Siavahda's Blog, page 102

#LastSunReadalong Week 1: Prologue, Chapters 1-4

Genres: Fantasy, Queer Protagonists, Urban Fantasy

The #LastSunReadalong kicked off over on Twitter last Monday, and it’s been a complete delight to reread one of my favourite books in such great company! You can read my livetweeting threads here and here for silliness and gifs, but for this post, I’m gonna write up a more thoughtful and detailed recap. Feel free to comment, or write up your own – I’d love to read it if you do!

Leigh Butler, writing the Ruin of Kings readalong for Tor.com, makes a damn good argument for the opening of a book being the most important part of it.

The beginning of a story is vital. I would argue, in fact, that the beginning of a story is more important than any other part of it, including the end. Which may seem like nonsense, but think about it: if you aren’t intrigued enough by the beginning of a story to keep reading, it doesn’t really matter whether the end is good or not, does it? You’ll never get there to find out. A story without an audience is no story at all.

Leigh Butler, Reading The Ruin of Kings: New Beginnings (Prologue & Chapter 1)

If you’ve already read Last Sun, then you know one of its signature characteristics is its damn potency – how every sentence feels concentrated, the power of ten pages distilled into every one like coal condensed down to diamond. It’s perfect, then, that the prologue is just six sentences long, because the reader immediately learns just how much of a punch Edwards can pack into a handful of words.

All the mugs of beer in the world can’t compare with one shot of jewel-fire Fae liquor.

This is an Urban Fantasy, the blurb promises us, but the prologue promises us something legendary; something Epic, in the truest sense of the word. “Among those who matter I am known and notorious,” Rune Saint John tells us. “I am the Catamite Prince; the Day Prince; the Prince of Ruin.” Epithets and titles that belong to prophecy, that send shivers down our spines and make the hairs on our arms stand up.

I’m sure some people put the book back down. But the rest of us didn’t, don’t, because what sounds like dissonance to others – the contradiction between the Kate Daniels-esque urban fantasy we were expecting and the grand, mythic promise of that opening – is music to us.

Isn’t it?

*

Of course, then the grand and glorious Prince of Ruin opens the story proper by wiping his mouth on the sleeve of his tux and flicking shrimp tails into the potted plants at the party he’s attending – so perhaps we’re not going all-out Mythic quite yet.

(The first sentence introduces the concept of a talla, even if we don’t learn exactly what that is yet. Someone who cares about/looks after someone else, is implied. Still, take note: first sentences are important.)

We learn a lot very quickly, but deftly – it doesn’t feel overwhelming or confusing. It’s a party, but there’s going to be a raid. One servant is suffering frostbite to chill drinks; others are ‘young, drugged, and blankly beautiful.’ The people running this gala don’t seem like the good guys; any moral qualms I had over the idea of a raid are fading fast. We haven’t met Brand yet, but knowing ‘He’d probably want to kill everything in sight too’ honestly makes a good impression in this context.

The prologue tells us the Sun Court – Rune’s father’s Court – fell; a ghastly woman claiming seer blood expands on this. We learn that Rune went through a horrific sexual assault the night the Sun Court was destroyed, giving a new meaning and nuance to his earlier declaration that ‘I am, before anything else, a survivor’. He means it, though; when he hears this harpy turning his story into tragedy-porn, rather than running away or even staying quiet, he pretends to foretell her future, scaring the absolute shit out of her; ‘I see you crawling on a field of blood and char, with bone shards in your hair.’

(And we’re back to chills running down our spines.)

The raid goes down beautifully, speaking to the cold badassery of all those involved. In an aside, Rune explains why the raid is happening, why the Heart Throne – the Lovers Court – is being dismantled by 12 other Arcana: the Lovers Court has become something corrupted and sick, irreparably fucked-up. What’s interesting, though, is a passage I highlighted on my ereader: Worse, they crossed borders to do it. They compromised our treaties with the human world and put all of New Atlantis at risk.

This is noteworthy because it’s a small piece of worldbuilding with a lot to unpack. Most cultures would react more violently to the abuse of their own than the abuse of another people, but New Atlantis seems to take the opposite approach. Fucking with Atlanteans is bad, but hurting humans is worse – maybe not ethically (do ethics come into it?) but because of the political ramifications. New Atlantis isn’t so interested in the Atlanteans that are victimised.

Hmm.

And personally, I lit up like a firework when Rune tells us We’re a society, after all, that embraces the idea of group marriage, that finds pure heterosexuality as abnormal as pure homosexuality. Normalised queerness is my jam, and something we don’t see nearly often enough, and I approve immensely.

Brand, a human bonded to Rune as his Companion, makes an impact even before he’s present as more than a voice over a comm. His and Rune’s dynamic, and devotion to each other, are quickly made evident, between Brand’s fierce protectiveness and deadly competence in guiding Rune through the raid and having his back even from a distance.

Course, then Rune has to put himself in jeopardy by following Lady Lovers instead of getting the hell out when his part is done. But this does allow us our first real glimpse of an Arcana, and what it means to be one, as Lady Lovers unleashes her Aspect – the true form of her power, the might that hides beneath her normal-looking skin – and gains a promise from Rune in exchange for a sigil, a near-priceless magical item made even more valuable to Rune because he has so few, most of the Sun Court’s sigils having been lost in its fall.

Rune makes the promise – to safely deliver a package whose contents are neither illegal nor dangerous – and then it’s time to get the hell out of dodge.

The problem? When he and Brand make it home, the package is waiting.

And it’s a 17 year old boy, Lady Lovers’ grandson, whose ‘destination’ is his 21st birthday.

Oops, Rune.

*

Matthias Saint Valentine, potentially the last Scion standing of the now-defunct Heart Court, is…kind of a brat. But in fairness, as Queenie, Rune and Brand’s housekeeper, points out, he has just lost everything he ever knew. And Rune and Brand take a minute to realise that and go a little gentler on him.

If the first chapter demonstrated Rune’s brand (no pun intended) of badassery and gave us a crash course on New Atlantean culture and the Companion bond, chapter two is all about showing us the context of Rune and Brand’s lives: a more detailed rundown of the Sun Court’s fall, and a glimpse of how they live now, in a tiny house where money’s tight and space is tighter. We see Rune’s precious handful of sigils, and it’s a little easier to forgive him for being such a twit with Lady Lovers and making open-ended bargains; another sigil really will make a huge and important difference to his life.

Then Lord Tower – Rune’s ex-protector and somewhat-mentor, on whose behalf he was at the Lovers Court raid – calls, and it’s time to take another job.

*

Chapter three quickly sketches out for us the creation of New Atlantis, pretty literally setting the scene for the entire book. Rune decides to bring Matthias with him to meet Lord Tower, and although Matthias’ intro was not favourable – he came across as very bratty – Queenie’s point stands, and Rune’s much gentler with him now he sees Matthias as another survivor. It’s hard not to be sympathetic, even though Matthias fights hard to be allowed to leave, unwilling to be a burden on Rune (or perhaps, not trusting him, which, given Rune’s part in taking down the Heart Throne, seems fair). Rune’s not having that, though, both because of the oath he swore and because he’s not letting a teenager run out onto the streets with no resources or support network.

Rune – and Brand – might snark, but they’re very clearly good people. Even if they maybe don’t know quite how to handle a hurt teenager.

Lord Tower is introduced, and again, we get a little aside about his role, power, and history. Lord Tower, in turn, gives Rune (and us) some of Matthias’ background; this is the man who was the spymaster of Atlantis’ royal court, and it’s clear he still hears everything worth hearing. It’s equally clear that he’s not shy about using his power and influence; mid-conversation with Rune, he answers a phonecall by ordering someone’s death, and Rune guesses that the magic woven into the man’s pyjamas could stop bullets. This is someone to treat with wary respect.

This is also where the plot properly kicks off, as Lord Tower asks Rune to look into the disappearance of one Addam Saint Nicholas, second son of Lady Justice – and Lord Tower’s godson. Despite the fact that Addam deliberately goes off by himself for days at a time semi-regularly, Lord Tower is genuinely concerned and asks Rune to proceed as if Addam is, in fact, missing and not on one of his ‘walkabouts’. Rune, like me, clearly trusts Lord Tower’s instincts and sources, because he agrees to do so, despite the fact that Addam’s family doesn’t seem concerned.

Yet.

*

At this point, we’ve seen Brand run point on an official Arcana raid, demonstrate jaw-dropping sniper (and snark) skills, and display his martial training and thinking in a variety of other small, subtle ways. In chapter four, he manages to gather a ton of information on Addam and the business he’s set up with a number of other Scions (children of Arcana) while Rune takes a nap.

I think it’s pretty clear that Brand is damn good at what he does.

However, when he and Rune set out to visit Addam’s business partners… Matthias sneaks after them. Not that it’s very good sneaking, or that Brand doesn’t know he’s following the entire time, but still: this is the most agency Matthias has shown yet. Is he being devious? Or just trying to learn more about the Scion who now has guardianship of him? Has he heard of Rune, who’s more than a little notorious in New Atlantis, and trying to figure out what, if any, of the gossip is true? Or is he trying to keep himself safe, because knowledge is power?

It’s not clear, but when Brand decides it’s time to catch him and dump him on Rune to deal with, Matthias is quiet and apologetic in the manner of a badly abused/traumatised young man – and panics at the thought of anyone from the Heart Throne learning that he’s still alive. He does not want any of his family to know he’s breathing, and that sets off deeply concerned alarm bells in Rune.

Just what has Matthias gone through?

(There’s a phonecall from someone Rune doesn’t know, and it’s bizarre and clearly plot-relevant. “Is it time for us to meet yet?” Not quite, apparently, but it feels like a safe bet that that time will come soon, whoever the stranger is.)

It’s too late to send Matthias home, so Rune and Brand bring him along to Addam’s company, where Addam’s business partners are entirely unhelpful – and one is Rune’s ex, a relationship that did not end painlessly – but a handy spell reveals that Addam was, in fact, taken from his office the other night, and by something very, very bad. Addam’s business partners may not believe (or seem to care), but for Rune and Brand, this is confirmation that Lord Tower was correct, even if it’s not immediately clear what they can do about it.

Apparently even that small discovery is too much, though, because when they go to leave and figure out their next steps, a powerful, near-indestructible magical construct attacks.

No one at the raid, bar Lady Lovers, was a real threat to Rune, so this is the first time we see him really fight – and damn, it’s impressive. As a part of this, we also see sigils in action, as Rune unleashes the spells stored in each one to fight off the construct, or gargoyle (despite it looking nothing like the ones you find on old churches). But Rune, though impressive, is not one of the Arcana; not a living god, and he knows it. He does the smart thing and tries to get the fuck out of there, but alas, he and Matthias are sealed in.

Matthias clearly doesn’t have Rune (or Brand’s) kind of training, but he does his best – more than I would have expected from a teenager as inexperienced and traumatised as this one. He breaks several chairs in attempts to get the (magically sealed) windows open, and at one point even jumps between Rune and the gargoyle. It’s incredibly brave, and stupid, and why would he do that? Has he already come to trust Rune so much, just because Rune’s doing his best to talk to him gently and refuses not to take care of him?

It really doesn’t say good things about where Matthias comes from, that so little can earn so much of his devotion so quickly. I think it might say good things about Matthias, though.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the fight – other than the fact that it’s clearly an ambush, which means whoever took Addam knows what they’re up to and isn’t interested in letting them continue – is that we learn that Rune has an Aspect too. His eyes glow. It may not be as gloriously, frighteningly impressive as the Aspect of Lady Lovers – the Aspect of a full Arcana – but it’s definitely noteworthy, especially since it’s implied that not all Scions have any Aspect at all, even one as small/subtle as glowing eyes.

Rune’s not just a Scion, though – he’s the heir to the Sun Throne. That has to count for something.

Brand saves the day – it’s clear that’s going to be a pattern, and also that Brand really is not interested in rules or laws or anything else when Rune is in danger – the police make it clear they want to treat the whole incident as a random manifestation of wild magic, and Rune puts the pieces together and calls Lord Tower. Who has, indeed, mentioned to a select few that he’d hired Rune to look into Addam’s disappearance.

“I see. Just out of curiosity, did you introduce me by name, or just call me Bait?”

I doubt Rune missed the fact that Lord Tower doesn’t give him a straight answer. I guess it’s kind of a compliment – he’s stood as Rune’s protector and patron, so presumably it’s not that he doesn’t care if Rune gets hurt. More like he knows Rune can handle it.

Still says a lot about their relationship and dynamic, though.

*

That’s our recap wrapped up, with all the high points (hopefully) noted. But look for the #LastSunReadalong hashtag on twitter for the discussion threads that will go up later today – and go here to leave your questions for KD Edwards! He’ll be answering them today and tomorrow, and next week, we start chapter five!

