It’s crazy to think that in five months the final book of the Greystone saga arrives. When I started planning the arc out back in 2016 this point seemed so far away, so out of reach.
I spent last week revisiting A Circle of Shadows and I have to say… I really enjoyed it.
I know what you’re thinking. Big deal, the writer likes his own book. Well, if you know me at all then you know I dislike pretty much everything I write. I can see the weakness, the flaw in it. The parts readers will jump on, harp on, and ridicule – though all exist for a specific story purpose. It isn’t a negative outlook, though it might appear that way – it is merely wanting to make the book as strong as possible.
With this book? Not so much on the negativity front.
That scares me. But it also excites me. There are so many pieces in A Circle of Shadows, so many touchstones to the series as a whole, that it seemed planned from the very start. (pssst, it wasn’t…)
Did I stick the landing?
That will be up to you. And yes, some will be greatly upset by the ending of this next novel. The stakes are higher but so are the final costs. No one feels each loss as much as I do, I promise you that. The world of Greystone, the city of Portents, is part of my daily life now and to not hear some of the voices from the past few years is sad, however, it opens the door to the adventures to come.
For my own impressions, I think A Circle of Shadows does an excellent job closing out the narrative started with Signs of Portents. The callbacks to every other Greystone novel are there. Character moments grew organically. Every single player gets their moment in the spotlight, all making their own choice and changing from the repercussions.
If you’ve followed the story so far I think you’ll dig where it ends. I have never been one to write on an epic scale. There have been little moments of it like the climax of Signs of Portents but never has the action been so prevalent as it is in this last chapter.
For now…
I keep saying it because there is more story to tell. In fact, reading through A Circle of Shadows last week brought to light a number of new areas to explore for the second half of the series.
Questions remain but as to what those entail you’ll have to read the novel when it arrives this September!
I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
