CBR18 Book 50: "The Devils" by Joe Abercrombie

Page count: 576 pages

Audio book length: 25hrs 5mins

Rating: 5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: Book rec from a friend (Ashley/Narfna loved this)

Defeat the Goblin TBR: The Rogue Book - a book with politics/intrigue/sneakery involved (this book has all three and lots of it)

CBR18 Bingo: Left (All of my fiction books are alphabetised by author, so Abercrombie comes to the very top left of the bookshelf it's placed on)

A cowardly monk. A mercenary. A vampire. A werewolf (who used to be a viking warrior). An elf. A necromancer. A knight who cannot die. An orphaned thief who is apparently a long-lost imperial princess. Add them together into a highly unlikely band of allies and watch them make their way through a war-torn alternate Europe (where the holy saviour was the daughter of God, who died on a wheel), facing all manner of dangers (not least the supposed princess's murderous cousins) to get to Troy. This book is basically a late-medieval Suicide Squad, and it is violent, at times extremely gory, constantly surprising, and wildly entertaining.

In the beginning, I wrote a list of all the major characters, so I could remember their names and something about their characters, so I could tell them all apart. The book follows eight different characters, six of whom get their own points of view. In addition, this book is set in an alternate Europe, where the crusades have been against the murderous elves, who want to kill and eat humanity. Troy still exists and is an ancient empire. The saviour is the daughter of god, and the Pope in Rome is a woman (actually a ten-year-old child). There's also been a religious schism, so in the East, all the major religious leaders are men. Street rat Alex is told by a swanky nobleman that she is, in fact, the long-lost imperial princess of Troy, and has a birthmark and one half of a medallion that seems to prove her identity. The oracles of the church confirm her identity, and The Order of the Holy Expediency (a very unusual group of individuals that the Church uses to get its dirty work done) is tasked with accompanying her through Europe to Troy, to get her coronated.

It is a very long and dangerous journey, and our unlikely band of anti-heroes face so many deadly challenges to make it towards their goal. If Alex (or Princess Alexia) actually makes it to Troy and manages to become Empress, it will be an honest-to-God miracle. Her murderous cousins, who would like the throne for themselves, and a staggering number of implausible monsters stand in her way. Luckily, Alex has monsters of her own to help her achieve her destiny. 

While I own several of Joe Abercrombie's books, this is the first of his novels that I've actually read, mainly because grimdark isn't really my favourite genre, and certainly not anything I would choose to read now that we are all living in the stupidest dystopia, and the world is burning. However, my good friend Ashley put this as her third-best book of 2025 (and she reads a LOT more than me), and since she also explains in her video why this was an exception to Abercrombie's other books, I really couldn't help myself when I saw the audiobook on sale last year. Then I saw the hardback at my local library (and decided it was a sign from the universe). I borrowed the book so I could follow along (it has illustrations, pictures of all the major characters), but listened mostly to the audiobook (it makes cycling to and from work so much more enjoyable, and I can also listen while I knit). 

I've seen enthusiasm for Steven Pacey as the narrator of the book in a few places online, but personally, it took me a while to warm to some of his narration choices. He does do a good job differentiating between the many different POV characters, and the further I got into the book, the more comfortable I got with his choices. 

I don't know exactly what I was expecting from this book, but I certainly hadn't expected it to be as laugh-out-loud funny as it was in places. I found myself reading passages out loud to my husband, mainly to explain why I kept cackling with delight while reading. If I had to pick one favourite character, it's obviously going to be Viga, the werewolf, but I grew to care deeply for every single individual in this misfit crew and was delighted to spend time with them in their strange quest through Europe. I'm now very curious as to where Abercrombie is taking the series next; the sequel has been given a release date in 2027. I have also bought my own paperback copy of the book, and hope to get it signed next year when Abercrombie is one of the guests of honour at Norcon in Oslo (along with Martha Wells, I'm so excited!). 