Blood and Water: The Impossible Contract by K. A. Doore

The Impossible Contract (Chronicles of Ghadid #2) by K.A. Doore
Representation: PoC, wlw or F/F romance, sapphic lead character
Published by Tor Books on 12th November 2019
Genres: Epic Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
Pages: 352
Buy on Amazon, The Book Depository
Goodreads

Second in K. A. Doore's high fantasy adventure series the Chronicles of Ghadid, a determined assassin travels to the heart of the Empire in pursuit of a powerful mark, for fans of Robin Hobb, Sarah J. Maas, and S. A. Chakraborty

Thana has a huge reputation to live up to as daughter of the Serpent, who rules over Ghadid’s secret clan of assassins. Opportunity to prove herself arrives when Thana accepts her first contract on Heru, a dangerous foreign diplomat with the ability to bind a person’s soul under his control.

She may be in over her head, especially when Heru is targeted by a rival sorcerer who sends hordes of the undead to attack them both. When Heru flees, Thana has no choice than to pursue him across the sands to the Empire that intends to capture Ghadid inside its iron grip.

A stranger in a strange city, Thana’s only ally is Mo, a healer who may be too noble for her own good. Meanwhile, otherworldly and political dangers lurk around every corner, and even more sinister plans are uncovered which could lead to worldwide devastation. Can Thana rise to the challenge―even if it means facing off against an ancient evil?

The Impossible Contract is the second book in Doore’s Chronicles of Ghadid trilogy, a series following a family of assassins in a desert world where water is not only currency, but magic. Contract reads perfectly well as a standalone, but you’re missing out if you skip over book one, The Perfect Assassin, with its homoromantic-asexual, certified cinnamon roll of a lead, Amastan.

Amastan features as a brief side-character in this book, but Contract is squarely centred on Thana, and as much as I loved Amastan, I’m so glad Thana got to star in her own novel! Although at first glance she seems to be a reasonably typical character – daughter of the (in)famous Serpent, an assassin who prevented a war, with a chip on her shoulder about proving herself and a weakness for pretty girls – I actually ended up reading the book twice so I could devote an entire reading just to analysing her, highlighting and making notes on all the skilfully subtle ways Doore reveals that she’s actually far more complicated than she looks at first glance.

And to be honest, the entire book is like that: on one level, it reads a bit like an action film, in that it’s a ton of fun, the plot moves along at an excellent pace, and it’s pure entertainment – you’re not required to think too hard about anything, you can just sit back and enjoy. And that’s not meant as any kind of insult; I devoured Impossible both times. It’s addictive and blissfully readable, with just the right balance of description and action in the writing. On a superficial level, the plot is simple enough to not require much of the reader – which is such a relief when you’re tired and just want something fun to read! – while still having enough twisty bits to be genuinely interesting.

But if you do decide to pay that extra bit of attention…then so much depth is added to the story, the characters, and the worldbuilding, that to be honest I’m kind of in awe. Impossible Contract somehow manages to be two books in one: one catering to readers looking for something fresh and fun, and another for readers who want intricate worldbuilding, fantasy politics, and morally complex characters.

Suffice to say, I’m bloody impressed.

Let’s take a look at the set-up: if you’re unfamiliar with the series, Ghadid is a city on the edge of the desert Wastes, raised hundreds of feet in the air on platforms suspended above the sands. Thana’s family – or a select few of them, anyway, hidden amongst the rest of their more mundane cousins – are assassins who deal out justice when the legal system fails, or when going through the courts would do more harm than good for the victims. One of their responsibilities is making sure the bodies of those they kill are found quickly, as a person’s jaan – a wild, elemental spirit released after death – must be swiftly bound by a marab (a kind of priest) lest it cause blasphemous havoc. The economy is based upon water – Ghadid’s currency is literally made up of water-tokens – which healers can use to magically treat injuries and illness.

This is all sketched out for us in Perfect Assassin, but Impossible goes into much more depth on all of it. For example, the magical healers are only glimpsed in book one, but here, Mo, one of the main characters and Thana’s love interest, is a healer herself, so we get a much closer look at the magic and the ethics surrounding it. When Thana is forced to leave Ghadid in order to complete her contract, we also get to see more of the world Doore’s created, not just Ghadid itself but the caravans and tribes who traverse or live in the Wastes, all the way to the Empress’s court. We’re not drowned in Wheel of Time-esque levels of detail, but everything is so beautifully fleshed-out that you can all but feel the desert heat rising off the pages.

I felt like we also learn a lot more about Thana’s family in this book, even though most of the story takes place outside Ghadid and far away from Thana’s relatives. Writing about assassins is always a bit tricky – while fantasy readers are experts at allowing a story to set the rules, it’s a little hard to get away from ‘people who kill for money’. I don’t tend to read books about assassins, because in my experience writers either lean into the grimdark-awfulness of it, or handwave the ethics. Perfect Assassin kind of sidestepped the issue by presenting us with assassins-in-training who might never be allowed to use their skills, and a main character who was deeply conflicted over the actual killing part. But in Impossible Contract, the question of ‘how am I supposed to be okay with any of this?’ is much more immediate. And Doore gives us an answer – the book opens with Thana and Amastan working together to assassinate a rapist whose social status would earn him a slap on the wrist if the case become public, while ruining his victim’s reputation and life. For anyone who wasn’t already aware, the #MeToo movement of the last few years has everybody clear on how this situation can occur, and why legal channels might not be the best ones for the victim. It’s up to the individual reader whether or not they approve, but I suspect everyone should be able to understand the role a family like Thana’s could play in ensuring justice for all.

And we can leave it there and not think about it any further. But for anyone who takes a closer look, Doore makes it clear that it’s not exactly that simple. There’s a surprising amount of hypocrisy or double-standards thinking going on with Thana and her family; for example, at one point, Thana’s inner monologue mentions that G-d does not approve of murder, even when done for the greater good. That throwaway, blithe thought stopped me cold, because it shows that Thana’s family…what? Believes themselves to be outside G-d’s rules? Outside His authority? Better than Him? Or maybe even at odds with Him; just a chapter or two later, we learn that Thana wears charms to protect her from G-d. At first I thought that meant something like, protection from ‘acts of God’, which is how we refer to impossible-to-predict scenarios like being struck by lightning. But rereading the passage, Thana wears other charms to protect against bad luck, which suggests that protection from G-d is something separate to random awfulness like lightning strikes or sandstorms.

Which makes it…almost infuriatingly hypocritical, actually, when Thana then accepts a contract on a man whose supposed crimes (which are not actually detailed to her) are described as ‘crimes against G-d’. It’s difficult to understand how Thana can think that justification for a hit when her entire career is built on spitting on G-d’s laws, but she does. And I don’t think that’s poor writing – lots of people don’t analyse their own actions or beliefs closely enough to catch that kind of contradiction, so it’s perfectly believable that Thana doesn’t either. But it did make me like her a whole lot less, even if it made her more interesting.

So to summarise: Thana’s family of assassins knowingly operate outside the law, and acknowledge that they do so in direct contradiction of G-d’s law, to the point where they potentially need supernatural protection to dodge G-d’s ire. And although they claim to deal out justice, they seem to hold themselves to very different standards than they do their contracts. There’s also never been any mention, that I could catch, of the family doing their own investigation into the people they’re hired to kill. The person who brings them the contracts supposedly vets them, but given how vague he was in describing the crimes justifying the impossible contract of the title, and how little convincing Thana took, I’m not at all convinced it’s a good system. Also, their work isn’t any kind of deterrent to future evil – many of their contracts are arranged to look like natural deaths or accidents, which might bring some peace to the victims of the people who are killed, but won’t deter other people from committing the same crimes. I’m not even sure if it can be called justice at that point. You raped her, so we kill you, but everyone will think you died a natural death, so the next guy to come along won’t know there’s a punishment for rape, and won’t hesitate to commit the crime. Um. That reads a lot more like very useless revenge than any kind of justice???

Then there’s the fact that Thana casually decides to throw Ghadid into open war with the Empress, after approximately three seconds consideration, after discussing it with absolutely no one. Not even with the rest of her family. Because this is a political hit – the contract has been taken out on the Empress’s ambassador – and Thana’s aware of the repercussions, and just…goes ahead with it.

She’s an interesting main character and I’m still glad she got her own book. But it’s kind of difficult to like her.

And the thing is, I do think all of this is absolutely intentional. Doore sowed these ethical question marks in book one, and Impossible Contract is very much the harvest. It’s an entire arc or plotline you can completely miss if you’re not looking for it or don’t really care about it, but how is this okay? and who gave you the right? and even how dare you? all come to a pretty perfect (if painful) conclusion by the end of the book, so thoroughly that it’s impossible not to think it’s deliberate, that Doore has been considering these questions from day one and always planned for it to go this way. It’s subtle and clever and brilliant, and way more nuanced than I was expecting.

Other reviewers have talked about how brilliant the character dynamics and relationships are, and also gleefully (and rightly) praised the more central plot of Thana’s journey from Ghadid and the ensuing shenanigans, so I don’t feel the need to do the same. (Although don’t get me wrong: I’m a major fan of both those aspects of the book too!) But it’s the depths beneath the action-film fun that makes Impossible Contract an even better and much stronger book than Perfect Assassin, and guarantees Doore a spot on my auto-buy list of authors from now on.

Impossible Contract comes out in two days, and I strongly urge you to nab a copy asap!

Join the #NewAtlantisGala with the Creative Tarot Sequence Project!

Greetings to thee, Scions, bystanders, fans and Principalities galore. Allow us to cut the ribbon on New Atlantis’ newest art gallery and welcome you all inside!

But what’s an art gallery without art? As part of the Hanged Man Promotion, we – K.D. Edwards, Kathy, and I – are inviting any and all fans of the Tarot Sequence to showcase their love for the books with all the creativity they can muster! From now until January 1st 2020, we want you to CREATE – and for those who feel they can’t draw or paint, don’t despair! Fanvideos, poetry, origami, photo collages, gingerbread renditions of Rune and Brand – anything and everything you can think of counts! Show us your Sun Court-inspired jewellery or make-up looks, stitch plushies, recreate pivotal scenes from The Last Sun with Lego – creativity with your medium can only help you!

Because, of course, we’re not asking you to do this for nothing – we have prizes awaiting you!

Our TWO first-place winners will receive;

One copy of The Hanged Man, annotated by K.D. Edwards himself!
One tarot deck (We have one copy of the Divine Diversity Tarot; the second deck is TBA)
A chance to name a character in book three of the Tarot Sequence!

For our THREE second-place winners;

an audiobook copy of The Hanged Man.

Our THREE third-place winners;

a copy of The Last Sun, signed by K.D. Edwards!

Pretty cool, right? Now, there are a few ground-rules.

1. No nudity, gore, sexual or irrelevant content.

(That said, K.D. is, ahem, willing to accept tasteful images of shirtless Brand.)

2. To be counted, you must post your work (or a photo of it) on social media – Twitter, Instagram, or Tumblr – using the hashtag #NewAtlantisGala; and/or, send it to us via email at hangedmanpromo@gmail.com. The project ends on the 1st of January 2020, so make sure to post your work/s before then!



3. Your art will be used as part of the author’s social media efforts. In practical terms, this mostly means K.D. telling everyone how cool you are, and including your piece on the Reader Artwork page of his website. It does NOT mean you are signing away the rights to your content!

Easy enough, right? So go wild, Atlanteans! We seriously can’t WAIT to see what you come up with!

Let the Hanged Man Promo begin!

The cards have spoken: the Hanged Man is coming. And it’s up to us to spread the word!

If you’re here, then you’re probably already excited for The Hanged Man‘s release in December. You might have heard the consensus that it’s even better than Last Sun, and that probably makes you flaily because how is that possible and also give it to me now, amiright?

Well, now you’ve got somewhere to channel all that grabby-hands energy – the Hanged Man Promo! KD Edwards, Kathy from Pages Below the Vaulted Sky, and little ol’ me are going to be running a TON of epic events as part of the promotion – and you’re invited to all of them! No matter how hardcore a fan you are, how much or how little time you have to commit, or what your energy levels are, we’ve got something for everyone!

The biggest deal, of course, is the Hanged Man street team. That’s for those of you who want to become a part of the story for a little while – because by signing up here, you’ll be joining one of four Courts of the Arcana: the Sun, Justice, the Tower, or Death. As Scions of your chosen Court, you’ll be working with other members of your Court to boost the love for the books; tweeting, reviewing, getting your local library to order copies, even writing love poetry to the characters – everything you can think of counts, and you’ll earn points for all of it! And of course, there are bonuses to being a Scion; you’ll receive exclusive swag like Tarot Sequence stickers, letters from your ruling Arcana, and behind-the-scenes content in exchange for your efforts!

