It was about a year and a half ago when I read Carrie Vaughn's <em>Bannerless</em> and was really taken by surprise in a good way. I knew nothing about the book and was only familiar with Vaughn's name as someone I hadn't yet read. This time I went in to the book with some idea of what I would find, and I had high expectations.

A big part of my enjoyment here is the world Vaughn has created. It is, in some ways, a dystopian world. A post-holocaust ... no, a post-<em>collapse</em> world. There are hints of the technology that we are currently familiar with, but I don't sense the devastation that would come with a world war. And unlike so many of the dystopian-set books I've read, this world is almost peaceful, serene.

But even in a peaceful world with human inhabitants, the worst of human attributes will come out, and so the civilization we see here have form of police investigators. Enid and her new partner Teeg are these new investigators.

Enid and Teeg are called to mediate a dispute in a remote region along the Coast Road. A body of a young woman is discovered in a swamp nearby. The woman is not from the Coast Road but from one of the nomadic tribes inhabiting the woods. This makes her death quite a mystery and yet no one seems to care in the slightest. Except Enid.

Teeg argues that this isn't their problem since it isn't part of the Coast Road but Enid's sense of morality and determination to to bring a sense of closure has her going into the wild alone. This brings about no small amount of danger for Enid.

I really enjoy this series, based on these first two books. Combining a mystery with dystopian sci-fi is great. And that this dystopian world isn't the doom-and-gloom the way most dystopian worlds appear to be, is really wonderful.

I don't get a lot of intensity or drama in this. It's not a page-turner. But I like it. This is a great beach read or a sitting-by-the-fire-in-winter read.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Wild Dead</em> by Carrie Vaughn is a wonderful mystery set in an American future after an economic and social order collapse.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

II just finished the first two books of **The Bannerless Saga** series by Carrie Vaughn and loved them. They fall into the Venn diagram sweet spot of all of my favorite reads: fantasy, post-apocalyptic, mystery, police procedural, California/West Coast communities.

The series is set after “The Fall” when most people have died & our physical infrastructure of buildings, roads, etc has been nearly swallowed up by nature. Some communities in future California (and presumably all other parts of the world) have banned together along common Roads to help ensure everyone’s survival. Some individuals, though, subsist in smaller loose-knit groups by scavenging old world goods and remaking or reusing them; these people are living in the Wild and are greatly mistrusted by the Coast Road community members.

Enter the inevitable human characteristic of greed and chaos ensues. Therefore, the Coast Road communities have chosen to codify their histories of interpersonal trouble and any flaunting of community rules so that a small group of Investigators can use them to mediate disputes and pass appropriate judgement on those acting against the will of people.

I first read about this world that Vaughn created in her short story *Amaryllis* that was first published in the original issue of Lightspeed back in 2010. I recall reading it for one of the first Book Bingos as it was offered free for online reading. Later, she wrote the short story *Bannerless* for the anthology “The End Has Come” and this story is where we first meet Enid as an Investigator in Vaughn’s world.

“Earning a banner” is how a household can increase their size via pregnancy & childbirth. It is earned by proving to an outside committee that the household is stable and meeting its economic quotas for the region. Essentially, no one is supposed to be having babies willy-nilly because they take resources and resources are in short supply. To do so is to put the whole community at risk and therefore it is socially unacceptable. This remains a key feature of the Coast Road communities in her new series.

Enid of Haven is re-introduced in book 1 of Vaughn’s series, **Bannerless**. She is the series protagonist who serves as one of these Investigators and must use her wits and tenacity and the lessons learned from a mentor to police & judge the Coast Road communities well. Each book covers a different case and different community setting.

I should add that **Bannerless**(Book 1) is the winner of the 2017 Philip K. Dick Award. **The Wild Dead** (Book 2) was released in 2018.

I’ve always enjoyed Vaughn’s writing—all the way back to her Kitty paranormal series which begins with Kitty and the Midnight Hour. This series includes some of the first audio books I ever listened to and that I checked out from my library’s then-tiny downloadable audio collection. Her writing is clear, concise, and without flowery prose. I also find that her characters are complex and interesting with dialogue that feels natural.

