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track rokura who is one of the king s greyshields or warrior assassins is searching for the king s bastard son who was kidnapped by rebels bent on destabilizing king mutolo s reign and he s as relentless as he is honest but the novel s opening shows us that mutolo might not be a trustworthy ruler particularly because and this is no spoiler since it s revealed in the very first chapter he s not who he purports to be but rather a shady individual named thorn with his own inscrutable agenda and lastly there is anyo also known as the beggar prince who together with a handful of companions is looking for a precious artifact that will enable him to reclaim his heritage and he s not beyond using gifted people like mei to further his goal a drifting sun does a good job in showcasing these four main characters and their backstories even though anyo is not given as much narrative space as the other three and it s clear that they are fated to cross their paths here readers are made privy to iggy s encounter with rokura and the meeting of mei and anyo but i m sure that their journeys will soon bring them together and uncover the deeper mysteries that this story still holds like other novels i ve read from ashley capes this fantasy setting is a blend of natural landscapes and intriguing magic and there are several tantalizing mentions of a past where momentous events occurred i would have liked to learn more about them because they hint at a more complex background and i hope that more will be revealed in the next two books as the story gains more depth as i said above this first book looks more like an introduction to more complex events and what promises to be a multi layered quest my only problem with this saga is that i would have liked a map of the world to be able to better follow the characters journeys the places mentioned and the characters movements can be often confusing and i had some trouble in envisioning the lay of the land so to speak which deprived me of some of the enjoyment in the story but hope springs eternal and maybe that map is forthcoming my rating reviews the tainted cup shadow of the leviathan 1 by robert jackson bennett june 20 2024 maddalena spaceandsorcery 27 comments so far my only experience with the works of robert jackson bennet comes from foundryside a novel i enjoyed and a world i intend to return to as soon as my messy tbr will allow it but i have to say that with the tainted cup this author was able to fire my imagination even more so i don t regret having temporarily forgotten his previous series to launch myself into his newest endeavor the novel opens with a most horrific sight a high ranking officer is found dead in the mansion of a prominent family killed by a tree that apparently grew out of his body the investigator tasked with the case eccentric ana dolabra sends her assistant dinios kol to the mansion for a first inspection of the site din is an engraver an individual altered to possess eidetic memory and as he and ana proceed with their investigation they encounter evidence that this murder might only be the proverbial tip of a larger iceberg one that might carry a great danger for the empire the story itself is much more convoluted and layered than it might look from my short synopsis but it deserves to be approached knowing as little as possible to be able to appreciate all its intriguing hints and misdirections besides what makes this novel so fascinating lies more in the imaginative world building and of course in the characters this is a world where plants are everywhere they are used as construction materials and they are also employed together with other natural ingredients in the physical alterations that gift people with special abilities like increased strength or as is the case for din and other engravers eidetic memory but they can also produce infestations a kind of danger that always lurks in the background and keeps people on edge about the possibility of contamination the anomalous tree growth that led to the initial victim s demise is indeed one of these contaminations that people are afraid of and that s not the only trouble afflicting this world one in which civilization is threatened by incursions from gigantic sea creatures called leviathans against which three concentric rings of walls have been erected with the ruling power and the high aristocracy residing in the innermost one leviathans always attack in the world s wet season and as the story starts it s that time of the year so that the monstrous creatures inland forays add another layer of trouble to an already troublesome situation ana and din are an apparently mismatched but very effective investigative team she is a bizarre individual to say the least one graced with a brilliant mind and impressive deductive powers but also with a quirky disposition and the habit of going about blindfolded so as not to be overwhelmed by sensory input to call her eccentric would be a huge understatement but little by little we discover that the surface eccentricity hides a very sharp mind and the ability to draw unexpected conclusions from the collected evidence she might come across as both harsh and mercurial and at times she reminded me of the character of avasarala in the expanse but as the story progresses we understand that there are untapped depths to her and also a great capacity for empathy din changes quite a bit in the course of the story at first he looks somewhat uptight and stiff but as we get to know him we understand where he comes from and what the source of his constant anxiousness is besides his humble origins din is plagued by what amounts to dyslexia a problem that affects his work as an engraver and one he has found some runarounds to but still worries about being discovered i have to say that his struggles managed to make me root for him quite soon and to admire his efforts in compensating for this problem if bennett throws his readers into the story with little or no previous information he manages to bring them up to speed with his world through the investigation itself entwining the world building with the accumulation of clues that ana and din pursue through a compelling escalation that never forgets its character development while carrying the plot forward there is a great deal that i would like to learn about this world its rich background and history and i more than look forward to learning more with the next books in the series this first installment proved to be a very powerful hook for an equally strong story i can t wait to see where it will lead me my rating reviews the wonder engine clocktaur war 2 by t kingfisher june 6 2024 maddalena spaceandsorcery 28 comments this second book in the clocktaur war duology begins where the first one ended with the four protagonists arriving in anuket city and starting their undercover work to sabotage the dangerous clocktaurs learned edmund enrolls the help of a master artificer ashes magnus discovering to his enormous surprise that she s a woman and therefore further eroding his misconceptions about the other sex while slate brenner and caliban must infiltrate the city s seedier quarters in search of information while grimehug the gnole they encountered along the way and who attached himself to slate is revealed as a very helpful co conspirator as for slate the dangers inherent in returning to anuket city which she left to escape the retaliation of crime lord horsehand