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Flan's Crows #1
The Splintered Sun
Return to Osten Ard with Tad Williams's latest epic adventure.
From the much-loved, Sunday Times bestselling author comes a thrilling new tale set in the legendary world of Osten Ard. This fast-moving adventure follows bandit and chieftain Flann Alderwood - a mythic, swashbuckling figure whose name is whispered across the realm-and his band of misfit rebels as they navigate a kingdom menaced by dark sorcery and war.
With the old King of Hernystir's health failing, warlords carve up the land and rival factions clash over the rightful heir. Into this chaos steps Flann, joined by allies both noble and common, to help the King's one legitimate heir claim his father's blessing and restore stability. But enemies, human and inhuman, stalk their every move, determined to end Flann's quest before it begins.
Packed with action, unforgettable characters, and the sweeping imagination that has made Tad Williams one of fantasy's most beloved voices, this is Osten Ard as you've never seen it before.
From the much-loved, Sunday Times bestselling author comes a thrilling new tale set in the legendary world of Osten Ard. This fast-moving adventure follows bandit and chieftain Flann Alderwood - a mythic, swashbuckling figure whose name is whispered across the realm-and his band of misfit rebels as they navigate a kingdom menaced by dark sorcery and war.
With the old King of Hernystir's health failing, warlords carve up the land and rival factions clash over the rightful heir. Into this chaos steps Flann, joined by allies both noble and common, to help the King's one legitimate heir claim his father's blessing and restore stability. But enemies, human and inhuman, stalk their every move, determined to end Flann's quest before it begins.
Packed with action, unforgettable characters, and the sweeping imagination that has made Tad Williams one of fantasy's most beloved voices, this is Osten Ard as you've never seen it before.
518 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 6, 2026
About the author
Tad Williams
349 books8,273 followersTad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages. His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the ‘Otherland’ epic relaunches June 2018 as an MMO on steam.com. Tad is currently immersed in the creation of ‘The Last King of Osten Ard’, planned as a trilogy with two intermediary novels. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house. @tadwilliams @mrstad
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Review of advance copy received from Publisher
ARC provided by the publisher—Hodder—in exchange for an honest review.
The Splintered Sun is the start of a new incredible tale in The Osten Ard Saga accompanied with a relatively faster-paced narrative .
It is a bittersweet feeling to have read almost every book in The Osten Ard Saga. I know it might sound like sacrilege that I have not read The Navigator’s Children (the last book in The Last King of Osten Ard) yet. And somehow, I still decided to read this newest book/series in the universe. Curiosity in this new series got the best of me. Or maybe a part of me is just trying to postpone finishing every book in The Osten Ard Saga as long as I can. When I first heard there would be another book in this universe, I was immediately elated. Here are two things you should know about Tad Williams, though. First, do not believe him when he says he’s writing a standalone or a trilogy. If he says he’s writing a standalone, the standalone will become a trilogy. If he says he’s writing a trilogy, that trilogy will become a four-book trilogy. But this is not a misfortune. Here’s the other important thing to remember. Tad Williams does not write a bad book. Every book he has written in The Osten Ard Saga ranges from great to amazing. And The Splintered Sun, originally penned as a standalone and now it has turned into a series, is not an exception to these two rules. I am confident those who bounced off reading The Dragonbone Chair could potentially end up liking the pacing and story structure of The Splintered Sun more.
So, what’s this book about? The Splintered Sun takes place after Brothers of the Wind but three hundred years before Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. This book is a swashbuckling story of a fearless bandit and his band of misfit rebels navigating a kingdom menaced by dark sorcery and threatening war. With the old King of Hernystir’s health failing, warlords carve up the land and rival factions clash over the rightful heir. Into this chaos steps Flann, joined by allies both noble and common, to help the King’s one legitimate heir, Prince Ewain, claim his father’s blessing and restore stability. But enemies, human and inhuman, stalk their every move, determined to end Flann’s quest before it begins. And to top it all, the two main characters—Vedra and Daley—will find it impossible to escape the harsh fate and conspiracies they’re about to be plunged into.
