The Modern World

To push back against the invading Insects, the Immortals of the Circle build a dam and form a lake, and it finally looks as if some progress will be made in the endless war. Comet Jant, who is the Messenger, who can fly, is distracted at the last minute when he heads off to the city of his miss-spent youth in search of the daughter of Lightning, a fellow Immortal who has been a mentor and father-figure to him. The search rather unexpectedly takes him to the world of the Shift, but more unexpectedly when he gets back catastrophe has struck, potentially world-ending and it's all hands on deck to fight back against a horrifying new threat.

A climactic-feeling third volume with an epic sweep and unexpected ending that leaves the Fourlands show more and the Circle shaking and changed. show less

A worthy third entry in the series, and an improvement on the slight misstep that was the second book. This is heady stuff, fantasy with real verve and creativity. Swainston also leaves things open-ended with the possibility of more books to come. I for one, can't wait to see where she goes with it all.

The Modern World (aka Dangerous Offspring in the US version) is the third novel of the Fourlands Series by Steph Swainston.

Plot:
The circle’s architect Frost has a plan to get quite a bit of land back from the insects. So the Fourlands are at work building a huge dam, to then flush out the insects. The people not occupied with that are busy fighting the insects in combat, led by quite a few of the circle’s immortals. Among them is Lightning, the archer, but Lightning is otherwise occupied: his daughter Cyan is missing. What he considered simple teenage rebellion so far has him more concerned. So he asks the circle’s messenger Jant to find her and bring her back to him. But Jant’s search brings him right back to his own past.

The show more Modern World is an exciting continuation of the Fourlands series and simply a great book in its own right. Again I can only say that I loved it.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2016/09/18/the-modern-world-steph-swainston/ show less

Still sparky and well written and up until the last third well plotted, this book dissappointed me enormously by somehow failing to deliver in that last section. I don't know exactly what was wrong but something was! Except for that I enjoyed it.

To say that this is a surprising, excellent book that plays with expectations and tropes is an understatement! This is easily one of the best new (well, new in my case) fantasy books I’ve read in a while and I’ll definitely be catching up on Steph Swainston’s work! Read the rest of my review here: http://davebrendon.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/review-the-modern-world-steph-swains...