Firestorm

Firestorm is the third installment in the Worldmaker Trilogy by Lucy Hounsom.  Published December 14th, 2017 by Pan Macmillan it's over 500 pages of epic fantasy which satisfyingly ties up much of the story arc from the first two books.  The author has style and despite the length, the story doesn't drag at all.  I found myself looking forward to stealing reading time to spend in this world with these characters.  The prose really resonated with me and I never found myself rolling my eyes internally over inane characters or dialogue.  The characters are real and their motivations are consistent.

The world building is simply spectacular and the magic system includes timeline/world shifting... and dragons.  Honestly, she had me at dragons. Intelligent dragons.  This book ticked a whole lot of boxes for me which can lead to inflated expectations and disappointment.  Happily for once, the payoff was well worth the journey.  This was a very satisfying read and one that I just might go back and revisit from the first book through again.

The prose is beautifully fluid and deftly crafted.  For people who read epic fantasy regularly, there's nothing extremely rough or objectionable in the text.  I imagine few people go into a three volume campaign fantasy expecting a cat-based cozy romance/mystery...  That being said, there -is- murder, betrayal, rape, suicide, and the occasional narrative 'damn' 'hell' or 'bitch'.

This is a brick of a book.  There is no hand-holding or spoon feeding of info.  It's not particularly good as a standalone, but it is spectacularly well written and I'm looking forward to the author's future work.

Four stars for Firestorm and four and a half for the series.  I hope Ms. Hounsom writes more books in this world/milieu.  There are some tantalizing backstories left unwritten.

Available in ebook and paperback format.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

The Fall of Dragons

Immersive epic fantasy series like the Wheel of Time, Game of Thrones, Kingkiller Chronicles, Farseer and tie-ins, First Law and others, everyone has a favorite with 700+ page books and 5 or more books in the series.  These are the series that many fans revisit every few years over a span of years (or decades).

I am a huge fan of what I think of as BIG fantasy.  Doorstop books that you carry around for weeks.  Books that drag you in so deeply that you actually miss your train stop or suddenly realize it's 4 am and you only intended to read a few pages before bed. (Been there, done that).

This is a very worthy addition to that list of BIG fantasy.  The Fall of Dragons is the 5th book in the Traitor Son Cycle by Miles Cameron, out 19th October, 2017 from Orion Books.

The narrative doesn't drag, despite the book's nearly 700 page content.  The entire series, by my rough count, has over 3000 pages of war, grief, betrayal, victory, evil guys, dragons (dragons!), world building, pitched battles, military precision and desperate struggle.  It's very well written with incredibly well drawn characters and confidently written, believable dialogue.  The editing is perfect also, I found no typos, no formatting errors, and surprisingly, no 'book bloat'.

Exceptionally well crafted BIG epic fantasy.

One caveat however, this book (as most epic multi-book fantasy series) is emphatically NOT a standalone.  No spoon feeding or hand holding.  This book encompasses a cast of (literally) thousands.  If the reader doesn't have the background, they'll likely spend most of their time frustrated or confused.

Five stars for this final book and five for the series.  Really top shelf quality epic fantasy.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.