Spoiler warning: This post contains spoilers for the first book in this series, The Shadow of What Was Lost.

An Echo of Things to Come is the second book in James Islington’s Licanius trilogy. I loved the first book of this series when I read it last year so I was impatiently looking forward to this one.

We pick up fairly soon after the events of the previous book; our heroes are settling into their new roles working against the impending invasion. Davian is at Tol Shen where he hopes to gather Augurs to help repair the spells protecting the Boundary, Wirr, the new Northwarden, is fighting an uphill battle to convince a resentful Administration that he can be trusted as their leader. Asha advocates for the failing Boundary to be taken seriously at court, and Caeden uses his portal box to finally get some answers about who he is and what his plan was before wiping his own memory.

All the characters have good arcs in this book, although Caeden’s is the most interesting for the same reason that Memento is such a compelling movie (and an arc in a certain anime that I don’t want to name since it would be a spoiler). The trope of a character making plans that involve them losing all knowledge of the plan but still succeeding has been done before but it’s executed skillfully here. It goes well enough that we appreciate Caeden’s foresight but there are a lot of variables involved and it would have been hard to suspend disbelief if it had been realized perfectly. The slow reveal of his flashbacks gives you just enough to be satisfied to wait until the next one happens but still eagerly anticipating the continuation.

The previous book had many scenes that were reminiscent of the Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan books it’s so clearly inspired by, (much like how The Eye of the World borrowed heavily from Tolkien). This book steps out of their shadow and feels considerably more original while still maintaining the comforting classic fantasy tone that made the last one so good. It’s a slower book than the first, though; it’s clearly setting up plots and characters for the third book. Some subplots dragged on for a little too long, especially Davian’s difficulties with a new Augur at Tol Shen, but it was a well structured book otherwise. And it answered a bunch of open questions about the world and its history which I wasn’t expecting until the last book, so that was great.

Now I get to wait impatiently all over again for the third book, The Light of All That Falls.

An Echo of Things to Come by James Islington (The Licanius Trilogy, #3)
Orbit Books, 2017 | Buy the book
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher or author.

Rise of Empire is the second volume of the Riyria Revelations, containing the third and fourth books of the series, Nyphron Rising and The Emerald Storm. I’m going to keep this review short, since it’s obvious that I really enjoy this series. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be rereading it instead of reading something from my massive pile of unread books. For more Royce and Hadrian reviews, see The Crown Tower, The Rose and the Thorn, The Death of Dulgath, and Theft of Swords.

In Nyphron Rising, the Church of Nyphron has finally implemented its centuries-old plan to unite most of the kingdoms of Avryn into an empire under newly crowned emperor Modina. However, Melengar and the Nationalists from Delgos remain thorns in the new empire’s side, and Prince Alric and Princess Arista are determined to keep the resistance alive. As the official royal protectors, Royce and Hadrian are crucial to the war effort. This is definitely a war book, although it doesn’t focus too much on the battles, it’s about war and its effects. I used to think that Arista was an annoying character, but upon rereading this, I actually really like her. She’s naive at first, but she grows and comes into her own in this book, and she’s probably one of my favorite characters.

The Emerald Storm is probably the most depressing of the books, it’s the part in the series where everything goes wrong and our heroes seem like they have no chance of winning. If this was a trilogy, this would be the second book. The tone of Royce and Hadrian’s story is more like an adventure novel, a lot of it is set on a ship, and there’s a mission into barbarian jungles. I don’t  find ships particularly interesting, so I was glad that despite being named after the ship, the book had a significant portion of time off the ship. I wasn’t a big fan of the warlord and goblin plotline, I felt like they were reduced to stock “evil” characters in a series that usually focuses more on individuals and not their race. I probably enjoyed Arista’s story the most, she realizes that the war may not be the most important thing going on, and changes her plans.

I’m already halfway through Heir of Novron (I had to, after the way Rise of Empire ended), so expect that review soon.

