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Click here if you want to see the list of all the books I’ve read this year: Petrik’s Year in Books (2020) …
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ARC provided by the publisher—Tor Books—in exchange for an honest review.
Cover illustration by: Greg Ruth
Hollow Empire by Sam Hawke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: The Poison Wars (Book #2)
Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Mystery
Pages: 560 pages (US Hardcover)
Published: 26th November 2020 by Bantam Press (UK) & 1st December 2020 by Tor Books (US)
An incredibly well-polished and absorbing sequel; out of all the books and series I’ve read this year, Hollow Empire is quite likely THE sequel that has the most significant improvement in overall quality over its predecessor. …
City of Lies by Sam Hawke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
ARC provided by the publisher—Tor—in exchange for an honest review.
An alluring debut imbued with a perpetual threat of lies and treachery.
City of Lies is Sam Hawke’s debut novel and the first book in the Poison Wars series. For the same reason as one of my most anticipated debuts of the year—The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang—I was intrigued by this one because of the amazing cover. Yes, I’m a sucker for a book with great cover art and I’m not ashamed of it. The main difference though is that I’ve waited for this one for so much longer than The Poppy War; since last September to be exact, when the cover was first revealed. Other than that, I seriously knew nothing about the book except the fact that two of my favorite authors of all time—John Gwynne & Robin Hobb—have already praised this debut. Now that I’ve read it, I have to agree with them that this is a great debut, but at the same time, it’s certainly different from my usual fantasy read. …