[pat5150]

Does anyone know if it's any good and how it compares to the Essalieyan saga?

There are 17 volumes, plus 2 prequels, so it's even more daunting than her Michelle West novels.

At least no one seems to argue about where to start!

[the broken]

I've read the first six mainstream ones (up to Cast in Chaos) and enjoyed them. Only works by her I read so don't know if similar to the others. Our lead is a police patrolwoman with magical tattoos (imposed on her by force as a child) that give her healing powers but are also potentially world destroying. The books so far are part detective, part magical castastrophe averting, part interspecies diplomacy. Good character work.

Spoiler

She has a grievance against her love interest, which I thought was very well done, because although he does have his reasons, it's not some kind of misunderstanding to be cleared up, it's a real transgression, which needs real work for forgiveness even after she knows the reasons. A lesser story would have gone the 'he didn't really do it' route'

[pat5150]

Thanks!

Is it a bit like the Dresden Files or anything else you've read, just so I can get an idea of the style and tone of the series?

[the broken]

That's tricky. It's nothing like Dresden files, it's not set on earth, it's in a city called Elantra IIRC, ruled by a Dragon Emperor who literally is a Dragon Emperor. Closest comparisons I have would be something like the October Daye or Illona Andrews, but the comparison doesn't really work. I haven't come across anything else quite like it. Enjoyed it though.

The Dragons spendmost of their time in human form like Rake, because otherwise they destroy too much.

The lead relies heavily on being a nice person and having emotional intelligence and empathy, rather than 'aha, I have outsmarted you/been better at magic'. There are also Barrani, who are kind of like Tiste Andii if they were constantly playing politics against each other, Griffin people called Leontines, winged humans called Aerians, and there is a race of telepaths called Tha' Alani who are generally nice but no one likes them because they are telepaths. And humans. Our lead is circa 20, badly educated but has good instincts and because of her tattoos is hard to kill with magic. It's a plot point that she can't go anywhere near the Emperor because she's incapable of being polite enough for his court, so he would be forced to kill her if they ever met face to face.

Barrani and Dragons are immortal and have glowing eyes that shift colour with their mood.

Our lead is a Hawk, which is the branch of the police dedicated to patrolling and investigation, the other two branches are the Swords (crowd control, riot control) and the Wolves (the fugitive mage is too powerful to leave alive, he needs to die now.)

There are a group of small kingdoms called 'the fiefs' across the river from the city, that are independent of the Empire, ruled by local mob bosses that also tend to be powerful mages. The Hawks do not have jurisdiction in the fiefs, and the mob bosses are tolerated despite mostly mistreating their people because they protect the Empire from the magical darkness on the other side which periodically spawns monsters.

Does that help any?

[pat5150]

It does! Thank you so much!

Will likely download the first one and read it at some point. And if I like it, I'll go for the sequels.

[the broken]

So did you ever look into these? What did you make of them?

[pat5150]

No, not yet. My plate is full with the House War books and the Sacred Hunt duology at the moment.

[Abyss]

the broken, on 11 June 2023 - 02:00 PM, said:

That's tricky. It's nothing like Dresden files, it's not set on earth, it's in a city called Elantra...

...and now i'm intrigued.

[the broken]

Finally read book 7, Cast in Ruin

Spoiler

The big pitfall of these long series is that every book the character achieves something impossible, so eventually I no longer think anything is actually impossible just because the characters think it is., which is part of why I lost interest in October Daye or Kate Daniels. So far, this series has done really well at keeping things going, mostly because the writing is good, so it makes sense why every character acts the way they do.

And for once, lead character holding giant sword on the cover actually is relevant.

It's finally starting to creak, but still holds up so far. The emotional work hold up well enough that the mechanical work is less important.