Book flailing....

[cairistiona]

You guys. You guys. I have just found the most amazing series of books. the Greatcoats series, by Sebastien de Castell.

*moment of incohorent flailing*

Okay, coherent (mostly) flailing under the cut, because there's a lot of flailing.

Full disclosure: I'm only 2 books in, having read Traitor's Blade and Knight's Shadow but unless the next two just fall off the precipice, this series is hitting every doggone one of my buttons:

• Hurt/comfort where the author doesn't go into nauseating detail but still shows the lingering effects of injury and poisoning (good heavens, Knight's Shadow is one big long h/ccccc)


• Found family


• Brotherhood


• Swordplay (so much buckling of swashes. So. Much. Very Three Musketeerish.)


• Sardonic, dry wit.


• Much brotherly banter.


• Men unafraid to show emotion


• Men unafraid to hug


• Men unafraid to admit they're terrified


• 1st person POV so I don't have to spend inordinate amounts of reading time in the heads of characters who are meh


• Names that aren't keyboard smashes with random apostrophes tossed in because fantasy (ie, there's no S'dz'rtdxyzlyl stuff--I'm sorry, but I gotta be able to pronounce the character names in my head. Gimme Aragorn and Frodo and Royce and Hadrian and now Falcio val Mond, and there's a very funny running joke in Knight's Shadow about how to properly pronounce Falcio...)


• Very good female characters who run the normal gamut of female humans from badass to not so badass and good to evil


• Romance that is full of warm fuzzy and has an important role beyond the warm fuzzy but still doesn't take over the book


• Character growth


• Minor characters that you love even though they're on and off the pages in a blink


• Valor out the wazoo


• A hero who's actually, you know, heroic and goodhearted and all that and none of this modern-day anti-hero grimdark stuff. Not against anti-heroes--I mean, Bucky Barnes could be considered that, at least on the "barely an anti-hero and not by choice" end of the scale--but I am against anti-heroes created by authors who curl their lips at "good" characters because they think good people don't really exist and so the whole point of their books are to destroy the goodness and idealism of said good people. This one has all kinds of characters from basically pure of heart (but not arrogant or sanctimonious about it) to horribly evil, but also ones that are more in the anti-hero vein (Brasti Goodbow, hello, you cheeky little handsome poacher...). The characters multi-layered, basically, and all seem to have the author's respect (including the icky villain types).


• A book generally full of hopefulness despite awful odds


• Truly icky villains but a few that are in that "could go either way" category


• Sacrificial devotion to one's friends and one's cause


• Good use of fantasy tropes that also include turning some tropes on end


• Plot twists


• Clean prose


• A magic system that isn't overly complicated and is woven into the narrative without the story stopping dead in its tracks to give the reader a wikipedia entry on Magic Systems.


• The kind of book(s) that makes you sigh and hug it when you finish... and then immediately buy the next one even though it's full price.

I could go on but... just, if you're the least bit interested in all that (nefhiriel imbecamiel just_ann_now and mrowe I'm specifically thinking of your four) check out this series. I have been on a bit of a lucky run of late. Battle Mage by Peter Flannery was another good one, though it's a standalone and not a full series, so my joyful moment of hugging the book when I finished was somewhat briefer than I'd like. But still. It's nice to suddenly find all these really, really good books and not have to solely depend on Michael Sullivan to crank out my next hit of hopeful fantasy.

So. Thank you for indulging me while I flail. *g* I want to see this made into a movie. Or a Netflix/Amazon series. Starring Jason Mamoa as Falcio val Mond. Amazon, you will be receiving my politely-worded email suggestion soon....

Comments

[imbecamiel.livejournal.com]

!!!!! Oooh, that sounds like something I MUST try. Looks like the library has it, too, so guess what just got promoted to the top of my to-read list. :D :D :D

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Yay, as a library book, even better! (I got the first book as an Amazon daily deal thing for .99 cents, and I was so eager to get to book 2 and then book 3 that I didn't even think about checking the library *facepalm* In my defense, though, our library has a woefully inadequate supply of ebooks, which is pretty much how I read everything these days.)

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

I read the first one, and the second one, and then - what? I think I was overcome by events, and never got back in to them. I love your enthusiasm!

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I hope you eventually get back to reading them (if you enjoyed it, of course). I'm only a little ways into book 3 and it's just as engaging as the first two, so I'm hopeful.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

They sound really good - I must add them to my 'to read' list.

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoy them!

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

Looks interesting, though first person is tricky to pull off. I'll have a look to give it a go:)

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

People, I've found, have very strong opinions about first person, but it's actually my favorite POV to read. For me, it works. YMMV, of course, but I hope you enjoy them.

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

I like first person as well, if well done:-)

[babschwi53.livejournal.com]

Hi Cairi,
I found your post by the best possible coincidence. We just got back from Spain and I was working with my laptop and had your site marked. I'm hardly anymore on LJ - we talked about that... But your post reminded me of what I am missing ;). I will look out for your rec bc I am always searching for good fantasy! The latest I enjoyed very much were all books by Juliet Marillier. She's written at least two different series and though the books are labeled young adults I enjoyed them very much.
Greetings
Babschwi

[cairistiona7.livejournal.com]

Hi there, stranger! *g*

I finally finished the Greatcoats and it was thrilling to the end, even though there were a few parts in the beginning of the 4th book that slowed me down a little, because they were more about political/court intrigue, which tends to make my mind wander too much. But I finally pushed through and the ending was well worth it.

I glanced at my library's catalog for ebooks and alas, they don't have any Juliet Marillier available, so I'll either have to go their directly and see if they have actual book-books, something I rarely do these days, or wait for a "daily deal" on them on Amazon. "Wolfskin" looks interesting.