Using the typical Goodreads metric, both books have earned 4 of 5 stars from me. If you like episodic stories, lighter police procedurals, mystery investigations, rural village life, and/or survival stories set after the Apocalypse, I think Carrie Vaughn’s new series will suit your fancy.

If you don't know the Bannerless universe with it's short stories and first book about Enid, you'd think that the title leaves the impression of a zombie novel, but it's not, not really.

There's no shambling dead aiming to eat flesh or brains to be found here, but the dead do eat at Enid's memory, her former partner Tomas, Olive's baby that didn't make it and all the hopes and fears Enid has for the about to be born baby she walks away from at her household Serenity to meditate what will happen to another old house, a ruin full of memories for the people that live between sea shore, swamp and forest of Estuary.

It's not really a surprise to read of a dead girl on the shore, mysteriously "wild" to the Coast Road, yet her story is one Enid is determined to unravel from Estuary, despite her newly trained partner Teeg's stubborn reluctance to seek the truth of what happened to her, to a girl named Ella.

I like that Tomas used to call the brown clad truth seeking investigators of Coast Road being about "kindness" for the Greek goddesses of vengeance and justice were called Eumenides, the kindly ones, or the Erinyes.

Enid may not want to be known for solving murders, but she is quite good at it, but even as Ella's murder is solved, life proves it will find a way to go on, birth and death, either by accident or choice.

The Wild Dead is the second book in the Bannerless series. As with the first book we have a murder mystery interwoven with peaks into this dystopian society. It’s not necessary to read the first book as the murder mystery stands on its own. I recommend reading book one as it will enrich your understanding of this world and also understand Enid’s back story.
Once again Enid of Haven is our investigator/law enforcer. She’s accompanied by a new recruit, Teeg, to a small settlement at the fringes of the cost road. She is to look into a property dispute and stumbles across a body of a young woman who no one seems to know. As with book one, Enid’s insightful questions & basic understanding of human nature will solve this mystery.
What set this murder mystery apart from others of its kind is Enid. She is intelligent and strong. Not just mentally but also an emotional maturity that shines through. Carrie Vaughn preforms a great balancing act. We care about Enid in her personal & work life, interested in this society she lives in & are kept intrigued by the mystery.
Carrie Vaughn again gives us another character we will root for, another mystery we enjoy solving along with Enid & a world that’s interesting as it is complex. Thanks Net galley for this Five Star read.

The book is part of a series following a society where good households earn banners. The banners are permission to have babies. The events of this story are related to the right of have a baby even though the story might not seem that way in the beginning. Humans have already destroyed the world and the Bannerless society seems to have concocted a solution. Nor everyone agrees with them however.

This is a follow up to Bannerless, one of my favorite books last year. Again, a very sharp and well written look at an attempt to rebuild civilization slowly after our current society collapses. A more focused look on one small town distant from the center of the rebuilding and the hard choices that must be made inside and outside of this new society. Vaughn's characters are well written and she makes you care about these people, even when they are not completely sympathetic. Highly recommended.

I read Bannerless last year and was surprised in a good way at Ms. Vaughns departure from her other series. In the dystopian world of The Wild Dead (Bannerless book 2) the story line is very similar to the first book in that Enid is tasked with investigating a murder but it more intricately examines the many aspects of societal and governmental controls. Without offering any spoilers, this story illustrates the problems associated with excessive government control including control of reproductive rights. In many instances that control is good for society and child bearing is only offered to households that can prove that they can be productive and sustainable within their living units. Surplus goods are not allowed and they must live on the barter system. If you don't live within these confines you are not allowed to trade at the sanctioned markets or live in the approved villages. These households are not thriving but for the most part, they seem to get by harmoniously. When people are living away from these approved villages, they are considered wild and savagelike. Enid is investigating the murder of a "wild" girl and during her investigation, contrary to popular belief, discovers that these wild societies can survive without government controls and although the people live quite primitively they are living a civil existance. This tale shows that the governments choices are not always for the best and is a cautionary tale about giving up rights to the government.
Thanks to NetGalley, the quthor and the publisher for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Post-apocalyptic society is slowly recovering, though with far less resources. As far-flung communities live hard-scrabbled lives by scavenging and living off the land, law and order is imposed by travelling investigators. Enid is one such investigator, paired with a newbie and on a straightforward assignment that should have her returning home for the birth of a longed-for baby. And then, just as they are in the process of wrapping up the issue that brought them to Estuary, a dead body is found, washed up on the mud flats…

