthy of his time, and I love that. He's one of the first golds you're introduced to, and at least for me, was instantly likable.

As a matter of fact, with the exception of Augustus, almost all of the Golds you meet early in the story are really likable, and a huge chunk of the Reds you meet aren't. As a matter of fact, I'd argue the biggest bastard we meet in the entire book was a red from the midpoint of the book (iykyk).
I would also like to commend the slightly more subtle aspects of the societal gaps that Brown included, such as slang essentially being upgraded to more sophisticated language. A prime example being “Bloodydamn” being turned into “Gorydamn”. They both mean the exact same thing, but the Golds have put this veneer of sophistication on their language in order to subtly mark themselves as betters to the peons beneath.

After all this gushing, I feel the need to quickly rant about something this book has that I fucking loathe. (Minor spoilers ahead, fair warning). Without getting into specifics, Darrow is far too fucking quick to move on from Eo's death. I understand that it's still a sore spot for him by the end, but the rocket speed at which he starts having to stop himself from sleeping with, IIRC, 3 different women, is fucking madness.

He was going to die for this woman. He basically killed himself because of the grief, and while yes, he mentions her a lot, he also starts eyeing up replacements within weeks of this traumatic incident he suffered. I really hope this gets addressed more tactfully in future books, because holy fuck it took me out of the book every single time. He's decided to tear down an interplanetary empire because they killed his wife, and he's already thinking of moving on? It creates this weird dissonance in his character that I really struggled to deal with. It's the only real major criticism that I had of the book.

Now, to end on a high note, I want to gush about how good the narrator, Tim Gerard Reynolds, is. Originally, I'd planned on reading these books physically, getting them all from my library. But then, I noticed that Books 1 and 2 are on Audible's Plus catalogue, so I though to myself “fuck it, why not.”

Thank god for past me. Past me makes awesome decisions. Because Reynolds is my new favourite narrator. The way he uses his accent to subtly shift the way that Darrow is thinking in his narration is amazing. The subtly different voices for most golds, highlighting the conformity of the society, making outliers (such as best boy Sevron) all the more stark is phenomenal.

And then there's the song. For those that don't know, there's a really important song in the story, that gets sung by characters on 2 separate occasions. I was in work holding back tears as Reynolds did his rendition of it. It's absolutely haunting, and honestly, I think it's better than the version at the end of the audiobook.

All in all, I adored this book, and I'm begging anyone who sees this review who's read the book, stop saying this is the book you need to get through before it gets good. This book is insanely good, and if it's only up from here, that's amazing. But I put this off for a while because I have so many series to get to, and not all of them have fans warning me about the lack of quality in early entries. It's such a disservice to such an incredible book.

I genuinely think that when the adaptation comes out, it has the potential to be the next Game of Thrones level SFF show. I'm incredibly excited to see where the next 2 books take me, and I'm planning on starting into GS tomorrow. Red Rising scores an easy 5 stars, I loved it the entire way through, and cannot recommend it enough. It absolutely lives up to the hype the series as a whole has.

I went into Ruin and Rising genuinely worried about whether or not I would enjoy it, as Siege and Storm was a lackluster sequel that didn't have much to add to the series, so in my mind, it was up in the air whether this was going to end up being worth my time, or a massive dissapointment that I'd walk away sour from. I'm thankful to say that this book was very good, allaying my worries in the first few chapters.

The book starts soon after the ending of the previous one, with Alina having lost her powers after the confrontation with the Darkling, hiding in the caves the Apparat called the White Chapel. She's beginning to feel isolated from the people around her, as the Apparat is controlling her every move.
She's wrestling with feelings of inadequacy after her failures leading the second army, and fears that maybe she'll fail Ravka in the long term. This, coupled with the continued weird feelings she has for the men in her life plague her, and she falls into a depressed state.

Very quickly, she gets broken free of the Apparat's Clutches, and regains her powers, and then proceeds to put together a small strike force to hunt for the third of Morozova's amplifiers, all the while contending with her feelings for Mal, Nikolai, and for some reason, still the Darkling.

This all happens within 3 chapters, and sets the pace for the entire book. Whereas the previous book was content to wallow in the act of doing sweet fuck all, this book doesn't slow down for a second, and I fucking love that about it. It is breakneck to put it lightly. This is probably going to be something that turns people off of the book, as I know there's a large portion of readers who only really connect with books whose plots have room to breathe, though personally I'm flexible with the pace of the books I read.

The characters have a much stronger showing in this book. For the most part, the constant stroppiness has fucked off, and we actually get characters whose reactions to situations makes sense, which is a welcome change from the last book. Communication issues aren't really a thing here anymore, instead characters get their shit together and hash problems out, then solve them. This is likely due to the fact that Bardugo realized that she only had so much space in this book, and a lot of ground to cover, but regardless, I was so glad to see this change.

Nikolai is a character that I specifically want to mention, as he was stellar in this book. He was alright in S&S, but he really gets the chance to come into his own here, with my favourite scene in the trilogy belonging to him, where he dresses down his father. Every scene he was in, he stole, and I love him for that.

I was much more sold on the romance aspect of the book, as Leigh gives it room to breathe and develop more naturally than in the prior books, where it was a spur of the moment thing, a symptom of the character's impulsivity, whereas in this book, it's well reasoned and explained why the character's that end up together do.

However, there is one exception to this, and funny enough, this is my only major gripe with the book. For the entirety of the last book, and for most of this one, Alina keeps positing the idea that the Darkling can be saved. Real “I can fix him” energy. And it's fucking annoying. This man has been evil incarnate for the majority of the series, having almost no redeeming moments after the mask off moment in book 1, and I'm meant to believe he's worth saving?

This is just the continuation of the shitey love quadrangle from the last book, but even more insane considering the fact that he maimed one of Alina's best friends, scarring her for life, and taking one of her eyes. Anyone who can still consider this man salvageable has been hitting the hooch a bit too hard, because fucking hell. This is, in my opinion, an example of themes taking precedent over the story presented by the text. Alina's love for the Darkling is a representation for her desire for power, and the intoxication that she's felt since becoming the Sun Summoner. But it just doesn't line up with what we've been shown. I understand that she's a victim of abuse by his hand, but it's just really difficult to believe that after everything he's done, she can see past those things, and even consider any form of romance.

If it was just a thing of her contemplating whether or not he deserved to die, that would be different, but she explicitly thinks about the prospect of returning to him at one point, as if it's a fucking question. All that being said, it didn't take away from the book enough for me to dislike it, it just took away from it whenever the idea was being thrown around.

Something that demands praise however, is the plot twists. So far, this series has had almost nothing in the way of good twists, but goddamn did this one pull a good one out it's arse for the last installment. IYKYK, but I was positively floored by it. Couldn't have asked for a more well thought out twist.

I was very happy with how the book ended, and though I predicted certain elements, I didn't expect others. Overall, I found it to be a fairly peaceful ending, which I found really resonant with the overall themes of the story.

All in all, I think you should read this series, and I for one, will be continuing on to Six of Crows very soon, and likely straight into King of Scars afterwards. I had a fantastic time with this book, 4/5 stars.

Siege and Storm is the second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and it is the dictionary definition of middle book syndrome. This book brings so little to the table it is genuinely a Herculean feat.

The story starts out a few weeks following Shadow and Bone's ending, with Mal and Alina on a boat bound for Kerch, ready to start a life away from the clutches of the Darkling, and bide their time to return and stop him. This plan is put out to pasture almost immediately however, as they're tracked down almost instantly to the inn that they've been staying at, and recaptured.

The Darkling now has the ability to summon creatures using his powers, and the Grisha are even more under his thumb than ever following Alina's escape from him. As he's transporting Alina back to Ravka, with the help of a pirate he's hired, he tells her that they're going to be getting her another of Morozova's amplifiers, this time from a mythical sea-serpent, which is a shock to both the reader and Alina, as Grisha have historically only ever had one amplifier.

With the help of the pirate working for the Darkling, the serpent is tracked down and brought low, but then the pirate betrays the Darkling and helps Alina escape from his clutches, stealing the serpent from him in the process as well. Alina then kills the serpent, taking her second amplifier, but this time it's fully in her control.

This all happens in the first 60 or so pages of the book, so by this point, I was ready for a book that was absolutely jam packed with action. But, alas, that wasn't what I was to get from this book. Instead, Alina returns to court to mope about and pretend to lead the Grisha for about 250 pages, while dealing with some of the most irritatingly dumb relationship problems that I've had the misfortune to read for a while.

Her and Mal go through around 3 arguments in this book, and all of them are easily avoided if they just spoke to each other. But no, that would require these characters to have an ounce of spine to them for even a second. Communication issues are a very real thing in relationship, but they're almost never enjoyable to read about, instead just being this really banal piece of storytelling that's frustrating to read.

But hey, at least we get court politics, which were a highlight of the last book, but again, no such luck. Alina takes almost no action of worth throughout this book, instead allowing everybody else to be a driving force behind her in court. This just felt like a carbon copy of the last books court drama, but much more rote and tedious. We keep getting the excuse that she's hunting for the last of Morozova's amplifiers, but that goes absolutely nowhere for the entire book.

But of important note is just how mediocre of a protagonist Alina actually is throughout this book. She, for some mental reason, is still hung up on the Darkling. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Apparently Alina is red-green colourblind, so the massacre of innocents is A-ok to her. What this leads to is this bizarre love-quadrangle between her, Mal, the Darkling, and Nikolai, but we all know who'll she end up with by the end. If I'm being honest, I could have dealt with an Alina/Mal/Nikolai triangle, but the books insistence that she would have any continued interest in the Darkling is fucking baffling, as by this point, his only redeeming quality is being attractive, and even that's becoming less true as he uses his power more.

But the worst part of this book, by far and away, is that by the end of it, I was genuinely confused why this series was a trilogy. The majority of this book was an utter waste of time and energy, and were I not positive that there's greener pastures ahead in the series, I wouldn't be continuing after this shift show of a book.

And then there's the ending to the book. I hated it. It was so insanely boring, and made the rest of the book even more pointless, as it effectively wiped the slate entirely clean, leaving me confused as to why there even needed to be a middle book. On top of that, there was a major asspull that I really disliked, but I'm going to refrain from going into too much detail because of spoilers

My recommendation is going to be contingent on whether or not book 3 is good, so I'll edit this review after having finished that, but this book just wasn't it. 2/5 stars, with it being saved from being 1-star just by virtue of how enjoyable the opening to the book was.

