Ed McDonald: Ravencry

For Ryhalt Galharrow, working for Crowfoot as a Blackwing captain is about as bad as it gets – especially when his orders are garbled, or incoherent, or impossible to carry out.

The Deep Kings are hurling fire from the sky, a ghost in the light known only as the Bright Lady had begun to manifest across the city, and the cult that worships her grasps for power while the city burns around them.

Galharrow may not be able to do much about the cult – or about strange orders from the Nameless – but when Crowfoot’s arcane vault is breached and an object of terrible power is stolen, he’s propelled into a race against time to recover it. Only, to do that, he needs some answers, and finding them means travelling into nightmare: to the very heart of the Misery. . .

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I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review
*Potential for spoilers.*

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After the events involving Nall’s Engine within Blackwing, Ravencry sees us move forward four years with Ryhalt and the Blackwing in a position far better than what they had previously. They have their own office, they have a glorified secretary that does everything for them, and they hold some status within the city. However, when an item of great power and importance is stolen from Crowfoot, Ryhalt must make it his mission to retrieve the item or face the creation of a power far greater than any previously imagined. Alongside this, he must live with the notion that those he once loved and lost, may still, and will, have a hold on him.

When the e-mail to review this novel popped into my inbox I was sat in my house with Mary from Ramblings of a Writer. As soon as I mentioned the subject line of the e-mail, we both just seemed to look at each other and we both knew what the other was thinking – we need this book! We had both thoroughly enjoyed Blackwing and were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to immerse ourselves back into the world McDonald had built, and to see where our characters were after the Blackwing ending.

And McDonald did not disappoint. A slow beginning eases you back into the world as you’re reminded of the life debt Ryhalt commits to with Crowfoot, and the adventures Ryhalt and his crew had within the first novel. We’re reminded of characters that had only just entered the scene, and begin to see what part they will be playing as Ryhalt embarks upon these new adventures, and how they may help or hinder him. After all the introductions, you’re submerged once again and things head full throttle from there.

There is always that fear, like with a film, that the second in the series – and subsequently every one after – will not live up to the expectations of the first. However, Ravencry delivers. Not only is it easy to slip back into the Blackwing team as if you had only seen them yesterday, but McDonald brings even more to the table with new and exciting villains and powers, a more in-depth look into the Misery that we only briefly began to understand about in Blackwing, and characters that have clearly developed during those unmentioned four years.

In my review of Blackwing (take a look!), I described Ryhalt as being “a man with many wounds, both old and new, that he believes he has closed over but ultimately end up reopening as events progress.” There is still no better way to describe Ryhalt as the wound freshly created at the end of Blackwing is forced wide open with no room to heal thanks to the superstitious beliefs of those around him regarding the Bright Lady. However, Ryhalt uses these wounds to help spur him on and get to his end goal instead of wallowing in self-pity and alcohol (though he still does much of this!). It is clear that Ryhalt has developed exponentially since the first novel as he finds himself held accountable for a young girl who reminds him daily of his inability to be a husband and father earlier in his life. It is as if he has been given a second chance, and you can see how he feels about the situation as the novel progresses and he grows with it. He knows what he should or shouldn’t be saying to this young girl to build up her hopes and dreams but, as with any Father, he cannot help but assuage her.

McDonald ends the novel with words that leave a feeling of despair within the pit of your stomach. What is Ryhalt about to get himself in to, and has he been tainted by the events of Ravencry? I’m looking forward to finding out how Ryhalt continues his journey, and whether certain relationships will be developed or all but destroyed.

Blackwing Review

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Christopher Ruocchio: Empire of Silence

*Potential for spoilers as I explain, and describe Hadrian Marlowe and set up the scene*

It was not his war.

On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives–even the Emperor himself–against Imperial orders.

But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier.

Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world. Forced to fight as a gladiator and navigate the intrigues of a foreign planetary court, he will find himself fighting a war he did not start, for an Empire he does not love, against an enemy he will never understand.