The world is beautifully depicted through Enid’s first person viewpoint. I felt the humidity, the reek of the mud and got to know the shocked, cagey characters living there. They were already wary of investigators due to a twenty-year-old scandal involving one of the women cutting out her birth control implant – a major infraction in a society where resources are so very scarce and birth rates are rigidly controlled to ensure no one starves. Even after all this time, Neeve is still ostracised by her neighbours and banished to Far House, where she lives with others who don’t really fit in. So no one is freely talking the investigators and Enid is left with a sense that there is something else going on…

This is a cracking whodunit. Enid is a sympathetic, capable protagonist with years of experience behind her and yet yearning to return home in time to be there at the birth of the baby – a baby that her efforts have helped to bring into being by earning the banner that allows her family to reproduce. She is further hampered by her raw new partner, who pounces on a pet theory and won’t let it go. The tension rises, along with the stakes, as Enid is determined to discover who the unknown young woman is and why she has been murdered. I picked this one up and couldn’t put it down until I reached the end. Though I had guessed part of the puzzle, I was still shocked to discover the perpetrator. Highly recommended for fans of science fiction murder mysteries.
10/10

<a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2018/07/17/the-wild-dead-by-carrie-vaughn/" target="_blank">This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart</a>

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Carrie Vaughn has created such a distinct and different world in the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/208110-bannerless-saga" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em><strong>Coast Road series.</strong></em></a> (or is it the Bannerless Saga series now?) The setting is a post-apocalyptic world where the main character, Enid, is an investigator. This is the primary form of law enforcement which works in teams on everything from minor disputes about resources to murders.

I love the depth of the world-building and diverse, well-defined characters.  The author has done a stellar job with these aspects. Because Enid travels to where the cases are, there are new landscapes and many new characters in each book.  We actually get very little overall about her home and her own household.  I'm a little sad about that but we also get new and interesting things with each story.

Enid is quite capable and calm in the face of many troubles which seem insurmountable.  She has a new investigator to mentor in <strong>The Wild Dead</strong>, Teeg.   I wanted to punch him. Often. Enid did her best to teach him and work with him. She was also compassionate about the people involved with various crimes, empathetic with their perspectives, even when she had to enforce rules they didn't like. Enid is so solid and likable, a better person than most people.

I can't wait for more cases and hopefully a bit more about Enid's life outside of the cases. She thinks of her house and its people often but it would be great to get a chapter or few pages before or after the case with more interaction and dialogue between her and her family.  It's not necessary, of course, but I'd like to learn even more about Enid.

I adored "Bannerless" when it came out last July so when this popped up I quickly requested an ARC to read and review. "The Wild Dead" is the second in the exciting Bannerless series, I am not surprised that "Bannerless" won the Philip K. Dick award and predict good things for this sequel. I would say that in order to get the best out of this book you really need to have read the series opener. That way you are privy to the characters development and background which always helps in increasing your enjoyment of a story. That said, I do think that this would work as a standalone too.

"The Wild Dead" is well-crafted and plotted to perfection with a pace to it that propels you through to the end in record time. I found this super-difficult to put down as I wanted to know what the conclusion would be. I enjoyed catching up with Enid when she's called to what appears to be a simple property dispute but turns into a murder investigation as the body of a young woman is found. Teeg, Enid's partner, wants to leave well alone but Enid feels she has a duty to investigate and to get to the bottom of the matter. They soon realise that the body belongs to a woman who to them is an outsider and does not belong to their community. Enid is a tenacious and brave main character that I hope to see more of in the next book.

Vaughn's post-apocalyptic/dystopian world is unlike anything i've read before from the science fiction genre. This is such a unique tale - a murder mystery that takes place in a dystopian world where there are no real rules making it a challenging environment in which to live. The most important thing is that it actually works and Vaughn pulls it off easily. A thought-provoking read that will stay with me for a long time, I also appreciate that this book deals with some deeper topics such as feminism and morality so it is not just a throwaway story, it has deeper meaning behind it. Definitely an author to add to my favourites. I look forward to the next book and returning to this original world. A worthy five-star read!

