This is, hands down, one of the best books I've read all year. I mean, it is SO FREAKING GOOD I CANNOT EVEN.
Working on it was an absolute honor. One oThis is, hands down, one of the best books I've read all year. I mean, it is SO FREAKING GOOD I CANNOT EVEN.
Working on it was an absolute honor. One of those books that just reminded me why I do what I do for a living. Really cut all the way into my soul and planted itself there.
I will write a full review a little closer to publication....more
This is the fourth book I’ve edited by Rob Hayes, and while I’ve enjoyed all of them, this has to be my favorite so far. Here, we have the same old Eska, but she’s different as well. Time has passed, and Eska is older and wiser. She’s still grumpy, sarcastic, abrasive, but she’s also matured a bit like a finely-aged wine.
The Eska in Sins of the Mother is not the Eska you’ll remember from previous books. I mean, she is, but she’s not at the same time. Hayes took great care developing his character, and this is really where the book shines. Eska’s characterization is nothing short of perfection. She’s older, and time has tempered a lot of her brashness, but she’s also got this edge of emotional vulnerability throughout the novel that really nailed it for me. Here, you see Eska’s brash actions, but Hayes lifts the curtain a bit, and shows us the vulnerable woman haunted by past decisions and deeds, and how that has impacted her over the years.
Eska has turned into a bit of mythology in the decade she’s been away, and the struggle between who people think she is and who she actually is fills a lot of her personal arc and thrusts her into no small amount of emotional turmoil. I loved this aspect of Eska, and Hayes knew just how to lean into it, how to make it sing without hitting it too hard. This is just one example of what he does so well. I was blown away by how complex this new, older Eska is. Her voice remains true to who she is, and who she has always been, but there’s… more to her now. And so much of what she experiences, what she thinks and feels, were things I profoundly related to. It was nothing short of breathtaking, how he took a character I already loved so much and somehow pushed her over the top and made her even better.
I said no few times when editing this book, that Rob Hayes could teach a masterclass on characterization based on Eska in Sins of the Mother, and I stand by that. She was… brilliant.
More, though, you’ll see some familiar faces. Old friends return, and they are all a bit different as well. Time has passed, and it’s left is mark on everyone. The care Hayes took with developing each of his characters, determining how that time would change them, especially after what has happened in previous books, really shows off his capabilities as an author. There’s a lot of substance here, a lot of things to sink your teeth into. Decisions and actions never happen in a vacuum. In Sins of the Mother, Hayes follows a lot of these changes, both personally and politically, and sees where they end up after everything has had a few years to really settle in and stew.
Rob Hayes has always excelled at battles, and it’s no different here. He works tension like a song and uses battles to power the crescendo. The result is this wham-bam gut-punch of action and plot that will certainly keep you rooted to your chair. With attention to detail, and Eska’s missing arm, her age, and the like, the battles aren’t always how you’d expect a battle to be written, and that’s part of the beauty here. Throughout, Hayes remains true to his characters, and throughout, you have moments of emotional and physical tension that pull plot threads together in surprising, unforgettable scenes peppered throughout the book. There’s never a dull moment. After releasing numerous books and a myriad of series, Hayes knows what he’s doing, and it’s easy to let him take the wheel and steer. I always trust him to guide me, and it always pays off.
I cannot even predict what will happen next, but I’m dying to find out.
Sins of the Mother takes the series in a new, unexpected direction. The ending closes some doors (painfully) and then opens another. It’s impossible to predict what is going to happen next, but I cannot wait to find out. Eska has always been a character who has straddled numerous lines, and that doesn’t stop, even to the bitter end. There’s a lot that Hayes hinted at in previous books in the series which will come into play here. In fact, I was nothing short of shocked by how well Hayes wove together plot threads from previous books, and how things I didn’t think were important ended up being pivotal. That ending is where all the magic happens, and the ingredients all come together to make something truly magical.
Sins of the Mother packs an unforgettable punch. Hayes works masterfully on numerous different levels, pushing the plot and characters toward a tension-filled ending that truly left me reeling and wanting more. Eska, however, is where the story shines. She’s still Eska, but she’s also more somehow, and I felt that “more” in my soul. I have always loved Eska, but I didn’t truly feel like I profoundly connected with every aspect of her until this specific book.
There is one more book in this series, and I know I’m going to have a love/hate relationship with it. Eska has taken me places and left a mark. There is no recovering from her, and I’m already dreading the fact that at some point, her story is going to end. But for now…
Sins of the Mother is what happens when an artist has mastered his craft.
I don’t know where Rob Hayes will take me next, but I know as long as his name is on the cover of a book, I will read it and I will love it.
Well, I’m going to do it. I’m going to attempt to do this book some sort of justice, but oh, it’s going to be hard. This might be one of the most difficult books I’ve ever reviewed. How, dear reader, can one person really articulate how amazing this book truly was?
The fact of the matter is, I still don’t quite know what to say. This book just floored me, and in the closing of one series, Fletcher opens some doors that only made his particular universe even larger. I mean, how is that even possible? The guy, at this point, defies the laws of nature.
