Coming off the Machineries of Empire i was feeling some fantasy but not a long term commitment (shut up perverts) so returned to Myke Cole's THE ARMORED SAINT series and Just Finished bk 2 QUEEN OF CROWS. I enjoyed bk 1 for the classic but well executed scale scale worldbuilding and the focus on one character forced by circumstance to step up and save her village, assisted by a great big suit of steampunk mechanical armour. It was also short, 5ish hours on earbook. Book 2... not as good. Not bad, i'll be back for bk 3 to finish the story but it very much suffers from 'middle-book syndrome'. Instead of the MC developing, we get repetious versions of bad to really bad to really really bad things happening to her, and she proceeds to freak out, pull herself together, and go back to the fight. In fact the book is borderline one long fight. Cole writes great fights, truly, and the Graphic Audio people did nice work w the sfx and music, all very cinematic, but just a leeeeeeetle too repetitious, and the supporting characters are borderline tropes in the MC's background. In essence this book just advances the MC's experience points and follower count and sets up the finale without doing enough to develop her or her world. All that said tho, it's short, 4.5hrs, so essentialy 'just' the middle of a 15hr book as opposed to a freestanding story. I'm still in for bk 3 at some point bcs i do want to see how this ends, and hopefully it's closer to bk 1.
Not quite ready to jump into THE DEVILS after that i went w an Ilona Andrews short story SANCTUARY, set in thier Kate Daniels world and focused on supporting character Roman, black vold of the Slavic god of darkness. Just Finished it, great read. Roman was a low profile/big moment supporting character in the Kate series so a fun choice for his own story and the authors clearly enjoyed themselves writing this. His voice is distinct, his powers interesting, a lot of good writing about his relationship w his god, and some excellent magic vs magic action. Also, giant scorpion. No guest appearances from the main series but Roman works well with his own new supporting cast, including ... look, this is minor spoilers and if you're about to read this stay clear but if you were wondering whether to pick it up this might be what you need to know and it's just an intro that happens in ch1...
. Great fun, worth it if you need a sideways hit of the Kate'amine.
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