Judging a book by its cover: I didn't actually notice at first that the lower jawbone of the skull on the cover is, in fact, a crown, and not a jawbone at all. I think this cover is funny and creative, and it really catches your eye. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 31: "This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me" by Ilona Andrews

Page count: 480 pages

Audio book length: 21 hrs 34 mins

Rating: 5 stars

Buzzwords Challenge 26: This/that/these/those

Maggie wakes up one day, cold, naked and soaked to the skin in the gutter of Kair Toren, the sprawling capital city of Rellas, where her favourite fantasy novels are set. For the past decade, Maggie has read and re-read the two books in the unfinished series enough times that she knows the setting, prominent characters and the plot intimately. It's what makes it possible for her to lie in wait, trying to rob a shady minor character just so she'll have enough money to get some clothes and shelter. While she's correct about when and where the character will show up, her robbery attempt ends with her being stabbed in the gut, which leads to her next discovery. She's stuck in the world of her favourite books, and while she can be killed, she doesn't stay dead.

Maggie is well-read and knows she's in an isekai fantasy. She knows the rules of such stories, and unfortunately, she's not as lucky as most characters in those kinds of stories. Unfortunately, unlike a lot of characters in such stories, Maggie is penniless, homeless and has no connections to anyone in the story. She does, however, have an encyclopedic knowledge of the plot of the world she's been transported into, so she knows which characters may prove useful allies, and which are best avoided at all costs. She knows how major events will play out and which characters will live, or die. She also discovers that she can read, understand and speak all the various languages of Rellas. In addition, she may be immortal.

She uses her knowledge to gain some useful allies, and in a remarkably short space of time, has acquired not only a safe place to stay, but has also become responsible for two young persons whom she rescued from enslavement. She knows at what point in time she has come into the story, and as a result, knows what is going to happen to the world and several characters she cares deeply about. Maggie decides she cannot, in good conscience, let the events as they are written come to pass. She wants to try to alter the events of the books, and as a result, possibly avoid the deaths of several of her favourite characters, not to mention stop a harrowing civil war and untold bloodshed. She just needs to convince her new friends that she can be trusted, and hope that her plans don't somehow make things worse. 

I read my first Ilona Andrews novel in 2009, early enough that they'd only published three books in the Kate Daniels series. I don't actually remember at what point they became not only auto-buy for me, but pre-order as soon as possible, possibly in more than one format (I have most of their books in e-book, dead tree, Graphic Audio audio dramas and/or audiobooks, even some in fancy signed special editions). I've read everything they've ever written, usually at least two or three times, sometimes five or six. Anyone who has been reading my reviews for a while knows that I am a proud card-carrying member of the BDH (Book Devouring Horde). I only have one tattoo (so far), and one element of it is a quote from one of their books ("If the sky could dream, it would dream of dragons" from Fate's Edge, if you're curious).

So it makes me immensely happy to see them reaching a lot of new readers with this rebrand (as my friend Christian, who works at the Oslo fantasy/sci-fi/comics/nerd shop Outland, calls it). A chonky epic fantasy novel, the first in a trilogy, which was acquired by Tor in a bidding war and has been promoted widely for months before its release. While it's their biggest book to date, both in size and scope, to me, as a loyal long-time reader, it was incredibly fun to see how many of the elements from their other books were clearly found in the pages of this one. It's basically their entire writing career, fine-tuned and distilled into a new series. 

You have the clever heroine, who, in contrast to all of Andrews' other heroines, doesn't have any advanced skills or magical powers. With the exception of Audrey from Fate's Edge, I think all of their female protagonists have both extensive fighting abilities and/or powerful magic at their disposal, while Maggie mostly has her mind. In addition to her near-perfect recall of everything that happens in the books, she also proves herself to be good at planning and strategic thinking.

Family, biological or found, also plays a major part in the Andrews' books. Since Maggie has been transported from our world into a fantasy one, she starts out alone and helpless, but before long, she has a loyal band of people surrounding her, willing to risk their lives to help her when she's in trouble (and she does get into trouble). 

There is also a very slow-burn romantic subplot, but anyone expecting romantasy or high spice will be disappointed (there's literally one kiss in the whole book - but what a kiss). Maggie believes herself to be wholly unremarkable, and the authors actually deliberately avoid describing her in too much detail (although the officially commissioned fan art on their website gives the readers a pretty clear idea of what all the major players look like), but she's clearly very pretty and constantly underestimates her allure to others. By the end of the story, she has multiple men who are smitten with her, and this is just the first book of the trilogy; there may be more to come. 

