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With me very much liking the first book and very much not liking the second, as I started this, I already feeling skeptical about the series.

Well, overall, although this book was better than the second, there’s not enough for an redemption.

With the first book focussing on the political machinations before the Holy War, and the second trudging though the war itself, here it’s mostly philosophy and metaphysics. Although I do like some of this, even when it makes for hard reading, there’s only so much dense pondering I can take when we still don’t get any further on with the plot.

For the first two-thirds, everyone is continually just fawning over the main character and how great they are, when really, as the reader, we only see a sociopathic and misogynic mad man. It’s stupid to think others couldn’t see that at all, especially as magic isn’t invoked as an explanation.

Then, when we near the final third, and the confrontation that’s been built up for most of three long books, everything is abrupt and rushed.

That said, some individual events and the extra world building is all quite fascinating, really fleshing out and broadening what already was an amazing and truly epic setting spanning continents and cultures.

The highlight was the overall climax for the sorcerer Achamian, which also marks the culmination of the book (all the half page of it) - it’s brave, and not an easy out for the author or the characters. This brought about true closure and opened up intriguing new possibilities.

Despite me generally being a completionist when it comes to fantasy series, and indeed I’m reluctant to not find out where we go with the next four-book series to actually learn the full story of the second apocalypse, at the moment, I can’t face all the skimming over all grandiose prose I’d no doubt have.

I am impressed with Bakker’s fresh thinking behind basing a fantasy on philosophy and psychology, but there’s simply no point of visiting somewhere so bleak for so little plot.

#BookReview

After the dramatic events at the end of The Liar's Knot, we enter this book aware of what’s behind the much of the ill our main characters, Ren, Vargo and Grey, are fighting.

The trouble is, although these three are now revealed and reconciled with each other in all their various guises, having become embroiled in multiple personas or other lies, at some point it was inevitable there would be consequences of such deceptions.

For Ren, however much she adores the new family she’s gained by becoming Traementis, it’s based on a falsehood, and it’s really the work that she does in her Vraszenian guises of Arenza Lensky and The Black Rose that she’s passionate about. Is there any way for her to not break with the Traementis while following her heart?

For Vargo, and his spider, he somehow needs to keep the trust of those he relies on when he’s not truly as bound to their causes as he claims.

For Grey, well… he had an exceptional resource at his disposal, but owing to his conflicts he’s cast it aside; how does he go forwards now he’s a different person?

So as our cast is thrown into their biggest challenge - finally ridding Nadežra of maline influence once and for all - they also have to deal with the how the wider Vraszenian and Liganti populace reacts as they see the real characters behind the masks.

I won’t lie and say the plot is always skilfully handled here; it’s certainly not. In particular, the outcome of one of the main denouncements felt particularly episodic as if the writers were, “OK, we must deal with that, OK that’s done, close it off quickly, move on”.

I will also say that the authors do resolve every plot thread, and that’s some task in a series this complex, making for a lot of endings - we learn about Ren’s origins, the spider, the bodyguard, even some whys behind how the Vraszenian tarot-based magic links with Liganti number-based magic.

Despite the negatives in plotting, I still can’t bring myself to be anything but fully positive about the series; it’s innovative, it has captivating characters and the backdrop of Nadežra is just deliciously well realised. Race and class conflicts, as well as what it means to have a mixed heritage, are not easy concepts to bring into a fantasy, especially when we also have so much fun, silly banter and action.

And finally, I’m never not going to have a soft spot for any fantasy where our heroine relies on smarts and not a sword.

I’m off to go back to Mask of Mirrors and start it all over again

#BookReview Here, we continue with story of Ren, a would-be con artist, who’s achieved her goal of being accepted as a full member of the noble House Traementis in the Renaissance Venice-inspired city of Nadežra, where this trilogy is set.

However, Ren’s now a long way from her main motivations being those she started with, as she has a new tangled web of heart and home considerations to think of at every turn.

The primary thrust of this second book takes us back to the mysterious curse on House Traementis, something that was introduced a bit too hurriedly in the first book.

Who or what is it that has the power to so profoundly affect families so as to cause entire family lines to die out? Why is the crime lord Vargo seemingly also so interested in this problem? How does this link to the 200 years of tension between the Vraszenian and Liganti people within Nadežra?

And how is Ren going to reconcile the above with her new and unlooked-for third persona, that of the Black Rose? [Poor Ren! Never mind the two guises she already has as part of her con, being the Black Rose means now she has responsibility to do what’s right by the general Vraszenian populace of the city too].

