Maradaine.
A massive, sprawling mess of a city brilliantly brought to life by Marshall Ryan Maresca. I've spent a good part of the last year in the city, meeting its denizens, sharing in their complex lives and unraveling the conspiracies that have intertwined said lives. Like the aforementioned city, "Phase One" of the Maradaine Saga is a massive, sprawling epic adventure that throws us, the reader, into the very things that make Maradaine a massive sprawling mess of a city. Split into four very different but intertwined series, the Maradaine Saga is a must read if you like fantasy, especially if you like fantasy set in a honest-to-goodness, living breathing city like Lankhmar, Ankh-Morpork, Minas Tirith, Riverside or Tar Valon.
In a weird circle of life kind of way, I started the series last year on my family vacation to Cape Cod reading about the adventures of the Thorn of Dentonhill and finished it on this year's family vacation to Cape Cod when I finished the intense and thrilling THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY.
The series is just terrific and never lets up. In my interactions with MRM on social media, he makes comparisons to the AVENGERS and it's an apropos comparison. Maresca has done something I totally admire in mashing up genres in a brilliant way. The Thorn, our introduction to the world, is part Harry Potter, part Spiderman, part Batman while his his mission to end the rule of Willem Fenmere is more Kingpin than Joker. The Thorn series really shows us both sides of the city.
Welling and Rainey are Sherlock and Holmes by way of Stabler and Benson but in a massive fantasy city. Welling has the brilliant, Sherlockian brain that is burdened by his late-manifesting magical abilities while Rainey tricks her way on to the force after a career in spycraft that saved her from the streets. The crimes they investigate slowly become more intertwined with those out our very heroes (very ta'veren if you ask me...and that's okay).
We then meet the Ocean's crew of Maradaine: the Rynax brothers and the band of plucky neighbors that band together to uncover the mystery behind the fire that destroyed all of their homes that is tied to the grand conspiracy that ties them all together. The Iron Man and Hulk of our heroes (sort of), Verci and Asti plot and scheme their way though their own investigation of what caused the fire while protecting their neighborhood, especially when children start going missing.
The Maradaine Elite, led by Tarians Dayne Heldrin and Jerinne Fendall, is the political thrillers of the Maradaine world. It's Captain America: Winter Soldier but as a fantasy. Dayne is a Boy Scout that finds himself some how always in, as the cool kids on TicToc say, the thick of it. This subseries is the scariest and one of the most prescient books I've ever read as it features the storming of a parliamentary floor by protesters not happy with the way things have gone for them. I was literally reading the book featuring these scenes on January 6th and terrified by the parallels. (There are several others in this series that will make you think he was writing this as things were going on.)
The entire series comes to a head in the final book of the Maradaine Elite series as "the people of the city" come together to stop a dragon and save the children of the city, There are some nice moments of redemption and hints of what's to come in "Phase Two." The final half of this book is intense and thrilling, like the end of any good Marvel movie.
Fast-moving, this entire series is fast moving, mostly because you don't want to put it down.
A few months ago, I complained about "bad input" being part of my recent writing problems. The Maradaine Saga was just what I needed. I've been rolling lately finishing a rewrite on my own "Maradaine" book THE LOST SCIONS. There's a lot of shared DNA between them and that's pushed me to finish the rewrite and I think what I've written is pretty darn good.
So my time in Maradaine is done for now. I'm moving on to the WHEEL OF TIME now. I'm on book seven, A CROWN OF SWORDS. I'm sure I'll have thoughts on it when I'm done.