EDIT: After finishing Ruin & Rising, I can fully recommend this book. This was a hiccup, not an indication of things to come ^^

Halo Evolutions Volume 2 is the second half of the now split Halo Evolutions, an anthology set in the Halo Universe.

For this review, I'll be doing some mini reviews of each of the entries in the collection, with the exception of The Icon and Connectivity, as I feel like those are too small for me to really have a full opinion on. I'll be giving each story it's own separate rating, and at the end, giving a final overview of the book, with an average rating of the stories mentioned below.

Blunt Instruments - 3 Stars

Blunt Instruments is the opener to the book, and has us following Black Team, a squad of 4 Spartans, who are on a demolition job, the target of which is a Covenant mining rig. With the help of a drone, they execute their plan to take down the Covenant's position.

This was a pretty okay story. The dynamic between Black Team was really enjoyable, with each of their personality's jumping off the page, and the overall throughline of the story adds some fun lore tidbits to some of the Covenant species, primarily the drones, my opinion of which has now shot up due to how cool they were in this story.

That being said, at times, the prose is really murky, making it difficult to fully picture the environment that the story is taking place in. This is most notable at the end, as the Spartans are making their way from the demo site to their exfil point. I was thoroughly let down by this, as it took me straight out of the story at multiple points.

Overall, thanks to this story, I'm looking forward to seeing more of Black Team, as I know they appear in the Glasslands trilogy of books, but I was glad to move onto something else by the end.

The Mona Lisa – 4.5 Stars

This was the standout story in the collection in my opinion. It's really easy to forget that you're playing an unstoppable monster of a human in most Halo games, so seeing a story from the perspective of normal marines is always going to be interesting, especially when you add The Flood into the mix.

This story was fairly predictable, but in a manner that made the horror of the plot all that more tangible, as it allowed the tension to build to a crescendo before everything went utterly tits up.

The Flood were phenomenally written throughout this, likely being at their most terrifying across all of Halo's expanded media. The setting of the Mona Lisa, the titular ship, made a for a really intense atmosphere, similar to the library from Halo: Combat Evolved, but again, from the much more terrifying PoV of bog standard marines.

The expansion of certain aspects of the lore is really cool, such as being one of the earliest glimpses into the sheer depravity of ONI, and the lengths that they would go to in order to get a leg up on the Covenant, seemingly betraying every single moral that the UNSC strives to maintain.

The cast of characters is also extremely strong, with my favourite being Lopez, the matriarchal sergeant who leads the squad of marines throughout the book. Watching her slowly lose her hope of returning home was genuinely heartbreaking, and seeing her have to continue ever on, despite the losses of soldiers that she viewed as as important to her as children, was extremely tragic, and I loved the imagery the author used for it, with each soldier being one of her “rosary beads”.

The relationship between Rimmer, a prisoner on the ship, and Henry, a Sangheili prisoner on the ship, was a really stark way of contextualizing just how menacing the flood were as a threat, as this book is set before the events of Halo 2, so the Elite's were still their enemies.

My only gripe with this book, is that it ends on a really weird, unsatisfying note, where we don't get closure on a couple of characters, who in the 13 years since Evolution released, have never reappeared in the franchise.

Overall though, this is one of my favourite pieces of Halo media, and I'd likely find myself recommending Evolutions to people just for this story alone.

Palace Hotel – 2 Stars

Palace Hotel was a really weak entry into this anthology. I've never read anything by Robert Mclees, and I think I'll be making a point to avoid anything his names attached to, because oh my lord, his writing style is horrible.

This story takes place between the second and third missions of Halo 2, and follows Master Chief as he escorts a squad of Marines to the rest of their unit.

This is a pretty cool setup, let down by the fact that Mclees switched the PoV of the story twice, without any form of indication whatsoever. There was a point in it where you're reading from

Master Chief's perspective, and a few sentences late, with nary a page break to be seen, you're in the head of one of the Marines. As I read this, it genuinely jarred me to the point where I nearly put the book down, or skipped onto the next story. This happens again later in the story, but wasn't anywhere near as jarring.

The prose during action scenes is also really inconsistent. In anything longer than half a page, Mclees has a total inability to write interesting combat, but when he writes some that's short, it's generally fantastic. There's a point early on, where Chief 1v1's a Jackal, which lasts maybe a paragraph or two, but was the only moment that I genuinely enjoyed a fight scene during the story.

I don't usually quote books in my reviews, but there's a line I want to highlight here, because it's one of the worst things I've ever seen a character say, so if I had to suffer, you should too.

“I believe I can honestly say that even though you are an honest-to-Buddha one-man death squad, and that if you were to ask nicely I'd give up my lucrative career in the Corps and start pumping out your babies as fast as you could put them in me”

This is said by a marine corporal, who only a page or two before, had been cursing Chief out, and the only thing that had changed in that time, was they went up some stairs. I think that quote and context does enough to show my issues with Mclee's writing style

The only reason I'm not rating this 1 star, is because there's an amazing moment at the end, where Chief meets a childhood friend of his, and his this moment of realization that he's not the person he was when he knew her.

Overall, this story sucked, and I would recommend that if you do read it, skip towards the end of it for the only amazing moment in it. I am genuinely of the opinion that when they split evolutions into two volumes, they should have just done away with this story in it's entirety, allowing it to be forgotten.

Human Weakness – 4 Stars

I really enjoyed this story, and thought that it was a really well thought out deep dive into the psyche of Cortana, and the need to deal with your own mortality from the perspective of a character that's never had to feel pain.

Watching her have to come to terms with the reality that she, like every other human, has an expiration date, was really intriguing, and added a lot of layers to her character that's enhanced her arc in Halo 4 quite a bit for me.

I really engaged with the parts of the story where she was battling with the Gravemind's offer, and the temptation that that created within her, especially since it was framed as a way for her to forever stay with John, her one and only friend.

Seeing her lose hope throughout the story, as the Gravemind broke her will, to the point where she genuinely believed that Chief was just a hallucination the Gravemind created to toy with her was fantastic, as it really added to her rescue in the game, something that I thought had been mishandled there.

Overall, it was really good, but nothing phenomenal. It's a perfect piece of supplementary material to an already fantastic game, serving to enhance it further. It was definitely pallete cleanser following the train wreck that was the last story, so I give it props for that.

Wages of Sin – 4 stars

This one is interesting. I can see it being a story that people might glance off of because of the framing off it. This is the final confession of a member of the race of Prophet's, where he outlines how his species failed the Covenant, and deserve the fate that they're now reaping.

It's one of the more beautifully written stories in the anthology, having prose that is far beyond any of the other stories.

And again, like a lot of the stories in this collection, it adds a lot to the expanded lore of the Covenant, giving a degree of sympathy to the one race the games don't portray as victims of an unfair religion.

I'd probably rank this one as the third best in the collection, just behind The Mona Lisa and The Return.

The Return – 4.5 Stars

This is one of the most intriguing bits of lore Halo's ever had. This story follows a Covenant Shipmaster 7 years after the events of Halo 3, as he returns to a planet that he glassed twenty years prior to the story.

This story deals with the guilt and doubts that plague the shipmaster after learning of the Prophet's betrayal of the other races. He relives the memories of his assault on the planet as he sees the destruction that he wrought in the name of false prophets, and this forces him to tackle the meaning of his existence, now that he's played such a key role in the perversion of his people's religion.

The structure of the story is really cool, since whenever the shipmaster sleeps, he has vivid dreams of the events of the war, ranging from his glassing of the planet that he's on, to the day he executed his ship's prophet in front of his crew during the Great Schism.

This is a very short entry in the book, but in my opinion is the most effective at getting a message across to the reader. It's tied as my favourite with The Mona Lisa, as I just don't have the heart to pick between either of them.

From the Office of Dr. William Arthur Iqbal – 3 Stars

While interesting, I think that this one could have been left on the cutting room floor. This is a letter from a member of ONI informing Xenoarchaelogists that they'll now be working on understanding the Forerunners in order to get a leg up on the potential future threats the Covenant may still pose.

It adds some new lore tidbits to the excession, and shows that ONI are still acting on the assumption that the Covenant are the enemy, but other than that doesn't really do anything all that interesting.

Overall rating – 3.5 Stars

Halo Evolutions was a solid read, and despite being let down by a really weak story at one point, almost everything in the collection was well worth the read, especially if you're a fan of the expand Halo mythos. I can confidently highly recommend this to almost any fan of Halo, if just for The Mona Lisa and The Return alone, as they're well worth the box price of the book.

Saint's Testimony was a really fun read. This short story tackles the question of whether or not the Smart AIs in the Halo universe deserve to be considered Human, and the morality around decommissioning them after 7 years just to prevent their rampancy.

The book is told from the perspective of the AI Iona, who was previously a main character of a comic series set within the universe.

The book lends a lot of credence to the arguments made by Cortana in Halo 5, enhancing the ending to a game that desperately needs any help it can get, so it definitely gets points for that.

The use of other AI that we've met in the Halo universe is also a really nice touch, as we get to see their perspectives on it as well. We also get a deeper dive into the mind of AI, and how they function, demonstrating that despite the fact Cortana was the most well made model of Smart AI, the others are still just as Human, and deserve the respect that goes along with it.
I really enjoyed this story, but I struggle to recommend it unless you have Kindle Unlimited, as I think a pound is a lot for how short the story is, clocking in at only 40 pages or so. 4/5 Stars

I adore The Greenbone Saga, so the minute this was announced, I was all in, no questions asked. Then I saw the price. And I found out I was all in, with at least one question asked. I'm going to preface this review with the disclaimer that this is not worth the hardback cost, unless you are a die hard Fonda Lee fan. This book is good, but it's not “full novel price” good.

Untethered Sky is a book that is entirely focused on the training of Rocs, giant birds of prey that their trainers, known as Ruhkers, use to hunt Manticores, beasts that prey on humans. And it does this really well. If you want to see someone train a really cool animal companion, and be very good at it, this is the book for you.

