The Last Sun

This was so much fun.

I honestly picked it up on sale quite a bit ago and it's been sitting on my Kindle for ages waiting for me to listen to it. I downloaded it, which tells me that after buying it I was excited, but I'm easily distracted and I read almost everything and I just forgot to start it.

That was such a dumb choice.

Rune, our main character, was sassy and slightly damaged and just trying to live in this strange world of tarot houses and New Atlantis and magic and prophecies and somehow modernity.

That last one I did not expect. When the story started and it felt really modern, I was confused. The action kicked in too quickly for me to feel confused long, admittedly (or at least not confused about that, and honestly I can't imagine it set in any other time or place. I loved the hinted-at ancient history and I'd love to see that explored. I want to know more about Atlantis, more about the Tarots, more about everything.

I also really want to see more of Rune. His relationship with Brand is definitely friendship goals: you can tell they would die for each other but at the same time they never quite let off teasing each other. It's fun to read and feels real. The romance grew on me very hard and by the end I was completely sold. I wasn't sure when our romantic interest was introduced (I liked him but I wasn't sure I liked him as the romantic interest), and it manages to feel real and remarkably healthy for a book romance while never taking over the book. It just adds to and explores the characters and makes you feel for them that much more. His mentor and unexpected-mentee are both interesting and I'm excited to see where that goes.

The ending provides some closure on a few things and a large chunk of open and interesting things to come. This story is done, but Rune's story is definitely not, and I can't wait to see where it goes.

I'll be picking up the next one (also there seems to be a free novella?) shortly, I think (or as shortly as I can manage given the fact that I'm easily distracted), because I want to spend more time with my newest book friends.

I found this very readable, and I have some questions:

1. Atlantis has been relocated to shore of New England. How does this work politically? Unclear. We never see any interactions between citizens of Atlantis and America. For the purposes of this book, Atlantis could have been under water, except they have cell phones.
2. The Atlanteans (who I don't think actually have any kind of under-water backstory?) could just as easily be fairies. Their ruling families are the named for the Major Aracana? (I am basically only just aware that tarot is a thing, so take my explanation with a lot of salt) and the head of the House is named The Tower or The Sun or whatever and has a lot of power associated with that aspect.
2 a) uh cool so how did this separate society (I guess?) end up naming themselves after a medieval card game?
2 b) added to which a bunch of them have patronymics like "Saint John" which is also a historically contingent set of references? A bunch of them are named for different Saints? Why????

Okay, so lets assume you are a person who can let all that go. What you want to know is: do you want to read this book?

Rune Saint John, the last scion of the house of Sun (see, that there should give you some idea what sort of book this is) is making ends meet by taking small jobs with the help of his bodyguard/mystically bond companion, Brand. All of his family was hunted down by persons unknown when he was a teenager, and he alone survived, after a night of torture/sexual assault. Now one of the odd jobs he's taking seems to be getting bigger than he'd like, and also more political.

I found this compulsively readable, but I was not really comfortable with the sexual assault backstory? Like, probably if I'd read this last year I wouldn't have been upset by it, and this was just a bad time. Warning, a villain specifically uses his trauma to trigger him at one point.

This book is mostly interested in close relationships between men. Rune has a father figure, a brother-like relationship with Brand, with just a soupcon of repressed sexuality, a paternal relationship with a younger adolescent (with just a soupcon of repressed sexuality), an ex boyfriend who is very annoying (the sexual tension has died there, tbh), and a guy who would very much like to audition for current boyfriend (sexuality, etc.) Also some women appear and maybe say some stuff?

But in all honesty I look forward to the sequel even though the boyfriend seems not interesting to me, I like everyone else.