A Plague of Giants

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of this at Denver Comic Con. Seriously, Tattered Cover just gave me a free Kevin Hearne book. Amazing! I'm a big fan of the Iron Druid series, and I was really excited to see Hearne writing in a high fantasy style rather than an urban one. The thing about Iron Druid is, it reads like popcorn, but popcorn with a ton of research, mythos, plotting, and work put into it. It is high quality popcorn. Gourmet. Plague of Giants makes the effort that goes into it more recognizable as you get to see the whole world created from scratch, and it's great.

I love the magic system: the idea that you risk your life to earn magic and then spend your life to use it. I love the variety of magic and cultures Hearne creates. I love the serial storytelling in novel form. And I love bards. I've been playing a lot of D&D lately, and 5E bards are badasses.

There's an incredible cast, diverse without being a statement on diversity, and while some stories are more interesting than others (I would've been happy just to read Abhi's story, honestly), they all tie together nicely.. It's also a book with incredibly high stakes, as the characters make lethal mistakes over and over, and cope with the loss and guilt they incur. Loss, guilt, and survival are really the strongest themes, and some chapters hurt, and that hurt is cathartic.

The only criticism I really have is that this book is very obviously the first of a series, and it does not feel particularly ended when you get to the end. I'm ready to pick up the next book now, but this book hasn't even been technically released yet. Hopefully, by the time Blight of Blackwings is out, I'll still have all these stories close enough to my mind to read it.