Honestly, if you’re not going into this book still a little stunned about what happened at the end of Tears of Liscor then you probably didn’t actually read it. It was a stunning finale, which also lead to the death of a lot of characters. As it was the culmination of so many long-standing plots it also shook up a lot of the rest of the cast, leaving everything very different from where it was at the start of the book.

Also Ryoka’s back! Which isn’t a spoiler, she turned up at the very end of the last book and this one is called The Wind Runner so obviously she’s back. But I just want to take a moment to appreciate just how long she was gone for. The last time we saw Ryoka was when she was running off into the sunset at the end of The Last Light. That was five books ago, half the series. For arguably the second main character to take that big a leave of absence takes guts on behalf of the writer.

That being said she’s not actually in this book that much, having just two chapters to her name. And in fact that’s kind of true for a lot of characters. From the last half of Blood of Liscor the narrative has been very focused on Liscor and what’s happening there. And now that that’s resolved the focus has expanded so we get to see what’s been going on in other places.

Which leaves us with quite an interesting book. For the first time in a while Erin is arguable not what the majority of the book is about. Not that she’s missing. Oh no, she’s here and that’s good because one of the main questions I had at the end of last book was ‘what will Erin do next?’ But we also head to Chandrar to see what Flos, the King of Destruction, is up to and to Baleros to check in on the newly formed United Nations company. And that’s aside from catching up with the other characters scattered around Liscor.

Which means that this book, with its wide variety of characters, might not end up being your favourite in the series. But I don’t think it’s meant to be. After the end of Tears I don’t think it could be anything except what it is. The life returning to the forest after the fire, the first signs of green amidst the ash. And it does that really really well.