As I mentioned, there are several potential love interests, but I think it's rather clear from the story who the most likely HEA for Maggie is. Some really very unpleasant villains need to be defeated, or thousands of lives, including those of many of Maggie's favourite characters, are at stake. Because this is a long book, there are multiple mini-quests along the way, and Maggie ends up in mortal peril more than once (at one point, I was saying to my husband, "She may be undying, but can she regrow body parts? She can, by the way). 

As with a lot of epic fantasy, it's clear that Maggie has more thorough knowledge of some characters than others, because she's read their POV chapters in the books. Other characters, however, are much more of a mystery to her, because she's only read ABOUT them and hence doesn't know all their thoughts, wants and motivations. This means even Maggie, with her vast knowledge of Rellas and its inhabitants, can be surprised, and we readers along with her. 

As part of their promotional campaign, Tor had two chapters a week posted on their website in advance of the publication. I resisted the urge to read them until the evening before the book was out, which was good, because the final preview chapter ends on a heck of a cliffhanger. I was lucky enough that the Tuesday the book was released was during my Easter break from school, allowing me to devote the whole day to devouring the book on my e-reader, so I would know how everything turned out. While most of Andrews' stories tend to be mostly self-contained, this has the closest to a cliffhanger ending that I think they've ever had. Then I immediately started my re-read, this time in audio, and was able to savour the story more. Kristen Sieh is an amazing narrator and really captures the voices of the various characters excellently. Re-reading the book also allowed me to see how cleverly the authors had sprinkled hints and clues throughout the story, so that while there were several excellent plot twists along the way (the biggest one, about halfway through, literally made me do whatever the reading equivalent of a double-take is), they are, in fact, honestly foreshadowed along the way. You just don't know what is foreshadowing, and what isn't. 

Because Ilona Andrews are now reaching new readers, I have also been able to fangirl out in person with more than one member of my book club about this book (and I've been able to recommend other books in their back catalogue, which is always a very happy thing for a superfan to do). The authors have assured their readers that they are hard at work writing book 2 (it's at over 180 000 words and counting), and unlike in the fictional series Maggie so adores, there WILL be a book 3. Which brings me to yet another point: this is by far their most complex book project. The authors had to, in effect, write TWO stories while they were working on this. Rellas is a fictional world in Maggie's reality, but Ilona and Gordon had to sit down and plot out all the details and world-building of Maggie's favourite books, as well as the story about Maggie that we get to read. 

From my social media algorithms, it seems like some people have such a book hangover from this book that they just keep re-reading it again and again. I should probably be thankful that I currently have so many ARCs needing my attention that I have to take a break from it. I'm confident that I will re-read it at least once more before the end of the year, though, just to tide me over until Maggie's next book comes along. 

Judging a book by its cover: I have mentioned many times that Ilona Andrews seems cursed with terrible covers. At least Tor gave them an interesting-looking one for their epic fantasy. I promise that the weird bird creature on the cover is actually relevant to the plot, although it takes a while for it to enter the story. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 21: "Black Sun" by Rebecca Roanhorse

Page count: 453 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Dark Corner selection - February 26

Defeat the Goblin - The pebble book - a book that was gifted to you

Monthly Keyword 26: Sun

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: A book with multiple POVs

Read the Rainbow: Black

This is a book with a number of different POV characters. There is Serapio, a blind young man whom we first encounter as a child, being horribly mutilated by his mother (who subsequently throws herself off a building). All this horrific violence is to make him a suitable vessel for the Crow God. He is trained by three mysterious individuals who continue his grooming to fulfil his mother's twisted goals. There is also Xiala, who is a Teek sea captain, tasked with taking Serapio via ship to Tova, the capital city of the empire. The other sailors on the ship seem sceptical about Xiala, but all Teek have a special connection to the sea, and because of this, she can get the ship through storms and other dangers, and they are forced to accept her as their captain. Our third major player is Narampa, who was the unlikely candidate to succeed the previous Sun Priest, and who now wants the priests to make a difference in society. Some of her fellow priests can only be said to be rather hostile to her ideas of reform, and plot behind her back to get rid of her. Our final protagonist is Okoa, son of the Crow clan matriarch. He's called back to Tova from his warrior training after his mother dies, and he has to take his place as his sister's chief bodyguard, basically. 

