This month's review was written by our Supervisor of Children’s Services! Read all about Brent Weeks' Lightbringer series, the latest book in Laini Taylor’s YA fantasy trilogy, and Brian Staveley's The Emperor’s Blades.
For more staff recommendations: http://framinghamlibrary.org/staffrec/staffrec.htm
Book Talk: We Recommend
Recommended by Lucy Loveridge, Supervisor of Children’s Services
Three years and counting since the last Game of Thrones volume; it’s time to start looking for some new sprawling, world-ranging, multi-character fantasies.
I just enjoyed Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series, books 1-3: The Black Prism, The Blinding Knife, and The Broken Eye. Color magic gives you power but also binds you to work for the good of the people and to an early death. The Prism, the empire’s religious leader, has the most power
and magic but usually burns out very early after 7 or 14 years of rule.
Gavin Guile, the current Prism, having survived 16 years of rule, is
looking forward to 5 more years to accomplish certain goals he’s had.
So far, he’s managed to navigate the politics of the Color Council and
heal some of the wounds in the Seven Satrapies that were created by the
False Prism’s War. That was led by his younger brother and ended with
Dazen’s death 14 years ago. He’s also managed to contain the
machinations of his power-mad father and to keep a very deep,
life-threatening secret from him and the rest of the country. Alas, all
his hopes for the next five years begin to fall apart in a very short
time with the advent of a religious movement intent on bringing back the
old gods and destroying the Prism’s rule through war; the discovery of a
fat, inept, uneducated bastard son, Kip, conceived during the False
Prism’s War who upsets many of the Prism’s relationships in the capital
when Kip’s sent there for education and safety; and the rumored
resurrection of a secret society of assassins who may or may not be
behind some attempts on Kip’s life (Kip suspects it’s his grandfather
wanting him dead). Throw in a prophecy, a spy network or two, some
conflicted oath holders and old lovers, an army of insane color mages or
color wights, and another bastard—this one educated, powerful and a
complete psychopath—and the stage is set for an absorbing read.
Unfortunately, this is not a trilogy--there’ll be a two year wait for
book 4, and who knows how many more books will be necessary to finish
the story.This year finally brought the last book in Laini Taylor’s YA fantasy trilogy about Karou: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight, and Dreams of Gods and Monsters. We meet the mysterious Karou living in Prague and attending art school. She has startling blue hair achieved by wishes rather than hair dye and was brought up by four teeth-collecting monsters—half snake/half woman, half ram/half dragon, etc—who have a magical portal that can open in many cities around the world
and another possibly magic door that is forbidden to Karou; if anyone
even knocks at it, she’s kicked out till they’re gone. One day while
collecting teeth in Morocco for her monster family, Karou runs into and
is almost killed by a beautiful angel with flaming wings. While
recovering from her wounds, she sneaks through the forbidden door and
finds another world with two moons and a plethora of monstrous types,
and is attacked there by a human/wolf hybrid. Her family, incensed by
her transgression, exiles her to Prague, and then, bad timing, the
angels burn all the magic portals on Earth. Karou is determined to make
it to the other world to try and find her family again while the angel,
Akiva, is drawn back to Earth to watch Karou who reminds him of another
woman in his world who was horribly executed. It turns out the angels
and monsters are locked in a millennium-long war on that other world and
that Karou is part of a Romeo and Juliet love story that could change
the fate of that world (and ours, too, which may become a new
battleground in the war when the angels discover our advanced weaponry)
if revenge and retribution don’t get in the way. Of course, although
this story ends in book three, there are hints of another trilogy to
come involving an even greater conflict between worlds and involving
Karou, Akiva and their peoples, so more waiting for the true end of the
story is necessary.A promising new series just started this year with Brian Staveley’s The Emperor’s Blades, book 1 of the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne. The emperor of Annur has set three different paths for his children: the eldest, Adare, a female who can never be emperor, has been educated to be a minister in the empire’s government and has spent her life at cour
t
learning the ins and outs of courtly politics; his heir, Kaden, has
been sent to a remote monastery to learn the strange disciplines of the
monks of the Blank God; and his youngest son, Valyn, has been sent to a
remote island to train to become a Kettral, an elite soldier who works
with giant hawks as transport. All of them have their trials and
tribulations with their upbringing but all love their father and want to
serve the empire. However, their father is suddenly dead, betrayed by
someone close to him. Adare, Kaden and Valyn must now try to figure out
who can be trusted while trying to identify their father’s murderer,
protect the new emperor, and grow into their new duties as their paths
through the lives their father set for them continue to unwind. The
characters, and the different environments and situations they find
themselves in, make it worth waiting for the rest of the series.
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