Because many people will ask whether this is a good entry point to this universe or not, I will make it clear from the get-go that it is evident that Tad Williams wrote The Splintered Sun with the intention of inviting new readers to the world of Osten Ard. This isn’t to say old-time readers of every book in this world won’t enjoy this book. I doubt that would happen when you’re already a fan of Tad’s writing. We do get to learn more about the Dream Road and the history of Hernystiri, Grasslanders, and a bit of Hayholt—still named Dun ard in this book—with the iconic Green Angel Tower. However, if you’re here expecting to learn something substantial and new about the lore established in the previous books in the universe, this isn’t the book for you. You won’t learn anything significant about the Norns and the Sithi. Things could change in the later books of this series, but for now, The Splintered Sun focuses more on the tale of the two kids, Vedra and Daley, as they find their fates intertwined with Flann Alderwood and his band of outlaws called the Crows. In The Dragonbone Chair, the tale in The Splintered Sun has become folklore, similar to Robin Hood in our world.
Comparatively speaking, similar to how the early parts of The Dragonbone Chair is told mostly from the perspective of Simon, approximately the first quarter of the book is told from the point-of-view of Vedra and Daley. But there’s a huge difference in pacing between these first installments of their respective series. I absolutely loved every page of The Dragonbone Chair. This includes Simon’s 200-page slice-of-life portion. Some readers, however, find that kind of story structure too slow to their liking. This is where the circumstances differ in The Splintered Sun, and why I believe many modern readers will enjoy the pacing in The Splintered Sun more. Vedra’s capability to scry and Daley’s knack for stealing things—undoubtedly—lead them to conflicts they never expected. From the premise written, I think many people will enter The Splintered Sun expecting Flann to be the key main character of the novel, but it is not. He’s one of the main characters of the book. But most of the book is told from the perspective of Vedra and Daley.
This is not a claim that Vedra and Daley are the exclusive key characters. They did have the most spotlight, and I believe Tad did a great job in starting The Splintered Sun from their tale. However, the balance in characterizations is there in the narrative. The varied cast and personality of Flann and his Crows, Xanico, Tika, plus the villains Scaeth and Phelan, have their respective spotlights, and they are there to enrich the dialogue, politicking, and fight for the throne. The book definitely has a faster pace, and I imagine this will click with a lot of readers, but I cannot deny I did miss the slower-paced and melancholic tone of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy in The Splintered Sun. I feel Tad Williams’ prose is at its best when he writes a somber and melancholic narrative. As far as comparison goes, I think the closest epic fantasy book I can think of that matches The Splintered Sun is The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding. Or, if you like the found camaraderie aspect in Mistborn between Vin, Kelsier, and their crew, there will be a lot to like in The Splintered Sun.
If you are like me, who feels bittersweet about not having anything else in The Osten Ard Saga to read, well, The Splintered Sun is here as a balm to our predicament. Imagine a Robin Hood figure and his band of misfit outlaws fighting against greed to attain justice in the world of Osten Ard. Imbued with Dream Road, deadly vision, prophecy, exciting action, and satisfying final chapters. What more can you ask for in the first installment? Filled with a diverse cast of characters and races, whether you are a veteran or newcomer to the world of Osten Ard, The Splintered Sun will do its best to ensure your reading time and experience in this new tale is absolutely worthwhile. Until the sequel to The Splintered Sun is available to read, I believe it is time for me to accept my time in the world of Osten Ard shall conclude for a while. It is time for me to read The Navigator’s Children.
You can pre-order this book from: Amazon | Blackwells (Free International shipping)
The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions | I also have a Booktube channel
Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!
My Patrons: Andrew. S, Arik, Arliss, Barbara, Ben, Benjamin, Cade, Chris, Crystal, Cullen, Dan, Dylan, Edward, Elias, Erich, Evie, Feanor, Francesca, Frank, Gary, Gregory, James, Jason, Jeff, Johnny, Joie, Jonathan, Katrina, Kim, Kristina, Lara, Leigh, Lourdes, Melinda, Mike, Mike S, Miracle, Mordie, Nicholas, Radiah, RCT, Sally, Samuel, Sarah, Scott, Sean, Shawn, Shawna, Stephanie, Trish, Tyler, TS, Wendy, Wick, Xero, Yuri, Zachary, Zammar.
