the refuge of books

Calling the land the lack and the sea the plenty? Oh yeah.

The serpent perspectives initially had me thinking “WHAT is going on here” in the way that starting a fantasy book often does.

I loved the characters and their growth (malta, selden, wintrow, althea) throughout this series. I liked brashen and paragon and amber (oh amber..) from the start. The gradual reveal of the connections between dragons, wizardwood, and liveships is exquisite, and thinking about how painful being trapped in that way could be. And vivacia’s realization that she is memories rather than an alive, full being.

I found myself more interested in wintrow’s and althea’s perspectives at first and grew to also be fascinated by malta’s. Keffria’s deference to her husband is something I was glad to see fade as she more fully realized how he is awful (lol). I also really like reyn!

Kennit’s story is so painful and messed up, and for a while, I was engaged reading what he would do next (but not as it became increasingly horrible). Wintrow’s description of reconciling his actions was apt.

I strongly disagree with anyone who says that this trilogy is skip-able in reading realm of the elderlings. The way references to buck are woven in, and even more so, the way references to this trilogy impact future books are like treasures. additionally, this trilogy is great on its own.