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Empire of Silence is Christopher Ruocchio’s science fiction debut that sees us follow the first-person documentation of our protagonist, Hadrian Marlowe. We follow Hadrian through a small snippet of his life, starting off on his home planet of Delos where he is part of the nobile class, to his time on Emesh where he is unknowingly dumped whilst on his way to join the holy Chantry and thus having to make his own way in life without the help of his blood, name, and titles. It is a novel about survival, race and class differences, segregation, and so much more – providing an insight into a universe that seems so similar, yet so different.

Hadrian Marlowe, as mentioned, is a part of the nobile – essentially the upper-class nobles a.k.a palatines. On Delos, he is a part of the ruling class and heir-apparent to his father Alastair Marlowe. However, Hadrian has never really had an inclination towards the rough and tumble ways in which his father rules his planet, preferring to be more polite, courteous, and inquisitive to those of a lower-class than him. It is this calmer, more respected demeanour that sets him apart from his father, and also his younger brother, Crispin. Where his brother enjoys the sport and competition of fighting in the Collosso against those who have committed crimes, Hadrian would much rather draw, learn languages, and imagine his life living out amongst the stars like his heroes. However, Hadrian – who against his Father’s wishes to join the Chantry and, with the help of his Mother, was on a carrier to join the Scholiast’s – is dumped on an unknown planet far from his home system. With his deception at the forefront of his mind, Hadrian can no longer use his name, title, or breeding to get anywhere on this new planet without giving away his location, forcing him to live far below his station out on the streets with the thieves and criminals, eventually becoming a myrmidon to make a more honest living and hopefully fulfil his dreams to travel the universe.

As the novel progresses and events begin to unravel, putting the lives of Emesh in danger and uncovering new information that could change the course of the universe, Hadrian begins to develop and fully come into his own. Decisions and actions he would previously have shied away from, he is forced to confront and enact in order to get what he needs and understand better everything happening around him. Hadrian begins to ingratiate himself with his fellow myrmidons, thus making lifelong friends with those of a lower-class who, if he was still living on Delos, he would never have had any interaction with. Alongside this, with the war with the Pale moving ever closer to his position, Hadrian begins to understand the role he could, and will play, in this war and the way in which his actions could help in the future. Though many around him may not see it yet, Hadrian is able to convince and needle his way into Emesh’s nobile allowing him to set his course in life that will continue in future novels.

I’m a big fan of character-driven science fiction novels. I find them more emotional and engaging than those that focus entirely on world-building and the technology, society, and politics of these new planets. Empire of Silence is character-driven and brings all the information you need with each page you turn. Though we only see a small corner of this universe, we gain information about races, planets, and people we have not currently met allowing for a wider sense of the universe around him. However, I did find the novel to be long-winded and felt that many sections could have been shortened, or cut out entirely. This book took me almost two weeks to get through, and I did find – at times – that after putting the book down and coming back to it, I couldn’t fully remember the details of the previous chapter. For a 700 page book, a lot of the writing could have been condensed to around 500 whilst still providing all the information that was key in building up Hadrian and building the planets and people around him. With that being said, I am eager to read anything further that connects to this novel to better understand Hadrian, the Cielcin (the Pale), and the string of information we received throughout this novel. There are a lot of directions that Ruocchio can take with this novel and I look forward to seeing where it does go.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

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Sam Peters: From Distant Stars

Image Courtesy of Gollancz

Inspector Keon has finally got over the death of his wife Alysha in a terrorist attack five years ago. The illegal AI copy of her – Liss – that he created to help him mourn has vanished, presumed destroyed. His life is back on track. But a deadly shooting in a police-guarded room in a high-security hospital threatens to ruin everything. Who got past the defences? Why did they kill the seemingly unimportant military officer who had been in a coma for weeks? And why did the scanners pick up the deceased man the next day on the other side of the planet, seemingly alive and well?

As Keon digs into the mysteries he begins to realise that the death was connected to a mysterious object, potentially alien, discovered buried in ice under the north pole. Someone has worked out what is hidden there, and what its discovery will mean for mankind. Someone who is willing to kill.

And another player has entered the game. Someone who seems to know more about Keon than is possible.

Someone who might be using Liss’s information against him.

Or who might be Alysha, back from the dead.

