The Hanged Man is the wonderful sequel to The Last Sun by KD Edwards (my review), and if you haven’t read that, what are you going here, go read the awesome book not my review. I’ve left out most names and events here so you should be fine continuing to read either way. If this reads too much like stream of consciousness gushing, sorry not sorry I loved it.
And to show how much I loved it, I took a cue from u/Ziinaz’s review of Mistborn and did an interpretative dance summary of the action.
The first book is awesome, the second is excellent, there are 9 books planned in this series, the sky’s the limit. TLS was fun, funny, fast, action packed, with great magic and characters. THM had everything TLS did, and added creepy and gut wrenching ghost scenes, had all the previous relationship grow beautifully, Rune make great personal progress and introduced Lady Death who is just great. Sometimes books are great at some things but not so much at others, well I can’t find the buts here, except for Rune’s butt, which I understand is also top notch.
The pacing is again a whirlwind, with lots of high tension moments throughout the book, starting with a fight in the opening chapter, sneaking onto a ghost ship, sneaking into a huge and dangerous building and then a really intense political situation, all before the big finale, which was both action packed and emotionally charged. It gets so very dark and creepy, and also so bright and full of hope and love. This series seems to be the sort that gives us a complete story in each book, while also constantly building and hinting at the bigger picture.
The characters are great. I just love how KD Edwards uses hints and secrets to paint everyone’s portrait, little bits of information here and there that go a long way towards understanding a character. Everyone feels so real, there’s a history and goals for all of them, even if we don’t get to understand it all yet, there are things that made me think, ok yeah, this is gonna be important in future books. And The Hanged Man, mmm so creepy, love him, in a horrifying disgusting sense, a true vile, manipulative villain . And all of that plays into how real and diverse the relationships are. I love that Rune gets to be the friend, the companion, the mentor, the mentee, the surrogate little brother, the protector and the avenger, the weakest in a group and the strongest in a group. Rather than have the focus on just one or two roles and relationships the author is thoughtful and takes time developing so many different ones.
Also that epilogue is amazing, carefully tying up all the loose threads of the characters’ feelings. Is there somewhere I can campaign for having epilogues where people have all the hard conservations, acknowledging all their complicated feelings and dealing with them ? I just loved that it went that way, rather than the more usual hook for the next book. I can’t wait for the next book and oddly, despite how high action this series is, it’s not cause I want to know what happens next, it’s cause I want to spend more time with these characters and see where they go from here.
I got a copy of The Hanged Man from the publisher and this is my honest, somewhat embarassing, review. For more wacky tarot sequence shenanigans, including comics, poetry, fashion design and quilting, follow #ScionsOfAtlantis on twitter.