The Splintered Sun is the start of a new incredible tale in The Osten Ard Saga accompanied with a relatively faster-paced narrative .
“When you are my age, you will be less dismayed and even less surprised by the path that life leads you. I am alive and among friends. That counts for much.”
It is a bittersweet feeling to have read almost every book in The Osten Ard Saga. I know it might sound like sacrilege that I have not read The Navigator’s Children (the last book in The Last King of Osten Ard) yet. And somehow, I still decided to read this newest book/series in the universe. Curiosity in this new series got the best of me. Or maybe a part of me is just trying to postpone finishing every book in The Osten Ard Saga as long as I can. When I first heard there would be another book in this universe, I was immediately elated. Here are two things you should know about Tad Williams, though. First, do not believe him when he says he’s writing a standalone or a trilogy. If he says he’s writing a standalone, the standalone will become a trilogy. If he says he’s writing a trilogy, that trilogy will become a four-book trilogy. But this is not a misfortune. Here’s the other important thing to remember. Tad Williams does not write a bad book. Every book he has written in The Osten Ard Saga ranges from great to amazing. And The Splintered Sun, originally penned as a standalone and now it has turned into a series, is not an exception to these two rules. I am confident those who bounced off reading The Dragonbone Chair could potentially end up liking the pacing and story structure of The Splintered Sun more.
“Mark my words, child. There is no quicker way to lose your mind and your freedom than falling in love.”
So, what’s this book about? The Splintered Sun takes place after Brothers of the Wind but three hundred years before Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. This book is a swashbuckling story of a fearless bandit and his band of misfit rebels navigating a kingdom menaced by dark sorcery and threatening war. With the old King of Hernystir’s health failing, warlords carve up the land and rival factions clash over the rightful heir. Into this chaos steps Flann, joined by allies both noble and common, to help the King’s one legitimate heir, Prince Ewain, claim his father’s blessing and restore stability. But enemies, human and inhuman, stalk their every move, determined to end Flann’s quest before it begins. And to top it all, the two main characters—Vedra and Daley—will find it impossible to escape the harsh fate and conspiracies they’re about to be plunged into.
“We are all in danger, child, every moment. Every living creature is on a journey from birth to death. How close to that latter destination we are, no one can say.”
Because many people will ask whether this is a good entry point to this universe or not, I will make it clear from the get-go that it is evident that Tad Williams wrote The Splintered Sun with the intention of inviting new readers to the world of Osten Ard. This isn’t to say old-time readers of every book in this world won’t enjoy this book. I doubt that would happen when you’re already a fan of Tad’s writing. We do get to learn more about the Dream Road and the history of Hernystiri, Grasslanders, and a bit of Hayholt—still named Dun ard in this book—with the iconic Green Angel Tower. However, if you’re here expecting to learn something substantial and new about the lore established in the previous books in the universe, this isn’t the book for you. You won’t learn anything significant about the Norns and the Sithi. Things could change in the later books of this series, but for now, The Splintered Sun focuses more on the tale of the two kids, Vedra and Daley, as they find their fates intertwined with Flann Alderwood and his band of outlaws called the Crows. In The Dragonbone Chair, the tale in The Splintered Sun has become folklore, similar to Robin Hood in our world.
“The gods gave us life upon this earth, I know not why, and I can only do my best with what I am given.”
Comparatively speaking, similar to how the early parts of The Dragonbone Chair is told mostly from the perspective of Simon, approximately the first quarter of the book is told from the point-of-view of Vedra and Daley. But there’s a huge difference in pacing between these first installments of their respective series. I absolutely loved every page of The Dragonbone Chair. This includes Simon’s 200-page slice-of-life portion. Some readers, however, find that kind of story structure too slow to their liking. This is where the circumstances differ in The Splintered Sun, and why I believe many modern readers will enjoy the pacing in The Splintered Sun more. Vedra’s capability to scry and Daley’s knack for stealing things—undoubtedly—lead them to conflicts they never expected. From the premise written, I think many people will enter The Splintered Sun expecting Flann to be the key main character of the novel, but it is not. He’s one of the main characters of the book. But most of the book is told from the perspective of Vedra and Daley.