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From Distant Stars is the long-awaited sequel to Sam Peters From Darkest Skies which sees our main character, Keon Rause, yet again – lose complete control of the world around him as he finds himself face to face with the deaths of many influential Magentians as well as a mystery spanning thousands of years. Little does Rause realise that he is digging into his past once again, bringing up freshly healed wounds of his dead wife, Alysha. As things being to unravel, Rause begins to see the web of lies that started over five years ago and finds himself questioning everyone around him.

Much anticipated, eagerly awaited – I just couldn’t not request this next novel when the e-mail dropped into my account. I thoroughly enjoyed the seamless writing that Peters brought to the masses in From Darkest Skies as he effortlessly blended world-building with high-intensity action, character creation, and a style of writing that just pulled you in right from the beginning. Yet again, Peters did not disappoint as I was thrust easily back into Keon’s life – it was as if I had never left!

Though it was inevitable that Distant Stars would play on some aspects of Darkest Skies, I was not prepared for the brilliant blending of the two novels that Peters brings to the table. We not only receive an altogether different story-line with new, and old, characters and a new mystery that, yet again, absorbs, destroys, and questions much of Keon’s life – we find that this new mystery wholly submerges us into the nitty gritty of all the information we were missing and questioning from the first – in particular the dirty details surrounding Alysha’s betrayal of the Tesseract and her untimely death. This was in no way a generic sequel that sees the protagonist playing on his past to make you feel sympathetic for him in a direction altogether different from the first novel (think generic detective crime series like Jack Reacher etc), but saw everything we had read previously poured into the new investigation and all of the events taking place. It was as if we had literally picked up from the last word, on the last page and really helped you to understand and relate more to Rause.

It says a lot when I finished this book in one day, with nary a moment without my nose in between the pages – it was gripping and intense. With not a single dull scene to be remembered, I found myself falling further and further into the writing as I began to get a better understanding of each characters backstory and what drove them to where they are today. The loyalties of each of the characters are truly tested in this second novel as their lives are, once again, put at risk with a threat that seems far deadlier than previous. The novel was immersive and filled with many webs leading back to the centre. Sometimes all these different strands did leave me extremely confused – particularly when faced with characters having multiple conversations at once – however, Peters neatly ties everything up as the novel comes to a close with no loose threads left hanging around. The narratives were closed off effectively with no sign of disappointment, and helped to bring closure to both myself, and the characters. Yet again, Peters leaves us with some more unfinished business – business I hope will lead us back into the world of Magenta.

I received a free physical copy of this book from Gollancz in exchange for an honest review. All words are my own and are not endorsed in any way.

Ian McDonald: Luna, Wolf Moon

Relevant posts: Luna, New Moon

I received a free physical copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Corta Helio, one of the five family corporations that rule the Moon, has fallen. Its riches are divided up among its many enemies, its survivors scattered.

Two Helio children are under the protection of the powerful Asamoahs. One, still reeling from witnessing his parents’ violent deaths, is now a ward of Mackenzie Metals. And the last appointed heir, Lucas, has vanished.

Only one person suspects that Lucas Corta is not dead, and – more to the point – that he is still a major player in the game. Lucas would go to any lengths to build a new Corta Helio But he needs allies, and to find them must undertake an audacious, impossible journey – to Earth.

And while he schemes, the families erupt into outright war.

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Luna, Wolf Moon is the second in the Luna series by Ian McDonald that follows the lives of five major families that live on and dominate the society, politics, and culture of the moon. After the annihilation and destruction of the Corta Helio empire, Wolf Moon centres on the remaining Corta family members as they attempt to rise out of the ashes and rebuild their name and empire. As each family member, and those of the other families, experience their own tragedies, ups and downs, the moon finds itself in amongst a war that seems to appear out of nowhere.

After the constant pounding dealt each other houses in New Moon, Wolf Moon could be described as the calm before the storm as we focus on scheming and tying up unsightly loose ends. We still see our fair share of assassinations, deaths, and family feuds but this novel definitely doesn’t have as much of a punch as the first novel.

With the events of the first novel carrying on into Wolf Moon, it was interesting to find out more about the Earth-based Cortas who still survive on the surface. As Moon and Earth Cortas meet we begin to see the similarities and differences between the two sides, as well as gaining an understanding of the consequences imposed upon Luna bodies when they attempt to live upon Earth for even a short space of time. Wolf Moon helps us to understand the areas of their society that we may not have fully understood from the first novel, such as those mentioned.

