It feels like with fantasy these days I am eternally questing after the next fresh idea. Don’t get me wrong—there is sometimes nothing better than a classic, trope-laden fantasy from the late twentieth century to stir my book loins. But every time I pick up a big, heavy book like Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, I hope deep down in my heart that it will give me something new, that it will stir up not…
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Fun story: Kara requested the latest book in this series on NetGalley, mistakenly thinking it was book 3. Turns out it is book 6 she’s been approved to read, even though she has only read book 1. Oops. Fortunately, my awesome public library had books 2 through 5 available, and I was able to check them all out at once! So for the next month or so, I’m going to be binging this series in…
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Seldom have I read consecutive books in a series so closely together, but as I explained in my review of book 2, a misunderstanding of what book I was requesting on NetGalley has necessitated such haste. Now, there are advantages: I remembered everything that had happened in the previous book! Nevertheless, I was concerned that diving into A Veil of Spears so soon after the previous book would leave me feeling bored; worse still,…
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As promised a scant two weeks ago, I’m back with my review of Beneath the Twisted Trees, book 4 of Bradley P. Beaulieu’s epic The Song of the Shattered Sands series. Things are definitely heating up.
Çeda is determined to free Sehid-Alaz, the King of the Asirim. Not only would this hopefully free the asirim from bondage to the Kings of Sharakhai, but it is also the right thing to do: Sehid-Alaz is…
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Sometimes I think I’m getting old when I start to complain about the number of characters in a book and how hard it is to keep all the plots in my head! I’m starting here because that’s my major issue with When Jackals Storm the Walls, the fifth book of The Song of the Shattered Sands. For what it’s worth, Bradley P. Beaulieu is starting to bring all these various characters and plots…
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Here we are, the sixth and final book of The Song of the Shattered Sands. A Desert Torn Asunder brings to a close the quest of Çeda to kill the Kings of Sharakhai, perhaps in unexpected ways. But the story has grown grander and more epic in scope since that first book, and there are other players on the field who deserve closure too. Bradley P. Beaulieu manages the not inconsiderable feat of creating…