Imaro

I'm so pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this book. I haven't read much (any?) sword and sorcery before, so didn't know what to expect. I loved this book so much. To begin with, it was really well-written. I think it was originally publishd in a serialized form, and I reallly liked the episodic nature of resulting book structure - each chapter was like this bite-size little adventure morsel that mostly stood on its own, while also connecting to a larger story arc. The amount of recap the author provided was the perfect amount to help keep track of a fairly large cast and sweeping setting. I really enjoyed reading a story set in a non-European setting - even as someone who doesn't read much fanatasy, I'm pretty burned out on knights and dragons. This books is full of wizards and sorcerty, but it was refreshing to tap into a different mythology. And it was fun just giving myself over to the character of Imaro, who is not only the biggest, strongest, most bad-ass warrior around, but is actually an interesting, complex character. Since I don't read this type of book much, I might be unfair to the subgenre - but my stereotype is that the main character of these types of books is often motivated by absurdly unrealistic, "pure" motives like nobility and valor and virtue. Imaro is, fundamentally, a good person - but he is also somtimes motivated by much more plausible feelings of rage and vengeance. The author makes the point many times that Imaro is a young man, and you actually get to see him grow and mature over the coures of his story - learn to control his temper, become more compassionate, etc. He's just great. And, I should also note, this book manages to introduce female characters in a way that seems both true to the story's cultural contexts, but without making you feel like you have to set your feminist lens aside to make i through the story. Two enthusiastic thumbs up. P.S. I listened to this on Audible, and I know that my enjoyment of the book was enhanced by the incredible narration skills of Mirron Willis. The book was free on Audible.