The Convocation of the Travelling Last Sun is another aspect of the street team event we’re excited about, but we really want to make it clear that it’s very, very optional. In this event, two copies of Last Sun would be shipped out to street team members who want to participate – one in the USA, one in Europe. Each participant would mark up the book as they like – draw doodles, underline favourite passages, leave notes to your Court – post pictures to social media, then ship the book to the next participant. The American copy would go around North America, and the European copy would go around Europe. Every participant would have to cover their own shipping fees, so again, this is absolutely not a mandatory event. And just to reiterate, this would be open to the street team exclusively. We’ll discuss it more later and see how many people would like to take part!

Sign up here to join the #ScionsOfAtlantis! Sign-ups will close on November 5th, at which point, emails will go out to everyone involved to give you ideas about what you can do and explain all the details of this event – which will last through to January 2020.

So choose your Court wisely – read Kathy’s post here for quick rundowns on the Sun and Justice Courts, and click over here for info about the Tower and Death!

(That said, don’t be shy about joining Rune and Brand’s Court, or Addam and Quinn’s! The Sun and Justice teams could both use some more Scions – we were expecting everyone to swarm those two, but they’re actually lagging behind a little!)

The street team is far from the only thing going on, though! Tomorrow we’ll announce the details of the #LastSunReadalong, which is open both to fans of the series and people who’ve never read it before! Every week we’ll read four chapters of The Last Sun together, with weekly discussions and questions to be submitted to KD Edwards himself! We’ll go into all the details tomorrow, but make sure to get your hands on a copy of The Last Sun so you can join in!

There will also be giveaways, trivia challenges, posts discussing the worldbuilding of the series, and a fanwork contest to show off your creativity! Fanart, poetry, recipes, photos of your copy of Last Sun in weird and bizarre places – the sky’s the limit, and we have some seriously cool prizes lined up for the winners. More details will be forthcoming on November 2nd.

Are you excited yet? Because we’re pretty freaking excited over here! Remember, sign-ups for the street team are over here, and hey – if YOU have any cool ideas about how to promote Hanged Man, make sure to mention them in your sign-up! Or reach out to Kathy or I, on our blogs or over on twitter. The more the merrier!

HAPPY SAMHAIN, NEW ATLANTEANS!

All Hallows’ Reads: Books for Halloween!

With Halloween in just a few days (do you have your costume yet?) it’s absolutely time for spooky-themed reads. So here are some of my faves, divided up into Witches, Vampires, and a mixed assortment of Other!

Witches



Darkling by Brooklyn Ray
Representation: Queer Protagonists (gay trans man & cis gay man)
Series: ,
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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Port Lewis, a coastal town perched on the Washington cliffs, is surrounded by dense woods, and is home to quaint coffee shops, a movie theater, a few bars, two churches, the local college, and witches, of course.

Ryder is a witch with two secrets—one about his blood and the other about his heart. Keeping the secrets hasn’t been a problem, until a tarot reading with his best friend, Liam Montgomery, who happens to be one of his secrets, starts a chain of events that can’t be undone.

Dark magic runs through Ryder’s veins. The cards have prophesized a magical catastrophe that could shake the foundation of Ryder’s life, and a vicious partnership with the one person he doesn’t want to risk.

Magic and secrets both come at a cost, and Ryder must figure out what he’s willing to pay to become who he truly is.

Content Warnings: Scenes of bloodletting, consuming blood, erotic bloody scenes. Death (and resurrection) of a main character and animal/pet. Explicit sexual content. Depiction of anxiety.

Darkling is a freaking phenomenal novella about a trans witch who is part elemental, part necromancer, and in love with his best friend. It’s dark and erotic and gorgeous, and you can read my full review of it here, but suffice to say I recommend it strongly.

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
Representation: PoC, Fat MC
Published by Dell Genres: Urban Fantasy
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Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There's not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley's favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.

Undead Girl Gang got a lot of hype before release, and it was well-deserved; a Latina witchling who isn’t totally sure she believes in magic tries to bring her best friend back from the dead after her murder. The problem? She also manages to resurrect the three other girls who were murdered – and who are just as nasty undead as they were when alive. It’s a lot of snarky fun with plenty of poignant moments too.

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft by Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood, Brandy Colbert, Zoraida Córdova, Andrea Cremer, Kate Hart, Emery Lord, Elizabeth May, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Lindsay Smith, Nova Ren Suma, Robin Talley, Shveta Thakrar, Brenna Yovanoff
Representation: Queer Protagonists, PoC
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

An amazing anthology of stories about teen witches, from an incredible list of authors. Many of the stories feature queer and/or non-white witches.

Cold Kiss (Cold Kiss, #1) by Amy Garvey
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It was a beautiful, warm summer day, the day Danny died.

Suddenly Wren was alone and shattered. In a heartbroken fury, armed with dark incantations and a secret power, Wren decides that what she wants—what she must do—is to bring Danny back.

But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy Wren fell in love with. His touch is icy; his skin, smooth and stiff as marble; his chest, cruelly silent when Wren rests her head against it.

Wren must keep Danny a secret, hiding him away, visiting him at night, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school, and Wren realizes that somehow, inexplicably, he can sense the powers that lie within her—and that he knows what she has done. And now Gabriel wants to help make things right.

But Wren alone has to undo what she has wrought—even if it means breaking her heart all over again.

I haven’t really seen this book talked about, which is a shame because it’s one of my favourite witchy books. This time a young witch manages to resurrect her boyfriend, but it’s the lyrical way the magic is written that makes this story so dear to me.

Wicked Like a Wildfire (Hibiscus Daughter, #1) by Lana Popović
Representation: PoC, wlw or F/F romance between secondary characters
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All the women in Iris and Malina’s family have the unique magical ability or “gleam” to manipulate beauty. Iris sees flowers as fractals and turns her kaleidoscope visions into glasswork, while Malina interprets moods as music. But their mother has strict rules to keep their gifts a secret, even in their secluded sea-side town. Iris and Malina are not allowed to share their magic with anyone, and above all, they are forbidden from falling in love.

But when their mother is mysteriously attacked, the sisters will have to unearth the truth behind the quiet lives their mother has built for them. They will discover a wicked curse that haunts their family line—but will they find that the very magic that bonds them together is destined to tear them apart forever?

Wicked Like a Wildfire is the first in a duet about a pair of sisters who come from a family of witches – witches who are each gifted with the ‘gleam’, a magical gift tied to beauty, and which the sisters need to learn how to use fast when their mother is attacked. The writing itself is lush and gorgeous, and I adored the exploration of beauty’s links to power; this one is just a feast of a book.

Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles, #1) by Jessica Spotswood
Representation: wlw or F/F romance between secondary characters
Genres: Fantasy
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Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.

If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

This one is set in a world a bit like ours, except that the USA is ruled over by the misogynistic church, and some women are witches. The main character and both her sisters are all witches, trying to keep their powers hidden for fear of reprisal, but there’s a prophecy that has no interest in letting them keep their heads down. Again, the writing is beautiful, and the worldbuilding is actually surprisingly good; this is one of the only ‘dystopia’ settings I know where we actually get a glimpse of what the rest of the world is doing outside of the USA.

The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta
Representation: Queer Protagonists
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The spellbinding tale of six queer witches forging their own paths, shrouded in the mist, magic, and secrets of the ancient California redwoods.

Danny didn't know what she was looking for when she and her mother spread out a map of the United States and Danny put her finger down on Tempest, California. What she finds are the Grays: a group of friends who throw around terms like queer and witch like they're ordinary and everyday, though they feel like an earthquake to Danny. But Danny didn't just find the Grays. They cast a spell that calls her halfway across the country, because she has something they need: she can bring back Imogen, the most powerful of the Grays, missing since the summer night she wandered into the woods alone. But before Danny can find Imogen, she finds a dead boy with a redwood branch through his heart. Something is very wrong amid the trees and fog of the Lost Coast, and whatever it is, it can kill. Lush, eerie, and imaginative, Amy Rose Capetta's tale overflows with the perils and power of discovery -- and what it means to find your home, yourself, and your way forward.

I’ve only just started reading this, but I’ve loved this author’s other book and it has an all-queer cast of teen witches, so I feel very confident in saying this one’s going to end up a fave.

Vampires



Sunshine by Robin McKinley
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"Her feet are already bleeding - if you like feet..."

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while.

Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion - within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day...

I have to admit, I’m not sure where you’ve been if you’ve missed Sunshine – but I envy you, because getting to read it for the first time is a treat. A baker gets taken by vampires as a snack for another vampire whom they’re keeping prisoner – but instead of getting eaten, said baker and vamp prisoner team up to escape. It seems to be hit and miss – you’ll either love the writing style or hate it – but either way, you should definitely give it a try if you’re into vampires.

The Fifth House of the Heart by Ben Tripp
Representation: Queer Protagonist (Gay), PoC
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Filled with characters as menacing as they are memorable, this chilling twist on vampire fiction packs a punch in the bestselling tradition of ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.

Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang, a vainglorious and well-established antiques dealer, has made a fortune over many years by globetrotting for the finest lost objects in the world. Only Sax knows the true secret to his success: at certain points of his life, he’s killed vampires for their priceless hoards of treasure.

But now Sax’s past actions are quite literally coming back to haunt him, and the lives of those he holds most dear are in mortal danger. To counter this unnatural threat, and with the blessing of the Holy Roman Church, a cowardly but cunning Sax must travel across Europe in pursuit of incalculable evil—and immeasurable wealth—with a ragtag team of mercenaries and vampire killers to hunt a terrifying, ageless monster…one who is hunting Sax in turn.

From author Ben Tripp, whose first horror novel Rise Again “raises the stakes so high that the book becomes nearly impossible to put down” (Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother), The Fifth House of the Heart is a powerful story that will haunt you long after its final pages.

This one is very much Horror with a capital H; it’s brutal, dark, and bloody, and includes at least one sexual assault, if I remember correctly. But the concept is kind of amazing: an antiques dealer made his fortune by hunting vampires (who are totally hoarders, and hoarders of treasure at that) and selling off their things. Now he’s elderly, but has managed to attract the attention of another vampire, so it’s kill or be killed. The vampires here are proper monsters, and the main character isn’t the most likeable person, but if you’re okay with very dark storylines you’ll probably enjoy this one.

Those Who Hunt the Night (James Asher, #1) by Barbara Hambly
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Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

At the turn of the twentieth century, a former spy is called into service to hunt down a vampire killer...

Once a spy for Queen Victoria, James Asher has fought for Britain on every continent, using his quick wits to protect the Empire at all costs. After years of grueling service, he marries and retires to a simple academic’s life at Oxford. But his peace is shattered one night with the arrival of a Spanish vampire named Don Simon. Don Simon can disappear into fog, move faster than the eye can see, and immobilize Asher—and his young bride—with a wave of his hand. Asher is at his mercy, and has no choice but to give his help.

Because someone is killing the vampires of London, and James Asher must find out who—before he becomes a victim himself.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The James Asher series is one of my favourite of all time, and I dearly love the vampires here – they’re cold and alien and properly frightening, powerful without being unbelievably supernatural. Set in the years leading up to WW1, the first book opens with the eponymous James Asher finding a vampire in his study – a vampire who wants his help tracking down a vampire hunter. The writing is beautiful, and I deeply appreciate how Lydia, James’ wife, is an important character with a ton of agency, something that only continues to grow as the series goes on until she and her husband split the role of lead character pretty equally. I reread this series every year and regret nothing.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Representation: Several queer secondary characters, including a trans character
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

This is actually my favourite of Holly Black’s books, and it’s a perfect standalone. In a world like ours, vampires and would-be-vampires live in enclaves cut off from the rest of the world, but social media allows them to wield enormous influence. Tana’s not a vampire fangirl, but has to head for an enclave anyway after she gets bitten. It’s dark and gorgeous and glittering, and I love it so much. Also, again: vampires who aren’t just pretty people with fangs, but feel very unhuman.

Generation V (Generation V, #1) by M.L. Brennan
Representation: PoC secondary character
on 7th May 2013
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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Reality Bites

Fortitude Scott’s life is a mess. A degree in film theory has left him with zero marketable skills, his job revolves around pouring coffee, his roommate hasn’t paid rent in four months, and he’s also a vampire. Well, sort of. He’s still mostly human.

But when a new vampire comes into his family’s territory and young girls start going missing, Fort can’t ignore his heritage anymore. His mother and his older, stronger siblings think he’s crazy for wanting to get involved. So it’s up to Fort to take action, with the assistance of Suzume Hollis, a dangerous and sexy shape-shifter. Fort is determined to find a way to outsmart the deadly vamp, even if he isn’t quite sure how.

But without having matured into full vampirehood and with Suzume ready to split if things get too risky, Fort’s rescue mission might just kill him.…

Brennan presents a very unique take on vampires here; the worldbuilding is really cool, and the book itself is hysterically funny. Unfortunately the series ends at four books with a rushed ending, because the publisher didn’t renew the contract for the series, but these are still some of my favourite urban fantasies that more people definitely ought to know about.