No doubt, but for me these issues make for a truly sumptuous plot, and I’m fine if there’s sometimes a rather meandering story path as each of our three main characters have various parts of puzzle at various times (as well as Ren, both Vargo and Grey Serrado get full arcs and take on substantial POV sections).

I especially adored learning the truth behind Vargo. In fact, our first scene is a gritty flashback where we see just how Vargo becomes attached to the spirit that lives in his spider Peabody, and thus starts on the path of his meteoric rise from slum street kid to nobility. [And if you haven’t read the first book, and think the ‘spirit in the spider’ thing just sounds too silly to be real, well yes it is, but no it’s not, all at the same time! These authors are not afraid to have fun with their fantasy].

Although, the sheer number of names does mean you have to fully pay attention (and make use of the Dramatis Personae and glossary), I wouldn’t want it any other way - I’m all in to work at fully embracing this lush and polished world. Despite some serious themes (lies, trust, love, greed, spirituality…), there’s just so much more when those are mixed with a good dose of fashion, flirtation and swashbuckling action to give a multi-layered book.

Any fans of political fantasy should be reading this series.

#BookReview This book is the first in a completed trilogy, written by two authors under the pen name of M. A. Carrick. It follows the stories of multiple characters as they try and negotiate the turbulence of life in the Renaissance Venice-inspired city of Nadežra.

Our main protagonist is Ren, a city native (who are of Vraszenian race), who has returned to Nadežra after being forced to flee it after betraying the sinister leader of their group (knot) of child thieves. Together with her sister Tess, she is trying to move up in the world by executing a con trick passing herself off as the daughter of an estranged relative of one of the ruling Liganti-race gentry families - the Traementis family - in order to be taken in by them officially.

However, as Ren negotiates her con, helped along by her marvellously fun, and sometimes scandalous, appearances as a fashionista (all delightfully enhanced by Tess’s skill as a seamstress and ‘imbued’ make up), she ends up more invested in the dealings of the Traementis. Of course, this means she is inevitably dragged into the complexities of the city, as she, along with our many many secondary characters, come up against the interests of the powerful Indestor family and some dark forces.

As just a flavour of the stand outs among our cast, there’s Leato, the outwardly happy-go-lucky Traementis heir, his friend Captain Grey Serrado, a rare Vraszenian member of a mostly corrupt police force, the crime lord Vargo, who has unlikely specialised knowledge of numinatria, a geometrical magic system practiced by the Liganti, and a hooded vigilante, know only as the Rook, who is a hero to the Vraszenian populace. Of these, Vargo is a notable highlight - neither us as readers, nor indeed Ren, the gentry or the criminal underworld, are able to quite follow his motivations as he both ruthlessly uses others and yet also seems to take real risks to his own safety in pursuit of an unknown goal.

It’s indeed remarkable that everybody is fully realised and that the authors manage to link everybody, and every place, to their various factions with the necessary subtly. The different races, different classes and different magics (there’s a Vraszenian tarot-style magic system that’s is contrasts nicely with the numinatria) interweave with true expertise. However, the shear number of characters, and the varied political, religious/magical and social interconnections, do make initially make this an intimidating read.

Although the authors have provided a helpful Dramatis Personae list, you have to be very much on it at all times to follow who’s who - for me, it would have been easier going if official roles were included as part of gentry titles. This would prevent much flicking back to check details in the glossary/character list. Mind then again, I also enjoyed that the book didn’t hand hold you through it all too much. In a strange way, the reader’s confusion helped me feel at one with Ren trying to keep the different threads of her life apart as the story progresses.

All in all, I find this is an exceptional tale, with vibrant characters expertly set in a beguiling city. Although we have some changes of pace, and the first half of the book is notably slower, I was never frustrated, but rather revelled in extra time to catch up my thoughts. Despite a very few negatives, such as a couple of unnecessary scenes (including a whole section on a curse that’s not explained and too easily resolved) and that the city seems just a bit too self contained (meaning Ren can pull off some aspects of the con a bit too easily), the authors manage to captivate you for over 600 pages. One to read, re-read, and then move onto the sequels quickly before you forget the nuances

