We’re big fans of Hannah Kaner at In Between Drafts. Godkiller was a favorite book of 2023 and the sequel, Sunbringer, was a highly anticipated release this year. We are thrilled to feature Hannah Kaner in our Three Favorites Series to talk about her favorite sequels.
So what are Hannah Kaner’s three favorite sequels?
Not all sequels are equal to others. In a market full of fantasy trilogies, delivering a book two of a three parter is a brutal game of time and pressure. Deliver just enough, not too much, reel the threads of the story in, but keep the reader on the hook.
The best sequels for me are those that take everything you’ve learned from the first instalment and push it further; the characters, their choices, and their consequences. The world becomes bigger, badder and more dangerous than before.
Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
The Oleander Sword is the sequel to The Jasmine Throne, the second in The Burning Kingdoms trilogy. Suri’s writing is breathtakingly vivid and deeply felt, and plays with the themes I also explore in Godkiller; the ambivalence and power of gods, the machinations of politics and rivalry, how far love can go under threat of war and violence. Suri gives us an enthralling sequel of rebellion and staged wars, prophecies and their challenges, as well as gods and their dangers. This book is every bit as exquisite as the first in the trilogy.
The Faithless by C.L. Clark
The first in Clark’s rebellious Magic of the Lost trilogy, The Unbroken, sees a country liberated, its oppressed people freed, and imperial government overturned. The second, The Faithless, explores the consequences of that upheaval, how to love your enemy or hate your lover, and the dubious terrors of power and how to keep it, the desire for freedom but the necessities of leadership. I love Clark’s world of war, magic, politics and intrigue, as well as its liberating relationships and dangerous dynamics. I adore the enemies-and-lovers relationship of Touraine and Luca, the rebel and the princess, the hero and their lord; and I enjoyed exploring a similar relationship between Elogast and King Arren in Sunbringer and the pain it brings them both.
The Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
The Ship of Magic is not just a sequel book, but the beginning of a sequel trilogy: The Liveship Traders. We explore a part of a story that Hobb has mentioned in passing in the Farseer Trilogy, of traders, pirates, dragons and a changing world. By adding new voices and perspective, away from Fitzs’ narration, Hobb kicks open new doors into her fantasy. She has the utterly astounding ability to create a character and voice you love to loathe, and then in three pages challenge everything you know and convince you to adore them, or at least understand them. Most characters in this story suffer tremendous loss, like Inara and Kissen in Sunbringer, and find and rely on their own power to salvage their hopes throughout this astounding trilogy.
Sunbringer is available now in Trade Paperback, audiobook and e-book.
Featured image designed by Jon Negroni. Read more articles by Brianna Robinson here.
Brianna Robinson is a book publicist and Sarah Lawrence College alum. She lives in New York with too many books and two enthusiastic dachshunds. You can find her on twitter @blrobins2.
