Girish Kumar

For some reason I had deluded myself into thinking this book might be good. Given the track record of the crescent city novels, I should've known that I would be disappointed.

Anyway. Here we are. Another exceedingly disappointing addition to the series. Made even more disappointing burner fav that she squandered what cousins been an amazing crossover opportunity.

On top of that, SJM rehashes her old classic tropes (you'll know when you read the book). It's as if she's not learned anything new in the last few years and hasn't found anything new to write about.


I liked the first 20-25% only because we got to see some of my favourite characters from the ACOTAR novels. But that is all that this book has going for it. Maybe one more thing but that's a spoiler.

Disappointing.

I think it is generally hard to write a very good sequel. Especially for a book that is quite inventive, funny and a very good mystery all in one. So, I was wary of this sequel and I was more critical with this book while I read it.

Suffice to say, I absolutely loved this one.

Ernest Cunningham is back. He lays out the rules. He hands us all the clues. And is more than happy for us to solve it with him.

Ernest - I mean Benjamin Stevenson - has given us a lovely new narrative that builds on the previous story, with a fresh new mystery and new characters. He utilises the classic mystery tropes and, just as the previous one, puts his own twist on them. There are enough red herrings to go around, but one thing is for sure, Stevenson provides us with all the clues necessary to solve the case.

(Let me say, I did think I solved the case, but as he was doing the explaining, I realised I had gotten it all wrong and had called for the red herrings.)

I'm a sucker for a story within a story narrative. So, there was no doubt I would this Asian inspired fantasy.

It's a short book, so I won't say much. But it's such a lovely story done really well, with unique characters.

There are so many things going on in this book that it'll take me a while to sit down and decipher all of it. A really mesmerising book, and I loved it to the very end.
The characters were really rich, the prose was poetic, and the atmosphere was magical.

I find my self enjoying the episodic nature of The Lost Fleet's journey back into Alliance fleet.

Jack Geary continues to show us why he's the man for the job. But I found the romance between him and Rione a bit forced and out of nowhere. It also doesn't seem very believable because those two almost always end up discussion the difference between Jack Geary the man and Black Jack the myth and the legend. Somehow all their discussions end up at that topic. It's frustrating.

The space battles and the realistic way it is portrayed is very engaging, and it is my favourite element of these books.

The more books I read in this series, the more it reminds me of a space based D&D campaign.