Being the second novel, it is hard for me to write a long and drawn out review without ruining a lot of the first and current novels. It definitely wasn’t as fast-paced and interesting as the first novel – which is understandable. However, it is definitely a filler novel that helps to progress the novel forward and bring key players to the forefront of the war between the families.

Ian McDonald: Luna, New Moon

I received a free physical copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.

The moon wants to kill you.

She has a thousand ways to do it. The bitter cold of vacuum. The lethal sleet of radiation. Choking dust as old as the earth. Your weakening bones.

Or you could run out of money for water. Or air. Or simply run foul of one of the Five Dragons, the corporations that rule the Moon and control its vast resources.

But you stay, because the moon can make you richer than you can imagine.

Until war breaks out . . .

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The first in the Luna series by Ian McDonald, Luna: New Moon sets up the story of five major families that live on and dominate the society, politics, and culture of the moon. When an engineered bot attempts to assassinate a key figure in one of the families, the politics of the moon shift exponentially with old rivalries rising to the surface and leaving everyone questioning who they can, and cannot, trust. Marketed as being Game of Thrones set in space, Luna is a science-fiction series filled with sex, politics, culture and family rivalries resulting in multiple deaths, assassinations, and questionable motives.

Within the first few pages I could immediately feel the similarities with Game of Thrones. On page two, before we are properly introduced to any characters, we are presented with information on sexual encounters with the current character in question. McDonald doesn’t subtly describe these interactions but throws it out in the limelight – this is a culture and society where sex, of any kind, is not frowned upon or deemed inappropriate. As we progress through the novel we see an array of sexualities and sexual encounters that proves this all the more. The warring families is also on a parallel with Game of Thrones but I felt like there wasn’t as much blood, guts, and gore but, when there was, McDonald didn’t hold back.

With the technology of the future and the ways in which these people are enhanced through genetics, the use of their AIs and more, I also felt that there were some similarities to the Red Rising series. I felt this more at the beginning of the novel than at any other point but I can also see this in the warring families and the subsequent events, particularly towards the end.

Something that can be quite hard to get around, especially in Game of Thrones, is the multitude of characters that provide the story and help us to understand the world. It can get quite confusing with the many different family members and the ways in which the families have married into each other. McDonald provides a handy glossary that helps to understand the different terms and their meanings which really helped to understand who each character was and how they were connected to each other. I definitely felt that there were a couple of more stand-out characters that I was more drawn to than others. However, I also really appreciated the variety of personalities we got with all the different characters; you had the quiet, authoritative, the sexual, the fighters, and so on. It helped to provide, not just animosity between the houses, but animosity within the families themselves.

Luna is one of those novels that, though you can’t binge-read (well, I certainly can’t) due to how much is going on, is a thoroughly enjoyable novel with so many twists and turns and hidden secrets. The novel is full of scandal, mystery, action, romance, guilt, revenge and so much more. It is a novel, and series, that I have become fully invested in and fulfills everything that I gain from Game of Thrones. Though it holds similarities, it is different and unique in its setting and the ways in which these families fight against each other, alongside the laws, politics, and cultures of this new society.

Sam Peters: From Darkest Skies

I received a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from the publishers through Netgalley.

After a five year sabbatical following the tragic death of his wife and fellow agent Alysha, Keon Rause returns to the distant colony world of Magenta to resume service with the Magentan Intelligence Service. With him he brings an artificial recreation of his wife’s personality, a simulacrum built from every digital trace she left behind. She has been constructed with one purpose – to discover the truth behind her own death – but Keon’s relationship with her has grown into something more, something frighteningly dependent, something that verges on love.

Cashing in old favours, Keon uses his return to the Service to take on a series of cases that allow him and the artificial Alysha to piece together his wife’s last days. His investigations lead him inexorably along the same paths Alysha followed five years earlier, to a sinister and deadly group with an unhealthy fascination for the unknowable alien Masters; but as the wider world of Magenta is threatened with an imminent crisis, Keon finds himself in a dilemma: do his duty and stand with his team to expose a villainous crime, or sacrifice them all for the truth about his wife?