The Hallowed Ones (The Hallowed Ones, #1) by Laura Bickle
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Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

Although the vampires here are fairly generic and more reminiscent of zombies – think the mindless vamps of the Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin – this is still a very unique take on a vampire apocalypse story, starting with our main character, a young Amish teenager trying to do the right thing – if she can figure out what that is. A very under-appreciated vampire story!

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite
Representation: Queer Protagonists
Published by Dell Buy on Amazon, The Book Depository
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At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, looking for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not. Ann, longing for love, and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.

Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds - Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah (whose eyes are as green as limes) are on their own lost journey; slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.

They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself...

This is another one that is definitely Horror, and will give the wrong person nightmares. Vampires walk among us, but they’re rare; the story focuses on a trio who delight in being as vicious and wicked as possible, and Nothing, a Goth teen who discovers he’s a vampire too when he runs away from home. Murder and bloodshed galore, and no promise of a happy ending for anyone, but if it’s monsters you want, this is the perfect vampire book for you.

Other



Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite
Representation: Queer Protagonists
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Escaping from his North Carolina home after his father murders their family and commits suicide, Trevor McGee returns to confront the past, and finds himself haunted by the same demons that drove his father to insanity.

Another one from Poppy Brite, aka, Billy Martin; this one’s a ghost story with a haunted house, a comic book artist, and a hacker, and it’s dark and gory and definitely meant to keep you up at night.

Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy, #1) by Mira Grant
Pages: 599
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The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop.

The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives—the dark conspiracy behind the infected.

The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

I’m not typically into zombies, but the Newsflesh series has some of the best and most interesting worldbuilding I’ve ever seen, and I love the characters as well as all the twists and turns. This is pretty much the perfect book if you want to see what the aftermath of a real zombie apocalypse might look like, as well as having many clever and interesting things to say about politics and the news media.

Highway Bodies by Alison Evans
Representation: Queer Protagonists, incl trans character
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Who will you rely on in the zombie apocalypse?

*

Bodies on the TV, explosions, barriers, and people fleeing. No access to social media. And a dad who’ll suddenly bite your head off – literally. These teens have to learn a new resilience…

Members of a band wield weapons instead of instruments.

A pair of siblings find there’s only so much you can joke about, when the menace is this strong.

And a couple find depth among the chaos.

Highway Bodies is a unique zombie apocalypse story featuring a range of queer and gender non-conforming teens who have lost their families and friends and can only rely upon each other.

I’m reading this one right now and really enjoying it. It’s another zombie book, one where the zombie apocalypse hits Australia, and the cast is entirely made up of queer teenagers trying to survive. It’s really well-written and I love how distinct each of the characters’ voices are.

Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler
Representation: Genderqueer protagonist
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The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken. In Octavius’s many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price.

Her journey to win Octavius’s freedom is difficult. The circus master wants a Coat of Illusions; the Coat tailor wants her undead husband back from a witch; the witch wants her skin back from two bandits; the bandits just want some company, but they might kill her first. Lilly's quest tests her resolve, tries her patience, and leaves her transformed in every way.

Sea Change is a dark, beautiful fairytale for adults and older teens, about a girl whose best friend is a kraken, and the quest she has to go on to get him back when he’s kidnapped by a circus. It sounds like crack, but it’s not at all comedic; it’s a stunning book that more people really ought to know about. There’s some gore and scariness, but I wouldn’t call it horror – maybe darker fantasy. I love this book so much and I desperately hope anyone reading this list gives it a go!

That’s all from me, I think. FOR NOW.

#ScionsOfAtlantis unite–for the Hanged Man Promo Event!

It’s almost time for The Hanged Man, book two of the Tarot Sequence, to meet the world – but we don’t just want it to launch; we want to launch it into space!

That’s where you come in. To celebrate the epic glory of this series and share our love for it, Kathy over at Pages Below the Vaulted Sky, K.D. Edwards himself, and I will be running all kinds of incredible events over the next few months – there’s going to be contests, giveaways, quizzes, and more, with prizes ranging from deleted scenes from the series, to audiobooks, tarot decks, and copies of Last Sun annotated by K.D.! But the biggest and best part of the festivities will be – you! Because all together we, the fans, are going to bring four of the Arcana Courts to life with a Hanged Man street team!

What’s a street team? A street team is a group of people who promote and hype-up something they care about – in this case, The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards. How you promote it is limited only by your creativity – you can work in the virtual world or the physical one, and everything from reviews to tweets to beat-boxing your love poetry to the series counts! Every member of the street team will become a Scion of one of the Courts, and each Court will be awarded points as the promo events run from November through December, and the street team from November to January. The full, official announcements will come on Halloween, at which point there’ll be more details about all we have in store!

But Scions are at the top of New Atlantis society, and if you become one, we’re going to treat you like it – there’ll be Tarot Sequence swag and even letters from your Court’s Throne coming your way, and all kinds of exclusive access to behind-the-scenes lore and deleted extras from the books!

So get ready to declare yourself a Scion of the Sun, Tower, Justice, or Death Thrones of New Atlantis, then work with the rest of your Court to boost Hanged Man every way you can!

Sign-ups are open now, and will be open until November 5th !

Now, the Arcana take allegiances very seriously, so to help you choose wisely, we have secret info on four of the Courts from K.D. Edwards – for Scion eyes only! – and a little bit about the meanings of their respective tarot cards. You can read about the Tower and Death below, and check out Kathy’s page for the Sun and Justice Courts (and a much cooler intro to the event in general)!

TOWER
The Dagger Throne
Modern Family Name: Saint Joshua

Lord Tower is the current Arcana of the Dagger Throne. A renowned artist, politician, and entrepreneur, he had been the old Monarchy’s chief spy and executioner for centuries. He’s largely credited with holding the Atlantean people together when the royal court failed in the aftermath of the Atlantean World War. He is a central power in the Arcanum, and the holder of many secrets.

The Tower card in the tarot can be frightening—it’s a card of upheaval and change, usually painful or chaotic change. But it’s also a card of profound insight; the revelation that comes when you see past your own self-delusions, or the lies of others. The Tower of your life only falls because it was built on weak foundations: though it may be difficult to rebuild, it is necessary, and in the long-term, you will be grateful for it—and stronger than you ever were before.

DEATH
The Bone Hollows
Modern Family Name: Saint Joseph

The current Lady Death assumed power as a teenager, the youngest Arcana in modern history. Her mother, the Dowager Lady Death, was injured in the Atlantean World War, though there is also quiet gossip that her removal was somewhat more engineered. While older generations of the family have leaned heavily into the pomp and mysticism of death, the current Lady Death is widely known for her practical and progressive views.

Despite having the scariest name among the Major Arcana, the Death card is actually one of the most positive in a tarot deck. It’s not a warning of a literal death, but a herald of change and rebirth. Phoenixes and snakes are sometimes used to illustrate this concept in modern decks; like the phoenix being reborn from the ashes, or the snake shedding its old skin, Death promises renewal and the casting off of what you no longer need. Sometimes this change is difficult, but you need to move forward and embrace it—after all, no one can escape Death.

Click here to join your Court and the Hanged Man Street Team!

All Hallow’s Reads: Books for Halloween!

With Halloween just a few days away (do you have your costume yet?) it’s the perfect time of year to put together spooky-themed reading lists. So here are some of my faves, divided up into Witches, Vampires, and a mixed assortment of Other.

Witches



Darkling by Brooklyn Ray
Representation: Queer Protagonists (gay trans man & cis gay man)
Series: ,
Genres: Urban Fantasy
Buy on Amazon, The Book Depository
Goodreads

Port Lewis, a coastal town perched on the Washington cliffs, is surrounded by dense woods, and is home to quaint coffee shops, a movie theater, a few bars, two churches, the local college, and witches, of course.

Ryder is a witch with two secrets—one about his blood and the other about his heart. Keeping the secrets hasn’t been a problem, until a tarot reading with his best friend, Liam Montgomery, who happens to be one of his secrets, starts a chain of events that can’t be undone.

Dark magic runs through Ryder’s veins. The cards have prophesized a magical catastrophe that could shake the foundation of Ryder’s life, and a vicious partnership with the one person he doesn’t want to risk.

Magic and secrets both come at a cost, and Ryder must figure out what he’s willing to pay to become who he truly is.

Content Warnings: Scenes of bloodletting, consuming blood, erotic bloody scenes. Death (and resurrection) of a main character and animal/pet. Explicit sexual content. Depiction of anxiety.

Darkling is a freaking phenomenal novella about a trans witch who is part elemental, part necromancer, and in love with his best friend. It’s dark and erotic and gorgeous, and you can read my full review of it here, but suffice to say I recommend it strongly.

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson
Representation: PoC, Fat MC
Published by Dell Genres: Urban Fantasy
Buy on Amazon, The Book Depository
Goodreads

Mila Flores and her best friend Riley have always been inseparable. There's not much excitement in their small town of Cross Creek, so Mila and Riley make their own fun, devoting most of their time to Riley's favorite activity: amateur witchcraft.

So when Riley and two Fairmont Academy mean girls die under suspicious circumstances, Mila refuses to believe everyone's explanation that her BFF was involved in a suicide pact. Instead, armed with a tube of lip gloss and an ancient grimoire, Mila does the unthinkable to uncover the truth: she brings the girls back to life.

Unfortunately, Riley, June, and Dayton have no recollection of their murders, but they do have unfinished business to attend to. Now, with only seven days until the spell wears off and the girls return to their graves, Mila must wrangle the distracted group of undead teens and work fast to discover their murderer...before the killer strikes again.

Undead Girl Gang got a lot of hype before release, and it was well-deserved; a Latina witchling who isn’t totally sure she believes in magic tries to bring her best friend back from the dead after her murder. The problem? She also manages to resurrect the three other girls who were murdered – and who are just as nasty undead as they were when alive. It’s a lot of snarky fun with plenty of poignant moments too.

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft by Tess Sharpe, Jessica Spotswood, Brandy Colbert, Zoraida Córdova, Andrea Cremer, Kate Hart, Emery Lord, Elizabeth May, Anna-Marie McLemore, Tehlor Kay Mejia, Lindsay Smith, Nova Ren Suma, Robin Talley, Shveta Thakrar, Brenna Yovanoff
Representation: Queer Protagonists, PoC
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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A young adult fiction anthology of 15 stories featuring contemporary, historical, and futuristic stories featuring witchy heroines who are diverse in race, class, sexuality, religion, geography, and era.

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Glinda the Good Witch. Elphaba the Wicked Witch. Willow. Sabrina. Gemma Doyle. The Mayfair Witches. Ursula the Sea Witch. Morgan le Fey. The three weird sisters from Macbeth.

History tells us women accused of witchcraft were often outsiders: educated, independent, unmarried, unwilling to fall in line with traditional societal expectations.

Bold. Powerful. Rebellious.

A bruja’s traditional love spell has unexpected results. A witch’s healing hands begin to take life instead of giving it when she ignores her attraction to a fellow witch. In a terrifying future, women are captured by a cabal of men crying witchcraft and the one true witch among them must fight to free them all. In a desolate past, three orphaned sisters prophesize for a murderous king. Somewhere in the present, a teen girl just wants to kiss a boy without causing a hurricane.

From good witches to bad witches, to witches who are a bit of both, this is an anthology of diverse witchy tales from a collection of diverse, feminist authors. The collective strength of women working together—magically or mundanely--has long frightened society, to the point that women’s rights are challenged, legislated against, and denied all over the world. Toil & Trouble delves deep into the truly diverse mythology of witchcraft from many cultures and feminist points of view, to create modern and unique tales of witchery that have yet to be explored.

An amazing anthology of stories about teen witches, from an incredible list of authors. Many of the stories feature queer and/or non-white witches.

Cold Kiss (Cold Kiss, #1) by Amy Garvey
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It was a beautiful, warm summer day, the day Danny died.

Suddenly Wren was alone and shattered. In a heartbroken fury, armed with dark incantations and a secret power, Wren decides that what she wants—what she must do—is to bring Danny back.

But the Danny who returns is just a shell of the boy Wren fell in love with. His touch is icy; his skin, smooth and stiff as marble; his chest, cruelly silent when Wren rests her head against it.

Wren must keep Danny a secret, hiding him away, visiting him at night, while her life slowly unravels around her. Then Gabriel DeMarnes transfers to her school, and Wren realizes that somehow, inexplicably, he can sense the powers that lie within her—and that he knows what she has done. And now Gabriel wants to help make things right.

But Wren alone has to undo what she has wrought—even if it means breaking her heart all over again.

I haven’t really seen this book talked about, which is a shame because it’s one of my favourite witchy books. This time a young witch manages to resurrect her boyfriend, but it’s the lyrical way the magic is written that makes this story so dear to me.

