I've been a fan of the author Katherine Addison since The Goblin Emperor came out; to quote myself, "excellent world-building, with its own language and speech conventions that are conveyed without confusion (or without much, anyway)." And as much as I love it, I have been equally-if-not-more pleased by her subsequent related-but-not-directly books, The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones (not to mention her supernatural take on Sherlock Holmes, The Angel of the Crows, which is also great but very different). The books are great, and the audio versions are wonderful: honestly, I think I would struggle a lot more with the names of people and places, except that I can "hear" them from the many times I have listened to the books.
Anyway! As a member of her Patreon, I saw recently when she gave away a few copies of the new book in the series, The Tomb of Dragons*, which comes out in March, and though I wasn't quick enough to win one of those, she next gave away advance copies of a new novella, The Orb of Cairado, which is in the same world but with different characters, and comes out in January (Subterranean Press is printing a limited, signed run). And guess what, I won!
*One of the reviews on Goodreads states, "The Tomb of Dragons did not disappoint me in the slightest, except that it ended" which is very promising!
It arrived yesterday:
I read it (of course), and I quite liked it, though I would not at all suggest jumping in with this one if you haven't read the series. You could read the books about Thara Celehar without having read The Goblin Emperor first, though I would argue you shouldn't, but in my opinion, you'll really want to understand how this world works before reading this novella. If you have read the others, then yes, I recommend this one!
That's so cool you get advance copies and that you get them signed by the authors. What a neat collection you must have of these (I seem to recall you writing about other advanced copies you've gotten in recent months?).
ReplyDeleteMy reading has TANKED this fall. Usually I read a lot, but between NaBloPoMo and life and not feeling enthused about reading, I've basically read nothing in November. Blah. I need to get back on the proverbial horse.
Ooh, it's so pretty. I've only read The Angel of the Crows, which I really liked at first and then got lost in the pacing a bit. This series sounds cool, though.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I'm up for world building but other times (like now) I don't have the mental or emotional energy. I have very much enjoyed this type of book in the past so I'm hoping I can get back to it.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of these books, they sound good though.
ReplyDeleteShe sent you a copy of the proof? Wow! That is so cool! I only got one author's proof copy, which of course I had to comb through letter by letter and word by word. And then return to the publisher. I was in the hospital bored out of my mind so I had time to concentrate on it and get it right.
ReplyDeleteSo exciting! As someone who read The Goblin Emperor with my own eyes, I have to say that the names were super confusing. Audio is the way to go for new fantasy readers!
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