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  And here is my late Book Club  Baby picture. This is the only one I got of him holding the book. The second I snapped it, he threw it down and went after my phone. :p


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Dado, I'm suddenly not sure if I told you congratulations.  So congratulations! Time to start working on names.

My babies are 16 and 12 so they stopped being cute a long time ago. 

The beginning of Lesser Evils reminds me a lot of the beginning of Brimstone Angels in the fact that I thought it was very engaging and pulled me right in. I think it has been about 7 months since we read Brimstone Angels together and I was a little worried that I would need the first three or four chapters to remember some of the characters from the first book. Rohini is a good example of this, as it did take me a minute to remember her role in Brimstone Angels. Ultimately, this ended up not being the case though, as I felt like I was fully caught up again early in Chapter 2. 

Poor Lorcan. I really don't envy his situation at all. Erin does a nice job of providing a sense of just how dreadful the Sixth Layer of Hell is, and just how intimidating Lorcan's sisters can be. I really thought these parts were well written as I found myself groaning whenever it seemed anything was going from bad to worse. It also gives you the feeling that he will have no choice but to break eventually and give up either Farideh or Havilar. 

Now for my favorite part of this first section....the introduction of The Fisher. I really got into the mystery of this character. Tam seems to view him as a bureaucrat with no real sense of what is out there. The mysterious lady, that I believe was called Mira, seems to view him as lazy and/or inept. However, when I got to this passage...

    "Her true identity hadn't been difficult to puzzle out- even if she hadn't told him her name, with those dark eyes he would have suspected. Twenty five years in the field, missing such a detail would have him reaching for the hemlock.
     No place in the world for spied who've slipped"

 ...I really felt like I had completely misjudged his character. I expected the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up when I realized how dangerous he could truly be and this whole time I thought he was a fat toad. I am very excited to see how his character ends up developing as I think he may make for a really good villain. 

Finally, I like the dream sequences with Farideh. I can't really tell if they will end up being a foreshadowing, or if they are just a clever red herring, but I think Erin handles these well. There is enough to make you start guessing at the things to come but not enough to make you think you have things figured out by Chapter 3. 

I am going to be in Iceland for the next 4 days so I will post as many comments as I can before I go!


I did like the beginning of Lesser Evils. In a departure from form, this sequel does not feel the need to treat us like children with no memory of what came before and dump the whole plot of the first book on us in the first few pages. Aspects of Angels are brought in as the narrative requires, though I would expect the narrative was constructed to make those details available to us again.


I like this, more integrated, approach.


The interplay in cutting scenes between the disturbing images in Malbolge, Farideh's dreams and the comparatively more normal events in Waterdeep keeps us on our toes with a sense of peril that I think may have faded if we got the Prologue on its own, followed by the Waterdeep scenes. It is a little close to the bone for me sometimes, but generally I enjoyed the way the plot has played out in these early chapters a great deal.


Tam, the Harpers, the Fisher and Mira were all handled with an appropriate level of mystery. The current state of the Harpers is made painfully clear, compared to their mightier days. The reference to Danilo was a nice addition too.


All in all, a solid start. Not entirely enjoyable in places (who really enjoys scenes of torture and brutality?)  but all the more compelling for that.

There is probably more, but I should be getting back to work now.     
  

Really nice comeback for the Harpers, showing how they have all these troubles of an organization trying to regain it's former glory. I already feared the Harpers would introduced back into the realms and continue like nothing ever happened. Nice to see how the last few decades had their price.