Wicked Like a Wildfire (Hibiscus Daughter, #1) by Lana Popović
Representation: PoC, wlw or F/F romance between secondary characters
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All the women in Iris and Malina’s family have the unique magical ability or “gleam” to manipulate beauty. Iris sees flowers as fractals and turns her kaleidoscope visions into glasswork, while Malina interprets moods as music. But their mother has strict rules to keep their gifts a secret, even in their secluded sea-side town. Iris and Malina are not allowed to share their magic with anyone, and above all, they are forbidden from falling in love.

But when their mother is mysteriously attacked, the sisters will have to unearth the truth behind the quiet lives their mother has built for them. They will discover a wicked curse that haunts their family line—but will they find that the very magic that bonds them together is destined to tear them apart forever?

Wicked Like a Wildfire is the first in a duet about a pair of sisters who come from a family of witches – witches who are each gifted with the ‘gleam’, a magical gift tied to beauty, and which the sisters need to learn how to use fast when their mother is attacked. The writing itself is lush and gorgeous, and I adored the exploration of beauty’s links to power; this one is just a feast of a book.

Born Wicked (The Cahill Witch Chronicles, #1) by Jessica Spotswood
Representation: wlw or F/F romance between secondary characters
Genres: Fantasy
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Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word... especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.

If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood—not even from each other.

This one is set in a world a bit like ours, except that the USA is ruled over by the misogynistic church, and some women are witches. The main character and both her sisters are all witches, trying to keep their powers hidden for fear of reprisal, but there’s a prophecy that has no interest in letting them keep their heads down. Again, the writing is beautiful, and the worldbuilding is actually surprisingly good; this is one of the only ‘dystopia’ settings I know where we actually get a glimpse of what the rest of the world is doing outside of the USA.

The Lost Coast by Amy Rose Capetta
Representation: Queer Protagonists
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The spellbinding tale of six queer witches forging their own paths, shrouded in the mist, magic, and secrets of the ancient California redwoods.

Danny didn't know what she was looking for when she and her mother spread out a map of the United States and Danny put her finger down on Tempest, California. What she finds are the Grays: a group of friends who throw around terms like queer and witch like they're ordinary and everyday, though they feel like an earthquake to Danny. But Danny didn't just find the Grays. They cast a spell that calls her halfway across the country, because she has something they need: she can bring back Imogen, the most powerful of the Grays, missing since the summer night she wandered into the woods alone. But before Danny can find Imogen, she finds a dead boy with a redwood branch through his heart. Something is very wrong amid the trees and fog of the Lost Coast, and whatever it is, it can kill. Lush, eerie, and imaginative, Amy Rose Capetta's tale overflows with the perils and power of discovery -- and what it means to find your home, yourself, and your way forward.

I’ve only just started reading this, but I’ve loved this author’s other book and it has an all-queer cast of teen witches, so I feel very confident in saying this one’s going to end up a fave.

Vampires



Sunshine by Robin McKinley
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"Her feet are already bleeding - if you like feet..."

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while.

Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion - within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day...

I have to admit, I’m not sure where you’ve been if you’ve missed Sunshine – but I envy you, because getting to read it for the first time is a treat. A baker gets taken by vampires as a snack for another vampire whom they’re keeping prisoner – but instead of getting eaten, said baker and vamp prisoner team up to escape. It seems to be hit and miss – you’ll either love the writing style or hate it – but either way, you should definitely give it a try if you’re into vampires.

The Fifth House of the Heart by Ben Tripp
Representation: Queer Protagonist (Gay), PoC
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Filled with characters as menacing as they are memorable, this chilling twist on vampire fiction packs a punch in the bestselling tradition of ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King.

Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang, a vainglorious and well-established antiques dealer, has made a fortune over many years by globetrotting for the finest lost objects in the world. Only Sax knows the true secret to his success: at certain points of his life, he’s killed vampires for their priceless hoards of treasure.

But now Sax’s past actions are quite literally coming back to haunt him, and the lives of those he holds most dear are in mortal danger. To counter this unnatural threat, and with the blessing of the Holy Roman Church, a cowardly but cunning Sax must travel across Europe in pursuit of incalculable evil—and immeasurable wealth—with a ragtag team of mercenaries and vampire killers to hunt a terrifying, ageless monster…one who is hunting Sax in turn.

From author Ben Tripp, whose first horror novel Rise Again “raises the stakes so high that the book becomes nearly impossible to put down” (Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother), The Fifth House of the Heart is a powerful story that will haunt you long after its final pages.

This one is very much Horror with a capital H; it’s brutal, dark, and bloody, and includes at least one sexual assault, if I remember correctly. But the concept is kind of amazing: an antiques dealer made his fortune by hunting vampires (who are totally hoarders, and hoarders of treasure at that) and selling off their things. Now he’s elderly, but has managed to attract the attention of another vampire, so it’s kill or be killed. The vampires here are proper monsters, and the main character isn’t the most likeable person, but if you’re okay with very dark storylines you’ll probably enjoy this one.

Those Who Hunt the Night (James Asher, #1) by Barbara Hambly
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Alternate Cover Edition can be found here.

At the turn of the twentieth century, a former spy is called into service to hunt down a vampire killer...

Once a spy for Queen Victoria, James Asher has fought for Britain on every continent, using his quick wits to protect the Empire at all costs. After years of grueling service, he marries and retires to a simple academic’s life at Oxford. But his peace is shattered one night with the arrival of a Spanish vampire named Don Simon. Don Simon can disappear into fog, move faster than the eye can see, and immobilize Asher—and his young bride—with a wave of his hand. Asher is at his mercy, and has no choice but to give his help.

Because someone is killing the vampires of London, and James Asher must find out who—before he becomes a victim himself.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

The James Asher series is one of my favourite of all time, and I dearly love the vampires here – they’re cold and alien and properly frightening, powerful without being unbelievably supernatural. Set in the years leading up to WW1, the first book opens with the eponymous James Asher finding a vampire in his study – a vampire who wants his help tracking down a vampire hunter. The writing is beautiful, and I deeply appreciate how Lydia, James’ wife, is an important character with a ton of agency, something that only continues to grow as the series goes on until she and her husband split the role of lead character pretty equally. I reread this series every year and regret nothing.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Representation: Several queer secondary characters, including a trans character
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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Tana lives in a world where walled cities called Coldtowns exist. In them, quarantined monsters and humans mingle in a decadently bloody mix of predator and prey. The only problem is, once you pass through Coldtown's gates, you can never leave.

One morning, after a perfectly ordinary party, Tana wakes up surrounded by corpses. The only other survivors of this massacre are her exasperatingly endearing ex-boyfriend, infected and on the edge, and a mysterious boy burdened with a terrible secret. Shaken and determined, Tana enters a race against the clock to save the three of them the only way she knows how: by going straight to the wicked, opulent heart of Coldtown itself.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a wholly original story of rage and revenge, of guilt and horror, and of love and loathing from bestselling and acclaimed author Holly Black.

This is actually my favourite of Holly Black’s books, and it’s a perfect standalone. In a world like ours, vampires and would-be-vampires live in enclaves cut off from the rest of the world, but social media allows them to wield enormous influence. Tana’s not a vampire fangirl, but has to head for an enclave anyway after she gets bitten. It’s dark and gorgeous and glittering, and I love it so much. Also, again: vampires who aren’t just pretty people with fangs, but feel very unhuman.

Generation V (Generation V, #1) by M.L. Brennan
Representation: PoC secondary character
on 7th May 2013
Genres: Urban Fantasy
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Reality Bites

Fortitude Scott’s life is a mess. A degree in film theory has left him with zero marketable skills, his job revolves around pouring coffee, his roommate hasn’t paid rent in four months, and he’s also a vampire. Well, sort of. He’s still mostly human.

But when a new vampire comes into his family’s territory and young girls start going missing, Fort can’t ignore his heritage anymore. His mother and his older, stronger siblings think he’s crazy for wanting to get involved. So it’s up to Fort to take action, with the assistance of Suzume Hollis, a dangerous and sexy shape-shifter. Fort is determined to find a way to outsmart the deadly vamp, even if he isn’t quite sure how.

But without having matured into full vampirehood and with Suzume ready to split if things get too risky, Fort’s rescue mission might just kill him.…

Brennan presents a very unique take on vampires here; the worldbuilding is really cool, and the book itself is hysterically funny. Unfortunately the series ends at four books with a rushed ending, because the publisher didn’t renew the contract for the series, but these are still some of my favourite urban fantasies that more people definitely ought to know about.

The Hallowed Ones (The Hallowed Ones, #1) by Laura Bickle
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Katie is on the verge of her Rumspringa, the time in Amish life when teenagers can get a taste of the real world. But the real world comes to her in this dystopian tale with a philosophical bent. Rumors of massive unrest on the “Outside” abound. Something murderous is out there. Amish elders make a rule: No one goes outside, and no outsiders come in. But when Katie finds a gravely injured young man, she can’t leave him to die. She smuggles him into her family’s barn—at what cost to her community? The suspense of this vividly told, truly horrific thriller will keep the pages turning.

Although the vampires here are fairly generic and more reminiscent of zombies – think the mindless vamps of the Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin – this is still a very unique take on a vampire apocalypse story, starting with our main character, a young Amish teenager trying to do the right thing – if she can figure out what that is. A very under-appreciated vampire story!

Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite
Representation: Queer Protagonists
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At a club in Missing Mile, N.C., the children of the night gather, dressed in black, looking for acceptance. Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not. Ann, longing for love, and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.

Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds - Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah (whose eyes are as green as limes) are on their own lost journey; slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.

They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself...

This is another one that is definitely Horror, and will give the wrong person nightmares. Vampires walk among us, but they’re rare; the story focuses on a trio who delight in being as vicious and wicked as possible, and Nothing, a Goth teen who discovers he’s a vampire too when he runs away from home. Murder and bloodshed galore, and no promise of a happy ending for anyone, but if it’s monsters you want, this is the perfect vampire book for you.

Other



Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite
Representation: Queer Protagonists
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Escaping from his North Carolina home after his father murders their family and commits suicide, Trevor McGee returns to confront the past, and finds himself haunted by the same demons that drove his father to insanity.

Another one from Poppy Brite, aka, Billy Martin; this one’s a ghost story with a haunted house, a comic book artist, and a hacker, and it’s dark and gory and definitely meant to keep you up at night.

Feed (Newsflesh Trilogy, #1) by Mira Grant
Pages: 599
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The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beaten the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop.

The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, bloggers Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives—the dark conspiracy behind the infected.

The truth will get out, even if it kills them.

I’m not typically into zombies, but the Newsflesh series has some of the best and most interesting worldbuilding I’ve ever seen, and I love the characters as well as all the twists and turns. This is pretty much the perfect book if you want to see what the aftermath of a real zombie apocalypse might look like, as well as having many clever and interesting things to say about politics and the news media.

Highway Bodies by Alison Evans
Representation: Queer Protagonists, incl trans character
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Who will you rely on in the zombie apocalypse?

*

Bodies on the TV, explosions, barriers, and people fleeing. No access to social media. And a dad who’ll suddenly bite your head off – literally. These teens have to learn a new resilience…

Members of a band wield weapons instead of instruments.

A pair of siblings find there’s only so much you can joke about, when the menace is this strong.

And a couple find depth among the chaos.

Highway Bodies is a unique zombie apocalypse story featuring a range of queer and gender non-conforming teens who have lost their families and friends and can only rely upon each other.

I’m reading this one right now and really enjoying it. It’s another zombie book, one where the zombie apocalypse hits Australia, and the cast is entirely made up of queer teenagers trying to survive. It’s really well-written and I love how distinct each of the characters’ voices are.

Sea Change by S.M. Wheeler
Representation: Genderqueer protagonist
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The unhappy child of two powerful parents who despise each other, young Lilly turns to the ocean to find solace, which she finds in the form of the eloquent and intelligent sea monster Octavius, a kraken. In Octavius’s many arms, Lilly learns of friendship, loyalty, and family. When Octavius, forbidden by Lilly to harm humans, is captured by seafaring traders and sold to a circus, Lilly becomes his only hope for salvation. Desperate to find him, she strikes a bargain with a witch that carries a shocking price.

Her journey to win Octavius’s freedom is difficult. The circus master wants a Coat of Illusions; the Coat tailor wants her undead husband back from a witch; the witch wants her skin back from two bandits; the bandits just want some company, but they might kill her first. Lilly's quest tests her resolve, tries her patience, and leaves her transformed in every way.

Sea Change is a dark, beautiful fairytale for adults and older teens, about a girl whose best friend is a kraken, and the quest she has to go on to get him back when he’s kidnapped by a circus. It sounds like crack, but it’s not at all comedic; it’s a stunning book that more people really ought to know about. There’s some gore and scariness, but I wouldn’t call it horror – maybe darker fantasy. I love this book so much and I desperately hope anyone reading this list gives it a go!