Rise of Empire by Michael J. Sullivan (The Riyria Revelations, #2)
Orbit Books, 2011 | Buy the book
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher or author.

After I reviewed The Crown Tower, I immediately started reading The Rose and the Thorn. Based on past experience I’m forcing myself to review each book before I read the next one in the series, otherwise the stories start to blur together and I can’t separate the books enough to review each one individually.

The Rose and the Thorn is the second book in the Riyria Chronicles series of standalones. Whereas the first book, The Crown Tower, told the story of how Royce and Hadrian became partners, this book tells the story of how they came to form Riyria and ended up in the arrangement we see them in at the beginning of Theft of Swords. A year after the events of The Crown Tower, Royce and Hadrian are back in Medford and stop by at Gwen’s – only she won’t see them because she’s been beaten up, and she’s trying to protect them from getting themselves killed trying to help her. Of course, this is Royce and Hadrian, and they can take care of themselves. We also get some additional viewpoints at Castle Essendon, the seat of the royal family of Melengar, as a plot against them unfolds.

This was a fun story, it was nice to see Royce and Hadrian settle into their element. Plus, we are introduced to early versions of more of the Riyria Revelations cast. I always think of these books as cozy, but there’s actually a fair amount of death and destruction and darkness, exemplified by Royce’s actions. Royce is terrifying, and I don’t know why I think of him as lovable.

The last chapter of this book (The Visitor) really frustrated me, though – its only purpose seemed to be to set up Theft of Swords with all the subtlety of a hammer. Foreshadowing is great, but the most fun thing about it is putting things together from what seem like inconsequential details upon first glance. I already thought the references to an unrevealed co-conspirator were fairly obvious, but to tack on a whole chapter laying it all out in the open felt like overkill. And reading this chapter also made me figure out the feeling I have when reading Sullivan’s books that I haven’t been able to articulate in my previous reviews – the dialogue in his books is always a little bit too on-the-nose for his characters to feel completely real. Especially the villains – they often explain their plans concisely and articulately at some point.

Despite my complaints, I still really enjoy these books, and I’m hurriedly reviewing this book so that I can get to The Death of Dulgath. I’m particularly excited about that one because it feels like it’ll be more of a standalone adventure and not so much of the origin story that the first two books have been. And after that, I’m also contemplating a reread of the Riyria Revelations.

The Rose and the Thorn by Michael J. Sullivan (The Riyria Chronicles, #2)
Orbit Books, 2013 | Buy the book
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher or author.

I absolutely loved The Fifth Season when I read it a couple of weeks ago – it made my top five books of 2016 despite reading it in late December. I immediately requested a review copy of The Obelisk Gate, and the fantastic Ellen Wright of Orbit (who also happen to be thanked profusely in the acknowledgements of this book) got it to me very quickly.

I’m avoiding spoilers for both The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate in this review, which is going to be a little tricky. At the end of The Fifth Season, we (and Essun) find out a little about what exactly is wrong with the world of the Stillness. The Obelisk Gate picks up pretty much exactly at that ending. We get a couple of new viewpoints – Schaffa, Syenite’s former guardian, and Nassun, Essun’s missing daughter who has been through more in a year that a person should have to bear in a lifetime.

We delve more into the world of the Stillness into this book, Essun isn’t as focused on her grief since she’s had some time to process things, and she’s lost Nassun’s trail. Her purpose changes, and she finds a community and starts paying attention to the wider world again. It turns into a more conventional (but still excellent) fantasy story – politics, alliances, defending your home from a threat, figuring out how to save the world. Nassun and Schaffa’s stories explore other plans for the world that are being made in parallel to Essun’s story, but have the potential to establish even more conflict.

This world is utterly brutal, and it’s shaped the people who live in it to be pretty monstrous as well. I’m not usually a fan of protagonists who commit heinous acts, but even though all three protagonists do this multiple times, N.K. Jemisin writes so well that I ended up feeling (almost) nothing but sympathy for them. Broken as they are, they’re the only people with the power to change things, and they’re reasonably well-intentioned. Some of the events makes it easier to understand why people are scared of orogenes, though, and I hope there are going to be some consequences in the third book for them. Right now the main consequences seem to be that the protagonists feel bad about themselves, but that doesn’t stop them from not being in control of themselves later.