Many thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/John Joseph Adams/Mariner Books for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi dystopian murder mystery eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  While I try to post no spoilers, if ye haven’t read the first book then ye might want to skip this post. If ye keep reading this log then ye have been forewarned and continue at yer own peril . . .

Title: the wild dead

Author: Carrie Vaughn

Publisher: John Joseph Adams / Mariner Books

Publication Date: TODAY!!! (paperback/e-book)

ISBN: 978-0544947313

Source: NetGalley

This be the 5th book in me e-Arc Extravaganza Challenge wherein I had to read all 5 books before their July 17th release dates.  Challenge complete!  Arrr!

I previously read and was absolutely enthralled by the first book.  This one was great too!  Both stories are set "after the fall" in the coastal United States.  The coast has flooded.  Cities have fallen.  The world is slowly rebuilding.  The novel follows Enid, a young Investigator who helps police the towns along the Coastal Road.  That job involves anything from helping people in the aftermath of storms, to arbitrating disputes, or in this case, doing a property inspection to see if the town should repair it.  Teeg is in charge of his first mission and Enid is there to mentor him.  What is a fairly simple assignment becomes much more difficult when a dead body turns up.  And it is certainly murder.  Can the two investigators find the killer?  Or should they just leave it alone?

The first story was structured around Enid's life both past and present with the murder being only part of the story.  The murder mystery is at the forefront of book two and the majority of the story takes place in the present.  Enid uses many of her experiences from the previous murder investigation to help her outlook in this one.  Teeg is her foil in the case.  Enid struggles to find her balance in her dual roles of investigator and teacher.

As in the first book, the murder mystery was less interesting to me than the settlement set-up in the far reaches of the territory.  I loved the marshland setting.  I loved getting to see more of the people who live in the Wild.  I loved the continuing explorations of the bigger issues of society such as resources, the roles and expectations of various types of outsiders, and the ideas of truth and justice.  I loved watching Enid's investigative techniques.

The author manages another book where there is an overall optimistic outlook in the aftermath of a dystopia.  I would love to have Enid on me crew.  I would also love another book in the series either about Enid or a companion novel about another settlement along the Coast Road.  Give me more!   Arrrr!

So lastly . . .

Thank you John Joseph Adams / Mariner Books!

Side note: There be another story set in this world!  It is called "Where Would You Be Now" and is listed as book 0.5.  I must read it.  Arrr!

Goodread's website has this to say about the novel:

A century after environmental and economic collapse, the people of the Coast Road have rebuilt their own sort of civilization, striving not to make the mistakes their ancestors did. They strictly ration and manage resources, including the ability to have children. Enid of Haven is an investigator, who with her new partner, Teeg, is called on to mediate a dispute over an old building in a far-flung settlement at the edge of Coast Road territory. The investigators’ decision seems straightforward — and then the body of a young woman turns up in the nearby marshland. Almost more shocking than that, she’s not from the Coast Road, but from one of the outsider camps belonging to the nomads and wild folk who live outside the Coast Road communities. Now one of them is dead, and Enid wants to find out who killed her, even as Teeg argues that the murder isn’t their problem. In a dystopian future of isolated communities, can our moral sense survive the worst hard times?

To visit the author’s website go to:

Carrie Vaughn - Author

To buy the novel go to:

the wild dead - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Previous Log Entries for this Author

martians abroad (On the Horizon – Young Adult Sci-Fi eArc)

bannerless (On the Horizon - Sci-Fi Dystopian Murder Mystery eArc)

The Wild Dead, by Carrie Vaughn, is the second book in the Bannerless series. It’s part of a new wave of popular science fiction that, at its core, is about fertility and parenting.

A very different kind of post apocalyptic world is imagined by Vaughn, one where people have figured out how to live together in peace with each other and the earth.

I love that The Wild Dead is a different kind of imagined future where society is good and peaceful despite external challenges. They saved knowledge of medicine and renewable energy – there are solar cars and solar hot water – but no weapons. Investigators (essentially the police force) carry a wooden staff and tranquiliser patches for defence instead of guns.