I finished this book in mid-February, so my memory of all the intricacies of the plot is now rather vague. The opening chapter was almost a deal-breaker for me (I just cannot with children in peril), but because several people I trust had assured me that this book is worth reading (I was gifted my paperback copy of it by the lovely Rochelle), I persevered. The first third or so was rather slow, and I found Narampa's chapters, especially, to be hard going. I liked Xiala from the start, and she is one of the reasons why I will probably continue with the series, even after there were bits that I wasn't wild about.

We had an interesting book club discussion about the book, and while the majority of the people who came in February liked it, I don't think any of us loved it. We appreciated the unusual setting; it's always nice to read something a bit different from the Eurocentric medieval fantasy worlds we often find in the genre. Since I am literally one of only two members in the group who has a child, none of the others was as bothered by the brutal mutilation of a young boy as I was. There was general agreement that Narampa was the dullest character, and that both Serapio and Xiala might technically be adults, but they have both had such weird lives that it's no wonder they make some truly inadvisable choices. While I liked Xiala, she seems rather self-destructive and Okoa and his giant crow (who he can ride on) may be my favourites of the lot.

I probably will continue the series (I own all three books, after all), but I'm not in a hurry to read the sequels. Some of the others in the book club continued, and seemed to think book two was a bit slower, but that the series ends well in book three. So we'll see.

Judging a book by its cover: I don't like this cover, I think it looks bad, and the UK publishers have chosen to go with exactly the same ugly image, so I don't even have the option to get an alternate one.  The Broken Binding special editions are absolutely gorgeous, but they also cost an arm and a leg, so that's not a suitable option, either. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR16 Book 63: "A Taste of Gold and Iron" by Alexandra Rowland

Page count: 510 pages

Audio book length: 18 hrs 20 mins

Rating: 5 stars

CBR16 Bingo: Golden Gold in the title and gold as a pivotal part of the plot. Also pretty much all of the central characters are solid gold.

Kadou is the younger brother of the sultan of Arasht and is delighted that she's just given birth to a healthy baby, putting him further down the line of succession. Unfortunately, the baby's father, a powerful ambassador at court, believes Kadou to be jealous and a threat to both his baby niece and his sister. Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately, because he confides in some of his bodyguards, who massive overreact when they believe his life is later threatened by said ambassador at a hunt. It ends with two of Kadou's bodyguards killed and his sister furious with him.

Kadou has to plead with the sultan to let him stay at court. Kadou is in serious disgrace and hates that he has disappointed his sister. He is also fighting guilt, anxiety and depression after the deaths he feels partially responsible for causing. To keep her brother out of trouble, he is given a new personal bodyguard, the very proper and exacting Evemer, who Kadou is convinced despises him. Nevertheless, Evemer takes his duties very seriously, and accompanies Kadou to dangerous parts of the city, even though he clearly disapproves of the prince's drunken binges and trying to pick fights. After a memorable occasion when the two are ambushed in an alley, and Kadou ends up being the one to save the life of his bodyguard, Evemer's opinion of his charge changes.

To get back into his sister's good graces, Kadou has promised to get to the bottom of a series of thefts that may also be connected to a ring of counterfeiters. Once he and Evemer start to investigate, it's clear that there may be a number of city officials involved in the case, not to mention the self-same ambassador who fathered the sultan's heir and is trying to ingratiate himself further at court. Kadou needs to try to figure out how the thefts and counterfeit coins are connected, why someone is trying to destabilize Arasht's economy and possibly threaten the security of his sister's reign, all the while trying really hard not to fall in love with his taciturn bodyguard.

This book has been on my TBR since it came out and now that I've finished it, I'm really annoyed that it took me so long to finally read it. I listened to about three quarters of it in audiobook, really well narrated by Casey Jones, but got impatient to see how it would end, so ended up reading the rest on my e-reader (then I went back and listened to some of the really romantic bits again, because I really liked how Jones voiced both Kadou and Evemer and wanted to hear their dialogue read to me). 