That’s all from me, I think. FOR NOW.

Watch The Last Sun Rise: The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards

The Hanged Man (The Tarot Sequence #2) by K.D. Edwards
Representation: Queer Protagonists, mlm or M/M, normalised bi/pansexuality, normalised group marriage, sexual assault survivor, trauma
on 17th December 2019
Genres: Urban Fantasy, Queer Protagonists
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The last member of a murdered House tries to protect his ward from forced marriage to a monster while uncovering clues to his own past.

The Tarot Sequence imagines a modern-day Atlantis off the coast of Massachusetts, governed by powerful Courts based on the traditional Tarot deck.

Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Throne, is backed into a fight of high court magic and political appetites in a desperate bid to protect his ward, Max, from a forced marital alliance with the Hanged Man.

Rune's resistance will take him to the island's dankest corners, including a red light district made of moored ghost ships; the residence of Lady Death; and the floor of the ruling Convocation, where a gathering of Arcana will change Rune's life forever.

I devoured this book in under a day.

Do you know how long it’s been since that happened to me? I’ve been struggling to concentrate on any book at all, never mind actually finishing one; that’s why my currently-reading shelf on Goodreads contains 49 books – I keep starting things and being unable to finish. It’s not a problem with the books, but with me, and I could talk a bit about why but that’s really not the important thing here.

The important thing is that I could not put this book down. After spending the entire year struggling to finish things, I was finally handed a book that gave me no choice in the matter.

I was hooked, I was glued to the pages, I was mesmerised.

This book, you guys. This book just set the new standard for fantasy fiction, and the bar is now set so high you can’t see it from the ground.

I genuinely don’t know where to start.

So…I’m going to try to go non-conventional again. Since that ended up working pretty well when reviewing The Last Sun.

The Hanged Man from the True Black Tarot

The Arcana who rule New Atlantis are, in-world, the inspiration for the Major Arcana of the human tarot; we meet Lord Tower and glimpse Ladies Lovers and Justice in Last Sun, and Rune himself – the main character and first-person narrator of the series – is the heir of the fallen Sun Throne. His father was murdered and his court destroyed while Rune was a teenager, and his social standing is therefore a little complicated; on the one hand, he’s technically-sort-of Lord Sun, as the last remaining member of his House. On the other hand, he hasn’t claimed his father’s seat on the Arcana council, and doesn’t have a court of his own – to say nothing of the magical, political, and financial power wielded by the sitting Arcana Lords and Ladies. Although he does call on his rank in a conversation with Lady Justice in Last Sun – and she acknowledges it, calling him ‘brother’ in a gesture of intense and courteous respect – for the most part, he’s treated as a Scion – the son of one of the Arcana Houses – but not one of the Arcana outright, by most of the Atlanteans he interacts with.

Last Sun is aptly named, because despite reading as a full (and excellent) book on its own, when set alongside Hanged Man, it suddenly looks much more like an introduction – almost a prologue. Last Sun introduced us to the eponymous character, the last surviving member of House Sun, Rune. It showed us who and what he is, taught us about his abilities and the world he lives in – it set the stage, if you like.

Hanged Man? Hanged Man is the story really and truly starting. Actually, no, I’d prefer to use another term: Edwards doesn’t start Rune’s story here.

He fucking unleashes it.

And so naming the second instalment of this series Hanged Man is about far more than the fact that Lord Hanged Man of the Arcana is cast as Rune’s enemy and opponent in this book. Just as Last Sun was both literally about the last Sun and, as I covered briefly at the end of my review, a book that embodied the meaning of the Sun card in traditional tarot, so does Hanged Man reflect and actualise the meaning of its respective card. In tarot, the Hanged Man stands for surrender to truth, change, and fate; it represents a time of change – changes that cannot be denied – and an instruction to let go of the things that have been holding you back. It’s time to shift perspective and shift gears; your old way of life is ending, and it’s time to let it go. It’s time to start – or get back to – your life’s purpose.

Those two words, then – Hanged Man – aren’t just a title; they sum up and embody the entire book. In two words.

Am I allowed be in awe of this? Of a title? Of how Edwards not only managed to write a freaking incredible book (and it is, I will get to that when I stop geeking out, I swear), but managed to – to translate all the intricate layers of symbolism and meaning in the Hanged Man of the tarot into a story in the Tarot Sequence? Because this book is the card. The card – and that title, those two words – is the story.

This is the book where Rune lets go of his old life, and steps up, and becomes exactly who he’s meant to be. This is the book where everything changes. This is the book where the last Sun rises.

I’ve spun out this much analysis of nothing but the freaking title. That should tell you exactly how many rich, jewelled layers there are to absolutely everything in this book. How perfect and well-researched and well-considered is every. tiny. detail. Nothing is here just because it sounds good, or looks good. Nothing in this book is here just because it’s cinematic, or it’s expected, or it’s marketable. Nothing is here because it’s just easier this way, or quicker, or conventional. There are no cheap thrills or short-cuts, nothing placed just for shock value, no literary short-hand or catering to the masses or the industry or even the fans. No.

Everything – every last single thing – is a fucking masterpiece. And I mean that in the oldest sense of the word; I’m talking about the piece that a craftsman would design and create and finish to be named a Master of their guild, of their craft. The piece that made their name and their place in the world and in history.

Keith Edwards, take a bow. You are, in the truest sense of the words, a master storyteller.

How am I supposed to talk about this book properly? How do I tell you about every sneaky red herring placed just-so to trick me into thinking I knew what was coming, how the story would go – and how every twist and turn therefore took me completely by surprise, in the best possible way? How do I tell you about how the very first chapter, in context of what I knew from reading book one, nearly made me scream out loud and set my fitness bracelet beeping in alarm, because my heartbeat had spiked so high? How do I tell you about every subverted cliche and trope and expectation without spoilers? How do I describe the way this book played me like a yo-yo, making me laugh like a hyena one second and tear up with my heart in my throat the next? And who of those who’ve read Last Sun will believe me when I say that Hanged Man made me love these characters even more when I, too, thought that such a thing was impossible?

There’s a moment, relatively early in the book, when Rune and Brand are searching a room and find a clue. And then – because this isn’t Hollywood, where there can only ever and always be One Big Clue – they keep searching, in case there’s another clue. Because that’s how actual reality works, that’s how life works, that’s how a story works when your characters and your world and your magic are so fucking real they make the room around you feel two-dimensional. And Hanged Man is packed full of moments like that; small, casual, easy to miss if you haven’t spent your whole life reading books and watching films where those moments never happen.

There’s another moment – actually even earlier than the one I just described – where New Atlantis’ police have a protocol in place to deal with A Thing, and the protocol is triggered, and The Thing doesn’t go down the way it would in a film, or in another book. Think about every time you’ve wondered ‘where the hell are the cops?’ while something fantastical or dramatic is happening in a story; or every time a story’s rubbed you the wrong way because you know, in real life, this is where the security cameras would be a problem, or the amber alert would go out, or they’d use the bad guy’s IP address to find him. Here, those things happen, because the Tarot Sequence world is detailed enough – real enough – that Edwards has thought it all through. Of course the police have procedures for this. Of course there are safeguards to prevent that. Of course you could use this spell to do that thing, if you were just smart enough to think of it. (And I detailed how much I loved Rune’s out-of-the-box thinking, and how much it tells us about his personality and backstory, in my last review).

This is a world that actually works. I don’t know how to emphasise that enough, or express how much of a delight it is to read about it. Or read about characters who are people instead of just avatars of the plot.

And they are people. They are absolutely people, both the familiar faces from Last Sun and the wonderful new ones we meet for the first time in Hanged Man – there are so many more women, and so much more racial diversity this time around! And all of them are so real I forgot I was reading fiction – I forgot I was reading, and a huge part of that is how they are not action heroes, they make their choices not based on how cool it would look on a screen but on how safe it is, how economic in terms of time and effort and risk, what it will cost. I know I’ve said it already, but that just gives an incredibly unique flavour to the entire book. The best writers can make you hold your breath during fight scenes, but there’s always that tiny bit of separation between reader and story – you know everyone’s going to come out okay, no matter what. It’s not real. And you can tell it’s not real because –

Okay, let me give a brief example. One of my favourite tv shows (which just started airing its third season) is S.W.A.T., a show about, you’ll never guess, the work and lives of an American S.W.A.T. team. And one of the tiny details that made me sit up and pay attention, back when I was giving the first few episodes a go, was how, when sweeping a location, none of the officers ever entered an uncleared room alone. They would stop, wait for another officer to tap their shoulder to confirm they had back-up, and then entered the area. It’s an incredibly small thing, but it adds an enormous depth of realism that separates it from more generic law and order shows.

Hanged Man – and Last Sun too, but HM even more so – is like that. Edwards uses carefully placed, deceptively subtle details to make Rune and Brand’s world completely three-dimensional; a casual mention of how Rune holds his sword upon entering a new room, for example, implies years worth of backstory and serves to underline the intensity and nature of his and Brand’s bond (because Brand definitely had more than a small part in training Rune). The question Brand asks in a discussion – the areas in which he’s ignorant and Rune is informed – conveys more backstory, more about his and Rune’s dynamic, and worldbuilding (in what it tells us about Atlantean culture and the place of a Companion within it). The food served at a particular meal tells the reader so much about the complicated power structure and balance of the Arcana council. All of it is quiet and subtle, none of it is shoved in the reader’s face, and it’s easy to absorb without consciously recognising it, so that at the end of a chapter you’re left with rock-solid understandings about this, that, or the other – but have no idea where you got them from until you go back over the chapter with a fine-toothed comb, dissecting details.

And the thing is that you can do either – you can read this without deliberate analysis, or you can turn over each sentence beneath a jeweller’s glass, and you won’t miss out either way. Both approaches will leave you freaking delighted with the book. It’s win/win no matter what kind of reader you are.

I’m geeking out again. Okay. Let me try and drag this back on track.

It’s not very often that we see a story with normalised queerness – set in a society that doesn’t bat an eye at various expressions of sexuality. It’s much more common in fanfiction than traditionally published works. It’s definitely rare enough to make Last Sun notable for that alone, but it was the way that LS made sexuality a complete non-issue – not even of secondary or tertiary importance, but completely dismissed in the face of the actual issues, like dark magics and conspiracies, that Rune and Brand had to deal with in book one – that made it really special.

Hanged Man doesn’t just continue the trend – it turns the dial up to 11. The deconstruction and/or ignoring of societal gender norms and toxic masculinity that we saw in Last Sun is even clearer here; New Atlantis isn’t a utopia by any means, but the characteristics and dynamics of Rune and Brand, Addam and Quinn and Max, are stunningly healthy, and called out when they’re not (one of my favourite moments is just one such calling-out, and how beautifully it’s handled). In fact, HM strikes me as an overtly queer book – not in the sense that anyone’s sexuality is the focus of the story, because it’s absolutely isn’t, but in the sense that Hanged Man just flat-out rejects traditional conventions and expectations when it comes to anything touching on love – and does so completely without fanfare. I mentioned when reviewing Last Sun that it made me so happy to see a queer story focused on a platonic instead of romantic relationship, featuring a male lead who was sexually shy. Hanged Man explores those things in greater depth without ever lecturing the reader about it or Making A Point; the bonds of brotherhood when stripped of posturing and allowed to be emotionally open, the different ways people can love each other and how those loves interact, and what love can look like in a society that takes it for granted that one person can’t fulfil all the needs and desires of another. As a polyamorous person, this aspect of the Tarot Sequence’s worldbuilding – Atlantis’ bemusement at the concept of monogamy, and the prevalence of group marriage – has always been dear to me, but the balance Brand, Rune and Addam find with each other is almost painfully perfect, not least because it involves the interaction and interweaving of platonic and romantic bonds. The moments between Rune and Addam in this book, as they more clearly explore and define their relationship, were breathtaking in their quiet, perfect simplicity, stripped of the drama and angst another author would have given them.

Even sweeter and richer, though, is how strongly the theme of Found Family runs through this book. As Rune begins to face the heritage he’s mostly left untouched for his adult life – honestly, I can’t resist making this metaphor: the more he becomes the Sun, the more dear people he draws into his orbit. If we saw the beginnings of it in Last Sun, in Hanged Man Rune truly forms his own solar system of loved ones, and I’m not sure he himself sees how they all revolve around him, how helpless they are in the face of his gravity-well of – charisma is the wrong word; I suppose the only correct one is pulcrra, as they say in Old Atlantean – and to understand what that means, you’ll have to read the book.