However, there are a good few issues with this book, that knock it down a little bit for me.
For one, the worldbuilding is almost nonexistent. You get told the aforementioned bit about Rocs and Manticores, and learn some minor details about the empire it takes place in. But for the most part, the book is entirely focused on the training of the Rocs, and hunting Manticores. In my opinion, this is a massive misssed opportunity, as the glimpses that we see of the world make it seem like a really vibrant culture. I hope that down the line, Fonda decides to make this into a larger scale series so that we get to properly experience what's on offer.

Something else it does very well, is characters. For anyone that read Greenbone, this is not gonna be shocking. Fonda has the ability to craft characters that you fall in love with within pages, so it's almost a guarantee that you'll click with someone in her cast. This is no exception, with the two main characters being excellent.

The big difference between this and Greenbone in my opnion, is perspective. This book is told in First-person, in the style of a memoir, which fits really well in my opinion. It allowed me to get into the character's head perfectly, which I appreciated.

The story itself is ok, I guess. I'm not in love with it, but I don't dislike it either. It serves it purpose perfectly, but isn't all that rich, and I wasn't really all that invested in the minutiae of it.
I liked the structure of the book, with it just being 4 long chapters, each one denoting a specific part of the main character's growth as a trainer. It allowed for timeskips where necessary, without it feeling jarring like they can in other books. This is also helped by the PoV being a first person memoir too.

Overall, though it lacked things that I look for in a lot of my books, I found myself very content with the book, albeit wanting more from the universe as a whole. A solid 4/5 if you get it digitally or in paperback. I still stand by the fact that Tor and Gollancz have massively overpriced this book, and I really hope that doesn't become the norm for novellas, since I think it will all but kill them long term

Soul Music is the third entry in the Death sub-series of Discworld, and marks a low point in my journey with the character. This book was at some points a legitimate slog to make it through, but when it hit its stride, it hit heights that I wasn't quite expecting from it.

The book opens with Death reaping Mort and Ysabell from the first Death novel, intermingled with scenes of their daughter, Susan, receiving the news. Death, reeling from having to kill his daughter and former apprentice, goes off on a journey to understand the purpose of life, and by extension the Duty. This leaves an opening that has to be filled, or else the events of Reaper Man might be repeated, so Susan is forced to take up the mantle, and do the job in Death's stead.

Meanwhile, a young man arrives in Ankh-Morpork, looking to be the world's greatest musician, and with the help of a powerful magical guitar, takes the city by storm, creating a new type of music. Music with rocks in it.

It's not really accurate to call this a Death novel if I'm being honest, as he has extremely little screentime in this, with the focus sitting squarely on Susan, who, despite being a fairly solid character, doesn't bring much new to the table, as her arc is a sort of retreading of Mort's arc. It's concluded in a different way, but the steps that got us there felt very similar.

Despite being content with how Death was handled, I would have loved to see more of his journey of self discovery, as each of those scenes were highlights of the book, and only served to strengthen my absolute adoration of the character.

I really enjoyed getting a more in depth dive into Ankh Morpork's culture, as so far, all I've read has been Death, so I haven't really had an opportunity to get a grasp on what the city was like, so getting Buddy's PoV as he also has to learn about was a really good introduction to the culture of the city. The guilds were a definite highlight of the book.

Something I didn't really connect with was the satire of the book. I didn't think it was quite as clever as the previous two, and I think that's down to the fact that it's laser focused on one specific topic, making the humour feel really inflexible at times. It felt like it was relying on a lot of in jokes for a specific community, which is a shame, though when it was at it's best, it shone as brightly as the other works I've read from him.

The biggest issue with this book has to be the fact that it absolutely refused to go anywhere for a good quarter of it's page count. I understand that it's introducing a new character to the readers, but oh my lord, I was bored shitless for a good chunk of the book. It was definitely funny, and it had a few highlights here and there, but overall, it's early pacing was just really sluggish, which was a massive issue for me, especially since I started this the same day I finished Reaper Man, which had exceptionally tight pacing.

The middle section wasn't much better, as there's a subplot going on throughout the book, where Ridcully is trying desperately to understand the science behind Music with rocks in it. But this kicks off pages after we get a perfectly sufficient explanation from Death about what's going on. Overall, the entire wizard aspect of this book was fairly monotonous, and I feel like it getting trimmed down to their newfound obsession with the music would have probably led to the entire book flowing in a much better manner overall.

The conclusion of the book was genuinely the only point where I was content with the pacing of the story, as I felt like it wasn't missing a beat there. There wasn't any plodding along. It had a point, and it made sure to get to it before the reader got bored of it.

Despite my issues with the book, I still walked away having enjoyed my time with the book, though I'm beginning to expect that it's going to be nigh on impossible for me to not enjoy a Pratchett novel to some degree, as they're just utterly wonderful. It's a solid 3.5 stars, and despite my issues, I still fully recommend this book.

Prequels aren't usually my jam. More often than not I find them to over eager to remind you of the stories that came before, and neglecting to forge a personality of their own. Needless to say, I was thrilled when not only did A Day of Fallen Night manage to be an amazing book in it's own right, but eclipse Priory entirely.

This book answered every single issue that I had with Priory, and then elevated itself even further in my eyes. The plot is stellar, which is really impressive, considering anyone who read Priory, knew how this was going to go, almost beat for beat, yet Shannon manages to weave the story in such a way that you're kept guessing on the finer details all the way up until to the end.

Every single character jumps off the page, and if I was to sit here and gush about each of them, I'd probably end up hitting the character limit on Goodreads. So, I'll just gush about each of the PoVs for a bit, because they all slap. One takes a little bit to get going, but when it got going, it was one of the first to become a consistent page turner for me.
First, you have Gloria. Gloria is the Berethnet heir, and is reluctant to do the duty that her line has, to bear an heir, and keep the Nameless One at bay. The daughter of the first good Berethnet in living memory, and a heathen king, Gloria is an extremely strong willed character, who goes on an extremely emotional journey throughout this book, being forced to come into her own by the grief of ages. While she is in my opinion, the weakest of the 4 PoVs, that's by no means a dishonor to her, as she is phenomenally well written, and in my opinion eclipses all of the PoVs from the previous book.

Secondly there's Dumai. Dumai is the answer to my dislike of Tane's PoV from the previous book, that the East didn't have good representation in that book, whereas here, the East shines, and allows us to finally get a good idea of the culture of the Seiikinese, something I felt was lacking from Priory. On top of that is her romance plot, which is my favourite in the series, not to mention just outright being one of my favourite romances in fantasy overall. Dumai is a temple keeper, who is the daughter of the emperor, kept in hiding in a mountain shrine.

Thirdly, there's Wulf. We stan Wulf in this household. Wulf is an orphan who was adopted by a lord, but has to contend with the whispers that he's the spawn of a witch, due to him being found in the Witchwood as a child. He brings this fascinating perspective on the Six Virtues, as he always feels like he has one foot in and one foot out. Couple that with the mystery surrounding him, and you have the recipe for a genuinely amazing character to follow.

And lastly, we have Tuva. Tuva has my entire heart. This, this right here, is the best character between the two books. Tuva is an older member of the Priory, and the keeper of the tomb. She acts as a mother to her lover's daughter, who bears her name. This is because of the loss of her own child years before the story. Something awesome about this character is that she's older lesbian rep, something that I don't think I've ever seen before, so that's a pretty big feather in her cap. But on top of that, she's just an amazingly well written character. It was like this book was made explicitly so that Shannon could tell her story, and I'm delighted about that, because I adore her so so much. One of my favourite characters in literature, by a country mile.

As I said before, I could gush for ages about the characters in this book, but we'd be here for far too long, because there's just that many great characters throughout. I would recommend this book to people just for the character's alone, so everything else being just as good is just a bonus.

The story itself is amazing. Shannon used the structure of this novel to create this really slow burn plot that explodes all of a sudden, that's only enhanced by having read Priory first, and knowing the battles that are to come. The way she interwove the personal struggles of the characters into the overall throughline of the book was genuinely marvelous. The fact that she was able to convincingly interweave all of the PoVs as well was stellar. Fyredel as a villain is fantastic, and this book really allows us to see why dragons are so feared, much more so than Priory did, in my opinion.
And then there's the worldbuilding. This book not only has really solid explicit worldbuilding, but if you've read Priory, it also has amazing subtle worldbuilding, as you can spy really small cultural changes, such as the fact that the twelve virtues is only six virtues here, implying that over the next 500 years another 6 get added, only enhancing the fact that the religion Virtudom is built on is kind of wishy washy and bullshit. There's also the major cultural differences that the East has, due to the water dragons falling into a slumber years before the story.

And the romance is so good. I thought Ead and Sab were good, but both romances in this book were so well written, one being a really solid slow burn romance that's just burgeoning, and the other being a romance that's been a reality for the two characters for decades at this point, but is still really strong throughout. On top of both of these, whenever there's characters in a relationship, they're written in such a way that you can tell they love each other, and it doesn't feel like them being together is a contrivance for the sake of the story, which is such a breath of fresh air, since a lot of fantasy will write characters that seemingly hate being in their relationship, but will swear up and down that they're happy together.

On top of that, Shannon writes spice really well, though it isn't ACOTAR levels of spice, it's there, and it's fantastic. It doesn't dominate the chapters it's in, but it's portrayed in a realistic manner, and used to show the personalities of the characters, with the way they approach sex reflecting the way they approach everything in life

Then there's the battle scenes. Iw alked away from Priory really disappointed, because the final battle of the book sucked. But that's not the case here. Everytime there's a major battle, it has awesome moments, where every major character involved is given a moment to shine, and I couldn't have been happier about that. This book is host to one of my favourite fight scenes I think I've ever read, that being Fyredel making a delivery of some bones.

Overall, I fucking adored this book, please read it. Even if you didn't enjoy Priory, I think there's something here for you, since this one answered every single issue I had with it, and then some. 5/5 stars, this was a journey I was loathe to see the end of. I can't wait to see what the future holds for Roots of Chaos, but if this is any indication, it's a very bright one.

Gah, my absolute adoration for these books grows with every single one that I read Pratchett is proving himself to have been an absolute mastermind in the art of weaving a heartfelt story that has the ability to absolutely floor me with laughter.

