A gauntlet laid down
I just finished reading Juliet McKenna's Aldebreshin Compass quartet of books. Really good - some of the best alternate-world fantasy I've read, interesting setting, strong and well written characters and a storming narrative that rarely stopped for breath.
The aspect of them that really made them stand out for me compared with most fantasy writers was that although they were very much a sequence each one was a complete story in it's own right with a beginning, a middle and an end. There was none of this "book 1 suddenly ends and you have to wait until book 2 to find out what happens next" nonsense *cough*Joe Abercrombie*cough* - each one felt complete in it's own right. I wanted to know what happened next but they at least gave a bit of closure, which would make life a lot less annoying if I had been reading them as they came out and had to wait a year for the next in the series to be written.
This is encouraging as I'm sure I'll be reading more of her books in future. Really good stuff.
The aspect of them that really made them stand out for me compared with most fantasy writers was that although they were very much a sequence each one was a complete story in it's own right with a beginning, a middle and an end. There was none of this "book 1 suddenly ends and you have to wait until book 2 to find out what happens next" nonsense *cough*Joe Abercrombie*cough* - each one felt complete in it's own right. I wanted to know what happened next but they at least gave a bit of closure, which would make life a lot less annoying if I had been reading them as they came out and had to wait a year for the next in the series to be written.
This is encouraging as I'm sure I'll be reading more of her books in future. Really good stuff.