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@Configures I just finished the third book yesterday and agree; it was very enjoyable.
It wouldn't surprise me to see a fourth book. The first three now tell the story of Celehar's life in Amalo, and new books can carry him onward to wherever the Archprelate sends him.
Three fantasy books I've read & enjoyed lately:
Katherine Addison's THE WITNESS FOR THE DEAD is set in the same fantasy kingdom as THE GOBLIN EMPEROR, but you don't need to have read the latter. Thara Celehar is a Witness for the Dead, able to access the memory of the recently deceased to resolve disputes and solve mysteries, and he has a number of such mysteries to solve. The foremost is the murder of a singer at one of the city's opera houses, found floating in a canal. There's also an inheritance case to untangle, and a forest town has a ghoul that needs to be handled.
I enjoyed this a lot. Celehar is a likeable character, duty-bound to fulfill his role but with regrets about his past and a possible new love interest. The setting is evocatively drawn: a sprawling and mazy city with dozens of religions, a Gothic environment where maintaining cemeteries is very important because the occupants of unmaintained graves can rise as ghouls.
(1/3)