I don't think I've ever read a book that has been this profound while still managing to maintain such a lighthearted air to it. The balance that he strikes between these two is done so deftly that he can heel turn the tone of the book in a matter of paragraphs without it feeling even remotely out of place at any point.

This is achieved through a few different factors, the main one being the characters. The most obvious one has to be Death, who in my opinion is probably the best character that Fantasy has ever been graced with. His adoration for humanity and life in general shines through brilliantly in this book, capitalising on what Pratchett had set up in Mort.

Then there's the various characters from the undead rights movement, who are just wonderful. Of particular note are the Winkings, who are a married couple, one of whom is a vampire, that being Arthur. Doreen, his wife, has decided to take on the part of being a countess to him, in order to be supportive of him, donning a fake Transylvanian accent, doing up their house like a vampire's castle, and renaming the Notfaroutoe's. The entire time, Arthur is very disapproving, as he never wanted to be a vampire in the first place. In my opinion, it's a very sweet dynamic that shows just how dedicated to each other they are, even if Arthur seems a bit sick of it at times.

Then there's the story itself, which is an absolute gem. Death has grown a personality, and for the auditors of reality, his bosses, that just simply won't do, so they give him the sack. This, in a subversion of expectations, delights Death, since now he gets to experience the life that he's only ever experienced the end of, or has lived vicariously through his daughter and apprentice.

He takes a position on a farm, helping out an old lady, and becoming a person unto himself. This is used as a contrast to the job of being Death, where he still gives reverence to each individual blade of grass, or head of wheat, since it's in his nature to give every piece of life it's due reverence.

Whilst all this is going on, things around the disc are going rather pear shaped, as people have stopped dying in the interim between our Death being fired, and a new one being believed into existence.

What the book ends up becoming as these two plot threads are explored, is a wonderfully vibrant love letter to being alive. As you read it, you can tell that Sir Terry Pratchett adored life, and wanted others to at the very least be able to glimpse how wonderful life was. And to an extent, it works quite well. I think you'd be hard pressed to walk away from this book without at least a minor improvement to your outlook on life.

The pacing of the book is something to be noted, because oh my lord, it flows so well. It's a reasonably fast paced book, but Pratchett knew when to slow down and let the story breathe. There wasn't any point where I felt like the pacing didn't fit.

On top of all of that, this book was just an emotional rollercoaster. I got ping ponged between emotions almost constantly, to a point where I felt like I was suffering from emotional whiplash. And I loved it. One minute I'd be busting a gut laughing, then I'd be contemplating the nature of my existence, and after that I'd be basking in how great being alive is. When I finished the book, I just broke into tears for a solid 5 minutes. This was such a bittersweet book, and I'm begging you to read it.

I could gush for ages about the book, but I genuinely don't see a point. As I said before, you should read it, you do yourself a disservice everyday that you don't, it's just that good. Pratchett is one of the greatest authors of our time, and we're likely never going to see someone as gifted as him again. This is one of the easiest 5 stars that I think I've ever given, and has shot Discworld up to a top 3 fantasy series for me.

Hoo boy. Priory of the Orange Tree was a book that had a lot to live up to. This book has one of the most evangelical fanbases that I've ever experienced, so in my mind that meant there had to be something to it, that it was going to be this phenomenal book that would never leave me when I finished it. Then, in the buildup to the release of it's prequel, dissenting opinions began to arise, decrying the pacing, complaining about the YA nature of it, saying Shannon's prose was weak. And I'll admit, I put the book off because of those opinions. I really shouldn't have. Priory of the Orange Tree slaps, despite it's issues (some of which I've already mentioned), and I wish that I'd read it much sooner than I did.

I adore the world of the book, and how Shannon has managed to weave a thoroughly convincing history into the world, even down to how that history has been rewritten. The magic system, the unique cultures, both the systems of faith, and the methods in which they're governed all feel well developed and thought out, which is no mean feat for how short a time she has relative to other contemporaries. In just 800 pages, she manages to flesh out 3 different cultures, and touch on 2 others, all the while pushing the story forward with every single page. I've seen other authors struggle to do less in longer series, so I was pleasantly surprised by how she nailed the cultures in this book, as I didn't expect them to be this well developed when I started reading it.

I particularly enjoyed how the Inysh culture developed throughout the book, as they have a really unique religion, where they're ruled by a line of Queens who's bloodline keeps an ancient evil at bay as long as it goes on. Seeing the culture be challenged by the events of the book was an absolute treat, and left Inysh the most developed of all the cultures by the end, both in part due to the amount of time spent in that culture, and it's importance upon world politics within the story.

The characters are second to none, having no characters that I thought were bad. There were characters who I hated fairly distinctly, but for the most part, those were characters you were meant to hate. The way Shannon writes character arts is one that I really appreciate when I see it, since it feels much more real, and I'm glad that it's so common in modern fantasy. Characters don't let their guard down around people they don't know, so it takes time for you to see their true character, which gives you a huge amount of insight to the kind of person that they are.
Of particular note is Sabran, who at the beginning of the book, was my most hated character. I couldn't stand how rude and arrogant she was to Ead, the PoV character who's chapters Sabran appeared in. But by the end of the book, Sabran was one of, if not my favourite, characters in the book. Seeing her worldview and values be challenged and warped by the events of the book was stellar, every event slowly cracking the façade that she'd put around herself. It was masterfully done, and her ending felt so earned. I'll gladly admit to crying at the last chapter she was in.

Most of the PoVs are fantastic, with one particular exception. Ead, Loth and Niclays are all excellent, though Niclays is a bastard and I hate him. Tané however, was at best, mildly interesting, and at her worst, a total slog to read. She is probably the worst character in the book, having a neutered amalgamation of multiple other character's arcs, with very little to set her apart, and the personality of a wet rag. It took nearly the entire book for her to get moderately enjoyable, and she never rose higher than that. The only saving grace of her chapters was getting to see the Eastern culture be developed upon, as she was the only PoV who was born and raised in it, so she was realistically our only glimpse into the inner workings of the culture. I genuinely believe that Tané is the single reason that people drop this book in the early stages, as she's so dry to read, which is doubly impressive, considering her culture is based heavily around water.

The romance in the book is phenomenal. I haven't been this invested in a romance in a fantasy story in years. As a matter of fact, I can't recall what the last romance I was invested in was. It's a sapphic slow burn romance, and I ate that shit up. It could have ended up feeling very forced, but Shannon does a phenomenal job of selling the reader on it, making it feel extremely authentic.

I only have one more gripe with the book, though it's a massive spoiler, so read on at your own risk. If you do decide to not read on, I recommend the book, it's really good. Anyway, onto the spoiler.

The final battle of the book, that it spends 700+ pages building up to, amounted to a grand total of 40 something pages. This on it's own wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, and I'm not looking for a Wheel of Time length final battle, but it just felt rushed. There were much more minor parts of the book that had more page time, which sucks. But on top of this, it was just kind of mediocre. The character moments were pretty decent, but there was so few epic moments in the battle itself, that it didn't lend itself to the buildup it had received in the slightest.

I'm actually surprised that I don't hear more about this, as I personally felt extremely let down when I reached this, so it shocks me that nobody else has seemingly shared this opinion. I really do think it could have benefitted from about 20-30 pages more, since the books already really long, so what would the harm have been in ensuring that the battle was the best part of the book. It's ultimately not so much of an issue that I dislike the book, but I was definitely disappointed by that aspect of the book.

Overall, as I said before, you should get this book, it's fantastic. It's part of a series now, but you can read it as a standalone, and it will 100% work well as one. 4.5/5 Stars

The Dildo in the Kitchen Drawer was great. For such a short book, it does so much. It sits at only 15 pages, but it conveys the relationship between the MC and her girlfriend brilliantly, highlighting flaws in the relationship, but also doing a fantastic job of showing why the relationship works in the first place.

This is a really funny book, and a super easy read. I would have loved a full book with these two characters, but alas, it appears that this is all there is to see from them. They fully embody the disaster lesbian trope, and I'm here for it.

This would be a 5 star book, but I need to dock it for the sole reason that you can't get this book off of any of the retailers on the authors linktree, instead you have to find it online, which was a nightmare to do. If you can find it, I highly recommend it, though I can definitely understand not wanting to for the sake of a 15 page book. Because of how arsey it is to get, it's a 4/5 stars for me.

Godkiller comes out of the gate swinging and doesn't slow down for the entirety of the book, and I absolutely adored it. Despite some minor issues with the early parts of the book, this was an absolute romp the entire way through, and if this is what Hannah Kamer releases as a debut, I feel like she's going to have an insane career going forward, because this book screams quality.

Having one of the most interesting twists on gods that I've seen in modern fantasy, the world of Godkiller is brilliant. Gods are seen as parasites following an all out war against them, and we follow a Godkiller, Kissen, as she escorts a young girl, who's been joined to a god of white lies, across the country on a quest to sever the link. We also follow Elogast, an ex-Knight of the realm, who joins Kissen and Inara on their journey.

I enjoyed Inara and Kissen's PoVs quite a bit. Inara has to deal with the trauma of losing everything she's known since she was a child, and following her emotional journey through those feelings was really cathartic, as she came to terms with the fact that the people she'd lost were gone, and that they weren't coming back. It felt extremely real, and when compounded with the themes of found family, was extremely heartwarming to read about.

Kissen however, was my favourite of the PoVs. Kissen is a character whose loss mirrors Inara's in a lot of ways, so Kissen takes it upon herself to make sure that Inara doesn't end up the same way that she has. Kissen is a bitter and angry shade of her former self, hell bent on numbing her pain by making sure that the gods that inhabit the world feel just a modicum of it themselves. Her learning to open herself up throughout the book is really touching, and resonated with me on a personal level, since for years I was emotionally locked off. I also really enjoyed the disability representation that she brings, since generally losing a leg in fantasy is treated as something that closes doors completely, however, Kamer has managed to write in prosthetics in a way that fits the world really well.

The PoV I didn't enjoy, was Elogast, the ex-Knight. The story that surrounds him, is really interesting, but fuck me, Elo's chapters were dry to read. Initially, it wasn't too bad, but very quickly, he shares the same space as Inara and Kissen, so switching to his perspective to see the same events as the other two, felt more like I was being deprived of an interesting PoV, than being given the opportunity to see the world from a new perspective. Elogast has a really tropey backstory that I've seen done before. He begins to improve towards the end, and I am genuinely excited to see his PoV in book 2, due to the shift he takes at the end of the book.

