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erdicooper's review
5.0
I've read the first book in this series, The Demons We See, twice: once at its release and then again this week in preparation for this release. Both times, finishing the book came with a strong need to play Dragon Age. Makes sense, right? The author has stated multiple times that this series is, at least in part, a love letter to those games.
I just finished The Nightmare We Know a little bit ago, and instead of needing Dragon Age, I simply need MORE OF THIS SERIES. As someone who struggles to read book after book of the same series (even those I love!), I'm left trying to figure out exactly what caused this feeling for me.
I could blame it on the character drama, my usual drug of choice, being evolved beyond what we saw in Demons to deepen a wider range of characters in a wider range of contexts. There's also a super fun mystery element in trying to figure out who opened the demon portal from the previous book (and also trying to figure something else out, but yeah spoilers). And sure yeah, on a technical level this is also just a very well-paced, well-written story.
I think what really hooks me though is that I hate politics in like 90% of fantasy. I do. It's the worst. It's always about things that I guess could matter conceptually to the reader but are so outside of their book's scope that it just feels dry. That or it's a situation where there's a very clear "the good guys want to do what's necessary and the bad guys are cowards" set-up and you're just left waiting around until the hero can make the good guys win the argument.
You could argue that there's a little bit of both of these elements to the political drama of Nightmare, but it succeeds by being built on top of everything else of this story. Characters matter, their histories and concerns as revealed throughout the series matter, the uncertainty they all share regarding each other and mages matters too! And all of the story, all of this context, is directed at one question:
How do they handle the demands of the army sitting right outside their walls?
The Nightmare We Know is a fantastic book and I seriously can't wait for the sequel next year!
P.S. This is yet another review I've written mostly as a need to vent about my experience with it. Apologies for any incoherence!
I just finished The Nightmare We Know a little bit ago, and instead of needing Dragon Age, I simply need MORE OF THIS SERIES. As someone who struggles to read book after book of the same series (even those I love!), I'm left trying to figure out exactly what caused this feeling for me.
I could blame it on the character drama, my usual drug of choice, being evolved beyond what we saw in Demons to deepen a wider range of characters in a wider range of contexts. There's also a super fun mystery element in trying to figure out who opened the demon portal from the previous book (and also trying to figure something else out, but yeah spoilers). And sure yeah, on a technical level this is also just a very well-paced, well-written story.
I think what really hooks me though is that I hate politics in like 90% of fantasy. I do. It's the worst. It's always about things that I guess could matter conceptually to the reader but are so outside of their book's scope that it just feels dry. That or it's a situation where there's a very clear "the good guys want to do what's necessary and the bad guys are cowards" set-up and you're just left waiting around until the hero can make the good guys win the argument.
You could argue that there's a little bit of both of these elements to the political drama of Nightmare, but it succeeds by being built on top of everything else of this story. Characters matter, their histories and concerns as revealed throughout the series matter, the uncertainty they all share regarding each other and mages matters too! And all of the story, all of this context, is directed at one question:
How do they handle the demands of the army sitting right outside their walls?
The Nightmare We Know is a fantastic book and I seriously can't wait for the sequel next year!
P.S. This is yet another review I've written mostly as a need to vent about my experience with it. Apologies for any incoherence!
kmj91's review
4.0
3.5 stars, a solid sequel to a fun book
Arbiter of Justice, Contessa Allegra is reeling from the assassination of a queen by her fanatic general once he learned that she is a mage. Allegra and her retinue of body guards retreat along with the original mage rebellion to a nearby abbey where they hope to withstand the vicious onslaught of General Bonacieux. This book didn't go in quite the direction I expected it to. After the serious shit gets real twist of the last book upended a major country's political structure, I was expecting this book to deal with the aftermath pretty immediately but the book spends its first half dealing with interpersonal drama between friends and romantic pairs. It's well done so I can't complain but it did take a bit longer than I expected to get back to the political struggle for the freedom of the mages. Once we were back in the thick of that plot though, I found the book picked up quite a bit and I enjoyed it nearly as much as the first one.
Arbiter of Justice, Contessa Allegra is reeling from the assassination of a queen by her fanatic general once he learned that she is a mage. Allegra and her retinue of body guards retreat along with the original mage rebellion to a nearby abbey where they hope to withstand the vicious onslaught of General Bonacieux. This book didn't go in quite the direction I expected it to. After the serious shit gets real twist of the last book upended a major country's political structure, I was expecting this book to deal with the aftermath pretty immediately but the book spends its first half dealing with interpersonal drama between friends and romantic pairs. It's well done so I can't complain but it did take a bit longer than I expected to get back to the political struggle for the freedom of the mages. Once we were back in the thick of that plot though, I found the book picked up quite a bit and I enjoyed it nearly as much as the first one.
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