The Name of All Things

I like reading fiction books

Zustand und Buch Schulnote 1

Much like the first book this one takes some time to read through but it is an excellent story. The story telling style with footnotes and all is both confusing at times, amazing all the time and eternally entertaining as it is like sitting through a movie with friends and getting the fun commentary on the side. Be prepared to dedicate some time to this book though as the convolutions of story take some mental effort to keep straight but this is another impressive addition and Jenn Lyons pulls it off with style and fortitude. An epic tale and epic storyteller. I look forward to the next entry in this series.

This is book 2 of chorus of dragons do not attempt to read this without reading book one I did read book one and I have a fairly good memory when it comes to remembering plots and story points ext and I was still completely lost for the first 60 pages or so.Like the first book this is set in a high fantasy world where 12 royal families function like quasi corporations under the emperor, an ancient prophecy about a hell warrior is starting to come to fruition and a ancient evil is on the verge of waking up.The first book followed Khirin a bastard son of the royal house D’Mon and former slave and the reincarnation of an important figure, this book follows janel a count of Jorat a horse obsessed kingdom and the only survivor of the biggest hellmarch, when a group of demons gather together and summon a Demon prince, in recent memory.Janel is a likeable protagonist who shares POV with qown a monk and mage the dialogue is snappy the supporting cast is interesting I considered book one a dark fantasy and while this is still gritty and violent it’s also a bit lighter in tone maybe because Janel while having plenty of her own trauma isn’t a slave and has a driving urge to protect and help.Again like the first book this all sounds very standard where it differs is the complexity you have races that were once immortal that are not you have 8 gods and 8 dragons and 8 cornerstones except we find the numbers that don’t always match we have god kings and queens that may or may not be dead and who aren’t actually gods but are more then wizards, and demons whatever they actually are added to reincarnation, and the prohised hell warrior is at least 4 people not one we have factions and plans in place wedded to a narrative structure that while I found much easier to follow then the first book a lot less messy there’s still multiple POV and two different timelines and footnotes that work better then the last because they serve both as a source of humour and as a hint of the opposition view point indeed the book does a great job of upping the stakes, making the sides less clear cut while taking the grimness down a notch though as side it’s still gritty by any stretch. While this isn’t a casual read demands too much in the way of attention it’s a lot of fun and a superior follow up to a strong first book.

Discovering Jenn Lyons' work has been my favourite part of 2020. Her fantasy is deliciously complicated and the backstory and histories are so deep, but never in an unnecessary way, and the plot twists and schemes are absolute mastery. It's intense. I've been starved for intricate world building and it is here for me.This book centres on Janel, instead of Kihrin. It has the same set up as last time though, except this time Janel finds Kihrin in a tavern in Jorrat, and she catches him up on what she's been doing these last 4 years. It's set 3 days after the disaster at the capital, aka, three days since the last book ended. Kihrin has the magical murder sword. He knows Janel from the visions. But he doesn't know her. And neither do we, so we get to. And the the chapters are broken up between Janel and Qown. Janel is just INCREDIBLE and I'm half in love with her. Qown is honestly a soft idiot so naturally I adored him too.I also thoroughly adored the queer rep: Janel is genderqueer -- uses she/her pronouns but she is a man. Gender/sex are not the same. I loved that the world was so comfortable with this that it's normal; Janel gets confused that Kihrin doesn't understand. When they talk about some of the trans characters, Janel is just, "Oh how do you do it in your country then?" And Kihrin is like "?? we don't." (Fool world.) It's just so inclusive and it's this is so refreshingly wondrous in an epic fantasy.The plot is twisty, backstabbing, carefully articulate genius. It's long, and sometimes not fast paced, but it sets the building blocks for the finale that knocked me over.This series is just phenomenal. It's lush and vast and diverse inclusive, and utterly badass.