Robin Lafevers’ His Fair Assassin series is a young adult historical fantasy series set in sixteenth century Brittany. It tells the stories of three young women who are affiliates of a convent dedicated to Mortain, god of Death. Yup, we’re talking teenage nun assassins. In old Brittany. With supernatural powers. LaFevers has blended historical fact into her fictional world, most notably the struggles of Anne, Duchess of Brittany, and her attempt to keep Brittany free of French rule. Each of the three novels focuses on and is told from the viewpoint of one of the young nuns and each of books progresses the overall plot. I picked up the first book, Grave Mercy, while I was in the midst of a reading slump and had already picked up and rejected several good books. Within a chapter I was hooked. LaFevers’ narrative style, world building and characters drew me in right from the start. I ended up marathoning all three books in the series one after another – I just couldn’t put them down. What I liked The historical setting. I really enjoyed LaFevers’ basing her world on real historical facts and people. I felt this gave a very strong, solid…
The biggest release for me this week is Brandon Sanderson’s Words of Radiance. This is the second in the Stormlight Archive, Sanderson’s proposed 10 book epic fantasy series. That was my biggest issue with The Way of Kings – Sanderson has planned it to be an epic tale right from the beginning so the large scope is readily apparent. I’ve much preferred tales which have “grown in the telling” as the saying goes. The Wheel of Time, for example, starts off focussed on our heroes from the Two Rivers and it’s not until later on in the series that we have epic battles and world changing consequences. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy The Way of Kings, although in all fairness I used Tor.com’s excellent Way of Kings Reread and Where We Left Our Heroes article to catch up with it. I am enjoying Words of Radiance which I am listening to in audiobook format rather than reading. I do enjoy Kate Reading’s and Michael Kramer’s narration. However, this audiobook weighs in at a hefty 48 hours and 15 minutes. I don’t expect to read much else in the next couple of weeks, so please don’t expect many other…