K. M. Alexander

A group of soldiers in WW1 discovers a wounded angel in No Man's Land, and all hell breaks loose. I went into this book knowing only that and found myself entranced. It's like Kraus wrote a book specifically for me to enjoy. It's brutal and beautiful. Hopeful but often horrific. It's all told via a single enormous sentence, which drags you helter-skelter through the mud of the trenches until the very end. I loved it.

If you love shield walls, this is the book for you! The groundwork in The Rise of Mages pays off as the story surges. Drakeford's deft hand with large-scale combat, political intrigue, and the economic weight of a massive military campaign truly shines. As the Ire brothers continue their quest to liberate their people, the scope of events expands, and the stakes rise with every bloody chapter, culminating in a harrowing end that leaves you eager for what comes next. I'm ready for book three.

There is so much here that sucked me in. It's a post-apocalyptic book that confronts dealing with an apocalypse, it's a mecha book but done in a grounded way that feels more Battletech than Transformers, and it's a weird-fantasy-faith book that at times feels like an homage to Warhammer 40k, but forges its own path. Loads of twists and turns and solid characters, the sort of thing I crave in a genre-bending novel. I'll be back for more.

Ripplinger does something special in this final entry into the Verdant Revival, and it is delightful. On the surface, Tomorrow's Shepherd is an action-packed adventure that blends genres, yet looking deeper, it is a book infused with the fun of 80s cartoons and somehow still a treatise on trauma and faith, yet told in a straightforward and approachable way. While it was sad to see the trilogy end, I couldn't have imagined a better ending. Love Live the Verde.

What the heck did I just read?