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From Darkest Skies is a science-fiction thriller that follows our main character Keon Rause, as he is sent back to his home world of Magenta where he must face his past and try to make a new life for himself. However, his past always haunts him thanks to the shell of his wife he created following her untimely death. As he falls back into the role he previously held within the intelligence service of Magenta, Keon can’t help but try and find out the truth behind his wife’s death in order to understand her actions.

I first heard about this novel not long after completing Westworld, a concept that this novel has been compared to. Though I can see the similarities with the shell of Keon’s wife, I wouldn’t make a direct comparison between the two. That isn’t to say that this novel isn’t something you should read – you really should! If you’re a fan, like myself, of science-fiction that focuses primarily on the characters as opposed to the technology, then this is one for you.

Following my love of Becky Chambers science-fiction series (you all know it), I’ve found my love for character-drive science fiction, and this is no exception. Sam Peters thrusts you into Keon’s life bringing together all his hurt and love surrounding his dead wife Alysha. But, not only does Peters really know how to create flawed characters that are full of life and personality, he knows how to weave in the world-building and the technicalities of technological science-fiction without it seeming imposing or like you have been buried under a pile of information.

Keon, our main character, is a man who has become flawed by the death of his wife. Unable to move past her death, he has spent a lot of money to illegally create a shell that an AI of his wife can inhabit in order to communicate and have some resemblance of his previous life. Peters keeps Keon’s love alive throughout the novel, with each new thread of his investigation becoming somehow linked and helping Keon get ever closer to the truth of her death, and why she was where she was at the time. It is clear that Keon feels some sort of guilt towards her death in his inability to understand her mindset at the time, and this is something that travels with him right through to the bitter end.

From Darkest Skies is a novel that flows brilliantly with pacing, writing style, and overall structure. The world of Magenta and the politics of this society are easily understandable and I loved the array of cultures that Peters brings together. Our main group of characters are a mixture of Earthers and Magentans with different belief systems, and altogether different personalities. In particular, I really enjoyed the character of Rangesh who came across as flighty in his thought processes, but surprisingly smart behind this demeanour. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, and I truly hope that I can go back to this world someday as I felt like there was some unfinished business towards the end of the novel.

Joanne Harris: Runemarks

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s been five hundred years since the end of the world and society has rebuilt itself anew. The old Norse gods are no longer revered. Their tales have been banned. Magic is outlawed, and a new religion – the Order – has taken its place.

In a remote valley in the north, fourteen-year-old Maddy Smith is shunned for the ruinmark on her hand – a sign associated with the Bad Old Days. But what the villagers don’t know is that Maddy has skills. According to One-Eye, the secretive Outlander who is Maddy’s only real friend, her ruinmark – or runemark, as he calls it – is a sign of Chaos blood, magical powers and gods know what else…

Now, as the Order moves further north, threatening all the Worlds with conquest and Cleansing, Maddy must finally learn the truth to some unanswered questions about herself, her parentage, and her powers.

Runemarks is a young adult, fantasy novel that follows Maddy as she attempts to find out the truth about who she is as a person. As a young child, she meets a man by the name of One-Eye who agrees to teach her how to control and build upon her powers whilst, each year, asking about the events of the local town. Until, one year, Maddy retells the years events which gives One-Eye cause for concern and their world, and everyone else’s, is changed.

I’m always on the lookout for a new fantasy series that I can really get my teeth into. Nowadays, I find it really hard to find any worthwhile investing and feel like the genre has become a bit lackluster. Gone are the days of Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time series – unless you could George R. R. Martin but, at the rate he is going, Game of Thrones will never finish! Runemarks, though not the best fantasy I have ever read, was certainly interesting and fully took advantage of my love for religion/myths and legends. Harris centres the novel around Norse mythology and the legends surrounding Thor, Loki, Odin etc, bringing these characters into a more modern, rustic setting than the time that they originated from. I loved understanding the connections between the different Norse Gods and the roles that they played in Ragnarok, as well as in the present day of the novel. However, I did find that the Gods weren’t truly fleshed out in how I expected them to be. I felt like Loki wasn’t as mischievous and cunning as I was expecting; what little we saw of Thor didn’t really give me a sense of power and largesse about him. Though I did enjoy this characters and how they were portrayed, I felt like they were a bit simmered down from what I was expecting, and how they had previously depicted (damn you, Avengers!).

