I have just seen the first review of Song of the Shiver Barrens. It is up on Specusphere, and you can read it here. Thank you, Satima! I think I will write a post some time on the point she made about using vocab from real cultures. She has a very valid point and I have been giving a lot of thought to addressing this issue more carefully in The Random Rain Quartet.

Mostly the review is balm to a writer’s soul…

In this, Glenda Larke’s seventh book, the author shows us yet again what a magnificent gift she has for world-building…..Larke has demonstrated in previous books that she not only has one of the best imaginations in the business but that she also has a strong social conscience and this is shown as clearly as ever in the latest opus.

And later the paragraph I like best:

This premise looks like the start of still another all-too-unsurprising coming-of-age novel, but Larke has given the situation such twists and turns that by the end of the book the trope is almost completely turned on its ear, and Song of the Shiver Barrens is a better book by far because of it. Like Arrant’s powers, it is completely unpredictable and readers can expect to be glued to their seats until the final page is turned.

🙂 I love surprising readers.