spoiler discussion of Outremer

I did eventually realise that my problem with writing an overview of the Outremer series was partly that I kept wanting to talk about stuff that was a big fat spoiler. So I'm going to make two posts -- this one as a placeholder so that I can stick spoiler discussion in a comment later, where it won't be seen by those who don't want to read spoilers, and a separate post with a summary review of the series.

Book Review: Chaz Brenchley -- Outremer series

I've been reviewing the individual books of the Outremer series as I finished each one, but the series could be considered as one long novel, and now I'd like to look at the series as a whole. A quick bit of background from when I asked Chaz about whether I should get the UK or US edition -- the series was originally conceived as a quadrology, but part way through the UK publisher asked for it to be done as a trilogy, which led to the final volume being paced a bit differently to the original intention. When Ace bought the US rights, they chose to split the original three books into two volumes each, and issue the series as six books. Chaz took the chance to tidy up the third book of the trilogy, so apart from the splitting into two, there's also a significant difference in the actual text. If you read the US edition, as I did, it's worth bearing in mind that each pair of volumes is really a single book, and paced as such.

( Chaz Brenchley -- The books of Outremer )

I thoroughly enjoyed this series. It's well constructed, with an interesting story and excellent world-building and characterisation. And the prose is superb, with some wonderful use of language. A particular note for romance fans -- while the series is primarily a fantasy, there are strong romance sub-plots, including polyamory and gay romances. It doesn't end with HEAs all round, but I would recommend this series to fans of non-traditional cross-genre romance.


( where to find it )