And also, I guess, it's welcome back to the icy world of Abeth, the setting for ML's previous Book of the Ancestor trilogy - although this is not a continuation of that story.
The story starts with our lead character, 16 year old Yaz heading with her tribe to the Black Rock for the four yearly gathering of the clans. This is not a joyous event! These people live on the ice. They have to be strong enough to survive all the bleakness this involves and at the Black Rock the children are judged. Any found to be weak or lacking in some way are cast into the pit, never to be seen or heard from again.
Needless to say (for reasons you will find when you pick up this book for yourself - I'm trying to avoid spoilers here) Yaz ends up in the pit and so starts a new life for her and a new adventure for us.
As always with ML what really stands out here is the world-building. This guy is seriously at the top of the tree when it comes to this stuff. You may wonder 'how can you make a world of caves and tunnels interesting?' but ML does. It's a whole new world down here and I got the idea that things are gonna change both above and below ground on Abeth.
The history we learn in TGatS gives an inkling as to where the story is heading but nothing is clear cut and obvious - which suits me just fine (although, for me, the rest of the series can't come quickly enough)
As always, another winner from Mark Lawrence and I have no problem recommending this as a must read. A solid 4.5/5*
Thanks as always to Anne Cater for inviting me onto this tour
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ReplyDeleteHuge thanks for this Andy xx
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