Even when the murdered woman turns out to be an outsider, this changes very little. Especially in our current-day international climate, the attitude toward outsiders is so refreshing.

Taking an interest in the welfare of others is such a core habit of this integrated community that Enid finds it hard to restrain herself while on a case.

My absolute favourite line of the whole book is when Enid is challenged about why she even cares to investigate the murder. Why can’t she just leave it alone?:

“Because it’s right to care.”

Caring is hard and exhausting and sometimes unpleasant. But it’s also rewarding. And it’s right. How nice would it be if we could come to this realisation without needing to go through an apocalypse first?

I loved Vaughn’s Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Bannerless, and eagerly dove into this, its sequel. Vaughn’s vision of an egalitarian, post-collapse world struck me as a welcome and necessary antidote to the commonly portrayed descent into dog-eat-dog chaos. In her world, people worked cooperatively after “The Fall” to select and preserve technology and to establish social structures that promoted communities living in ecological balance, carefully limiting overconsumption/overproduction and birth rate. In other words, the survivors were intelligent about how they went about rebuilding civilization. That’s just the background, the setting, to the murder mysteries in Bannerless and The Wild Dead.

Given lots of knowledge but scarce forensic resources due to a generation-ago picking and choosing, how would you go about solving a murder? You know basic chemistry and anatomy, and you have solar power and well-machined instruments, but have no way to analyze DNA, trace evidence, or microscopic kerf marks. When Enid and her apprentice, Teeg, arrive at the Estuary as investigators, this world’s traveling magistrates, their initial task, the one they’ve been requested to adjudicate, pertains to the fate of an old house that’s one of the few relics of “Before” yet is too badly damaged to be easily repairable.

As they examine the issue of the house, a body washes up in the river, a young woman of the wild folk who live outside the communities of Coast Road, and it’s up to Enid and Teeg to solve the murder. Without modern forensics or knowledge of the history and social interactions of the Estuary households, yet with a deep moral sense and compassion for this unknown victim, Enid dives into the case. As with Bannerless, Enid’s own intelligence and intuitive understanding of human nature guide her to the unexpected but perfectly prepared result.

I can’t praise Vaughn’s work highly enough. The elegance of her prose rises and falls like harmonic waves, from serviceably transparent to downright poetic, enhancing the emotional beats. Even her secondary characters are beautifully depicted. Most of all, I admire her decision to place her unusual murder mysteries in a world that gives me hope for the survival of sanity and kindness.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it.

The Wild Dead (The Bannerless Saga #2)
by Carrie Vaughn
Since I read Bannerless, I wanted to see more of this story, Carrie Vaughn fulfilled the promise of the first book in this sequel. The Wild Dead can stand on its own as a young adult mystery story, but the whole series is amazing. This post apocalyptic world looks at the value we place on others. In a world were survivors had to choose between medicine and forensics, between lives and photography people and society has closed down. Small communities of people who work together for the benefit of each other is the only way to survive in this holocaust world. We have pushed the environment beyond sustainability, and we have been trumped by our own behaviors and consequences of them. The survivors have to prove that they can sustain not only their lives but have to prove they can take care of each child. The world can not support large groups of people, it’s either survival or starvation.
Enid is an investigator in a time when life is held on a precarious balance, and the simple choices can cost the most. She has been called down to look at the Estuary and resolve one of their problems. Semperfi household has a big problem, their original structure is disintegrating before their eyes, falling into the eroding banks of the river. They want the community to help them, the community sees it a different way. This is not the only mystery in the pages of Wild Dead, but this first question brings up the idea of what is human, what is sustainable, and how do we treat each other. This is a great story that shows the value in life, and the ability to choose freely has its own cost. These are valuable lessons for our kids today, and something most schools and teachers avoid talking about. Carrie Vaughn brings up these ideas without judgement on the part of the reader, but on the whole of societies, and individuals outlooks. A great book for discussion with middle school, and high school children.

Set in a dystopian future, The Wild Dead is more a fast-paced and well crafted murder mystery than a science fiction novel. Well rounded characters, an interesting futuristic backdrop and just predictable enough to make the reader feel like a super-sleuth. The ideal summer read!

