Epic Fantasy Standalones 📖

This story is so much fun. It is really quite darling. It is definitely middle grade or younger end of young adult, depending on where you live and how things are categorized, but regardless, yes, it's very youthful, but it is such a blast.

A less likable main character in Blood Over Bright Haven, but I think that the author's writing itself has gotten even better. I think that the pacing is even better. The world building is really, really fascinating.

So, for the time being, they are stand-alone, so this could change in the future, but if he never gets around to writing those, they read as completed arcs. They read very well as stand-alones, so it doesn't feel like you're necessarily missing out on what's supposed to happen next.

It was it was a wild ride. It was a great time. And if you only know Sarah Beth Durst from her cozy fantasy, just know that she actually has quite incredible world building, and that was definitely true for Race the Sands as well.

This story, if you want something that truly feels like you're transported to a different world with its own customs, its own language, its own history, absolutely within this, you are going to get it. And I actually think that the way that the story plays out and just how intense the world building is really actually helps you feel connected to our main character, Maia.

The story I think perfectly encapsulates what I was saying before about just because the stakes can be very, very big, doesn't mean that we're foregoing really fantastic character development, and the ways in which those epic stakes can trickle down into these individuals. It really showcases that incredibly well within Sword of Kaigen. Devastatingly so.

There's more to it than just that, but that is kind of the fun of Warbreaker and its world building is getting more into that.