Liscor is recovering from the overwhelming assault by the undead and the dungeon boss called Skinner. The city blames the four silver-ranked adventuring teams who went into the crypt for stirring up the undead, but only Yvlon survived and she's catatonic from what she saw. The citizens can hardly grasp that it was a combination of a crazy human innkeeper, Antinium workers, goblins, and a [skeleton warrior] with levels in [barmaid] that brought Skinner down. None of that group feels the same afterwards, except maybe Erin who isn't really a deep thinker. Torvand the skeleton is depressed because he and his crappy sword weren't more effective. The goblin Rags, who started out as a [scavenger] and then added [tactician] by learning chess from Erin, did finally gain [warrior] for dealing the killing blow to Skinner, but she's still a very small goblin with no real power to improve things for her tribe. And Erin is depressed because most of the Antinium defending her died, including her friend Klbkch, who was both the Prognugator of his hive and a guardsman of Liscor.

Erin Solstice walks into her bathroom one night and she's suddenly in a cave dodging dragon fire. Quickly followed by running from little green people, who can only be goblins, until she finds an abandoned inn to hide in. Erin's not the only one who suddenly finds themselves alone in a world populated by several intelligent races, lots of monsters, dungeons, and where people have classes and skills. Erin, for instance, promptly becomes an [Innkeeper]. The storylines mostly center on the old inn that Erin dubs The Wandering Inn and the nearby city of Liscor that is about to have a very exciting, strange, and sometimes horrifying year. The discovery of a new dungeon draws several groups of silver-ranked adventurers to Liscor in search of artifacts and treasure. A young goblin discovers that not all humans are the enemy, the insectoid Antinium discovers that playing chess with Erin allows them to develop individuality, and a homeless [Mage] turns out to be a brilliant [Necromancer]. Welcome to the soap opera that is The Wandering Inn.

Light Bringer is book six of the Red Rising series and it's a good one; however, if you were hoping this would finally lead to a resolution of the rebellion then you will be disappointed. After the last book, it felt like the series was set up to be resolved in a final battle for control of the solar system, but Pierce Brown decided that Darrow needed to go on one more side quest before that ultimate battle. I must admit that when I understood the direction this book was taking I was disappointed, but by the time it was over, I definitely felt differently. This was yet another solid book in the series and it delivers some meaningful events, even if it felt more like a side quest than progress in the main campaign. It does set things up for an even bigger finish in the next book, which I am definitely looking forward to.

At Alpha Centauri, the United Nations of Earth made their last stand against the Medari Council. Humans would have been willing to consider joining if the dominant race of the Council, the Medari, didn't demand that all races convert to their religion. The war was going poorly until humans produced the new phase cannons and establishing a policy of destroying their ships to ensure the enemy never gets one. At Alpha Centauri, the phase cannons almost carried the day but instead it ended with the Japanese fleet heroically sacrificing themselves to cover the evacuation of civilians to Sol. Among the broken remnants of humanity, grandparents and parents pass on the stories of those heroes, the few ark ships hiding deep in space, and the legend of a ship that was supposed to save them all. Excalibur.

James Crowley is used to travelling alone, but this time he finds himself on the way to Crescent City with a few companions. Rosa, Bram Stoker, Irish, and Harker all return from the first book, and their presence certainly makes things complicated for Crowley. He is being sent to Crescent City by the White Throne to deal with the "Betrayer", and that's not exactly information he can share with his travelling companions. Two of which, Bram and Rosa, happen to be very interested in the supernatural, and that lends itself to some uncomfortable conversations on the road. As they get closer to town the situation starts to spiral out of control as one of them is mortally wounded. They must seek immediate medical attention in town only to find that Crescent City has been overrun by supernatural beings and they are entering a powder keg of a situation. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, typical Crowley.