An End to Sorrow is nothing short of magisterial. This is the kind of series ender that should be used to teach all authors how to end a series. Here, we have epic highs and the lowest of lows. Relentless battles and extreme odds make this read like a pulse-pounding thrill ride, but then there are quieter moments as well, emotional depths that I’ve learned, over the course of editing six of the guy’s books, to expect, but still always manage to surprise me.
I don’t really know how to talk about An End to Sorrow without giving all of it away. I still, honestly, am trying to sort through the impact of this series. Editing it has been an adventure. I’ve learned a lot about writing and editing by working on Fletcher’s books. More, I’ve been gifted the opportunity to watch a master artist at his craft, to watch him evolve and grow with each installment, see how he hones his craft and grasps his story with both hands, aggressively pushing it to the furthest extremes. And somehow, he wrestles the bear and wins. Editing for Fletcher has been one of the most illuminating experiences in my professional life. Editing this series for him has been nothing short of incredible.
Khraen is one of the most morally ambiguous characters I’ve ever read, and that’s part of why I love the guy. He’s just so completely… Khraen, and Fletcher knows how to tap into that moral ambiguity and confusion and make it truly shine. Here, in An End to Sorrow, is Khraen’s long-awaited crescendo. We’ve been building up to it over two books. What I love most about his arc, specifically in this book, is how perfectly Fletcher managed to balance Khraen’s inner landscape with his outer struggle. There’s a lot of introspection here, Khraen not only trying to figure out what to do next, but also trying to figure out where he fits in all of this, and how much of himself is truly worth knowing.
Acceptance and rejection were core themes here, both on personal levels and on a much larger, external scale. What happens in the journey, the battles Khraen faces, the decisions he makes, are all mirrored in his inner landscape. It was absolutely astounding, how each thrust of a weapon, each maneuver, each decision made that furthered the plot, opened up a wellspring of inner strife, turmoil, and confusion. Emotional notes that hit just as hard as any sword thrust ever could.
Ultimately, this series is about a fundamentally wounded, flawed man picking up the pieces of himself, and it’s not easy. It never is, but that is a story we all relate to. This breaking, fracturing, loss and then the slow, painful process of putting ourselves back together after the cataclysm. That’s the ultimate power of the story. Fletcher takes an experience we all relate to and makes it uniquely his own. We connect, and through that connection, we’re captivated. It’s that powerful connection that Fletcher uses to toy with us so very well.
An End to Sorrow is a masterpiece. It took me a few weeks after editing it just to process how much I loved this book, and then a few more weeks to get up the courage to message Fletcher and bounce some theories off him. I’m still sitting here, so long after the edit, kind of reeling. I don’t feel like I’ve stopped yet. I’ve honestly never read anything like this, and I’ve never had a book hangover that sunk its claws in this deep. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but at some point along the way, this entire series became part of me, etched in bone, spoken into my marrow.
Pulse-pounding? Yes. Thrillride? Yes. Moral ambiguity? Oh yeah. It’s all here… but the series never loses its fundamental humanity, neither does it ever lose the voices of both the author and the characters, and that’s the true power of this series. Here are characters with abilities one could ascribe to divinity, and yet they are all flawed, with pieces missing. So incredibly human. Here, Khraen, despite how much he changes, is fundamentally still the Khraen I was introduced to in book one. So much is different, and yet the important stuff stays the same: the voices, the artistry, the authors ability to tell a story.
Fletcher flagrantly breaks the rules, and shows how powerful rule breaking can truly be.
The plot is relentless. It never lets up. There isn’t much time for quiet moments, but there are some, and Fletcher uses them like a hammer to hit the emotional notes just right, making the entire work feel so perfectly balanced. The fights are extremely well written, with almost surgical precision. The creatures you’ll see are things that HP Lovecraft would look at with awe. The ending is… I mean, wow.
I realize this is less of a book review, and more of a… I don’t even know what. The issue is, this series is just amazing, from top to bottom. It started out fantastic, and then it just kept getting better, until the ending, which is its own sort of Fletcheresque subversion that I am absolutely *dying* to talk to someone about because I’m still reeling, honestly.
I don’t quite know what to say.
Editing for Fletcher has been one of the best parts of my career. Every time he throws a book at me, I get excited in a way that is unique to him. It’s been incredible to watch his writing evolve, the way he pushes himself to new heights, new extremes, new highs and new lows. I haven’t ever really seen anything like it, and being behind the scenes, being able to watch the master at work in some small way has been, well, formative. Being part of this series in the tiny capacity I’ve been from beginning to end is a true feather in my cap. I cannot believe I was lucky enough to work on these books.
I don’t know if this is a review or just a 1000+ word diatribe wherein I tell you how fantastic I think Fletcher is, but I should probably cover my bases here and talk a bit about the book itself.
An End to Sorrow is the best series ender I’ve ever read, period. Action packed, with no detail overlooked, this book was the culmination of a journey I should have prepared myself for first, but looking back on it, I know there’s no way to prepare for something like this. I don’t think I’ve ever been this engrossed by a series, much less a book.
I’ll be picking pieces of Khraen from my soul for a while yet....more
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