The side characters are pretty decent, but aren't enough of a focus for me to have really connected with them in any major way. I liked Kissen's family well enough, but other than that, none really stand out to me all that much. The only other one I can recall decently well, is a water god we meet in the latter end of the book, who was really cool, and introduced a unique worldview to the story that I hope to see expanded on in the sequels.

The story was superb. The way Kamer weaves twists and turns into it is really clever, where she plants red herrings that the reader will just run with, and turns innocuous passages into masterful foreshadowing. Each twist landed for me, with one needing a bit more expansion in later books admittedly, but that one was by design. Outside of that, the general structure of it lends itself really well to Kamer's lightning fast pacing. This book covers more ground than some doorstoppers I've read in the past, forgoing the usual epic fantasy filler that those books are laden with, and I really appreciate that here. This is an incredibly short book, which is usually a negative for me, but I don't think I'd want this to be that much longer. The only thing that I might want, is a bit more in the final setpiece of the book, since that went by really quickly, but not so quick that it wasn't a satisfying end.

Overall, I thought this book was incredible, with few to no issues throughout. Again, the only major gripe that I had with it was the Elo's PoV was really boring to inhabit when I had to, but I hope that's fixed in book 2. 4/5 stars, I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aconyte for early access to the book for an honest review.
I went into this book not really expecting much from it and came out pleasantly surprised. The Golden City is surprisingly self-contained for a tie in novel that revolves around characters within the games, which I really appreciate, since it means that the book actually manages to feel like a complete story, while still setting up the events of the game that it's tied to. That being said, if you don't have much knowledge on Assassin's Creed, I would recommend against the book, since I don't think there's much here for you.

Having more intimate knowledge of the series, I found myself reading this quite compulsively, finishing it in just 3 days, while also reading other books. Seeing the little hints at plot points for the game this is a prequel to (Valhalla) was really engaging, and the hints towards Mirage's plot were also really enticing, and have me very excited to experience the game now.

The plot was alright. It was set up as a potentially interesting political plot, but had the depth of a burst kiddie pool, with no real twists or turns put into the story. Almost every revelation was something extremely obvious, even without any foreshadowing. Hytham would regularly guess something that was treated as a big reveal, yet was constantly portrayed as fairly inept when it came to running an investigation.

The actually engaging part of the plot was Hytham trying to understand what Basim's goals were. Seeing him try to parse everything Basim said or did for hidden meanings was really engaging, however, I have to point out that this isn't where you're going to get any answers to that mystery. For that you need to play a game, so in the long run, I can see this being a negative for people who haven't played Valhalla. Since I've completed Valhalla, it enhanced my experience though, so I really appreciated it.

As a PoV, Hytham is pretty good, but is definitely held back by the lack of anything going on in the story, since there's no points where he really gets to shine as a character due to the extremely obvious story beats that go on. I feel like if there had been a bit of a murkier air to the investigation, he would have had more opportunity to shine, however for the most part he just fucks up and eventually stumbles to the correct conclusion. Where he shines is in his interpersonal relationships.
You can't help but like Hytham, because he cares a lot about the people around him. Of particular note is Leo, the young emperor that he's tasked to defend with his life. The father/son relationship the pair have is genuinely very cute, and you get to see both of them grow together throughout the story. Watching how that clashed against his oaths was a super compelling aspect of the book, especially with Basim's bits of advice about forming attachments riddled throughout (if YKYK)

The combat scenes are also awesome. The hidden blade is something that will always be fun to have included in combat scenes, since it's such a rare type of weapon in books, but the swordfights are also of note, since the author does a really good job of making you feel like you're experiencing the fights, with really vivid descriptions of not just combat, but how the opponent moves, the noise they make etc. It transports you to the fights every time.

The big criticism I have is that Constantinople is pretty boring in the book, which is a shame, since the Byzantine empire is really cool. This is definitely caused in part by the lack of mystery around the assassination attempts. It doesn't allow the setting to grow any form of atmosphere that's unique to itself, instead the city would be entirely interchangeable if not for the story's reliance on the historical figures of Basil I and Leo.

The pacing of the book is a bit off as well in my opinion, as there are really long stretches where very little happens, with short bursts of progress for the story. This isn't too much of a problem, since the book is relatively short, but it's still of note in my opinion.

All in all, I had a pretty decent time with this book, but it won't be at the top of my list of recommendations for people. I'd wholeheartedly recommend this for people who enjoyed AC Valhalla, as it enhances that game by no end. It's a solid 3.5 stars, you could do far worse for video game tie ins.

Warm Up acts as a prequel novelette to the Vengeful series, and it has me very intrigued to carry on to that series. I've definitely seen better prologues written, but this one definitely paints an intriguing enough picture that I'm going to continue into the main series.

The MC, David is pretty decent, having a unique ability and backstory that sets the stakes for the kind of power that people can possess within the universe, so I'm excited to see the heights to which that's taken in the mainline books.

3/5 stars, it's solid, but I've seen better introductions.

Secret Project 2 was definitely the book out of the 4 that I was least hyped for. Despite having an interesting premise, I didn't really know what it was the book was going to be trying to deliver on, even after reading the preview that Sanderson released last year.

It's been two days since I finished the book, and if I was to be completely honest, I still don't really know where it lands for me. On the one hand, it was a total page turner, but in the sense that I wanted to see where the story went out of curiosity, as opposed to out of love for the story being told. And despite the fact that it never actually got all that exciting to read, I was still disappointed to be finished with the book, as I wanted to spend more time with the few side characters that managed to hold my attention, and the world that I felt wasn't explored to the fullest of its potential.

So I don't fully understand my feelings on the book. I'm left feeling really conflicted about whether I enjoyed it or not, because on the one hand, I don't regret reading it, and had a pretty decent time with it, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The rest of this is gonna be a little rambly, since I'm gonna try and put my feelings to paper (sort of) to maybe get a better grip on them.

First things first, lets talk positives, because there's a good chunk to like here. The setting/concept is cool. I group them because it's impossible to divorce one from the other. It's top tier. It's a very cool idea that I've never seen done before, and scratches my itch of wanting read more Sci-fi that has cool concepts without getting really heady. It also manages to interweave fantasy in fun ways, which I can really appreciate. The historical accuracy of the setting seems fantastic, albeit with some creative liberties that make sense with the rules the books establishes.

Then there's the art that's done throughout the book. It's not the beautiful tapestries that we saw with Tress, but my god, do these look good. There's a solid variety of art pieces, one set tells a story, others are at the top of chapters of the in universe manual, some are just traditional art depicting a scene from the last few pages. Steve Argyle absolutely killed it in every regard. I'm hyped as hell to get my physical copy so that I can actually see them put to paper, because hoo boy are they great.

I'm personally not jazzed with the cover, as I think it's a bit mid, but all the interior art makes up for that by a mile (and who knows, the physical edition might sway me, I'll include an edit when I get it).

And lastly, some of the side characters are excellent. Mainly Ealstan and Sefawynn. There's some other pretty good ones, but I can't mention them because spoilers. Sefawynn is definitely my favourite character in the book. I like her strong personality and no nonsense attitude that she displays throughout. Her character arc was the only one that I was even remotely invested in, as I wanted to see how she'd overcome her confidence issues.

Other than that, I don't really vibe with anything else in the book to the point where I'd count it as something I liked. The story itself was kinda mediocre, since it just ends up becoming a fairly generic behind enemy lines cop thriller, except we don't follow the cop. We follow his friend, who sort of just bumbled into the whole thing.

Then there's most of the characters. They're either bland and forgettable, or downright shit. For instance, the main villain of the story is the most generic gang leader I've ever read. It's like he was ripped right out of a James Patterson novel, and put into an actually good authors work. Others are just a total drain, like Ryan (Fuck Ryan, all my homies hate Ryan), or just don't have enough screentime to make any meaningful impact on the experience.

But the worst offender, by a country mile, is Johnny, our (un)lovable protagonist. I hate Johnny, and I think he's a big reason behind why I didn't connect with the book as much as I'd have liked. Johnny's a whiny, needy little twat, who thankfully, actually has an arc of some description, but that arcs dire. I have never been less invested in a Sanderson character than I was with Johnny. I genuinely believe that he's one of, if not the worst, protagonist Sanderson has ever written. I hated him, and was glad to be out of his head by the end.

Then there's the pacing of the book. It never felt like it picked up, while also feeling like it went too quick. The book just sort of lackadaisically plodded along, like the story was actively bogging itself down attempting to prevent itself from getting to the point, and then when it finally did, it just speedran towards the most predictable ending that it could have possibly hit. We didn't even really get a satisfying conclusion to the main throughline, as the villain ended up just leaving, and that was that. There was a lot of really solid potential with certain twists, that weren't really set up that well beforehand, (with one exception being the wight that follows Johnny), and overall, the plot left me thoroughly whelmed. Again, this is something that I feel actually stems from Johnny being a shit PoV, because the more interesting parts of the Sanderlanche, happen to 2 other characters, with Johnny just winning a pretty meh fight.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I don't think that the world got explored to the fullest of its capabilities. Dan Wells has expressed interest in continuing the series, and I'd definitely be intrigued to see more of it, both dealing with the universe Johnny visited, and other potential time periods that are being monetized. I think there's a lot of mileage in the concept, I just wish we'd gone further in this book.

And if I'm being honest, that could be one of my issues with the book overall. I feel like it could have been a lot longer, and actually expanded on the really interesting ideas that were presented throughout the book, like the religions and the magic, but ultimately we didn't really get a whole lot of expansion on any of these things, except being told that they exist, which is a massive shame.

I could also see this dimension being used to explore the entire world, as we see characters from the Middle East and Asia at different points in the book, so I'm definitely not soured on the idea or the world, I just wish it had been handled differently, and perhaps, had this not been a side project for Sanderson, it would have been, but alas, here we are.

All in all, the book is a mixed bag. It doesn't break the streak that Sanderson has for me of never writing a bad book, but it is another one of his rare mediocre books. It's propped up quite a bit by the obvious love that Steve Argyle put into it. But I didn't connect with the plot, or the characters, with key exceptions that did prevent this book from being terrible. I would say, out of all the ones that I've read, this is probably Sandersons worst book, but it's still very far from a bad one. 2.5/5 stars.

