The Last Sun

The Last Sun (2018) K. D. Edwards (The Tarot Sequence)

Rune is the last member of his house, excluding his Companion, Brand, the man who has been his bodyguard and confidant and friend since he was a child. He is also a mercenary, using as much power and technology as they can afford, to do jobs for others in New Atlantis.

The best part of the story is the friendship between Rune and Brand.

“They’re screenshots of a GIS overlay,” he said.

“What’s GIS?” I said.

“Rune, when I plugged the memory card into my phone, it looked like your head was going to explode. I’m not fucking explaining what GIS is.”

There is a lot of snark, but there is also a lot of genuine affection and love that the two aren’t afraid of. And as much as Rune doesn’t want to, he not only takes in Matthias, he eventually develops a protective affection for him.

The world building here was good and sucked me in, the characters were fun and even more importantly, well done. There were stupid characters that actually seemed like actual stupid people (as opposed to either caricatures of stupid people or just ridiculous). And the plot just tore along, drawing me right in and not wanting to let go.

There are difficult parts to this story, however, and definite trigger warnings. Rune’s family was slaughtered and in that raid he was tortured, and at times Rune remembers what happened to him. But the book doesn’t dwell on it.

There are some things that aren’t particularly well-explained, and it’s not clear if this was oversight or if it’s something we’re supposed to learn later. We’ll see, because I am definitely reading the second book.

Publisher : Pyr
Rating: 8.5/10

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