4.0 out of 5 stars
Love, Thy Name is The Tarot Sequence
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 17 December 2021
I can count on one hand the number of series I've read where the second book is just as good as the first book.
I can count on one finger the number of series I've read where the second book is better than the first book.
(Spoiler alert: It's this; this is the series.)
I didn't write a proper review for The Last Sun for various reasons, but I think it's important I begin this review by noting that a) I loved The Last Sun, but b) it was certainly not without its flaws. The really frickin' amazing thing about The Hanged Man is that it took everything good and special about The Last Sun and magnified it by fixing the initial book's issues. So what we get, for once, is a second book that is really, really satisfying.
What follows is a brief compendium of all of the things I love about this book:
--Fully-developed characters. I tend to dislike FPPOV because a lot of authors don't seem to do a good job of fleshing out characters if we're not in their heads. Not the case here. Rune is a richly-drawn character (and, tbh, it's fun to be in his head), but so is Brand. So is Addam. So is Quinn. So is The Tower. And Max. And on and on and on. We don't lose anything by being in Rune's head all the time. He makes observations and assumptions about the other characters that sometimes turn out to be true and sometimes turn out to be false. We learn about the other characters along with him, and instead of being limiting, it actually makes us feel like we're meeting real people. Every character is unique, but every character is also real. And damn, I do love me a good character-driven story.
--Relationships 👏 that 👏 make 👏 sense 👏👏👏. Brand and Rune's relationship is obviously front and center, and the thing I love most about these two is that they don't hold anything back from each other. They love each other, they have each other's backs, and they support each other in everything. (And the banter!) Would that we all had relationships like that in our lives. But listen: I will straight cut anyone who tries to convince me that Addam and Rune don't belong together. I get that Rune strongly believes them not to be tallas, and that's fine. Even Addam accepts that by the end of this book. But Addam is so good and so pure and... oh god as I'm writing this I realize that we may actually be getting set up for some horrible scenario in which Addam is actually a villain because how can anyone really be this good??? Ignoring this possibility for now, it's sufficient to say that all of the relationships in this book have depth, nuance, and value. Characters' actions make sense when contextualized within their relationships with one another. Sure, there's magic and shit, but everything that happens feels plausible. (I can't describe all the relationships here or it would take me... an entire two-book series, apparently... but also points for Rune/Tower, Max/Quinn, Ciaran/Quinn, Anna/Corrine, Rune/Brand/Quinn/Max, Addam/Quinn... f*ck, just everyone who interacts at any point, okay?)
--Tarot. I love tarot. I'm not good at it, but I love it. And the few times that I pulled back from the plot to try and look for meaning in the arcana allusions were really satisfying. Having at least a surface-level understanding of Tarot also raises questions about some character motivations (Lord Tower... looking at you), and it'll be interesting to see where those go. Also curious about poor Lord Star.
--The plot. Essential, right? But now we're getting into things that I think improved from book 1 to book 2. I enjoyed the plot of The Last Sun but the pacing didn't always feel right. If I had to summarize my issues with book 1's narrative structure, I would say that there was too much action and not enough reflection. It felt like we were being pulled from battle to battle without time to breathe. There was a lot of breathing room in The Hanged Man, and it is in those quiet spaces that the plot coalesces. To be clear, the book is not without action; however, this action has more meaning because characters have time to reflect on real and potential losses as well as the consequences of their decisions. The hunt for the Hanged Man is a good premise to drive the action, but it also serves as a good backdrop for the more important work of character-, relationship-, and world-building.
--Expanded cast of characters. The characters introduced in The Last Sun were all great, which, of course, why else would I be here? But they were also all white dudes. Mostly. It didn't really bug me that much as I was reading, but in a world that's so liberal in its approach to love, relationships, and gender identity, it did, on reflection, feel really strange to not have any characters of color, or any female-identifying leads. Both of these issues are rectified in The Hanged Man, and the book is stronger and more plausible for it. I'm looking forward to seeing these newer characters develop more as the series expands.
--World-buildling. The world established in The Last Sun is certainly unique, but similar to my earlier point, I felt like I was just beginning to sort out the political structure, magical structure, and history of New Atlantis when the book ended. There was so much going on that it was difficult to keep the rules of sigil magic and aspects and companions and tallas and everything else straight. In The Hanged Man information is portioned out more carefully and deliberately, and Rune often provides helpful asides as he digests information himself. I have a much better understanding of the Tarot Sequence world, now, and I'm confident the world will continue to layer and deepen as more books are released.
As I sit here and reflect, it occurs to me that this book is really a 4.5-star read. I loved so much about it, and am so, so looking forward to book 3. I think the only thing holding me back from giving this book a 5-star rating is the one issue that wasn't completely resolved from book 1 to book 2: the editing. I'm such a nitpicking ass, I know, and, to be fair, the editing did improve. But there were still some glaring places where information or explanations were repeated for no reason (off the top of my head, I think the role of Principalities was explained twice, for instance), words were misused or misspelled, and scenes could/should have been edited for clarity. And I do get that this is a totally badass self-pub and absolutely respect that. But sometimes the editing issues pulled me out of the story rather jarringly. Probably not everyone will even notice or care. But, as I said--*points at self*--nitpicking ass. (Also, I fully expect this review to fall victim to Muphry's Law, so please know that I am cringe-laughing along with you as you catch my own grammatical errors.)
Anyway, this is my new "rec to anyone with eyes or ears" series. A dream of mine is that this series gets all the attention and popularity it rightly deserves, and someday soon we get foiled-cover, stenciled-edged, hardback collectors editions of these babies. Until then, I'm off to buy the paperback versions to do my part to boost the signal.
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