I went into The Wild Dead without expectations.  What I discovered was a world where little remained of the past, where most lived relatively primitive lives in households along the Coast Road.  Quotas are carefully maintained and resources managed. Women are implanted with birth control that is only removed when a household proves it can support a child and receives a banner.  Enid and Teeg are investigators, called to resolve a dispute between households. The issue is a simple one, but the discovery of a body changes everything. It quickly becomes clear that the young woman is one of the Wild Folk, who live a nomadic life beyond the Coast Road and rarely interact with the settlements.  Enid wants to find the truth, while Teeg, young and zealous wants the easy out. The town folk are keeping secrets, and old grudges live long lives.


Enid’s investigation is hampered by lack of technology and the reliance on her ability to connect with others.  It is a strange world where motherhood is the ultimate reward and being childless is the ultimate punishment. I found the world both fascinating and disturbing.  It makes a unique environment for a murder mystery.


4 / 5


I received a copy of The Wild Dead from the publisher and Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review.


— Crittermom

Feminism meets dystopia in Vaughn’s The Wild Dead, when investigator Enid of Haven is called upon to mediate a dispute over a dilapidated dwelling—a relatively simple mater until the body of a young woman washes up on shore. Aside from being brutally murdered, the woman does not belong to the Coast Road colony and instead is clearly a member of “the wild folk,” a group of people living beyond the boundaries of the isolated communities of future civilization. Moral questions are explored as Enid seeks to uncover the murderer and find justice in a world recovering from environmental and economic collapse.

A sequel to the Philip K. Dick-award winning Bannerless, Vaughn’s The Wild Dead provides a grim version of the future with characters that are as unremarkable and hostile as the territories in which they struggle to survive. Often plodding, the novel seems brittle in places, and feels off balance in execution of past and present references, particularly to new readers of the series who may find this version of the future a bit more quaint than typical in dystopian fiction.

What is more successful is the story’s protagonist, Enid, a woman driven as much by principles as by a sense of duty and fairness. Likewise, Vaughn’s focus on the complexities of sisterhood, motherhood, and community provides ample fodder to kindle a slow-burning thrill, juxtaposing the fall of one house against the rise of another, and the heartbreaks and triumphs of motherhood.

Thank you to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an advance review copy.

Review posted to Goodreads and to www.squidandinkreads.com.

This book catches up with Enid after her first murder investigation and also sadly after the death of her much loved mentor. So here she is teamed up with her new rookie partner Teeg on a routine journey to help with a dispute about a building that’s wasting much needed resources. It should be easy, it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge to mediate, be the bad guy if that’s what it takes and then home just in time for the birth of a new arrival into Enid’s family. Ok I lied , it’s never going to be that straight forward and Enid finds herself caught between two very different ideologies with a murder to solve !
I could say this series is post apocalyptic, I could say it’s dystopian but what really matters is that it’s a darn good whodunnit with heart. There’s an odd mixture here of back to basics and even some technology although in this book it does feel far more rustic and it’s clear that basic survival fuels everyone’s actions. Civilisation as we know it has been eradicated and this new world rations everything so that it’s fair for all . Law and order doesn’t really exist but there’s a sense of fear that funnily enough keeps most people working in harmony together. So what do they do if they find a body ? Report it or ignore it and hope that the investigators never find out ? Enid and Teeg just happen to stumble right into this situation but Enid isn’t someone to shirk her responsibilities. No she’s curious, brave and wants to find the truth. Perhaps that’s what we all need even if we don’t realise it ?
I found this thought provoking and perhaps a little sad that humans could turn away so easily. There is hope here though as Enid embodies so much that makes life worth living and I cannot wait to see where her journey takes her.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

A worthy seguel to Bannerless, set in the same post apocalyptic world, murder is unusual but not
unheard of. What seems like a simple property dispute become something more deadly and Enid
and her new assistant are on the case. A really good series that just gets better with this second
book.

Seond book in a series (I hope) Really enjoyed this book as well as Bannerless. A good oldfashined, in the best way , story with a strong central character and a totally believable world. I hope to read many more books set in this world.