“It means we make our own decisions in this world. That even the gods sometimes must let us choose our own paths, for good or ill.”
This is not a claim that Vedra and Daley are the exclusive key characters. They did have the most spotlight, and I believe Tad did a great job in starting The Splintered Sun from their tale. However, the balance in characterizations is there in the narrative. The varied cast and personality of Flann and his Crows, Xanico, Tika, plus the villains Scaeth and Phelan, have their respective spotlights, and they are there to enrich the dialogue, politicking, and fight for the throne. The book definitely has a faster pace, and I imagine this will click with a lot of readers, but I cannot deny I did miss the slower-paced and melancholic tone of the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy in The Splintered Sun. I feel Tad Williams’ prose is at its best when he writes a somber and melancholic narrative. As far as comparison goes, I think the closest epic fantasy book I can think of that matches The Splintered Sun is The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding. Or, if you like the found camaraderie aspect in Mistborn between Vin, Kelsier, and their crew, there will be a lot to like in The Splintered Sun.
“Families aren’t always what the gods give us to start with, but what we find and gather to ourselves along the way.”
If you are like me, who feels bittersweet about not having anything else in The Osten Ard Saga to read, well, The Splintered Sun is here as a balm to our predicament. Imagine a Robin Hood figure and his band of misfit outlaws fighting against greed to attain justice in the world of Osten Ard. Imbued with Dream Road, deadly vision, prophecy, exciting action, and satisfying final chapters. What more can you ask for in the first installment? Filled with a diverse cast of characters and races, whether you are a veteran or newcomer to the world of Osten Ard, The Splintered Sun will do its best to ensure your reading time and experience in this new tale is absolutely worthwhile. Until the sequel to The Splintered Sun is available to read, I believe it is time for me to accept my time in the world of Osten Ard shall conclude for a while. It is time for me to read The Navigator’s Children.
“As usual, the greedy cannot understand any other motives but greed, whether for power or riches.”
You can pre-order this book from: Amazon | Blackwells (Free International shipping)
The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.
You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions | I also have a Booktube channel
Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!
My Patrons: Andrew. S, Arik, Arliss, Barbara, Ben, Benjamin, Cade, Chris, Crystal, Cullen, Dan, Dylan, Edward, Elias, Erich, Evie, Feanor, Francesca, Frank, Gary, Gregory, James, Jason, Jeff, Johnny, Joie, Jonathan, Katrina, Kim, Kristina, Lara, Leigh, Lourdes, Melinda, Mike, Mike S, Miracle, Mordie, Nicholas, Radiah, RCT, Sally, Samuel, Sarah, Scott, Sean, Shawn, Shawna, Stephanie, Trish, Tyler, TS, Wendy, Wick, Xero, Yuri, Zachary, Zammar.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Splintered Sun by Tad Williams
4.25 rounded down to 4🔮orbs
Pub. Date: Oct. 6, 2026
DAW Publishing
Pawns in a nobility world….
💡 Orbs Prologue: A hired hand, a mercenary, selling my soul to the devil, or rather, Lord Scaeth, the evil bastard son of exiled King Tethtain. First and foremost, Orb is a father. As a warrior, I fight my battles for my kin, hoping to provide my children with the necessities our world takes pleasure in depriving. It would seem that way, since the king himself has left some of his lands to his illegitimate children, First Lord Phelan, a twisted deformity of a young man with murderous intentions, and the conniving Lord Scaeth, both of whom lay waste to all lawful execution of what could be called fairness. So I must tread carefully whilst playing with fire. Tramping along the rocks of a riverbed, I can’t help but look into the gnarled limbs of neighboring trees. Shadowlike figures seem to follow us. But each time I glance back, it is as if these are only figments of a paranoid imagination. An urgent message has been passed down through the ranks: We are to fight Hagan, the Lord’s Reeve and personal confidant to First Lord Phelan. It will be bloody, but that is how we like it, as long as we get our coin from Scaeth….
