The other highlight here are the characters themselves (just as it should be). And with Broken Banners, this is front and center, as they add new nuances to this amazing place. The fact the authors are able to accomplish so much world building in such concise novellas is a true testament to their storytelling skill. Whenever I sample another Echo of the Ascended story, what always amazes me is how well-developed and distinctively real the world feels. At its heart, though, Broken Banners is really a tale about friendship, redemption, and becoming the person you could have been. The story which spirals out from this beginning is filled with classic Gelineau and King tension, mystery, daring do, and subtle world building. The fact that Aldis and over half his company are not accounted for among the bodies demanding that Elinor look for survivors, braving an unknown danger which she and her company are not prepared for! All signs pointing to someone or something riding them down as they were attempting to flee. Dozens of men and women of the Ninety-Fifth cut down and left to rot in the forests just beyond Height’s Ward Keep. Little do they know they are both correct.Īlmost immediately, Elinor and Con ride into a scene of horror. And while she attempts to put an optimistic spin on their circumstances, Con will have none of it, seeing an ever worsening of their fortunes. Elinor’s idealistic and righteous actions leading to more bad blood between her and the royals who rule the kingdom.
Probably due to the events which transpired at Timberline. The friends realize what this means: they are out of favor. Their current mission sending them to Heights Ward Keep, not to reap the magical edifice but to transfer all their engineers to the Aldis’ Ninety-Fifth Pioneers. Then a new lease on life is extended to him - if he is willing to trade what little honor he has left to obtain it.įlash forward in time. The mysterious circumstances of the death leading to Aldis winding up before a Warden, where he expects jail time and the lose of all he was worked, schemed, and cajoled for. Aldis finding himself in a very precarious situation his plan of drugging a rival reaper and then besting him in a duel to obtain a lucrative “reaping” contract going awry, as his competition lies dead at his feet. But before they make their appearance, a new character (but an old friend of theirs) makes a rather dramatic introduction. Broken Banners continues the story of Elinor, King’s Reaper, and her loyal friend and royal engineer Conbert which began in A Reaper of Stone.
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