I don't know that there is a series I am currently more excited about than this one, and one that I feel is being slept on more by fantasy fans. Shadow Baron completely decimates the second book slump with an exhilarating and surprising story that continues to flesh out the city of Bezim and it's dazzling cast of characters.

The big three Siyon, Zigiri and Anahid all get more to do here and I loved each of their individual stories so much. Anahid in particular has my whole heart and is one of my favourite characters from any book I've read in ages. Seeing her chase the things that she wants and tap into her shrewdness, and her rage, and her desire for more from her life was so fucking satisfying. Some very fun new characters were added to the board in this book and some of them had some really exciting reveals and relationships with the existing cast. I missed the romance from the first book, but I really liked how it's loss was felt here and I'm hopeful to see it reignited in book three.

I really appreciate the consolidation of setting in this series too, by focusing in so tightly on just the city of Bezim you really get a feel for it as a place, and you're able to meet all kinds of people who live there and really get entrenched in the politics and the lifestyle. Second world fantasy can often be pretty sprawling in scope so I appreciated that aspect of it-- it reminds me a bit of Strange the Dreamer in that regard, one of my all time favourite novels.

All this to say I really encourage everyone to check out this series--it has great characters, a great setting, an exciting and unexpected story line with great female and LGBT characters. I'm going to be pushing it down everyone's throats for the foreseeable future.