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 Forsaken Throne

The Forsaken Throne is the 6th (final?) book in Jeff Wheeler's Kingfountain series. The series is an epic multi-book fantasy with some crossworld tie-ins from the author's other series.  There are several interconnected storylines, most of which are tied up in this, possibly final, installment.

I enjoyed reading this one a lot and seeing how the storyline would unfold and resolve, though, as other reviewers have mentioned, the pain that the heroine Trynne suffered seemed unending.  Lady of Sorrows, indeed.  Building a rapport with characters only to see them pushed and broken and betrayed over and over again felt wearying to me and I often took a pause for a few days.  This was not a read-in-one-sitting book for me.  I liked it very much that she was emphatically not a pampered soft and pliable princess.  She is honorable and, frankly, pretty badass. 

By my rough reckoning, the main series includes well over 2000 pages; that's a lot of room to develop a world and characters.  The plotlines are in my opinion, certainly worthy of the epic scale of the books.  I never had problems keeping the characters straight in my head, though I wouldn't suggest this book as a standalone, especially to people who aren't die-hard epic fantasy fans.

Though I would certainly class this series as comfortably inside the fantasy genre, it's not the same sort of gritty massively epic fantasy of G.R.R. Martin or Joe Abercrombie, full of pitched battles and people disemboweling one another.  Never fear though, there's lots of evil magic vs. good magic, betrayal, sacrifice and dishonesty.  I liked the ending a lot, without spoiling anything.

Four stars for this installment and four for the series as a whole.  I'll be picking up his other books.

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.

The Tethered Mage

The Tethered Mage is the first book in the Swords and Fire series, by Melissa Caruso, from Orbit Books.

I really enjoyed the heck out of this book.  The world building is fascinating and detailed, the magic system is internally cohesive and believable and the political machinations for power (very loosely based on the great dynasties of  renaissance Italy and environs) are well wrought and complex.

This is a substantial book, 438 pages, but tautly plotted and it never dragged. There are several plotlines, well interwoven into an epic story arc. I was very surprised that this is a debut novel; the author has a very strong voice and a gift with dialogue.

Other reviewers have done a very good job of describing the plot and characters.  I really enjoyed the lushness of the setting (which reminded me a lot of Venice) and the way that the fire mage Zaira was not easily won over.  Her unwilling partnership with a 'handler' of a different class and background was organic and well written, it wasn't just a few paragraphs of whining and then besties forever.

There were several mystery subplots which were deftly handled and the denoument was exciting and perfectly paced.  I'm really looking forward to the next installments.

I would not precisely classify this as YA.  It would be appropriate for older YA readers, but also fine for any epic fantasy fans, whatever their age.

Four and a half stars, looking forward to what comes next!

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