Storm Front really disappointed me. This is the first book in the Dresden Files, and it has a reputation online for being incredibly mediocre, and even still, I felt let down by it. Despite being compulsively readable, this book doesn't rally manage to tell that solid of a story due to a number of small issues compounding together to bog the book down. I'm still going to continue with the series, but as of right now, I'm going to struggle to recommend it to people, as I don't have many positive thoughts on this book.

The first major issue that I have is the characters. They're, to be quite frank, shit. By the end of the book, I couldn't point to a single character that I genuinely enjoyed reading about, as most of them fit neatly into generic archetypes and never grow past them throughout the story. This is doubly true for female characters, but I'll get into that a bit later on.

The biggest offender for this in my opinion is Dresden himself, who we spend the most time with, but has zero development throughout the story. He starts the same as he ends, which is really disappointing, because Dresden is riddled with flaws. He's a cynic, a chauvinist, and arrogant to boot (despite multiple major cock ups due to said arrogance), and only manages to make it through the story through sheer luck. He has one of the worst PoV voices that I've ever experienced, however I've been assured that this gets better, which makes a lot of sense, since it would be incredibly difficult to make him worse.

I can't really talk about Dresden without talking about how much of a sex pest he comes across like. This man can't interact with a woman without thinking in depth about her curves, the things she can do with her body, and how hot she is. It's cringe inducing. Even more so when it seems like all these women want to throw themselves at his feet. It's just tedious, and reads like a teenage boys self-insert half the time.

But the only reason the side characters aren't worse than him, is because they're barely characters. They're cripplingly simplistic, with not even their dialogue really giving a sense of their character (with one exception being Linda, but she sadly ends up playing into Dresden's constant sex pestery). This was a major for me, since characters are generally more important to my reading experience than the plot of the story.

However, the story itself is really barebones and predictable, so even if I was more of a plot reader, I don't think my rating would really change. There's a central mystery that we follow, and it starts off really interesting, making me genuinely curious how it's going to wrap up. And then the very obvious answer is given to us a quarter of the way through the book, but Harry, who again, has a massive ego about his magical skills, can't work out the incredibly obvious answer. This isn't even an answer that's obvious through knowing about story structures for generic detective stories (which this very much is one), this is just basic critical thinking that Harry seems to lack, despite repeatedly showing that he isn't dumb. I don't give the spoiler away, just in case you do read it, but it is, at least in my opinion, really obvious. This obviousness makes Dresden feel really inconsistent as a character, and I hope that gets shored up soon, because 16 more books of Dresden being conveniently moronic will get old fast I think.

I also had issue with how many really concepts and storylines are hinted throughout the book, especially considering what we actually ended up with. There's the murder of his girlfriend, the creature that lurks in his shadow, the NeverNever. All of these really interested me, and we got nothing but setup for them. It made the book feel like an extended prologue for the series, which is a real shame, because if we'd started with some of those concepts instead, I feel like the book would have flowed way better.

Something I really appreciated about the story though, was it's pacing. This would likely be a one star read for me if it didn't have the really tight pacing that it does. This book doesn't waste a page, and I love that. Everything we see is done to further the story, which is what allows this book to still be a page turner despite the flaws it does have. If this book had slowed down, I can't say I would have been able to finish it, since especially towards the end, my interest was beginning to wane, and only the pacing kept me going.

All in all, I'm really hoping that the next books in the series improve on the promise that this one shows, so I'm very likely to continue on with the series down the line. I am aware that the series doesn't pick up until around Book 3 or 4 for most people, so I'm prepared for Fool Moon to still be a bit of a problem read for me, though I'm looking forward to continuing the series despite the issues present in Storm Front.

The book sits at 2/5 rating for me, it wasn't quite bad enough to justify one star, but it wasn't that good either. I can't really recommend it, since I didn't vibe with it all that much, but if you enjoy books like James Patterson's longer form series, I think this one would click for you.

Royal Assassin is one of the best that I've ever read. I didn't think that Hobb would be able to so decidedly top the already amazing Assassin's Apprentice, but here I am, basking in the fact that she made her previous work look almost amateurish in comparison. She's opened my eyes to parts of her books that I didn't even realize appealed to me, and doubled down on the aspects that I loved.

First things first, let's get the prose section out of the way. If you're at all familiar with Hobb's work, you'll know what you're getting with this. She doesn't do purple prose, but she does exceptionally well crafted prose that enriches the text at every step. Some of the lines that she drops into this book wracked me full of sobs because of the sheer power of the writing. Dialogue is also a massive strength of hers, every single character feeling like their dialect and delivery has been painstakingly considered. Of special note is the Fool, who's every line feels like it's been meticulously crafted to get your mind racing about the possible meaning behind his cryptic speech.

Then there's the story. First off, the court politics. They're so much better in this than they were in Assassin's Apprentice, since Fitz is so much more observant and alert, and finally begins to take a more proactive approach when it comes to involving himself in them. We actually get the opportunity to really see the man behind the curtain, and it's fantastic. But even then, Hobb uses this newfound agency and observant nature as a fog for the reader, blindsiding us with twists that are brilliantly crafted and that she practically screams at both us and Fitz, but neither notice because we don't have the experience the world required to see them. I found myself regularly blindsided by the twists the story took in regards to the court.

But that's only a small part of the whole, and of equal note in my opinion is her handling of the magic systems. If I was to complain in the first book, it would have been the underdevelopment of the magic system, but I was under no illusions that that would be the case for the rest of the series. In this book we have extended periods of time coming to grips with both the Wit and the Skill, and these are also used to give us broader of the characters that surround Fitz, both old and new. These have the potential to be one of the most interesting magic systems that I've ever encountered, and I'm so excited to see how they're expanded upon in Assassin's Quest.

I also really enjoyed how she did combat. If it's small brawls we get the whole thing with almost every detail, but if it's larger scale battles, we get the initial burst, and then a smash cut to the aftermath, the reasoning being that Fitz loses himself in the battle and his future self can't recall the nitty-gritty. I really enjoyed this way of doing large battles, since in some fantasy, the fights can begin to drag on after a while, so this method sates our appetite while not burning us out on the combat.

And then there's the characters. I could probably write a full essay on my love for the characters here, but I don't want this section to drag, so I'm gonna briefly touch on the standouts. But, before I do, I just want to say, there isn't a single character that I dislike in this book. There's ones I hate, but they're still solid characters when all is said and done.

Something that I really appreciated about the book was Hobb's ability to write off screen character arcs that work really well. For instance, Hands was a prick last book, and I didn't like him. But throughout the book, he undergoes a character arc in the background that completely transforms him to be a much more tolerable person, and we don't see the journey, just the slow transition of the character as Fitz notices him around the stable, and when finally we see an interaction with him, his arc has been completed, and it doesn't feel like whiplash from a sudden character shift.

For the characters we do see the arc for, Fitz has to be talked about. Fitz' journey throughout this entire book is one of the most cathartic, yet still painful, arcs that I've ever read. We finally see him begin to come into his own, while weathering painful setbacks and losses, and growing from each one. He's an incredibly well crafted character, and is honestly one of the bests PoVs in fantasy. I don't want to spoil too much of his journey, but this isn't the Fitz we once knew, who was placid and tried to fade into the background. His heritage plays a large part in his story now, coming to the forefront rather than being an insult to put him down.

Verity is a standout as well, as we finally get to know the reclusive King-in-waiting, destroying himself to save his kingdom. He's one of my favourite characters in the book, and steals every scene that he's in.

Burrich is just as good, if not better than he was in the prior book, and is just my favourite character in the series so far. His devotion to Fitz is beautifully written, and the pain that he carries with him is heart wrenching the few times he shows it. I adore him so much.

Then lastly, there's Regal. I hate Regal. He's an inhuman spiteful little shit. He makes Ramsay Snow look like a kitten in comparison. He is one of the most evil characters that I've ever read. He draws genuine fury out of me so often it's shocking. I have had to put the book down for a bit to calm down after he's done something. I'm desperately hoping to see a very brutal and drawn out end for him in the last book.

I've barely touched on the characters, but they're all phenomenal, and I don't know how Hobb nailed each one so perfectly. There's still Nighteyes, Molly, Patience, Kettricken, the Fool, Rosemary, Chade, the list just goes on and on, and it's great. Just for the characters alone, you should read it.

The world is also expanded in staggering ways. We get more of the history, both political and mythological. But mainly, we get the current political climate shown to us, through Fitz' work as a kings man. We're introduced to new leaders, and get our first glimpses at what the raiders true motivations might be, whilst also being shown that not all Outislanders are scumbags. It's wonderfully executed, and as with Assassin's Apprentice, leaves me parched for more, since no amount will satiate my desire to see the wonders hidden in the world.

The only major thing that I can say might be an issue for people is the pacing. This book is slow as shit. I really appreciated that about, but I've been told before that I don't have the best gauge for what good pacing in a story is, since I can just sit there and read character moments ad nauseum if they're done well enough, which as I said before, they all are. That being said, the pacing won't be an issue for people until the middle of the book, since the beginning is actually really fast paced.

Overall, this was an absolutely perfect book in my opinion, and I'm gonna be recommending this to anyone who'll bother listening to me about it. 5/5 stars, but only because I can't give it more.

Thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for an early access copy

And Put Away Childish Things disappointed me a little bit if I'm being honest. The concept is a brilliant one, as I've grown a tiny bit jaded on Narnia over the years, so seeing a darker twist on it was a really enticing concept. And I think that this book would have absolutely nailed that concept, had it been a full fledged novel rather than a novella.

I'm generally a sucker for a novella, so initially I was actually glad to see that this title wouldn't be a monstrous addition to an already overwhelming tbr, but now I wish that it was that monstrous addition. Because what is here, is really good, despite being riddled with pacing issues, it just failed to click with me, or explore any of it's themes and messages deeply enough for me to feel really satisfied with them.

This review is going to be quite negative, despite the 3 star rating, so I do want to preface this by saying that my issues aren't a fault of the book for the most part, they're a fault of my personal reading tastes, and I do think that there's an audience out there for what this book has on offer, it's just not me.