But the metaphor of Rune-as-sun is one that really works, because gods, Rune just – he gives and he gives and he gives. I’ve never seen a male character be such a fount of light and warmth to those around him – I’ve never seen a male character be allowed to be. Rune’s character defies gender roles; I know I keep saying that, but that’s because I’m struggling to put it into words. I want to say Rune displays mothering characteristics, but that makes him sound like some kind of mother hen, and it’s not that at all. I mean he’s protective in a way that men aren’t generally allowed to be, in our (Western, industrialised) culture; he’s kind and gentle and compassionate in a way that laughs at any attempt to define it as masculine or feminine. And at the same time, he is fierce and deadly and ruthless, but in a way that is completely lacking in alpha-male pride or any of the other characteristics I associate with a warrior archetype. He doesn’t posture, and he doesn’t fly into a rage when insulted, he knows his limitations and isn’t ashamed of them, can’t be flattered or tricked into believing he’s more than he is – or less.

He is the Sun, and all those who come into his orbit to stay are given his light and warmth unstinting.

And at the same time, I have never identified with a character so much in my LIFE as when Rune holds off on explaining his plan to make a specific dramatic gesture…because he’s embarrassed about being so Extra. If I wasn’t already head-over-heels for him, that would have been the moment I crash-landed into loving him, because holy hells, ALL THE YES!

Look: there are so many specific things I’d like to talk about – so many lines I’d love to quote – and I can’t, because spoilers. Because they will hit you so much harder if you don’t see them coming. You’ve no idea how hard it is not to burst into song about our kids and virsa pulcrra and Arcana Majeure; about we walk different roads and office hours and Companions of Atlantis; about I want you to look at me and you are my kin and barista; about there are rules and they will be loved and headlines – oh, the paeans I could write to headlines! But I mustn’t.

What you must do, instead? Is read. This. Book.

Preorder it.

Buy it.

Read it.

And then come back so we can sing paeans about it together.

Outshine the Stars: The Last Sun by KD Edwards

This is going to be a slightly non-conventional review.

Last year, I read and reviewed K.D. Edwards’ debut, The Last Sun. You can read that review over on Goodreads; it’s not one of my best, so I decided not to cross-post it here. But pretty much immediately, Last Sun skyrocketed to the top of my favourites shelf, and it’s stayed there. It shares that top spot with a few other books, but I doubt it’s going to be unseated any time soon, if ever.

I’ll talk about the book itself in a little bit. (If you like, you can skip my personal rambling and go straight to the review below; it’s clearly marked). But first I want to talk about what happened around this book. Specifically, what it did to my life.

I have fibromyalgia. In my case, that means I can’t easily handle physical books, or carry them around, so I read ebooks exclusively. (Eventually I’ll write about ereaders and how they intersect with disability and mental health. But that, to quote Michael Ende, is another story.) When I love a book beyond bearing, though, I track down a physical copy for my carefully-arranged shelves.

And sometimes – more often lately – I decide that what I must have is a signed copy. And that can get a little complicated, because even those rare authors who get book tours do not generally visit Finland, aka Where Sia Lives. Most of my favourite authors live somewhere in the USA; even if I manage to track down a bookshop where they’ve done a signing, the shop may not ship internationally. Or they’re out of signed copies by the time I contact them. Best case scenario, the shipping is going to be wince-inducing (tracked shipping is mandatory, because the Finnish postal service has a nasty habit of losing or blatantly stealing my overseas packages.)

With Last Sun, I eventually contacted K.D. Edwards directly. And he made it happen. I am ridiculously grateful for all the effort he went to, and it’s possible I cried real tears when it arrived, safe and sound with a beautiful inscription inside.

But the experience was about a lot more than a very cool author helping a very obsessed fan. Because it is so much easier to risk embarrassing yourself while communicating by email, and because I write stories of my own and know how it feels when a reader opens up to you, I stripped my heart bare to tell him what Last Sun meant to me. That was a private discussion I’m not going to detail here, but it was one of the first times – maybe the first time – that I actually spoke to an author on a person-to-person level. I was used to authors being distant, awe-inspiring figures; being on a first-name basis with one? Was more than a little mindblowing, and made Last Sun even more fiercely important to me.

And at the same time, Kathy and I, who’d already bonded over our shared adoration of Gregory Ashe’s Hollow Folk series, got to flail around like muppets (…okay, I was a muppet, Kathy manages to love things without being A Twit about it!) about this book too.

All these things together were huge influences in my eventually deciding to start a book blog at all. Even if Every Book a Doorway is still kind of cookie-cutter (and unbaked, at that!) it’s still become a big part of my life, that just keeps getting bigger and more fun.

ANYWAY. Fast-forward a bit; skip over months of likes and comments and doing heart-eyes at Last Sun fanart – commiserating over publishing delays and recommending LS to everyone who’d listen – skip (for now) over Kathy’s genius masterplan that you’ll hear more about another day – to this past Thursday. Wherein, in part for being a hardcore fan, and a cheerleader, and even more for working with Kathy on her masterplan, Keith sent me an e-ARC of Hanged Man.

Aka, Last Sun‘s sequel, and one of my most-anticipated books of the freaking year.

Reader, I locked my office door and shrieked like a hyperactive banshee, and I am not even a little bit ashamed.

At the last second, though, I decided to reread Last Sun before diving into Hanged Man. It’s been over a year, after all, and I wanted all the details fresh in my mind when I started book two!

I’M SO GLAD I DID. And thus, at last,

my review of Last Sun: take #2.



The Last Sun (The Tarot Sequence, #1) by K.D. Edwards
Representation: Queer (Male) Protagonist, Normalised Bi/Pansexuality, mlm or M/M, background polyamory/group marriage, sexual assault survivor, trauma
Published by Pyr on 12th June 2018
Genres: Queer Protagonists, Urban Fantasy
Pages: 363
Buy on Amazon, The Book Depository
Goodreads

Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Court, is hired to search for Lady Judgment's missing son, Addam, on New Atlantis, the island city where the Atlanteans moved after ordinary humans destroyed their original home.

With his companion and bodyguard, Brand, he questions Addam's relatives and business contacts through the highest ranks of the nobles of New Atlantis. But as they investigate, they uncover more than a missing man: a legendary creature connected to the secret of the massacre of Rune's Court. In looking for Addam, can Rune find the truth behind his family's death and the torments of his past?

Atlantis is real.

Deal with it.

No, really. When Atlantis – home of the inspiration of most of humanity’s myths and legends – is revealed to the world, humanity reacted by trying to wipe it back off the map. Neither side came out unscathed, but ultimately, the Atlanteans awed the rest of the world into respectful wariness by creating New Atlantis, pulling abandoned buildings from across the globe with apparent ease to build themselves a new city where guns are illegal – and basically everything else goes.

Rune is the heir to the destroyed Sun Court, one of the 22 Houses collectively known as the Arcana, who inspired the human tarot cards – and rule New Atlantis. All he has left of the immense power, prestige and wealth of his heritage is a handful of sigils – magical items, mostly jewels, that can store spells – and his Companion, Brand, who is his brother, best friend, and bodyguard all rolled into one.

These things are not nothing, especially Brand, who I’ll be delighted to talk more about in a sec. But it does mean that Rune needs to tread carefully; he’s a prince without a court, a Scion without sigils, with few allies and unknown but powerful enemies – the destruction of the Sun Court wasn’t a legal, Arcana-sanctioned raid, and whoever was responsible is still out there. Mostly, though, Rune and Brand have made a relatively normal life for themselves – money is always tight, but they take jobs that are part mercenary-work, part PI stuff, and they manage.

Until Lord Tower – the man who took Rune in when the Sun Court fell, and who continues to be something of a patron to Rune – asks them to find his godson Addam, who is missing.

Now, that makes it sound like Last Sun is a fairly standard Urban Fantasy story. But surprise!

It absolutely isn’t.

In fact, it’s possible that Last Sun is best defined by what it is not, and what it doesn’t do, than what it actually is and does. The main character Rune, for example, is not your typical Urban Fantasy hero; he doesn’t brood, or mouth off, or think he’s invulnerable. He doesn’t have an endless supply of one-liners, superpowers, or enchanted items to fall back on. He doesn’t have the tobacco-chewing grit of down-and-dirty characters like Harry Dresden or Laytham Ballard; he doesn’t have what I call the grimdark mindset (and this is not, thank the gods, a grimdark book). He doesn’t throw his weight around; he doesn’t posture; he doesn’t price his pride above all else. He’s not crushed by the weight of his heritage, and he’s not arrogant about it either.

Rune is what you get when a writer sits down and decides that all the toxic masculinity/alpha-male bs is going out the window. All the Urban Fantasy tropes, all the M/M stereotypes, every expectation a reader might bring to this book…out they go.

Rune slaps the snooze button on his alarm until Brand drags him out of bed. He’s methodical and careful. He’s slightly insecure about having put on weight. He’s isolated and rejected by his people, but still places an enormously high value on human (and not-so-human, for that matter) life. He hides his snack food in the air vents where Brand will absolutely not find it. He struggles to make ends meet, but it hasn’t made him bitter – although he’s still human enough to feel jealous and envious of the casual wealth of other Scions. What’s especially noteworthy is how he acknowledges his own envy, processes it, and moves on, and honestly that’s a major part of what makes this book so special: Rune isn’t afraid to have or express emotions, even when those emotions are not ‘good’ ones – like jealousy – or ones our society tells us men aren’t supposed to have – like being sexually shy or insecure about what he has to offer a romantic partner.

It does not speak well of our storytelling culture that this is so refreshing, but it does speak very well of Last Sun. And this subverting of expectations continues throughout the book. Everything that you’ve ever rolled your eyes at in an urban fantasy or Hollywood action film – those things don’t happen here. Because Edwards has damn well thought about everything, and all the things that are wonderfully cinematic but oh-so-stupid from a plot perspective? They don’t happen here. Rune doesn’t make those choices and doesn’t behave in those ways. Which means that the twists and turns are actually twisty as hell, because every time you think you know what’s coming next – you’re wrong.

Until you hit the halfway mark and realise, you no longer have any idea about what’s going to happen in the rest of the book. None. When I hit the 50% mark on my Kindle, I was stunned: so much had happened! None of it felt rushed, the pacing was absolutely flawless, but still: half of this book is more potent by far than any other ten urban fantasies I could name, so the second half?

It blew me away.

The plot itself is for you to discover – I’m definitely not spoiling any of the surprises for you – but I think we need to talk about the Companion bond. This is the magical, empathic connection forged between Rune and Brand when they were both infants; Brand, who is human, not Atlantean, was then intensely trained to serve as…well, as a Companion, which in Atlantean culture is kind of like a super-bodyguard (although the specific dynamic between Companions is unique to each bond; the other Companion pair we see in Last Sun don’t have nearly the same kind of relationship that Rune and Brand do.) And I think it says something important and sneaky and clever that the most important relationship in this book – in this series – is Rune and Brand’s. It’s not romantic or sexual (although I’m more than happy to ship it), but it is unquestionably love, much deeper and more devoted than anything men are typically allowed to have or express for each other. They would die for each other without hesitation – despite Brand appearing, from the outside, to be a very typical action hero, constantly swearing, weighed down with hidden weapons, and a more-than-expert marksman. It’s not a mask, exactly – Brand is always cursing, does always have two dozen weapons hidden about his person, and could shoot the wing off a gnat from a block away. It’s just that none of those things mean he can’t also love Rune with everything he has.

The only fictional relationship I can think of that bears any resemblance to this is Steve and Bucky in the Marvel universe, and to be honest, even that friendship pales in comparison to Rune and Brand’s. This is the kind of love – so strong, so potent, so depthless – that our society can’t really understand without declaring it romantic, and don’t get me wrong; I won’t be at all unhappy if somewhere down the road, that’s where this goes. But it’s important that right now, it isn’t romantic. It’s important to showcase this kind of platonic love. It’s important to say ‘no, sometimes romance is not the most important kind of love’. It’s also important to drive home the point of ‘there is nothing wrong or weird about this. It is rare, but it should be embraced when it is found’.

This is a world where queerness is completely normalised; Atlantean society views bi/pansexuality as the default. Rune has a male love interest in this book. And somehow those things only make me even happier that the central relationship is not romantic. Maybe because queerness is so often heavily sexualised; two men kissing is somehow inherently obscene, eliciting cries of ‘think of the children!’ despite every flagship Disney film ending in a male/female marriage – so in this deeply queer novel, set in a society where group-marriage is commonplace and sexuality is extremely free, it’s yet another expectation subverted to see the value placed on a platonic relationship instead of a romantic one.

Am I making any kind of sense at all?

And I can’t help thinking that a lot of this cannot possibly be accidental. I am convinced that Edwards spent a lot of time building his world, his characters, and his magic system. The best evidence I have of this is one of my favourite of Rune’s qualities: his ability to think outside the box, and do it fast. Atlantean magic, you see, relies heavily on the sigils I mentioned earlier: objects a magic-user can ‘charge’ with a spell, with that spell to be released when the sigil’s owner chooses. Very, very few Atlanteans can cast anything but cantrips – tiny, mini-magics – on the fly; they are reliant on their sigils. And Rune only has a handful left to him – unlike your average Scion, who casually carry dozens and can pull hundreds more from their House vaults at need.

