Damien Kelly

The follow-up to Ordinary Monsters is no less bulky, but this is still a leaner animal, and all the more compelling for it.

This is an absolute Empire Strikes Back of a sequel!

By which I mean, the pacing is lively and perfectly balanced, the characters are deep in their personal darknesses, fighting for air and light, there’s a load of chewy father-figure drama that I could eat all day with a spoon and the whole book is chock full of answers and resolutions that pull you—eagerly—through its hefty page count. This is a sequel that definitely improves on its opener.

Everyone from the first book has hit the ground running at the start of this second one, and the many perspectives—often a bane to recent fantasy books—are extremely well-judged and integrated here. In addition, there are new characters, who are just phenomenal. Murderous Micah sears the page when he appears, but it is the bone witch Jeta who captures the imagination most. I loved the whole ensemble and the new dynamics were compelling throughout. Sensibly, Marlowe’s situation is held off for quite a while, but once we get inside the orsine, already armed with a wealth of new understanding, his story remains the heart of the whole trilogy. Villains become heroes, allegiances are sliding every which way, and everything is visceral and immediate.

And yes, the book is full of answers; indeed the plot is propelled by constantly unravelling the mysteries rather than piling more on, as was the case in book 1. Miro judges every revelation here perfectly; about the drughr, the orsines, the long history of talentkind, and the parts in that history that belong to Berghast, Charlie and Marlowe. You never feel deceived in this part of the story, you always think you’re on solid ground and that you’re getting the truest sense of the wider world. And that’s when the twists come in, and the payoffs are so good! Miro knows this is the middle section, and has loads of road left to play with in his Talents Trilogy, but this is as assured and well-crafted a follow-up as I have ever read.

Loved it. Would recommend to anyone.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for offering me the chance to read this in advance.

Bringer of Dust is out in the UK and Ireland on September 17th.