Something that I really did like about the book is how it blended Portal Fantasy with Science Fiction, which (in my admittedly limited) experience with Portal Fantasy hasn't really been done before. Tchacovsky attempts to pin scientific principles to the functionality of the portal world, and does it really well in my opinion.

Reading the book was a perfectly enjoyable experience, that I was engaged with the entire time, but I ran into more issues with it the deeper I got, though none so major that I felt the desire to put the book down, and found myself reasonably content with the time I spent reading it.

The book tries to deal with a bit too much with the page count it has in my opinion. It tries to deal with listlessness, not living up to the expectations you'd set for yourself, what it means to be alive, utilitarianism etc. and this just leads to the book feeling both bloated and rushed.

The main character is likely a primary cause of this, being a passenger to the story at almost every turn, never really taking a proactive, bar making a single phone call at the mid-point of the story. His voice was at times extremely grating as well, dripping in cynicism up until a sudden turn of heart that doesn't really feel earned.
The side characters however, were delivered upon quite well. Well, two of them were. Seitchman and Timon.

Seitchman is a PI who tracks Harry down for a cult who worship the stories his grandmother wrote about a mythical land, and Timon is a faun from that land, who's fallen victim to the decay of the land. Both characters are really good, and I think the book would have benefitted from being multi-pov between Harry and Seitchman, so that we could have had an actually proactive PoV.

I thought the antagonist was really weak, as they weren't set up the best, and then when introduced, they were very moustache twirly. Tchaicovsky has done this a few times, notably in Dogs of War, but I felt like that book in particular had more to say with it's themes and messages than this one ended up having, so having a less interesting antagonist wasn't particularly an issue there. Another factor that makes this worse is that this antagonist is very interesting conceptually, but doesn't get the screentime necessary to become a truly interesting character. Again, I feel like this would have been allayed by the book being longer, as maybe we would have seen the full breadth of this character.

The world of Underhill is really interesting, presented as a Narnia-esque land in the final stages of entropy, dying out because of some mysterious reason. I would have liked to spend more time in it, but half the book is dedicated to Lockdown era London, which leads to the feeling that this was inspired, in part, by the feeling of losing months at a time to Covid due to the disruption that it caused, which is shown by the strange loss of time experienced when people travel between our world and Underhill.

I really liked the spin that Tchaicovsky on the “always winter” angle, with the snow not actually being snow, instead being some kind of strange fungus that's coating the land as a result of the decay that it's undergoing.

The prose is fine, it's nothing particularly to write home about, however, I could be getting swayed by the fact that my ARC had quite a few grammar issues in it, and the typesetting wasn't fantastic. So, I won't comment too much on the prose for that reason.

Another issue that I had was the pacing, which was a little bit too breakneck for my taste. The pacing it had would have worked better for a different book in my opinion, because again, it just tries to tackle a bit too much for it's own good, so you'll be introduced to something, and ferried along before you really get to experience it properly, which was a massive shame, as there were questions and concepts raised that I would have loved to see fully explored. From my experience with Dogs of War, this seems to be the style of pacing that Tchaicovsky likes to employ, however, it just didn't really click with me all that well.

The last thing I want to touch on, while admittedly not that important, is the cover. I don't like it. I think it's really boring and generic, which is a damn shame because I feel like you could have done quite a few extravagant and eye catching things with the story, such as an art piece showing off the decaying Underhill, but instead we're left with a rather boring cover that screams “bad Narnia rip off” The colour scheme looks very nice however, so I feel like the book will, at the very least, look nice on the shelf if you get it physically.

In short, the book failed to deliver on the promises it makes in the depth that I would have liked, and has a really annoying and passive protagonist, however if you don't need deep exploration of themes, and enjoy Portal Fantasy, and the theoretical science behind it, I would recommend this book. For me it sits solidly at a 3/5, because despite my misgivings, it was still a fairly enjoyable read

Last Argument of Kings is the third and final book in the First Law trilogy. But it really doesn't feel all that final. Boasting an absolutely stellar continuation of a really good trilogy, this books ending fell a little flat for me, as it lacked a lot of the closure that I'd been hoping for, instead leaving the world open for further stories. Despite this, the book manages to deliver consistently character writing, much like the previous two entries, and finally begins to really feel like what you'd expect when you hear the term Grim Dark.

I started this book off the heels of Before They Are Hanged, which had left me a little bit underwhelmed with it's ending but still really excited for where the story was going to take these characters. And I have to say, despite the rough ending of BTAH, this book recovers with startling grace, almost instantly regaining my full interest once again, and actually enhancing my view of BTAH's ending, which still surprises me even now.

The stark difference between this book and The Blade Itself is also really funny to me, as TBI had almost no substance to it's plot, instead being entirely focused, this book is filled to the brim with plot, so much so that it could have been it's own trilogy. Which might make the book sound bloated, and as though it skips over a lot, which was something that I had actually worried about, but I didn't find that to be the case, with Abercrombie showing off how skilled an author he is, by managing to have a breakneck pace that still manages to feel like it's giving the reader the opportunity to stop and smell the roses.

I think the way that he uses those pauses in pace to build tension is absolutely masterful, because it not only affords him the chance to focus more on the characters for a while, but it also lets him build a slight panic in the reader by really emphasizing just how much trouble our characters are really in.

I've touched on it a couple times, but I think that this is his best book in terms of character growth. Or, if I'm being more honest, the lack of it. After all, you have to be realistic about these things. And the fact of the matter is, is that none of these characters truly grow as much as they, or you, would like to believe.

And the thematic resonance of this is beautiful. It finally establishes the tone of the series, that we'd seen echoed throughout Logen and Glokta's stories, one of a man desperate to change, and the other of a man who would like to change, but realized he had to be realistic about the likelihood of it. In many ways, the trilogy wasn't actually about the central events, instead it was the battle between these two ideas. The idea that you could change vs the idea that you are what you are, and you needed to get on with it. So while we see the end of the Northern and Gurkish conflicts, we actually end up seeing a third war come to a close as well. That of these two ideas. The character that most displays this is in fact Bayaz, as he undergoes a phenomenal shift in this book, and I'm very excited to read Age of Madness just for him.

As always, the character voices are fantastic, with every PoV leaping off the page, feeling like they have a defined history that's informed every opinion that they have, and it's strengthened even further in this book, because by this point we actually know almost all of those reasons, with a few more coming to light throughout.

A small criticism that I would have is that I think the final battle slightly overstays its welcome, going on a bit too long. It ends up totaling almost 250 pages, and though the conflict was really engaging, towards the end I felt myself burning out pretty hard on it, and was glad to finally see the battle done. I don't know if that was purposeful by Abercrombie, so that we could relate to the characters who were also extremely exhausted, but it just didn't really click for me as much as I would have liked.

The biggest criticism I have is the ending. I didn't love it. Everyone I'd talked to said that the ending was fantastic, and that it left them with a strong sense of closure. But to me, it read like sequel bait. Every single characters story ends without real closure, which again, is a theme within the books, that closure is a lie we tell ourselves to try and ignore the traumas of the past. But that didn't make it any less satisfying for me to not get proper endings for most characters. I loved the stripping of hope that the ending undertook, with the mask of positivity finally slipping off entirely, but I just wish that we would have gotten actual endings for at least one character. We don't even get a proper ending for Logen, who seemingly dies on the last page.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with the book, and despite my misgivings, would still definitely give it a 5/5, especially following my realization of the conflict of ideas going on in the background. I highly recommend the series, but would warn you that you're not really signing up for a trilogy, you're signing up for a Realm of the Elderlings style universe, where multiple trilogys will make up a greater whole. At the moment that sits at 3 and a short story collection, but likely with more on the way.

Nona the Ninth manages to completely shift the tone of the series, while still maintaining the gripping atmosphere and exciting story of the Locked Tomb, expanding the universe in ways that I hadn't expected it to. Despite being the weakest in the series so far, it was a fantastic read, and I was gutted to have to put it down.

Nona originally started as the opening act to the upcoming Alecto the Ninth, the final book in the series, but Tamsyn was unable to make it work in a satisfying manner, so she decided that it needed to be it's own book. This was definitely the right call, as I can't see this book not being it's own thing, especially with the massive tonal shift that it is from the rest of the series. If you showed someone unfamiliar with the Locked Tomb a sequence from this book alongside a sequence from either of the prior ones, they'd likely not realize that they shared a universe, but despite this, the book doesn't feel out of place, quite the opposite actually. However, I think having two major tonal shifts in one book might have made for an unpleasant read, so I definitely feel like it was the right call.

Nona is an almost saccharine sweet protagonist, but it works fantastically against the bleak backdrop of the planet she and her friends are hiding out on. Her voice is incredibly unique, unlike any that I've encountered in my time reading, likely due to the fact that she's only 6 months old (long story). I found myself genuinely very upset that she wouldn't be a PoV anymore, which makes Tamsyn 3 for 3 in making me sad to say goodbye to a PoV. Nona was an absolute treat, and the way that she viewed the world with such hope was genuinely infectious, making the themes of the story hit all the harder as the book went on, since I was fully immersed in her hope for the world. However, I can see Nona the Ninth being frustrating for some people, since it's the third book in the series where a character is completely in the dark, and has to start actively fighting for their agency in the book.

I really enjoyed the mystery of who Nona really was, trying to spot the various different ticks that Harrow and Gideon had. This added a really fun little mystery backdrop to the story, and the conclusion is in my opinion, absolutely perfect.

The other characters surrounding Nona are equally well realized, most being the result of very careful setup in the last two books. The best of the bunch are absolutely Camilla and Palamedes, though John is a close second to them, thanks in large part to the flashback sequences that we get throughout the book.

Camilla and Palamedes have a fantastic dynamic that's continued on from GtN, and the evolution of their relationship throughout the novel is in my opinion some of the best character work on offer in the series, and we're unlikely to see it topped in Alecto.

John however, is a bastard. And he's great. We get his backstory and motivations, and it finally begins to paint a picture for us of the man who became god, and shows us that he's really just a broken man who misses his home, and has a grudge against cows having friends.
The structure of the book is also of note in my opinion, as the book continues the 5 part structure of the series, but instead of parts, they're days. The story takes place over the course of 5 days, and this gives the book an almost time bomb element that builds tension just by its own existence in a manner that's really exciting. Because of this, Nona is honestly the best paced book of the three we've gotten so far.