Mage-Captain Ivan Halloway managed to retire from the Royal Martian Navy without seeing combat. He's a coward, so better to be retired rather than serving in the coming civil war. Back home in the Xanth system he's uncertain what he wants to do with the rest of his life, so he agrees to help an old friend. He should have gotten more details before he agreed! Karl is deeply in debt following a divorce and mid-life crisis that saw his entire crew resign so he's going to enter the illegal Black Pulsar Race, an obstacle course around a binary pulsar system run by crime syndicates. One reason it's illegal is that twenty-five percent of ships don't survive to the end, but Karl is confident the Restoya can win. The prize money will allow him to pay off his debts and keep his ship. Ivan's not a fan of this plan, but he does want to help Karl until the mob threatens to kills both of them unless Ivan helps them take the Restoya during the race. He agrees on the condition they don't harm Karl and forgive his debts, but he still has a bad feeling about this.

James Crowley was your typical outlaw until his life was ended in a hail of gunfire; however, his well-earned trip to hell was unexpectedly interrupted by the White Throne. He now serves them as a Black Badge, also known as a Hand of God, hunting down demonic entities in the old American West. His task this time is to visit a small town known as Dead Acre, a place where outsiders are never welcome. He doesn't exactly know why he is sent to the ass end of nowhere, but upon arrival he quickly discovers that the local cobbler is missing and a number of graves outside the dilapidated church have been desecrated. Certainly a suspicious situation, which is only made worse by the less than warm welcome he receives at the only saloon in town. Of course Crowley is not easily intimidated, so he starts investigating following the clues and eventually discovers that a few of the locals are nto what they seem to be. A number of dark entities have indeed made Dead Acre their home, so Crowley is definitely the right man for the job.

Cade begins his narration by asking the reader to imagine a "wizard" and then informs us that if we're seeing an old man with a long beard and pointy hat that we're idiots who've read too many fairy tales. He then drops straight into a battle where he and his fellow mercenary "wonderists" are laying siege to a city. Cade himself is pretending to be a wonderist who's magic is tied to the plane of Fortune, but in reality bargains for spells with the Infernals. His closest friend is a "thunderer" who is known to laugh as his lightning shatters walls and crushes defenders. Wonderists take on physical and mental traits from their plane of attunement, so they're a truly motley crew. This particular battle is taking place because the city refuses to recognize the latest religious leader chosen by the Lords Celestine, or gods of the Celestial plane. Personally, Cade believes that the Lords Celestine have lost their minds and he plans to murder the asshole who employs them. Cade's murder mission is interrupted when his fellow wonderists decide to kill him because the Glorian Justiciars have arrived. His ties to the Infernal plane aren't as secret as he thought, so Cade's fellow wonderists plan to kill him in the hopes that it will distract the Justiciars long enough for the rest of them to escape. Remember, just when things look bad they can always get worse..

James Crowley is a former outlaw who didn't always make the best choices in life, but he has no regrets about the choice that ended it. Crowley was as rough as they come, but he did have his limits. That turned out not to be a good fit with the leader of his gang, who eventually ended him for standing up to prevent the rape of a captured woman. Perhaps it was that final act of redemption that caused the White Throne to interrupt his journey to hell and select him to serve as a Black Badge, but he doesn't really know that. In fact, he doesn't really know much. His handler, Shar, sends him to deal with the darker evils that roam the American West: nephalem, werewolves, shapeshifters, and yetis, just to name a few. That makes him part bounty hunter, and part supernatural sheriff, but he has no earthly authority, so he is constantly trying to figure out how to take care of his quarry without revealing to everyone else that he himself is undead.

After the events of the last book, it is a miracle that Hadrian Marlowe is still alive. Or is it? Since Hadrian is narrating the story of his life as an old man, it is a foregone conclusion that he won't die, so every situation comes down to how he survives the events that threaten his existence. Things were so dire in Kingdoms of Death that any way out alive for Hadrian would have to border on ludicrous, and it did. It made me wonder if Christopher Ruocchio had fundamentally undermined this series by giving Hadrian a reality-shifting ability that was just too powerful. At the time it seemed that Hadrian could use this ability to get out of any situation without consequence, but there are also a few hints that things are not exactly as they seem to be. Only time will tell which side of plausible this series winds up on, but either way it continues to get more dark and foreboding.