After enjoying the first two books–hiccups and all–I was all abuzz to read The Hourglass Throne. My friend promised me it would hurt and what do you know: they! were! right!

Rune St. John has more on his plate than ever. He and Brand are de-oogly-boogly-ing the Sun estate. The children are numerous, thirsting to prove themselves, and very much attending school. As the Sun Arcana, petitioners queue outside to plead for his help, while Addam makes puppy-dog eyes about a wedding. To top it all off, someone has shut down the  rejuvenation center with a barrier of forbidden time magic. Life is much more complicated in the king’s chair!

Edwards continues to expand his technical writing skills with this third entry in the series. If you, like me, raised an eyebrow at the inclusion of time in something called The Tarot Sequence, Time functions as a “lost” or fallen Arcana, whose exodus from the tarot deck is the stuff of legend (and nightmares). Edwards makes full, breath-taking use of this diversion from the traditional tarot motif. The Hourglass Throne has a very cool “backward” feeling: it begins with the happy ending/triumph and ends with an inciting incident, indicating major changes ahead. That’s incredibly fitting for a novel centered on time. And it works well for the end of the first trilogy and kickstart the second! That’s all in addition to the time-y wime-y nature of the adventure, so I was one very pleased reader.

In addition to the time shenanigan plot, the mystery of the Sun Throne’s fall gains traction, which had me bouncing in my seat with excitement. I also bounced, squealed, toe-curled etc over the Brand/Addam/Rune queerplatonic OT3. The book’s pacing is slower like in The Hanged Man–which worked well for the larger cast–but at points I missed the action of the first book, even if the page count was used instead for fluffy character interaction. Some day, balance will be achieved.

Overall, I continue to enjoy The Tarot Sequence. Even with its bumps in the road, it’s a queer fantastical romp that my friends have already gushed over for years. Here’s to whatever comes next!

My review of Book 1: The Last Sun: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/c9c9d09c-86b0-441f-8c1f-352a444dbb20

My review of Book 2: The Hanged Man: https://app.thestorygraph.com/reviews/0816d653-c36d-4dcf-b466-3454922ea850