So, this month, I see that the SFBC is offering the third book of Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer trilogy. Aargh! Weeks has got ahead of me; I haven’t even read the second book yet. I enjoyed the first book, THE BLACK PRISM, quite a bit. His Night Angel series was just on the edge of being too dark for me and I believe I gave it to a friend, but I found that PRISM stepped that back a trifle. There was a certain If-Only-They-Could-Talk-To-Each-Other thing going that was frustrating, but at least it wasn’t that they could talk to each other but weren’t; important characters really don’t and can’t know important things that are going on with one another.
A little vague, yes. If you want spoilers, I’m sure you can find reviews that provide those.
Anyway, as I say, I haven’t read the second book, which is THE BLINDING KNIFE. And here is the third, out already:
Also in the same category is Django Wexler’s sequel to THE THOUSAND NAMES. I haven’t read that yet either, but here is the second book, not waiting for me to catch up:
Have any of you read THE THOUSAND NAMES yet? It’s always better — let me just stress this point — to pick up the second book promptly when it comes out; otherwise the series may well undergo a Series Death Spiral, producing a serious impact on the author’s career. On the other hand, I hesitate to pick up the second book when I haven’t read a) the first book in the series; and also b) any book at all by the author.
The SFBC is offering Moon’s THE SPEED OF DARK again this month. Good, good: that’s one that ought to be a classic. Hopefully the SFBC is going to push it forever.
I see we have FOOL’S ASSASSIN by Robin Hobb. Mary Beth, you noted in the comments that you were looking forward to this one. Nice cover art:
I almost always like assassins . . . unless the book gets too grim, which of course with assassins, that can happen. Not sure whether to try this one or not. I liked Hobbs’ Dragon series, though I skim parts of them when I re-read them. I’ll have to keep this one on my radar and maybe give it a try. Mary Beth, I’d appreciate your opinion if you get to it before me, which I expect you will.
Good Lord Above, looks like there’s another Shannara book out. #Unnecessary, imho. I outgrew the original Shannara books long, long ago and these days wouldn’t even offer them to a twelve-year-old if I had one handy; as far as I’m concerned there are too many better books out there to bother.
Okay! And this one, a debut that caught my eye, is what prompted this post. Craig, I think this is one you might want to look at:
THE GLASS SENTENCE by SE Grove.
Boston, 1891. Thirteen-year-old Sophia Tims lives with her uncle, cartographer Shadrack Elli, in a world torn to pieces by the Great Disruption on 1799 — when all of the continents were thrown into different time periods, from the prehistoric era to the fortieth century. When Shadrack is kidnapped, Sophia sets out to find him . . .
Okay, interestingly, the SFBC is not pushing this as a YA novel. Other than saying “thirteen-year-old Sophia”, there’s no clue this is YA. Booklist’s review definitely marks it as MG/YA (grades six to nine). It’s on the long side, 500 pp, but I see the imprint is, yes, Viking Juvenile. Well, it just came out this past June and it’s already over 150 reviews on Goodreads, with a 3.99 rating, so it must work for adult readers. It’s the first book of a trilogy and I see a Goodreads reviewer notes that there is a cliffhanger ending. I think this is one to try via the Try A Sample feature for Kindle, but even if I like the sample, I doubt I’ll read it till the trilogy’s complete if we’re talking cliffhangers. Though of course if I love the sample I will buy it right away; always nice to give a boost to a debut author.
FOOL’S ASSASSIN comes after two prior trilogies, distantly connected to the Liveship/Dragon books. Starting with ASSASSIN’S APPRENTICE may give you an idea of whether you’d like the books. It’s not at all grimdark, I think, but it’s one of those series where the main character suffers a lot. I tend to set the Fitz books up next to Joan Vinge’s Cat books in terms of main character whumpage, but I’ve enjoyed them all quite a lot. Hobb always injects a hefty dose of hope, which helps. My dad and two of my sisters are even bigger fans (and my dad prefers slim paperback Westerns to fat fantasy doorstoppers.) I’m planning to pick FOOL’S ASSASSIN up in the next couple of weeks; I’ll report back on what I think!
Thanks, Mary Beth! Yeah, I think I will go ahead and try Assassin’s Apprentice.