Far too often, when publishers compare a book to others that have been previously published, the books in question far too often seem to have been selected as some sort of mad lib "book x meets book y", but in this case, I didn't feel lied to about this book being similar to The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. Both books are set in elaborate court settings with a reluctant royal just trying their best to do a good job, despite all sorts of personal insecurities holding them back. 

In this case, the book is set in a historical fantasy world inspired by the Ottoman Empire. The eldest child becomes sultan, whether they are male or female, and Kadou's sister is a great secondary character. She is clearly tries to be a fair and just ruler, as well as a loving sister, and sometimes those two roles are difficult to reconcile, especially after Kadou goes and gets himself involved in an embarrassing squabble with a foreign ambassador, with people getting killed in the process. I really liked that children are clearly "belong" only to the mother, who can decide whether they want to grant 'the body-father' any rights to the child at all. The ambassador who fathered the new princess and keeps trying to get all possessive, is repeatedly told that he merely provided his genetic material and that any raising of the child will be done by the sultan herself, and any male members of her family (like Kadou). This is not just the case with the rulers of the country, all men are merely body-fathers, unless the mothers choose to make them more permanent parts of their children's lives.

This is also a very diverse world, where several members of the court are non-binary, with the prounouns çe (che) and çem (chem). Kadou clearly prefers men, but is accepting of the fact that if he has to marry a woman to secure a strategic alliance that would benefit the country, he will do so. The royal family's bodyguards, or khayhalar, are seen more like extended family members than servants, and most of them are extremely well educted and go on to hold important offices in the country's bureaucracy as their careers progress. So Kadou really feels the loss of two of his khayhalar deeply, made all the worse because he is sure he contributed to their deaths. If he hadn't been overly anxious and confided in some of his khayhalar about his sister's ambassador lover, they wouldn't have overreacted when they believed him threatened, and no one would have died. 

Kadou is also suffering from strong anxiety, but believes this to be a personal weakness and that he is a coward. He occasionally suffers from panic attacks, but only one of his khayhalar know about them and has figured out how to calm him down. Evemer, who initially believes Kadou to be "careless, flighty and negligent", not to mention completely unable to take care of himself. So he is rather shocked when Kadou knocks him out with one punch after he patronizingly offers to teach the prince to fight. He's forced to entirely reevaluate his opinion once they are attacked and instead of running away while Evemer does his job and fights the assailants, Kadou, who hadn't been lying about how much self-defence he had been taught, instead stays in the alley and skilfully murders the lot of them remarkably quickly and efficiently. 

In a lot of books, I find excessive mutual pining very frustrating and keep wanting said couple to just get over themselves already. In this book, the growing attraction between Kadou and Evemer is very well done, and the reason neither of them confess their feelings or act on them is clearly explained by their difference in social standing. Kadou believes himself to be a coward, a failure and a disappointment and is far too aware that while it's a very honourable position, Evemer is still his servant. A servant whose duty it is to sacrifice themselves for their charges if necessary. Equally, once Evemer realises that his initial impressions of Kadou were wrong, he believes himself far too lowly to ever be a worthy partner for a prince.

What seems to be a fairly minor investigation into the theft of some documents, turns out to become something a lot more dangerous, not just for Kadou and Evemer, but for the sultan and her baby as well. They come to learn that someone may have turned some of the khayhalar into traitors, and the court is no longer a safe place. There is a wonderful extended sequence where the sultan, her baby girl, Kadou and some of his trusted retainers all hide out with Evemer's mother, who doesn't blink an eye at having to house such exalted company.

I absolutely loved this, and because I waited this long to read it, there is now a sequel novella, as well as another adventure novel by Rowland set in the same universe as this one. So excited to read more. 

Judging a book by its cover: Isn't this cover just the most gorgeous thing? I often don't like covers portraying characters, but this pretty much captures my mental images of Kadou and Evemer perfectly. The hair jewellry, the gorgeous embroidery of the outfits, the background. Kadou holding the coin while Evemer gazes adoringly at him. *heart eyes* In contrast, the UK edition I have, is rather dull. Just a navy cover with some flowers on it. 

Crossposted of Cannonball Read