This means that whenever Rune goes anywhere – especially anywhere he might be in danger – he has to decide very, very carefully which spells to charge his sigils with – it’s not an option for him to go out with a hundred sigils all filled with just-in-case spells. And that means that he’s learned to be extremely versatile with a small number of spells, using them in ways other Scions would never think to, to great effect. It’s extremely tricksy, delightful, and conveys so much about him without Edwards needing to spell it out for the reader; you can’t help thinking about how hard Rune must have trained, for example, and for how long, to find all these ways of using these spells, even though Edwards does not show us that training – but then, he doesn’t need to. Just like he doesn’t need to state that teaching himself to think outside the box has aided Rune in other parts of his life than his magic-use. There’s no need to tell us that Rune was probably motivated, in part, by the drive to prove himself the equal of any other, more sigil-wealthy Scion – or that he was definitely motivated by the need to be sure he could protect Brand (and, to a lesser extent, probably himself as well) in the new, cold world they found themselves in after the fall of the Sun Court.

See? Tiny details – like Rune utilising a Shield spell in a clever, I-wouldn’t-have-thought-of-that way – implies a wealth of backstory and character development. Edwards must have done a ton of thinking just to come up with the ways that Rune uses his limited magic – but it’s the way he manages to fit a much, much longer book inside this one that convinces me he’s a master of his own craft.

And it’s just so freaking cool to me that Rune’s superpower isn’t a superpower, as such; it’s the fact that he knows his limits to the absolute millimetre, and utilises everything inside of them in ruthlessly creative ways. I find that a hell of a lot more impressive than, say, Lord Tower flinging incredible pieces of magic out of one of his hundreds of sigils. Age and experience will have Rune learn all the rare, cinematic spells eventually, and hopefully he’ll someday have more sigils of his own. But raw power and esoteric knowledge just aren’t as impressive as precision, creativity and innovation – not in my book.

(…Although I might not say so where Lord Tower can hear me!)

Another of the reasons I adore Rune – and I do adore him, have I said that explicitly yet? – is his set of principles. Rune is literally too poor to have the same kind of nose-in-the-air arrogance as other Scions; there are things some people wouldn’t consider honourable that Rune wouldn’t hesitate to do, because it’s practical and expedient and necessary. A bit like comparing a mercenary, with real-life experience in fighting mean and dirty, to a champion fencer; one will survive in the real world, and one won’t. That said, Rune has very strict lines, and the fact that he cares for the lives of others – even complete strangers to him – says…a lot. On several occasions we see him put himself in danger to rescue or protect those who can’t defend themselves – and we see that behaviour contrasted with that of other Scions, most of whom wouldn’t risk a papercut to save someone else, and would be offended to be asked to. On the one hand, that does make me wonder what Rune would have been like if he’d been raised within a healthy, living Sun Court – we hear his father referred to as a good ruler, but what does that mean, really? Would Rune have ended up a spoiled prince if not for the tragedy of his court’s death? I don’t think so; the snippets and references we get to his childhood make me think he was always going to become this person, but of course, there’s no way to really know.

One thing that might partially explain his fiercely protective streak is that he’s a sexual assault survivor, something that is handled carefully and respectfully by the narrative, if not by Atlantean society, which has no tolerance or compassion for victims. (Although that originally felt unrealisic to me, after pausing to consider how our society treats survivors of all kinds, I think it might just be that the Atlanteans are more honest about their feelings regarding survivors than humanity is). To them, he’s worse than a prince without a crown; he’s a victim, fetishised and ostracised by those who should be his people. Between that, and growing up very aware of his powerlessness with his court being gone, I think he’d have ended up identifying with the defenceless even if he had been a spoiled brat before.

It is, however, a really interesting stand for a Scion to take, given the semi-feudal Atlantean society. Rune – and Brand, although for him Rune’s wellbeing trumps anyone else’s, always – firmly and fiercely believes that the Arcana are supposed to protect those who can’t protect themselves. Other Scions, as I already said, don’t generally share that view. So it’s another thing that puts Rune at odds with his own people; the fact that most Scions fritter away their sigils on useless cosmetic-or-fashion spells instead of anything useful is a major source of contention not just born from Rune’s envy that other Scions have the sigils to waste. One of my favourite scenes involves Rune pointing out that Brand – who is completely human and has no magic, beyond the Companion bond itself – was infinitely more useful in a firefight than a rich and ostensibly powerful Scion.

I’m going to wrap this up with a (hopefully brief, but I make no promises) look at some of the symbolism in this book. The Tarot Sequence is literally named after the tarot, after all, and tarot is all about symbolism. I don’t know how well Edwards knows tarot, but given the care that went into every other aspect of the book, I’d be stunned if he didn’t do his homework. And as a tarot reader myself – I own far too many decks and am not even the tiniest bit sorry – it’s an angle that really interests me.

(I’d first like to point out that Rune’s official House/family name is Saint John. All the Arcana Houses are Saint _____; the House of Justice are Saint Nicholas, for example. But Saint John pointed me towards Saint John’s Wort, an herb with a long history in magical folklore. The whole time I was rereading Last Sun, it was bugging me; I could have sworn there was some link between the sun and the herb. And when I went to look it up, Witchipedia confirmed it for me; Saint John’s Wort is indeed tied to the sun, a connection apparently formed because the plant flowers in time for Midsummer, and the blossoms were thought to resemble suns. Its sap is red, and has been used as a symbolic stand-in for human blood in all kinds of rituals. Given the state of the Sun Court’s estate – packed full of ghosts – it’s painfully appropriate that Saint John’s Wort is/was used for exorcisms, particularly of poltergeists (spirits that specifically hang out in human homes!) and in charms that protected the wearer from wounds caused by swords, knives, and bullets (I bet Brand would be DELIGHTED if they could make that one work!) One of the plant’s names literally translates as sword-herb in ancient Greek.

Coincidence? I don’t bloody think so! Just how much homework did you do for this book, Edwards?!)

AHEM. Now – briefly, if I can manage it – a little musing on the tarot symbolism in Last Sun.

The Sun card from the True Black Tarot

Although the nuance varies slightly from deck to deck, in the Rider-Waite Smith school of tarot (the most popular and widespread), the Sun is a card of light and joy; the light at the end of the tunnel, if you’ve been having it rough, and the inner strength burning inside all of us. In a reading, it’s often a message to connect to that inner fire, or a reminder that you hold it within you, and in that I think it’s a perfect card to go with this particular book, because in a very real way, the events of Last Sun are Rune’s wake-up call; he’s had a fairly calm and normal (for some definitions of normal, anyway) life for a little while, for the last few years – but now it’s time to get his destiny back on track. It’s time to remember – and reclaim – who he is; his bloodline, his heritage, his power. To quote Biddy Tarot, the clearest go-to site when it comes to card meanings;

You have what others want and are being asked to radiate your energy and your gifts out into the world in a big way. Tap into your power and use your Divine will to express that power in positive ways.

Whether he wants it or not, it’s time for his story to start. And I very, very much recommend that you join him in it. It’s one you really shouldn’t miss.

The cards say so.

Tarot Sequence News + Fancast

THE TAROT SEQUENCE IS BEING ADAPTED FOR TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the series which, if you’ve forgotten, features a queer lead in a society which normalises queerness and group marriage, is fabulously fantastical with so much magic, and revolves around a platonic relationship that make Steve and Bucky look like distant acquaintances!

WAS WHAT I SAID WHEN I WAS FINALLY COHERENT

I honestly can’t believe it – I’ve had so little faith in spec-fic tv since Sense8 and Travelers were both cancelled/wrapped up. BUT CLEARLY THERE ARE TV EXECS WITH IMPECCABLE TASTE BECAUSE OH MY GODS THEY’RE ADAPTING THE TAROT SEQUENCE!!!

A deal like this doesn’t mean a show is guaranteed, of course – it just means they’re interested, not that it’s a sure thing – but if this actually gets made, it will be groundbreaking. The books are redefining the literary fantasy genre; a show would completely shake up the tv world. In the best way!

Can you even imagine?

Obviously this required a fancast! One which is completely unofficial and unaffiliated with anybody. IT’S JUST ME FLAILING AND BEING VERY HYPER AND EXCITED, M’KAY?

M’KAY.

Now that THAT’S established, let’s ooh and ahh over pretty people!

Brand Saint John – Dylan O’Brien



As seen in American Assassin

Brand is Rune’s Companion, a combination of best friend/brother/bodyguard. He’s human, and therefore can’t use magic, but he doesn’t need it because he is a ridiculous bad-ass who could kill you with a paperclip. And since Rune and Brand’s characters and relationship are at the heart of the Tarot Sequence, Brand’s casting would be the joint-most important!

Dylan O’Brien’s been on my keep-an-eye on list since Season 3B of Teen Wolf, when he wowed everyone with his depiction of a possessed-by-Void teenager. American Assassin was an acceptably generic Hollywood action film, but the moment I was reminded of O’Brien’s portrayal of bad-ass assassin Mitch – complete with knife-throwing and head-shots – he struck me perfect for the face of Brand!

If you didn’t see the movie, or’ve forgotten it, you can get a sense of what I mean from the trailer below!

Lord Tower – Laurence Nicotra

Lord Tower is one of the Arcana, the body that rules New Atlantis. The different seats inspired the human tarot, and the living Arcana are functionally not-so-minor gods. Lord Tower isn’t just immensely powerful; he’s also flourished since the Atlantean and human worlds merged. He’s a very, very dangerous man.

Nicotra is a model from Vienna and will thus certainly not ever be in the real running if the show happens. But he fits my mental image of Lord Tower perfectly, so up he goes!

Max – Dylan Fosket

Max is the grandson of Lady Lovers, whose court is destroyed in the opening of The Last Sun. Max himself is a nearly-full-blooded fae who has a strong sense of right and wrong and deep emotional scars; not so oddly, he hero-worships Rune.

Another model, Fosket definitely has the near-white!blond hair described in the books, and personally I think he could definitely pass for almost-full-blooded fae. Don’t you?

Quinn – Boudewijn van Daalen

Quinn is…a very special young Scion of House Saint Nicholas; aka, House Justice. He comes across as very scatter-brained and delicate and fey, which I think is a vibe Dutch model van Daalen could nail without much trouble!

Ciaran – Nils Kuiper

Ciaran is…well, he’s Ciaran; unaffiliated with any Arcana or lesser House, but only because none could hold him. He’s a powerful player in New Atlantis’ underworld, with plenty of secrets and abilities that seem to defy the rules of Atlantean magic. He holds his backstory close to his chest, and I can’t wait to learn more about him in future books!

My mind immediately leapt to Instagrammer/model Nils Kuiper when I was trying to translate my mental image of Ciaran into flesh and blood. Kuiper is stunning, with a very magical/otherworldly aura to many of his styles and shoots. I think he’d capture Ciaran beautifully – visually at least; I’ve no idea what his acting skill are like!

Addam – Vasiliy Stepanov

Addam is the second son of Lady Justice and Quinn’s older brother – whose disappearance kickstarts the plot of Last Sun when Rune and Brand are tasked with finding him. Addam has a Russian accent when he’s feeling strong emotions, so I let that guide me towards Russian actors – and pretty much immediately found Stepanov, who makes a visually perfect Addam!

(Seriously, google him with long hair. *happy sigh*)

Tell me that is not exactly the look of wonder he’d give Rune???



Rune – Thomas Dekker

I started this fancast with Brand, and am wrapping it up with Rune, so the two most important characters bracket the whole thing.

Rune is the eponymous Last Sun, the heir of the fallen Sun Court, and the narrator and main character of the series. And where Brand is, at least outwardly, very much an Action Hero, Rune is quieter and more subtle, more openly emotional, someone who still holds on to the responsibilities of his heritage even as he’s denied the privileges meant to come with it. He’s creative, smart, and devoted; fierce and deadly when he needs to be. It would take someone very special to breathe life into him on a screen.

There are a handful of other names I could have put here, but… Dekker is a criminally under-appreciated actor; every role I’ve seen him in, he’s blown me away, even when he was working with a weaker script. He can do emotional and vulnerable; he can do bad-ass; he can do wickedly smart. He’s played roles with magic and with firepower, and he’s one of the only actors I know of who can so casually shrug off the patriarchal programming and present a character who’s lacking in it. He might not be a perfect match, physically, for the Rune in my head, but I truly believe he’d make a good Rune.

Dekker as a VERY BADLY PHOTOSHOPPED Rune

I’m going to wish on all the stars that this does eventually reach our screens, and I can’t WAIT to see what Escape Artists does with it!

In the meantime, I’ll just be. Over here. SCREAMING WITH DELIGHT AND FEELS!