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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

A new week, a new trilogy. This is a read rather than a reread; I’m coming to it for the first time. I’ll be moving faster, taking in more with each post, and thinking more about the big picture.

If you haven’t read the Dragon Prince trilogy, there will be many spoilers, so be ready.

In the meantime, since this is all new to me but the author and the characters and setting are by now well known, here are some things I will be expecting as the series gets under way:

Clever Rohan is Clever and Perfect. This has been explicitly stated often in the Dragon Prince trilogy; I expect to see more of it in this continuation.

Sioned is still fiery, still rebellious against her Sunrunner training, and still completely invested in everything to do with Rohan. She’ll keep on being her own person, but that person is first and foremost Rohan’s wife.

Pol was annoying, conceited, and not very bright in the first trilogy. I hope he’ll come across better here, but I won’t be holding my breath. So far he’s been an object lesson in the failure of great men to produce great offspring. And then there’s his very retro, postfeminist choice of wife—another example of the new generation devolving from the old.

The rest of the huge cast of characters, I’m sure, will continue to live their lives, grow and age and marry (perfectly if they’re good guys) and produce children who will have their own roles to play in the saga. We’ll be seeing plenty of intricate politics, practical concerns of trade and finance, and a persistent avoidance of the Great Big Fantasy Battle in favor of the primary good guy and the primary baddie settling things one on one.

Though we’ll see about that, since the jacket blurbs talk about an invasion. Something new is coming in, to add to the conflict set up in the first trilogy between sorcerers and Sunrunners, as well as the one between royals and Goddess Keep.

And then there’s the gut-punch from the end of Sunrunner’s Fire, the transformation of Andry into genocidal maniac. That’s ugly, and I have a feeling it’s only going to get uglier.

So here we are. Strap in; I have a feeling we’re in for a wild ride.

Judith Tarr’s first novel, The Isle of Glass, appeared in 1985. Her new novel, Forgotten Suns, a space opera, was published by Book View Café in April. In between, she’s written historicals and historical fantasies and epic fantasies, some of which have been reborn as ebooks from Book View Café. She has won the Crawford Award, and been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award and the Locus Award. She lives in Arizona with an assortment of cats, two dogs, and a herd of Lipizzan horses.

About the Author

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Judith Tarr

Author

Judith Tarr has written over forty novels, many of which have been published as ebooks, as well as numerous shorter works of fiction and nonfiction, including a primer for writers who want to write about horses: Writing Horses: The Fine Art of Getting It Right. She has a Patreon, in which she shares nonfiction, fiction, and horse and cat stories. She lives near Tucson, Arizona, with a herd of Lipizzans, a clowder of cats, and a pair of Very Good Dogs.
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