Lynn Flewelling: Nightrunner Series

[varjohaltia]

I've been working my way through Lynn Flewelling's Nigthrunner series, so far:

1. Luck in the Shadows
   
2. Stalking Darkness
   
3. Traitor's Moon
   
4. Glimpses
   
5. Shadows Return
   
6. The White Road
   
7. Casket of Souls
   
8. Shards Of Time (Reading)
   

I didn't see Glimpses listed in the Amazon list of books (and I'm again completely baffled as to why the publisher, author or Amazon won't clearly mark the order of books in a series), and I skipped Shadows Return based on reviews which suggested it was just too heavy on misery and torture for my tastes.

Warning, mild spoilers ahead.

The series is your typically tropy high fantasy setting; there's a good kingdom with good rulers, and noble wizards, and magic, and brave warriors and all the other goodies. What was mentioned from the outset in the series was that the two romantically involved main characters are both male, but I'd say the whole romance and relationship aspect is done so well that it really doesn't matter. They deal with it for the first couple of books, then decide they're OK and have a perfectly fine and healthy relationship past that, which to me is wonderful.

At one point in one of the first books, though, there's a brief sexual encounter which, at least to modern sensibilities, crosses over to the Bill Cosby side of the fence, but that is never really explored, and left me bothered a bit.

The protagonists are on the scouting / thieving side of things, which I tend to like. Overall, the cast of characters is interesting, and while there is no amazing depth to any of them, they're serviceable. There's also a slightly longer than usual timescale, and over the seven books the series follows, for example, some children growing up and establishing themselves.

The writing's a bit uneven within and between the books. At times it seems like the author couldn't quite figure out what she wanted to do, and never really went back and cleaned up the style of narrative she had produced. The vocabulary has a lot of gems when referring to specific items and things, but is otherwise pretty decent. Overall a pleasant read, though it can get a bit dark at times.

The books stand on their own plot-wise within a larger story arc, although you really do want to read the series in order, as picking up a later book would leave out a lot of backstory and character development.

In summary, a nice entertainment fantasy series to be enjoyed with a bowl of popcorn. Three out of five.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I'm a couple of books behind on these (I think The White road was the last one I read), but mostly agree (and Shadows Return is pretty heavy on misery, though I didn't find it unbearable). The unevenness of the writing bothered me more than anything, I think, as well as the largely black-and-white morality (especially in the early books), which gave these a feel of books written a good decade earlier than they really were -- I enjoyed them, but didn't love them.

It's been a while since I've read them, but I do remember really liking the first two books of the Tamir Trilogy (starting with Bone Doll's Twin) which is set in the same world but a lot earlier -- the third one is waiting in my to-read pile; I've heard it's not as good, so I haven't been in much hurry.