Talonsister

I loved the winnowing Flame trilogy and did Talonsister live up to it?
It did!

Talonsister is a slow book. There is a lot of plots at work here but I loved the mystery. Who is Yins and how did she come to be raised by Griffins? And Leven why can't she remember her past?

I loved all of these characters. Yinis was the storyline I struggled with most more because the other storylines were more interesting than Yins was boring. but Williams knows how to tie things together.

Trust in the author. Things were slow but it all has a point and came together in the best way.

The world was fascinating. Williams took a lot of inspiration from Britan and she doesn't hide it, but with queens and Griffins, a wild seniant forest, druins and Titans it made for a world I loved to explore. Also queernormative:

The characters were what drew me to this story. Keato I loved. His relationship with Belise almost broke my heart.
I did find the romance a little rushed however.

The ending. Everything beforehand was written to the ending and it made the slow book worth it. Questions were answered and characters coming together. I almost cried.

a lot of things were set in place for future books and I cannot wait to read them

We follow three main characters throughout this book.
Leven is a Herald of the Imperium. She has no memory of who she was before she became a soldier. She was turned into a fighting machine along with the other Heralds to help win the war.

Envoy Kaeto is loyal to the Imperium. He knows what was done to create the Heralds and what will eventually happen to them.

Ynis is a human that was raised by Griffins. She knows nothing of the human world.

They are all connected. They just don't know it yet.

I wasn't sure about this at the beginning, but the more I got to know the characters and the world, the more invested I became. I really enjoyed it.
The narrator was great!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an audio copy.

Oh man, I loved this book. The most indulgent, wacky, world with all the magic and fantasy races you could ever want. Lots of cool, fun characters running around all sorts of weird places with just enough horror elements to get your heart racing. Griffins, druids, princesses, and surgically enhanced super-soldiers.

Jen Williams should be an A-list fantasy author. She just writes excellent, excellent fantasy books. The creativity of the worldbuilding is unmatched, the plot twists are all there, the scope is epic, and the writing and characters are pretty damn snappy and good.

But why 4 stars out of 5? Well, it's really a 9/10, rounded down. My issue with this book, and with all the Jen Williams books I've read so far, is just that it's so well put together. Everything is worked out, everything makes sense, it's bulletproof. I want something in a Williams novel to not make sense. Even though the twist at the end was still good, I don't want to see it coming and be able to figure it out in chapter 5. I want to be shocked and awed and horrified and for whatever reason I always just feel like everything is under control and is going to be all right.

That said, it's still a 9/10. Read this! And please, US publishers, sign this to a deal now!