This final book of the Scholomance trilogy starts as our heroine, the wizard El (now about 18), is plunged back into an isolated present-day Welsh commune. There she has to deal with her grief at being forced to see her boyfriend Orion left to an eternity of being eaten by a beast known as a maw mouth and uncertainty that she will after all fulfil the prophecy that she will turn in an evil ‘malcifer’ witch. It’s not long before El is called, somewhat bitterly and begrudgingly, to use her exceptional abilities to help rescue enclaves, the residences of extremely privileged wizards. During these escapades, El teams up with the academically minded Leisel, now also an ‘enclaver’, and together with one of El’s friends from the previous books they work to discover Orion’s fate. [Aside: there’s a physical relationship between El and Leisel here - I didn’t find this at all a problem, the explanations feel realistic for the characters experience.] I was a bit frustrated at the end of book 2 that, because the location of the books were cut off from the outside world, we really couldn’t progress at working out what the menace targeting the enclaves was. Well rest assured, there’s a twist as we learn the enclavers’ malevolent secrets and watch our characters struggle against those determined to hang onto power at whatever cost. In fact, an underlying theme here is just not the advantages of privilege, but the lesson of just how evils in society can be perpetuated by justifying actions as a lesser evil. There’s also some really interesting descriptions of the joys and burdens of family and friendships, especially across cultures. The book has sections set everywhere from London, Mumbai and New York, to Dubai and Beijing, meaning there’s a lot of international travel between the action. These sections suffer from some uneven pacing (a flight to New York is described in intricate detail, which jars against a section of travel from Portugal to Wales that just passes in an ‘El was distracted and didn’t remember it’). [Aside: as a young adult book, I’d have liked to think our characters would have been a bit more concerned about just roaming around the world via long-haul flights too.] The other main negative is that you can definitely pull holes in the magic - not everything said about how it works is consistent with the final resolutions (it’s nearly there but not quite). That said, the twists, the struggles and the outcome provide a satisfying conclusion to this coming-of-age story. I’m mostly going to remember the character of El, she remained somewhat annoyingly angsty to the end, but she sure knew how to pull off a big fight, whether that was against evil monsters or the more-complicated enemy - people.

#BookReview This book, second in Naomi Novik’s young-adult dark academia fantasy series ‘The Scholomance’, starts exactly where we left off in the first book (ramblingreaders.org/user/clare_hooley/review/558898) with our two main protagonists, our narrator El and and her perhaps boyfriend Orion, now seniors in the deadly school. The end of the senior year is when both of them will face ‘graduation’ - a literal gauntlet run through a room filled with wicked hungry magical monsters (always deliciously well-described by Novik’s writing) that, in a standard year, only about half those entering survive. Of course with El and Orion both being so exceptional, we know this isn’t going to be a standard year. El has mellowed out (grown up) from being quite so whiny and angsty, although her sarcastic streak remains undimmed, and now even has friends. Owing to events at the end of book one, she also can’t be invisible to anyone anymore. This character development makes the book stronger and more engaging than before. I will say though, that the ongoing romance between El and Orion is a bit hormone-driven for me, but that’s not out of keeping with the context and age of the characters. After the first third of the book sees El fighting her way through difficulties much as per book book one, we get a change in the second half, as lessons end and it all becomes about practice for graduation, with plenty more school politics as alliances are formed, then broken, then formed again. At least at first, the overriding theme of the series so far, how different it is for haves and have nots, is continued. In the last third of the book, the twist is gradually revealed; it’s not a give away to say El is expected to save the day. It’s also fair to warn there’s a cliffhanger ending - we don’t know get to learn the precise fate for El and Orion here. Overall, once again, there’s a lot of fun to be had here in our characters’ struggle against the malevolent school, although this still doesn’t feel a very likely world. Our information as to what is really it is going on ‘outside’ has been limited to dialogue with incoming freshman hinting at something very ominous. At two-thirds of the way through the trilogy, it does feel a bit late in the day to only now start exploring the ‘real’ goings on and dark prophecies that have been fed as titbits throughout both books. As good as the writing in it is, I’m hoping we’ll get start to get insight that actually moves the story on beyond heroes versus monsters early in the next book.