That being said, Nona can at times feel like filler. It definitely reads like a section of a different book that's been expanded into it's own thing, though thanks to the extremely strong character work, I don't think that this is an issue overall, just something to keep in mind as you're jumping in following Harrow. This definitely feels more like setup than it's own full fledged book. I would liken how I felt after it ended to how I felt after watching Infinity War for the first time. I was definitely satisfied by it, but it didn't feel conclusive in its own right.

That being said, this book has some of the most emotionally charged scenes in the entire series, making me cry multiple times. Reading the series shows Tamsyn's growth as an author, who's primarily learning the best ways to emotionally maim the reader.

Nona made me very excited to see how Tamsyn will manage to close out the series, and I couldn't recommend the book enough. It's the one I enjoyed the least in the series, but that's by no means an insult to the book. It's still a 5 star read, which makes The Locked Tomb the only series I've read to get a 5 star rating on each book. I cannot recommend these books enough.

Harrow the Ninth is probably the single most mindbending book that I've ever read. From start to finish I felt like I was being gaslit, and that Tamsyn Muir was laughing at me as I second guessed myself into a gibbering mess on the floor. Needless to say, I adored this book.

There's a few quirks straight off the bat that I had heard people complain about before I'd even finished Gideon, so I went in slightly apprehensive. Especially considering the second person perspective that is so incredibly divisive.

I'd like to say that these complaints are warranted, and that people have good reason to feel this way. And to a certain extent they do. If you just hate second person, and think it can never be done well, you'll hate this, but if I'm being honest, anyone who complained about the second person after finishing the book missed the point. The book fundamentally doesn't work without the existence of the second person.

The other main complaint I've seen is that people didn't like the fact that there was a retelling of the events in the first book, but this is an incredibly unfair assessment of those chapters if I'm being honest, and the complaint rings hollow to me after I've finished the book, since it comes across as though the people raising this complaint didn't finish the book.

The pacing complaint that I've seen is a totally valid one, though I personally liked the pacing, even if the book is very slow at points. That's just the style of story that I enjoy, so this one clicked with me.

The characters in this book are stellar, much like they were in Gideon, each one making a splash within a few pages of their introduction. This book is also benefitted by having a much smaller cast than the previous entry, allowing the other characters to absolutely shine off the page. Looking back at it, Gideon definitely suffered to a small extent from character bloat (despite my enjoyment of those characters) and definitely could have used a bit more time with some of them. This is mitigated in both this book and Nona, as now we've seen more of a lot of those characters, so Gideon is very much the prologue of the series that serves as setup.

The Emperor in particular is an absolute delight, acting like that fun uncle that you only used to see at family events, except you're seeing him in a really important position of power, and his chaotic inner gremlin is telling him to fuck around and have fun, but his sensible side (and sensible friends) are steering him narrowly past that path. This creates a lot of really engaging scenes with him, where the fun part is dropped, and he just gets sad, and you see the pain he's been through, paying off setup from early on in GtN.

Then there's Harrow. Harrow had big shoes to fill for me, coming off the back of Gideon, who is now firmly squared away as one of my favourite protagonists in literature. And you know what? She didn't fill them completely. But she was damn close. Harrow in any other series would be the best PoV that you'd get, but here she just has some damn good competition. The fact that Tamsyn was able to craft two distinctly phenomenal protagonists is something worthy of praise on it's own, so I'm not even remotely disappointed by Harrow not living up to the Himbo in chief. She's still an S-tier Protagonist in my opinion.

And then there's the prose. The prose is once again phenomenal in this book, Tamsyn going all out to show off her skills as an author. I was challenged multiple times throughout this book with words that I had never even realized needed defining, but here she is, pulling out the most obscure terms she can, and I love it.

All in all, a hearty recommendation from me, I adore this book. Tamsyn Muir is one of the best modern SFF authors in the game, and I'm so excited to finish the series.

Ah, Gideon the Ninth. What a book. I originally picked this book up a year ago, and made it to the end of Part 3, decided I was going to back to it eventually, and then proceeded to forget to do that. Which is heartbreaking, considering the fact that now that I've read it, it's one of my favourite books.

Tamsyn Muir has crafted one of the most interesting SFF universes that I've experienced in recent memory, and I'm ungodly excited to see more of it down the line. It feels like she was a massive fan of 40k, who decided she wanted an ending to the mythos, so she made her own universe that was similar to it, yet distinct enough to not be a direct rip. She then proceeded to make it gay as shit.

And hoo boy, does this book slap. Spoilers for the rest of this review, I have nothing bad to say about this book. I loved every single facet of it, every character, every line, and if I could go back to not remembering it so that I could have the joy of experiencing it for the first time again, I would.

First things first, Gideon, our protagonist, is probably one of my favourite fantasy protagonists ever put to page. I don't think any author has managed to make the reader understand a PoV character as quickly as Tamsyn does here, because by the end of the first chapter, the reader will have a near perfect understanding of who Gideon is. But by no means is Gideon a shallow character. Quite the opposite actually. Without getting too deep into spoilers, there are truths about herself that Gideon isn't quite ready to admit to herself, and watching her unravel herself from her traumatic childhood is a genuinely beautiful story.

And then there's Harrow. Oh Harrow, my beloved. A character designed for you to loathe, and then love. The smartest woman in any given room, who shows just how stupid she is by ignoring the asset she has in Gideon. Again, I don't want to spoil anything, because you should read the book, but her and Gideon's animosity towards each other is such an entertaining dynamic because of how different the two of them are to each other.

The prose is beautiful in the book, and challenged me quite a bit at points, throwing words at me that I'd never even heard, let alone read, before, so it was quite fun having my vocabulary expanded like that.

The world is probably my favourite aspect of the book. Having the universe be set in our solar system, but so far into the future that the names of the planets as we know them have been lost, is an amazing touch, that adds a surprising amount of weight to the story.

The magic system within the world is also really cool, as there's multiple different forms of necromancy within the universe. For instance, one of the houses style of necromancy comes in the form of freezing the person's aging, allowing people to live forever. Some of the cooler aspects of the magic system are massive spoilers, so I won't go too deep into those, but needless to say, it's fantastic.

But let's get to my one issue. My big, glaring, issue. And that is that Tamsyn Muir has refused to apologize for the sheer agony that the ending of this book put me through. I bawled my fucking eyes out. I don't think I will ever emotionally recover from the beating my heart took from the last 20 pages of this book, so I will be pursuing legal action. It was absolutely fantastic, I couldn't have asked for a better ending.

All in all, read the book, you're doing yourself a massive disservice by not at least experiencing the first in the series, because it really is an absolute treat. If you couldn't tell from the rest of the review, this is a 5 star book, and I'll be recommending it to anyone who'll listen to me.

I've been hearing about Terry Pratchett for the better part of 15 years now. My dad was a massive fan of his, owning about 20 or so of the books at one point, desperately trying to get me interested in his works. However, the thing that finally got me to read his works was in fact the adaptation of another of his books, Good Omens. And I couldn't be happier for it.

This book doesn't just mark my first foray into the Discworld however, it's also the first time that I've listened to an audiobook the entire way through, and hoo boy, what a good one to start with. Specifically, I listened to the new audiobook narrated by Sian Clifford, who does a stellar job selling the world and characters, though I'll get back to that soon.

The brass tacks of the plot are as follows: Death decides he wants an apprentice, picks a young lad called Mort, we find out that Death isn't actually an utter bastard, then once Mort starts taking on more of the job, him and Death start to swap personality traits, and we discover why it's so important for Death to be impartial.

Ultimately, this story is a love letter to being alive. And that's wonderful to experience. So many fantasy stories feel like they want to focus on how cool war and death is, so it's nice to hear a story that wants you to know that it's okay to just live, and be normal. I think that even when I've read all of Discworld, that Mort is going to stand out to me as one of the best examples of Pratchett's personality shining through his work.

But, that's not where the good bits end, because this book is absolutely hilarious. Almost every single joke landed for me. Maybe I'm just a soft touch, but I think it's more likely that Pratchett was just that good of an author. He can weave in-universe jokes with pop culture references together deftly, without it feeling jarring, which is just masterful.

Then there's the characters. I'm going to quickly touch on Mort, because he's the character we spend the most time with. Mort is a solid protagonist. He's nothing special, if anything, he's quite tropey, being a farmboy from the middle of nowhere who embarks on a quest, but that's actually to the characters advantage, as he's put up against this backdrop of events that are far far above him, and rises to the occasion. He also manages to serve as a kind of “Human Prime” who contrasts with Death to show why the two should never intermingle, creating a wonderful dichotomy.

Then there's Death. Death is one of the single greatest characters in the history of Fantasy. This is a character who's inspired by the Grim Reaper, but if he was nice. Death is fascinated by humans, he absolutely adores them. But not just humans. He has this deep respect for life that is just intoxicating to read about.

For instance, one of the few times we see Death get genuinely angry appears at the beginning of the book. Mort is asking him rather banal questions, and struggling to comprehend the answers, and all of a sudden, Death becomes incredibly terse and angry. Mort continues with his questions, and Death sprints off down a back alley, and stops at a fountain. Mort is understandably worried that he's already annoyed his new master less than a few hours into his apprenticeship, but this worry is soon allayed when Death pulls a wet bag out of the fountain.

Death proceeds to open the bag, and out comes the souls of a few dead kittens. And Death is disgusted by the callous disregard of their lives, and the cruelty of their end. I could sit here for a long time, and gush about Death, because he is endlessly wonderful, and I'm sure as I continue with the Death books he'll grow even more so, but I'll leave it here with a heartfelt recommendation to read the book just for this.

Though, I would highly recommend the audiobook. I had an absolutely stellar time with it, the only issue I could point to being Albert's voice, which I found grating most of the time, due to the combination of pitch and how nasally it was. Death's voice actor in particular was a standout to me, the only voice I would have preferred would have been the late Christopher Lee's, who had voiced the character in the animated adaptation of Soul Music.

All in all, this is a damn near perfect book, and I think you owe it to yourself to read it. 5/5 stars, heartily recommend it.