The 400 Project

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

Morning Star is the third and final book of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series, which I’ve been recommending to everyone I know since I read the first book in 2014. I won’t go into too much detail for people who haven’t read it yet (cough, Bryan, cough) but wow – the trilogy is concluded in the most entertaining and satisfying way possible. This trilogy will go down as one of my favourites and I can’t wait for the first part in the sequel trilogy, Iron Gold.

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Nuevel

I actually first heard about this book in a tweet by Pierce Brown (both books are published by Del Rey). He has a blurb on the back of the book describing Sleeping Giants as being reminiscent of The Martian and World War Z and that describes it better than I could. Told mainly in snippets of interviews, this book tells the story of a young girl who stumbles upon a gigantic alien mechanical hand – and then grows up to research the ancient artifact and search for more around the world. It’s a gripping, ambitious, and wildly entertaining novel.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

This book technically came out last year, but I only started hearing about it this year – and it took me a long time to find a copy outside of Amazon. Baru Cormorant’s home is taken over by the Empire of Masks and aspects of her people’s culture is criminalized. But instead of fighting a tyrannical empire through violence, she works her way into its ranks as an accountant to slowly destroy it from within. What follows is a brutal and heartbreaking tale about how far someone will go – and how much of themselves they’re willing to lose – to save their home. It’s really refreshing reading a fantasy novel focused on economics and financing while still keeping plenty of intrigue and action.

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab

This is the second novel in V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy, preceded by A Darker Shade of Magic released last year. I really enjoyed the first novel in the series and A Gathering Shadows continues with the likeable characters and world established in the first, with an intriguingly expanding world and story. This is one fantasy novel that really feels fantastic – a world of parallel worlds based on colour, an inventive magic system and beautiful prose. I’m looking forward to the final novel in the series, A Conjuring of Light, which comes out next year.