Banebringer

Banebringer kept me up at night. Sometimes because I couldn't keep from turning the page. Sometimes because my mind was racing with the possibilities for the next step in the plot. Mostly because the characters here grab you and refuse to let go. Books rarely make me blink away tears, but there were at least three times I was shedding tears during Banebringer. It's not cheap emotion either, it's subtle and well laid out. Perhaps the best way to say it is that the emotional payoff at various points is utterly satisfying. It's a book that grabs you, holds you, and then releases you in an extremely satisfying way.

MINOR SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT

My favorite character is Vaughn. His character arc is gripping and fascinating and yet brilliantly subtle. He realizes things about himself, about his treatment of others, and ultimately about what his character (or lack-thereof) has cost him. Somehow Park manages all of this with seeming preachy at any point. Add to all this a very interesting "hard magic" system, and it makes for an engrossing read. I can't wait to see where Vaughn's journey goes in the future.

This isn't to say that Ivana is boring. Quite the opposite. Her own journey is perhaps the more emotional of the two. There is one scene near the end of the book that makes me cry every time I read it because it is so real, and honest, and cathartic. I find Kaladin, in Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive books, to be incredibly relatable. Ivana is relatable in an entirely different way, but to the same depth as Kaladin. She may wear a mask and build walls to cover it, but she feels deeply and that feeling--or, at the beginning, lack of feeling--is woven as a brilliant driving force in the story being told here.

I think at its heart Banebringer is more of a character story than we often find in Fantasy at present. It scratches an itch I didn't quite know I had. I can't recommend it highly enough.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I was an alpha/beta reader for this book and I am related to the author.