This is my favourite series at the moment. Everything is great: storytelling, worldbuilding, character development (although not for each character), it all fits together.

On to part 4. ( )

Somehow not as satisfying as the last two books -- the posse is strong, the adventures continue. Rhett and Sam start working out their romance, but it also feels like one boss fight after another with no larger direction in sight. Also, I really dislike the ending. Ah well, I may come back to this series. It is full of excitement and good characters.

This is another solid installment in a series I wish more people were talking about. It delivers everything I’ve come to expect—a cracking good western full of gun fights and desert treks, a great fantasy adventure with cool monsters and magic, so much diversity in terms of queer rep and characters of colour*, Rhett continuing to unlearn gender stuff and be kinder to people and be more confident in himself, tension of all kinds, heartbreaking moments… and of course, Bowen expands on the world again, with more creatures and characters and settings that flesh out the whole of the American frontier.

There’s not a lot I can say about this book beyond that, because going into detail will just spoil it, but there’s canon ace rep now on top of the gay, bi, pan (?), and trans rep, which was a personal yay. Also, I assumed this was the last of a trilogy and it is not, so I’m very excited to see what happens next!

Warnings: Suicide. Child abuse. White people who want pats for being “nice” to brown people. Mentions of non-consensual past sex. Chinese dragons who are a bit less than accurate.

7.5/10 ( )

It’s much the same as the earlier books, so I feel I can copy and paste my review of those. It even follows the same pattern–there’s a whole bunch of traveling, sprinkled with a few battles and a few town visits, until the end where there’s a big climax/ultimate goal fulfilled. The problem is that travel portion. It feels like filler. Like the hurdles they have to jump don’t have to do with the main goal, they don’t have a permanent effect on the characters. Which is not a deal breaker, but it irritates me. Makes me feel like there was no point in reading what I just read. Or that it’s a repetitive cycle, with minimal character development in-between. It’s a quest story. ( )

Another solid volume of The Shadow this one starts were Conspiracy of Ravens ends and has a pretty high body count as Rhett and his posse make their way back to the Las Moras Ranger station and then to San Anton where they find they necromancer Trevisan in interesting circumstances. Along the way they pick up an unusual nun, Inés, as well as encountering other interesting monsters and a human of some importance as well. The god Buck turns up handily, but not with quite the same impact and Rhett is introduced to a deity to whom he can relate. I like her style. ( )