Jurjen

My thoughts on this one are a bit conflicted. I think what made L&L so great was how truly earnest it felt, and for much of this prequel, I felt like it was missing that. A bit too derivative, a bit too safe. Perhaps now that the series had its specific audience, this book was written with the audience in mind, rather than the phenom of L&L where people didn't know that this is what they wanted to read at that very specific point in time during COVID.

But I think the last 10% of the book did a pretty good job at conveying an earnest message that I believe Baldree wanted to tell. I think overall this is a lot weaker than L&L, but yea the ending did work pretty well, and made me pretty excited for b3 next month.

Blood Over Bright Haven is my favourite new pickup that I have read in the past year and a half, and it deserves all the hype it gets.

I tried writing a list of all the elements that made the book work so well, but that would undermine *why* the book is so good. Every element that makes this book great relies on another. The character work is enabled by the themes of the story, and the way the plot progresses naturally. Sciona's personality and character development was able to succeed because Wang put in the work of harmonising Sciona's personal struggle with a wider array of struggles present in Tiran. Without that, her arc would collapse. The philosophical underpinnings between the peoples in the story weren't just hollow, and existed to justify a few directions the plot had to go towards–as it so often does–but was consistently fundamental to character interactions through the entire book.

It is rare to say that a book in which you predicted almost all major plot developments accurately could still surprise and flounder you, and that it was enthralling from the first page to the last. But that is exactly what Blood Over Bright Haven did to me. It took me in its grasp, and never let go.

Blood Over Bright Haven is my favourite new pickup that I have read in the past year and a half, and it deserves all the hype it gets.

I tried writing a list of all the elements that made the book work so well, but that would undermine *why* the book is so good.

Every element that makes this book great relies on another. The character work is enabled by the themes of the story, and the way the plot progresses naturally. Sciona's personality and character development was able to succeed because Wang put in the work of harmonising Sciona's personal struggle with a wider array of struggles present in Tiran. Without that, her arc would collapse. The philosophical underpinnings between the peoples in the story weren't just hollow, and existed to justify a few directions the plot had to go towards–as it so often does–but was consistently fundamental to character interactions through the entire book.

It is rare to say that a book in which you predicted almost all major plot developments accurately could still surprise and flounder you, and that it was enthralling from the first page to the last. But that is exactly what Blood Over Bright Haven did to me. It took me in its grasp, and never let go.

Reread: the ending is cute

1st read: wow this book is so good
2nd read: wow this book is even better
3rd read (you are here): wow this book is even even better
4th read???: might invent a number that comes after 10 to rate it that out of 10

Words of Radiance still better though