Daniel Abraham continues to deliver an engaging story as war rages on for Antea. As readers of the series will have guessed by the title, Clara comes to the forefront in this book and house Callium becomes the focal point. Clara has lost her husband to Lord Regent Geder's wrath, one of her sons to Geder's banishment, and a second son to the spider priesthood. The bottom line is that she has had enough and decides to take action to prevent Geder from ruining what little she has left. Underestimate Clara at your own peril.

Book 3 of The Dagger and the Coin series continues the war against the spider goddess with all the main characters back and advancing their storylines as you would expect. The power of the spider goddess priests to always detect when someone is lying is central to the story and this ability takes on new meaning as one starts to realize that the actual truth can take many forms. This fact muddies the water and many of the characters have to adapt their understanding of what the real struggle is. This book is all about those changing perspectives as the "war" is fought in many different ways.

Daniel Abraham really steps it up in book two of The Dagger and the Coin series and he provides the payoff for all of the foundation work that he did in the first book, The Dragon's Path. All of the main characters return and with their background's now firmly established, their storylines all move forward in significant ways. When their paths finally begin to cross then the story really picks up steam as the kingdom of Antea finds itself the likely victim of an ancient prophecy come to life. The spider goddess is finally making her return to the world and she plans to make Antea her new home.

Daniel Abraham, one of the two authors that write The Expanse series under the name James S. A. Corey, offers up an epic fantasy series featuring a rich, complex world worthy of your attention. Unfortunately, it might not seem that way at first. The opening chapters jump around from character to character and right when you start to get your bearings then a new chapter starts and you find yourself completely lost all over again. This feeling of confusion is compounded by the fact that there are a myriad of different humanoid races and you are exposed to the history of the world along with the present day. This is a lot to absorb all at the same time which makes it easy to lose track of things, especially when you don't know what is important and what is not. Luckily it is all worth the effort in the end because The Dagger and the Coin is an excellent series once you get settled into it.

To anyone who enjoys fantasy RPG games, including old school paper Dungeons & Dragons, the premise of this book is an interesting one. Why are there so many dungeons around just sitting there waiting for a party of adventures to come and plunder them? How did they get there and where did the monsters come from? What do those monsters in each room do all day long when the dungeon is not being raided? How can a rat drop a helmet twice its size as loot after it is killed? Well this book attempts to explain all of that and while a tongue in cheek book about the illogic of fantasy RPG video games may sound like fun, let me tell you why you might want to avoid this one.

All the main characters are back (at least the ones that are still alive) and Peter V. Brett finally brings his epic story to a conclusion. Sharak Ka is nigh and it is time to find out if humanity has what it takes to survive the threat. Despite the many advances in warding skills and demon fighting techniques that have occurred since the series started, mankind still remains ill prepared for what is coming. The Krasians and Thesans must put aside their differences if they are to survive until dawn. Whether you believe in the Creator, Everam, or neither, it matters not as the demons are ready to swarm and every living person must do their part or be prepared to walk the lonely path. 

It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size. So begins Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. Nona Grey lives on an ice world where humanity huddles around the equator and jealously guards its remaining resources. Nona is a slave sentenced to hang for murdering a nobleman. She's ten years old. Abbess Glass of the Sweet Mercy Convent rescues her and Nona becomes a novice. There are ultimately three paths the nuns can choose, but for ten years Nona and the other novices learn the basics of combat, magic, and prayer. Political fallout from Nona's rescue, assassination attempts, and an ancient prophecy combine to add intrigue to a tale of friendship, growing up, and kick ass nuns.

If you've burned out on the political machinations of Westeros, or real world politics in general, and are looking to lose yourself in something relaxing, then you need The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. It's the fully realized world building and personal storyline that sets this book apart from other recent works. The story follows young Maia, half-elven and half-goblin, as he struggles with his sudden ascension to the throne of Ethuveraz, the elflands. The obvious themes of racism, youthful insecurity, and the power of a good heart could easily become too sweet but Addison carefully blends them into the story.

​​​​​​​New author James Islington brings back epic doorstop fantasy with The Shadow of What Was Lost. On the surface this is another fantasy about a young man discovering his strengths as he does a lot of walking around while trying to save his world. But with everyone around him keeping secrets the group dynamic is always shifting as the characters learn more about each other and themselves.

​​​​​​​The events at the end of the Daylight War were destined to have a ripple effect, especially in Krasia, and this entire book is dedicated to that purpose. This means that this book is actually more focused on the daylight war than the last one, despite the respective titles. For many readers this is a disappointing turn of events as it does put the story arc regarding the Demon War mostly to the side but the significant events that occur with many of the main characters still makes for good story telling. The ending of the last book was a cliff hanger so don't proceed with reading the rest of this review unless you have already finished that one...