Even though this was an outstanding book, it’s still very much a middle book, and by the end, the pieces are in place for what seems like it’s going to be an explosive (in multiple ways) finale. Only about six more months to wait for The Stone Sky!

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin (The Broken Earth, #2)
Orbit Books, 2016 | Buy the book
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher or author.

I know this blog has been inundated with movie reviews lately, but I’m still reading books too!

Retired war hero General Turyin Mulaghesh is sent to the city of Voortyashtan on a sort of tour to count down the days until she earns her pension. That’s the official story, anyway – actually, she’s there to covertly investigate a new metal that just might be related to the supposedly dead gods of the Continent, and figure out why the last person sent to investigate the issue ended up missing. Voortyashtan is complicated, though, and there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye.

I enjoyed City of Stairs when I read it last year, but not as much as a lot of other people. Mulaghesh was one of my favourite characters in the book, though, so I was pretty thrilled that she was going to be the protagonist of City of Blades. She does not disappoint – she’s a curmudgeonly one-armed war hero that’s unabashedly competent and won’t take any nonsense from anybody. She starts off the book pretty tired and lost, but once she enters problem solving mode, there’s no one I’d rather have on the case. She’s got a unique perspective and it never gets tiring to look through it. I would read a whole series of books about Mulaghesh.

City of Blades starts off with a pretty similar premise to the first book – a Saypuri is sent to a hostile Continental city to investigate possible Divine intervention – but it quickly evolves into its own thing. It helps that it doesn’t have to do all the worldbuilding that City of Stairs had to; the world of these books is complicated, and it was good to be familiar with how it all worked. The world does get extended, but in a very natural way. The martial Voortya is a pretty interesting god to explore, and Mulaghesh is the perfect person to understand her.

The new characters introduced in this book are pretty cool, especially Sigrud’s engineer daughter Signe. Sigrud is back as well, and he seems much more like a real person, which was great. I was a little bit frustrated with the character arcs of the villains – I can’t say more without spoilers, but I wished that they were less stereotypical. It’s a minor flaw in an otherwise terrific book, though.

I’m looking forward to the third book, City of Miracles – I think that’s going to be the last book. Sigrud is going to be the protagonist, which I’m more excited about thanks to his development in City of Blades.

City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett (The Divine Cities, #2)
Broadway Books, 2016 | Buy the book
I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher or author.

As expected, I loved this book. It’s hard to talk about all the things Robin Hobb does right, especially because at this point, I expect her to do them right, so this is going to be a pretty short review.

Spoilers for Fool’s Assassin ensue.

We pick up right where we ended things in Fool’s Assassin, and the pacing of the first half of the book is really slow. This was a bit irritating from the plot perspective considering the cliffhanger at the end of the last book, but Hobb doesn’t waste a single word. Fitz’s usual stubbornness is tempered by a little bit of wisdom, but he’s still very much himself. The Fool’s is not really himself, which is very unpleasant to read about, but makes sense. Bee is not as much of a presence in this book, but she’s a welcome one when she does show up. There are great new characters like Ash, great old characters that I never thought I’d see again, and welcome character development for characters from the first book.

There are a few moments involving Fitz in this book that I never really expected to happen, and some loose ends from the original Farseer trilogy are wrapped up. The last few chapters of the book are especially exciting for those of us who love the whole Realm of the Elderlings universe. All these good things make me scared for Fitz’s fate in the third book (especially as the book is called Asssassin’s Fate, and Robin Hobb doesn’t have a history of leaving her characters happy) but otherwise, I was thrilled.

I really don’t want to wait until this time next year to find out what happens next.

Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb (The Fitz and the Fool, #2)
Del Rey, 2015 | Buy the book