Spoiler alert: we loved it. There was a life before reading the series and there’s a life after. It’s a classic that we are going to be referencing constantly as a touchstone of the genre. The structure of the story is one we’ve seen before: boy stumbles into evil plot, boy gets help from magical friends, boy becomes a man and defeats evil. Where to book comes alive is using these tropes as scaffolding for the lives of beguiling, subtly crafted characters. Williams loves his people. They are not playthings that act as vehicles for cool shit happening, rather, cool shit happens and you can’t wait to see how they’ll react. The character development is so well done and so seamless you don’t realize it’s happening until you find yourself hanging onto every word about the whole gang from the maid to the king.

More of our thoughts in the podcast which you can listen to below or find anywhere great podcasts are found. Have you read this series? Leave your thoughts in the comments!