Young-adult fantasy told in first person through the eyes of El, a 3rd year (~16 years old) female student in the ‘Scholomance’, the magic school of the series title. We as reader are thrown directly into her life at the school, which is completely cut off from the outside world of the adult wizards (there are no teachers here). In this first book of the series, we are then taken a-pace through a series of the school’s non-stop horrors as we learn most of the students die in increasingly gruesome ways; there’s magical monsters at every turn, work assignments that turn deadly, contaminated food, bullies and cliques, and a good dose of adolescent angst. In fact, it’s all quite a good deal of macabre fun, and told with much delightful malice. One of the main themes is how much easier life is if you come from a position of privilege, in this case meaning that you enter the school from a specific ‘enclave’, and thus have a ready-made support network. Without this, students such as El need to find or join such a network by brilliance, drudgery or even offering themselves as cannon fodder. El, however, is so cantankerous, she pushes everyone away and can’t get into the position to show that she is brilliant, namely she has very powerful spells. Although that makes her interesting, it is definitely frustrating that we have an awful lot of text dedicated to her self pity, stubborn pride and even her trying to talk herself out of both. As a counterpoint, we thankfully have the ‘enclaver’ Orion, also acting as romantic interest, who has a gift that means he is courted by all rather than being seen as a person, showing that privilege isn’t necessarily all wonderful either (or at least in this school). The book would be better if we directly switched to other points of view to contrast with El’s everlasting sardonic inner monologue, but I can see that would be complicated for the intended audience. The other negative is that the world is just a too far out there to be believable - as bemoaned by El, it is really is just far too non-stop - but suspend all that because I just need to know how are characters are going to survive graduation, and that’s the next book… #BookReview

After setting up such an amazing world, I struggled with this sequel. The book this time focuses on the development of Kellhus, the warrior-prophet of the title, as he continues to exert his manipulative control on the Holy War. I mostly enjoyed his sections, and found the theology and philosophy interesting. Sadly, everyone else is just far too superficial, even more so when we lose much of the mage Achamian as a countering character. As we march across the continent lurching from battle to battle, anything which is fresh and pithy, and properly grim (there’s an excellent section on finding water), becomes ploughing on through a repetition of the same again and again, so there’s little that really advances the plot or keeps us immersed in the horror, it’s just the killing off another 30% of one or another army. I just seemed to be skimming a lot of text to get to each victory/defeat and another hundred miles or so closer to the destination town! I’m truly hoping we finally get some of the over-arching political dimensions of the world back in the final book.

[edited from original to expand into fuller review] Proper epic fantasy - in fact, it’s dark fantasy written before the grimdark explosion, in a truly well developed world. We we follow the tale of three people who are instrumental in arranging a holy war reminiscent of The Crusades; one sorcerer, one warrior and a monk who’s trained in being able to perform miraculous feats of psychological manipulation.

We’re literally dropped right into a world that has so many religions, philosophies and political factions, and it’s difficult to get through the first chapters as there’s no exposition at all - I even had to find a version of the map online with dates on because it hangs together better if you at least follow the locations of the places referred to.

But if you persevere, there’s so much reward. Sure it’s dense and intense, especially with the hefty doses of philosophy that our characters indulge in.

I find it remarkable that the world is assembled them in a way where philosophies and cultures that are diametrically opposed can make sense together.

There isn’t really any complexity to the plot, this first book is just about the political machinations involved in the instigation (yes/no) of holy war, but I always enjoy political fantasy.

Our three main characters are well realised - but none of them are at all likeable, two of them are absolutely sociopaths. The sorcerer (Achamian) is the most interesting - he’s trying to find his place in the world but, partly because he’s being tortured by dreams of an apocalyptic past event, has a difficult path.

However, saying it’s weaker when it comes women characters doesn’t come close. There’s only three women characters of any note, and despite it being a facet of setting, it would have been so much stronger if the book could have any women that weren’t just the whores that every male character denigrates them as. I suspect the author just can’t write women.

Emily Wilde is a scholar from a 19th century Cambridge (UK), but in a world where the Fae are elusive but very much accepted as real. While continuing her work to complete the Encyclopedia of Faeries of the title, she travels to investigate the Fae of Scandinavia, and we follow her tale through her journal entries. What’s clever is an unusual and sensitive portray of Emily, who we see finally able to overcome some social ineptitude and start a slow-burning romance with her dashing academic rival and Cambridge colleague, Wendell, who of course has a mysterious background. My favourite parts were the Fae stories themselves (including the interludes outside the plot - literal stories within the story presented as journal footnotes); there’s nothing particularly new there, everything is very traditional folklore - it’s just very well done. What does jar is that the author clearly has no idea of Cambridge academia (tenure is a concept that is neither Cambridge nor period), although we don’t spend too much time in that setting for it to be the problem it could be. For an expert on the Fae, Emily does also find herself trapped and take odd actions just a little too easily. A lighter read, but with some memorable darkness and some humour, but not enough for me to instantly want to buy the sequel.