Harris’ world-building is simple and easy to understand, set in a rustic, country village that cannot truly comprehend magic or anything out of the ordinary. We don’t see much outside of the village bar the many worlds that live below and the realms of Death and Netherworld which, though I thought they would be hard to imagine due to the concept of these realms, were actually quite vivid and full of detail. I would definitely like to see more of the world that Maddy and her villagers come from, especially World’s End in order to fully understand the world that they live in but felt that Harris wrote beautifully and with faultless description to truly bring the setting to life.

Maddy, as a character, is stubborn and wild with a thirst for knowledge and understanding the powers that she has been given. She stops at nothing when pestering One-Eye to tutor her in the ways of runes and understanding the history of the world in regards to the Norse Gods and Ragnarok. However, Maddy is also an outsider and someone who is shunned and pushed aside out of fear at what she can, or could, do. She feels this even within her own family, and the novel sets her on a path in understanding who she truly is and what she is capable of. I am hoping that in the next novel, we will get to see the opinions of the villagers again following the events of Runemarks and how these may have differed from this first novel.

This novel is well-written and thoroughly researched to bring an interesting, adventure filled novel that focuses a lot on the trust and relationships between these Norse Gods and Maddy and how they are broken and forged. It was definitely a novel I enjoyed even though the characters didn’t meet my expectations but I could definitely see that, following the events of Ragnarok, their demeanor may have altered slightly. The pacing was well set and wasn’t slow or too fast making for an enjoyable read.

 

Stacking The Shelves #2

“Stacking The Shelves” is a bookish meme hosted over at Tynga’s Reviews. This meme is used to showcase the books that you have recently bought and will be adding to your shelves, physical or in eBook format. This can also include review copies, library books, or borrowed books from friends.

If you do not follow me on Twitter then this post is for you. Over the past week I have been away from home and, stupidly, only brought one book with me due to forgetting to pack my eReader. Thus, I had to embark to the local Waterstones to buy some books. What really should have been one book, turned into three!

The books I purchased are:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A picture hides a thousand words . . .

On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastien climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, knowing that her life is about to change forever. Having struggled to find her place in the city since she arrived from Trinidad five years ago, she has been offered a job as a typist under the tutelage of the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick. But though Quick takes Odelle into her confidence, and unlocks a potential she didn’t know she had, she remains a mystery – no more so than when a lost masterpiece with a secret history is delivered to the gallery.

The truth about the painting lies in 1936 and a large house in rural Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions of her own. Into this fragile paradise come artist and revolutionary Isaac Robles and his half-sister Teresa, who immediately insinuate themselves into the Schloss family, with explosive and devastating consequences . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loyalty costs money.

Betrayal, on the other hand, is free

When the Emperor is taken hostage, the Red Knight and his men find their services in high demand – and themselves surrounded by enemies. The country is in revolt, the capital city is besieged and any victory will be hard won. But The Red Knight has a plan.

The question is, can he negotiate the political, magical, real and romantic battlefields at the same time – especially when intends to be victorious on them all?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The year is 1869. A brutal triple

murder in a remote community in the Scottish Highlands leads to the arrest of a young man by the name of Roderick Macrae. A memoir written by the accused makes it clear that he is guilty, but it falls to the country s finest legal and psychiatric minds to uncover what drove him to commit such merciless acts of violence. Was he mad? Only the persuasive powers of his advocate stand between Macrae and the gallows.

Graeme Macrae Burnet tells an irresistible and original story about the provisional nature of truth, even when the facts seem clear. His Bloody Project is a mesmerising literary thriller set in an unforgiving landscape where the exercise of power is arbitrary.

This is the first time I have really read a Man Booker Prize novel. Having just finished it Friday night, I should have a review up within the coming weeks, and I am eager to see what other books are in the running this year.

Also, I have only just noticed that The Fell Sword is the second in the series thus, I will not be able to read it until I acquire the first. Oops!