manifest quite suddenly and with potentially deadly consequences while the foursome s investigation on the origin of the clocktaurs leads to a terrible discovery and a dangerous infiltration mission from which not all of them will return much as i enjoyed the first part of this duology i have to admit that this second installment while still reasonably engaging did not work as well for starters the growing attraction between slate and caliban did not feel quite integral to the story and it pushed the true reason for the quartet s mission somewhat in the background it was not because of my aversion to romance because usually t kingfisher manages this element quite well in balancing it with a good dose of humor but rather because there were no sufficient elements in the relationship to make it believable there is no doubt about the mutual physical attraction but their personalities are often in conflict with no apparent possibility of common ground on which to establish a love story this is quite different from other relationships portrayed in kingfisher s later books and a bit disappointing on top of that the rivalry between caliban and brenner over slate s affections moves from the first book s amusingly barbed banter into what looks like hormone fueled clashes sliding into the trope of the love triangle and robbing this side of the story of its entertainment value luckily for me i could focus on the very intriguing aspect of gnole culture thanks to grimehug we are made privy to the rich and layered gnole society and the way these creatures alternately despised feared and ignored have carved their niche into human society grimehug himself is a delightful character particularly when he shares his not very flattering views on humanity s behavior and i liked the way he attached himself to slate the bond of friendship between them was indeed one of the higher points in the story as was learned edmund dedication in compiling a treatise on gnoles so that they could be better understood and appreciated when not mooning over slate caliban offers another interesting peek into the paladin mentality particularly where the connection to one s god is concerned there is a fascinating dichotomy here because on one side we are told about this connection to the divine and the constant battle with demon possession on the other a paladin s role seems mostly mundane at least according to caliban whose activities largely consisted in the exorcism of possessed animals and yet caliban feels the absence of his god most keenly and at one point seems almost tempted to accept the offer of another god to fill that void which made me wonder if his attachment to slate was not an attempt to do exactly that rather than a genuine feeling story wise the wonder engine sees the culmination of the four characters mission and the discovery of what originated the creation of the clocktaurs and does so with a good deal of suspense laced with humor that kept me turning the pages at a fast pace the steampunk element introduced with the clocktaurs is a nice touch in this fantasy setting and also adds a few gory details that heightened the tension i must add that there is a surprise development concerning one of the main characters which i suspected must be there since the first book but still managed to appear surprising thanks to its unexpected placement in the story without spoiling the surprise i have to say that slate s reaction to this revelation and its consequences played very well and served to depict her personality even more accurately when all is said and done i enjoyed the conclusion of the duology even though it did not feel on the same level as other works by t kingfisher still the entertainment value of her stories remains high and i m not going to let this slightly disappointing encounter distract me from reading her other novels my rating reviews the clockwork boys clocktaur war 1 by t kingfisher may 30 2024 maddalena spaceandsorcery 38 comments moving backwards through the works of an author whose latest books i greatly enjoyed can sometimes be a disappointing journey because i might not encounter the same level of storytelling of the later books but this is definitely not the case with t kingfisher s earlier novels and i m glad to report that i had a wonderful time with her clocktaur war duology which compelled me to read both books back to back something i don t usually do the clockwork boys starts with your typical quest undertaken by a group of people of disparate origin but soon deviates from the usual narrative norm because both the quest and the characters are not what one would expect anuket city is waging war against its neighbors and does so not with conventional troops but through an unstoppable army of centaur like mechanical constructs which lay waste to everything they find on their path so that the ruler of the nearest realm recruits three convicted criminals for what amounts to a suicide mission to anuket city their goal is to learn where and how the clocktaurs are built and to obliterate the impending menace even at the cost of their lives the unlikely trio is composed by slate a master forger and the only woman of the band brenner an assassin for hire and caliban a disgraced paladin who became a mass murderer when the demon he was exorcising took possession of him to ensure that the three complete their mission they are marked with a special kind of tattoo which will literally devour them if they deviate from their assignment the fourth member of the group is no criminal but a volunteer learned edmund a nineteen year old scholar from a very misogynistic religious order who fears that prolonged contact with slate will shrivel his private parts and liquefy his bowels the four mismatched companions journey to anuket city takes them through expected dangers and unexpected surprise encounters while the personal dynamics between them shift and change slowly but surely turning them into the cohesive group needed to unravel the clocktaurs mystery and possibly to survive another day as is the case with all the kingfisher novels i read so far the characters are the unquestionable pillars of the story particularly slate and caliban whose povs take the readers through the risky journey one where the perils of the roads go hand in hand with various discomforts like slate s and brenner s unfamiliarity with horse riding which offers the opportunity for some very amusing scenes their different personalities often clash which doesn t bode well for the success of the mission but on the other hand enables the author to develop her characters well through a few deft touches at the start of the adventure each of them is wrapped up in their own self centered troubles slate feels like a dead woman walking having fatalistically accepted that her demise might come either because of the mission or because of the past unfinished business awaiting for her in anuket city caliban struggles under the weight of guilt for his actions and the loss of his god s presence while the remnants of the demon that possessed him still occasionally stir in the back of his mind learned edmund teeters between lore gathering and his fear of slate s proximity as for brenner well he s something of a dangerously inscrutable presence and there s always a not so faint air of menace hanging over him i warmed quite quickly toward slate her competence as a forger and her self reliance go hand in hand with a fatalistic attitude that made he...