Title: The Tomb of the Corpse King and Other Stories
Author: Anthony Ryan
Series: Seven Swords #7.5
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4/5 stars
The Overview: None listed yet on Goodreads, but this contains a few prequel and aftermath stories for the Seven Swords series. I’ll provide a link in case one gets generate in the future: Goodreads
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Niki’s Review:
What a fantastic way to round-out a series!
I will admit I went into this collection hoping he’d chosen to write a certain story (I wanted a series aftermath tale following a specific character). Unfortunately my hopes were dashed. But in it’s place I found a few other stories that actually enhanced my overall experience with the series.
But the start was rough. Halfway into the first story I was wondering what I’d gotten myself into. I was confused about timeline through the entire thing, as it read like a prequel, but it kept referring to a place we’d visited within the main series and I thought the main character was someone we’d met. After I finished it, I picked up Blackfyre Keep to flip through to see if I could figure out where this story lined up, only to discover that the main character I’d thought we were following was an entirely different person, also with an “L” name that was within a few letters of being identical. I’m willing to take accountability on being dense in this case and losing some enjoyment because of that, but Ryan’s insistence on using “L” names throughout the entire series has been a constant source of annoyance and I don’t feel like it helped at all with clarity or character distinction. At one point I had to make myself a character chart to keep them all straight. That said, even if I’d been clear that this was a new character, I don’t think the story was overall particularly compelling, nor did it add much to my experience with the series as a whole.
… but the other three stories are a different, uh, story.
The two back stories added a ton of context to the series to the point where I’d recommend reading them before beginning the series if you plan to eventually consume the whole thing. Especially the Scarlet Ziggurat, which did a much better job acclimating the reader to the main character than the first book (which kind of throws you right into the fire). And the Seeker prequel was just a cool tale from start to finish and I think I’d have appreciated it even as a stand-alone.
Okay, let’s talk about the title aftermath story. Even though it didn’t cover the character I was hoping it would, it still provided just as much of an impact as any of the books from the main series. It’s crazy to me how he can pack so much into such a small word count. I could tell early on that the author had a sort of darling of his series – a character that got featured and highlighted more than the others. So having my capstone experience with the series riding with that character seems very fitting. And I think it gave a broad sense of world resolution that the main series-ender lacked a bit. There were so many cool world-building things here, and really my overall takeaway from Seven Swords is that I wish we’d get more because it’s such a creative project with seemingly endless possibilities.
Overall, even though the collection starts slow, it’s quickly amps up into one of the most value-adding extras I’ve ever read for a series. I’m hoping it’s not the last we’ll see from this world, but if it as, at least it went out with a bang!
I’d like to thank Subterranean Press, Anthony Ryan, and Netgalley for the chance to read and review an early copy of this short story collection!
Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Frank, Jen, Karen, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Elizabeth, Bee, Poochtee, Kinsey, Alysa, Derek, Kelly, Grace, Carmen, Leah, and Laura! <3
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