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2.5 Not a bad read as such, but the first part is meanderingly uninteresting and even the big expedition (what a spoiler!) is less interesting than all the limited forays in the books before. The last fifth or so (if you're generous) picks up somewhat and has one really interesting revelation, albeit one that is quickly resolved to cap off the trilogy.

While the different cultures' magic systems come across as believable and actually different, I feel somewhat uneasy about this whole painting with broad strokes. Maybe I am wrong and the author consulted some people knowledgeable in these matters, but splitting any cultural thing as broad as European, African and Asian leaves a bit of a bad taste. Taken together with completely eliminating Native Americans and not even mentioning the fact that there could have been people (what-if-ing being a large part of alternate history) sort of make me regret reading the series - or at least shelling out that much money for physical copies.

On the plus side, the extremely predictable romance is very toned down, there are some more cool female characters (though they tend to marry) and some of the magic is quite original. Unfortunately, LGBT stuff is there only in the most deniable way and handicapped people don't really seem to exist. The book is very good on women's issues and generally paints a realistic, but thanks to magic and frontier life somewhat improved picture as opposed to our timeline.

All in all this is a book that you can read, but don't have to. Not really comparable to the first volume.

3.5 Last, but not least book of the year it seems and it's a complicated review. It's not a bad book as such and quite an enjoyable read. The story doesn't take any of the easy shortcuts that I've come to dread from this author and there are for once no marriage bells for the protagonist - though many things are left dangling (unsurprising in a trilogy). But there are quite a few unsatisfying and downright annoying things too.

The worldbuilding as such is very sketchy still and the 'funny' ethnic names for the European, African and Asian magic seem really random. It does lend itself to frontier adventure stories without any qualms on the part of the protagonists, but that is all and in itself it is a problem too. When I bought these books I didn't know that this was an alternate history without any native Americans and except for the mysterious far frontier I can't really see any reason for their omission. The fact that a big part of humanity is erased for what seems like storytelling convenience kept nagging at me after the first third of the book. Not that erasing everything nation west of the Mississippi would have been great, but it would have been a lot better still. The whole thing really took a way a lot of the good things about the worldbuilding like the different styles of magic that do bring in other perspectives and a focus on people of colour.

If you're reading it for the story and the characters and not for the world the book is probably one of the most solid of Patrica C. Wrede's work I have read - only Dealing with Dragons and the Sorcery and Cecilia series are about on the same level and the story twists here are are arguably better and less predictable, though I think one or two of the hinted things will probably still come to pass in later volumes.

3.25 It was probably a mistake to read a forty-year old progressvive fantasy novel right after a current-day one that blew my mind away. This is not a bad book by any reckoning, but feels dated. There is a female protagonist and she's the only character who comes slightly alive during the reading, the others feel mostly empty apart from two or three (or in some cases one) traits. The worldbuilding is a bit more interesting than usual for its day and age with the non-humans diverging from the standard setup, but the novel breaks down when it comes to the same-old ancient evil versus chosen one plot.

All in all still impressive for a first novel, but I kind of regret having sought out the somewhat hard to get later volumes in the series after reading the first Enchanted Forest novel. If you want to try Patricia C. Wrede's bools I suggest either Dealing with Dragons (middle-school fantasy) or Sorcery and Cecilia (Regency Fantasy). This is not a good starting point.

Bonus points for female agency and interesting non-humans, penalty for the obsession of ending each book with a marriage, though at least the romance takes third rank this time.

5.0 War mir vor dem Kauf nicht ganz sicher, aber das Autorenduo J. C. Vogt hatte mich noch nicht enttäuscht. Da könnte man ja auch mal zu was Nordischem greifen und versuchen andere nerdig-nordische Versuche wie die Phileasson-Saga (Buchreihe) zu verdrängen. Meine Zögerlichkeit wich schnell heller Begeisterung. Das war kein dröger Fantasystoff mit nordischem Anstrich. Das war eine spannende, mythenatmende Erzählung, die fesselt. Hier stimmt einfach alles: die echt wirkende Alltagsgeschichte, das Pacing, die Charaktere, die Vielschichtigkeit und Doppeldeutigkeit der mythischen Elemente, die Intersektionalität und Vielfalt der weiblichen Erfahrungen, die Wendungen und Überraschungen, der Spannungsbogen, die Motive, die Emotion und die Queerness (das Buch ist was für alle, die Anarchie Deco gedacht haben "könnte noch queerer sein").

Kurz: Das ist definitiv das beste Buch, das ich dieses Jahr gelesen habe, und auch in den letzten Jahren kommt nur Martha Wells' Murderbot Tetralogie an dieses Buch ran - sowohl in Sachen literarische Qualität als auch Enjoyment-Faktor. Im Gegensatz zu Murderbot gibt's die Papierversion hier aber schon für ein Viertel der 80 €, die man dafür hinlegen muss.

Ein Hinweis für Leser, die am Anfang etwas Probleme mit den vielen Charakteren haben (erinnert ein wenig an meine Phileasson-Rollenspielerfahrung): es wird nach dem ersten Viertel sehr viel besser. Nicht jede hat eine große tragende Rolle und der Fokus liegt klar auf vier Personen, aber es kommt auch nicht das Gefühl auf, dass einige nur Token-Charaktere sind. Und noch ein Hinweis: Die Triggerwarnung findet sich am Ende des Buches und ist nicht sehr spoilerig. Die Tags sind auch dort und nur minimal spoileriger - eine sehr schöne Lösung.