Welcome to Litsy!

A pretty satisfying finish to a pretty satisfying trilogy. In this volume, the fantasy story reconnects with its sf origins, which is cool, and the ending is open, which also works in this dark, twisted setting. Sadly, the lack of meaningful female characters persists, the single pointless subplot notwithstanding (which is weird, since a woman wrote it) so not a five, but, overlooking that, I enjoyed this book very much.

4/5

Grimdark but with a pizzazz of an epic (quest) fantasy.

On a planet where dreams and nightmares routinely become flesh, people are wishing both gods and demons into existence.

The evil overlord from the previous volume remains stubbornly irredeemable. People get hurt and die in spectacular ways. There are soul-eating creatures and terrifying (awesome) wastelands full of parasitic, human-eating trees. What‘s not to like?

4.0/5

Rare to have an honest to god irredeemable evil overlord be one of the main characters.

It happens on a planet colonized by a human generational starship (which is the sf element), but overall it‘s fantasy—with some twists. Atmospheric, dark, sometimes veering into horror (those were my favorite parts—so visceral). The voice is reminiscent of the older, more traditional fantasy novels (publ. date: 1991), but it reads like something fresh.

4.25/5

Thanks for the tag @PageShifter and @WJCintron

1. Definitely.

2. Black Sun Rising by C.S. Friedman

#Two4Tuesday

People tend to collect so many books that we lose track of what's on our shelf from time to time. It can be nice to revisit the shelf. What book is in the upper left corner of your nearest bookshelf? (If you have multiple shelves near you, choose the most interesting one!)

Play, tag, and share! (I'm sure I missed people, so play if you want to too!

#ShelfieCorner

Although I haven't read it yet (or its prequel... Both of which I've owned for a while...), I think based on title alone this book is a good pick for #DecemberSong's 13th prompt: Silent Night.

#BloomingBibliophiles #tree
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
@OriginalCyn620

I ❤️ 90's fantasy.

#Marchintothe70s #BecauseTheNight

C.S. Friedman was writing grimdark fantasy before grimdark was a word.

This is the 2nd book in her Coldfire trilogy and its been a crazy long time since I first read it and really need to re-visit.

@Lizpixie @Cinfhen

I just don‘t know what to think about these. I‘m compelled to read them so that‘s good. But I‘m also frustrated with the story & how often the two main characters are separated just to reunite under unusual circumstances. But despite all the confusion, I am interested to see what book 3 brings! #coldfire