🧐 A small glimpse: Tad Williams, fantasy novelist extraordinaire, has written another novel based in the world of Osten Ard. The sweeping novel swirls around two children, Vedra and Daley. In the vortex, a world is torn asunder by political aspirations. Three sons of King Tethtain vie for his position as he enters the final stages of life. Two bastards have schemed their way to wealth and power, while a legitimate prince has been tucked away in the confines of safety. But no more; it is decided that a move must be made for Prince Ewain to travel and formally convince his father to name him the true heir. Our exiled king thought Ewain long dead, so this dangerous plan of action could come with deadly consequences. As we meander through brooding and dangerous terrain, Vedra, our resident scryer, begins to see a terrible future. As these dreams become more terrifying, she comes across a lonely boy by the name of Daley who has his own perilous backstory. Always climbing his way in and out of trouble, Daley has gotten them both in a bit of a pickle. One that puts them solidly in the crosshairs of a monumental time in which those vying for power will do everything to stake their claim, no matter the cost.
👍 Orbs Pros:
👏 Epic fantasy done right!
👏 A large cast, but easy to follow!
👏 Hard to not love these young protagonists!
👏 The plot kept me guessing!
👏 Supernatural goodness! I never knew I enjoyed the scrying angle so much. Other realms are horrific!
👎 Orbs Cons:
🤔 Long! As with most epic fantasy, this one wasn’t short.
🤔 May have helped to read prior books in the Orden Ard orbit first. Not completely necessary, but might have enhanced my reading experience!
⚠️ Warnings: Blood and graphic depictions of violence.
Highly Recommended! My first Tad Williams book, and I must say I do understand why he gets so much love as an author. For those who love fantasy from the likes of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, or Rothfuss, Williams should also be a must-read author. On to the Dragonbone Chair!
💡 Orbs Epilogue: Pointy arrows whistle past my ears. The heightened sounds of chaos begin. I bang my club against my shield in preparation. Something has led us to this culmination of anger and hatred, and I fear an invisible enemy pulls our strings like a marionette. A barrage of smoke and blood fills the air. The morbid sounds of war engulf us all. As the noise decreases, a stillness settles, a sure sign of victory, and for the moment we have triumphed. A bigger issue remains: Flann’s Crows, a band of murderous thieves, a ragtag group always plotting to take back what they perceive is rightfully theirs, including rule by the rightful heir, Prince Ewain. The prince is currently seeking his dying father’s word that he should inherit king status once he passes away. Our duty is to imprison or kill Prince Ewain, driving a final nail in the coffin of this gross fallacy. A frightening sound emanates from above. Up on a small ridge, an otherworldly beast voices its intention, and I am afraid, dear readers, that I may not be long for this world. Snarled jaws lash out, and then darkness comes….
Many thanks to DAW Publishing for the ARC through NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
4.25 rounded down to 4🔮orbs
Pub. Date: Oct. 6, 2026
DAW Publishing
Pawns in a nobility world….
💡 Orbs Prologue: A hired hand, a mercenary, selling my soul to the devil, or rather, Lord Scaeth, the evil bastard son of exiled King Tethtain. First and foremost, Orb is a father. As a warrior, I fight my battles for my kin, hoping to provide my children with the necessities our world takes pleasure in depriving. It would seem that way, since the king himself has left some of his lands to his illegitimate children, First Lord Phelan, a twisted deformity of a young man with murderous intentions, and the conniving Lord Scaeth, both of whom lay waste to all lawful execution of what could be called fairness. So I must tread carefully whilst playing with fire. Tramping along the rocks of a riverbed, I can’t help but look into the gnarled limbs of neighboring trees. Shadowlike figures seem to follow us. But each time I glance back, it is as if these are only figments of a paranoid imagination. An urgent message has been passed down through the ranks: We are to fight Hagan, the Lord’s Reeve and personal confidant to First Lord Phelan. It will be bloody, but that is how we like it, as long as we get our coin from Scaeth….
🧐 A small glimpse: Tad Williams, fantasy novelist extraordinaire, has written another novel based in the world of Osten Ard. The sweeping novel swirls around two children, Vedra and Daley. In the vortex, a world is torn asunder by political aspirations. Three sons of King Tethtain vie for his position as he enters the final stages of life. Two bastards have schemed their way to wealth and power, while a legitimate prince has been tucked away in the confines of safety. But no more; it is decided that a move must be made for Prince Ewain to travel and formally convince his father to name him the true heir. Our exiled king thought Ewain long dead, so this dangerous plan of action could come with deadly consequences. As we meander through brooding and dangerous terrain, Vedra, our resident scryer, begins to see a terrible future. As these dreams become more terrifying, she comes across a lonely boy by the name of Daley who has his own perilous backstory. Always climbing his way in and out of trouble, Daley has gotten them both in a bit of a pickle. One that puts them solidly in the crosshairs of a monumental time in which those vying for power will do everything to stake their claim, no matter the cost.
👍 Orbs Pros:
👏 Epic fantasy done right!
👏 A large cast, but easy to follow!
👏 Hard to not love these young protagonists!
👏 The plot kept me guessing!
👏 Supernatural goodness! I never knew I enjoyed the scrying angle so much. Other realms are horrific!
👎 Orbs Cons:
🤔 Long! As with most epic fantasy, this one wasn’t short.
🤔 May have helped to read prior books in the Orden Ard orbit first. Not completely necessary, but might have enhanced my reading experience!
⚠️ Warnings: Blood and graphic depictions of violence.
Highly Recommended! My first Tad Williams book, and I must say I do understand why he gets so much love as an author. For those who love fantasy from the likes of Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, or Rothfuss, Williams should also be a must-read author. On to the Dragonbone Chair!
💡 Orbs Epilogue: Pointy arrows whistle past my ears. The heightened sounds of chaos begin. I bang my club against my shield in preparation. Something has led us to this culmination of anger and hatred, and I fear an invisible enemy pulls our strings like a marionette. A barrage of smoke and blood fills the air. The morbid sounds of war engulf us all. As the noise decreases, a stillness settles, a sure sign of victory, and for the moment we have triumphed. A bigger issue remains: Flann’s Crows, a band of murderous thieves, a ragtag group always plotting to take back what they perceive is rightfully theirs, including rule by the rightful heir, Prince Ewain. The prince is currently seeking his dying father’s word that he should inherit king status once he passes away. Our duty is to imprison or kill Prince Ewain, driving a final nail in the coffin of this gross fallacy. A frightening sound emanates from above. Up on a small ridge, an otherworldly beast voices its intention, and I am afraid, dear readers, that I may not be long for this world. Snarled jaws lash out, and then darkness comes….
Many thanks to DAW Publishing for the ARC through NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Immersive, sprawling, slow, classic
“Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn” series was one of my formative reads back in the day. It was a happy surprise when I saw that NetGalley had a new novel by Tad Williams set in Osten Ard. I am afraid I remember very little about Osten Ard, but I was hooked. It’s nice to be guided by an author with a classic fantasy voice who has been doing this for a while. I felt small bursts of joy every time I realised how immersed I was.
We have an absent king; we have two bastard sons of the king, half-brothers in an uneasy truce – they would rather be at war; we have good people trying to keep a young legitimate heir to the throne safe. The world is complex, fascinating, frightening. Unexplained dark things are hiding in the shadows. There are numerous characters, too many to mention in one review. I liked them all – except for the very villainous villains, naturally.
This is also a book about two children who unwillingly thrust into things they don’t understand and did not ask for. 10-year-old Daley lives through a life-shattering tragedy in the very first chapter. Vedra is 14, She has had her share of tragedy too. Vedra is homeless, but keeps it a secret from her clients. She makes her living as scryer, and her gift happens to be strong and true. Vedra and Daley meet and adopt each other. I loved their found siblings dynamic very much.
”At least I still have this terrible, sometimes amusing boy to take care of,” she thought. ”Everyone else may leave, but he won’t, and I wouldn’t let him – even though there are moments…”
If it were up to me, I would keep Daley chained to Vedra at all times. I think Vedra would appreciate that. Unfortunately, it isn’t, so Daley does something that sets off a chain (a cascade, a waterfall?) of events that makes the book grow epic, dark, and bleak. The children’s lack of control in the adult world was one of the strongest themes in this book and I appreciated it very much.
Vedra and Daley meet a band of outlaws. They are the nice kind of outlaws and their leader is Robin Hood, sorry, Flann of Alderwood. Flann is both infuriating and entertaining. Since every self-respecting band of nice outlaws needs a minstrel, there is also Diarban, who is very likable and fun.
”Flann always keeps his ideas a secret,” said Diarban. ”That way, when they don’t work, he can claim that failure was part of the larger scheme.”
Together, they will live through many adventures, many schemes, many intrigues, many narrow escapes. I liked that this book did not turn away from grimness. War is always war, even when the good side is waging it. Innocent people still suffer. Good people have to do cruel things.
I did have trouble with the repetitive behaviour of some of the characters – now they are being themselves again… and again… and again. It got old after 200 pages, which is annoying when a book has more than 500. There were quite a few editing issues as well, especially in the second half of the book. I am assuming they will be taken care of before publication. But these are minor complaints.
Towards the end it is clear that we could be in for a long ride, a fantasy series of many books. If it happens, I’ll be there.
One more fun quote:
”The fairy-lord seemed to attempt a reassuring look, but he clearly had not done so in some time and the effect was mixed.”
Many thanks to the author, DAW, and NetGalley for the free ebook!
“Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn” series was one of my formative reads back in the day. It was a happy surprise when I saw that NetGalley had a new novel by Tad Williams set in Osten Ard. I am afraid I remember very little about Osten Ard, but I was hooked. It’s nice to be guided by an author with a classic fantasy voice who has been doing this for a while. I felt small bursts of joy every time I realised how immersed I was.
We have an absent king; we have two bastard sons of the king, half-brothers in an uneasy truce – they would rather be at war; we have good people trying to keep a young legitimate heir to the throne safe. The world is complex, fascinating, frightening. Unexplained dark things are hiding in the shadows. There are numerous characters, too many to mention in one review. I liked them all – except for the very villainous villains, naturally.
This is also a book about two children who unwillingly thrust into things they don’t understand and did not ask for. 10-year-old Daley lives through a life-shattering tragedy in the very first chapter. Vedra is 14, She has had her share of tragedy too. Vedra is homeless, but keeps it a secret from her clients. She makes her living as scryer, and her gift happens to be strong and true. Vedra and Daley meet and adopt each other. I loved their found siblings dynamic very much.
”At least I still have this terrible, sometimes amusing boy to take care of,” she thought. ”Everyone else may leave, but he won’t, and I wouldn’t let him – even though there are moments…”
If it were up to me, I would keep Daley chained to Vedra at all times. I think Vedra would appreciate that. Unfortunately, it isn’t, so Daley does something that sets off a chain (a cascade, a waterfall?) of events that makes the book grow epic, dark, and bleak. The children’s lack of control in the adult world was one of the strongest themes in this book and I appreciated it very much.
Vedra and Daley meet a band of outlaws. They are the nice kind of outlaws and their leader is Robin Hood, sorry, Flann of Alderwood. Flann is both infuriating and entertaining. Since every self-respecting band of nice outlaws needs a minstrel, there is also Diarban, who is very likable and fun.
”Flann always keeps his ideas a secret,” said Diarban. ”That way, when they don’t work, he can claim that failure was part of the larger scheme.”
Together, they will live through many adventures, many schemes, many intrigues, many narrow escapes. I liked that this book did not turn away from grimness. War is always war, even when the good side is waging it. Innocent people still suffer. Good people have to do cruel things.
I did have trouble with the repetitive behaviour of some of the characters – now they are being themselves again… and again… and again. It got old after 200 pages, which is annoying when a book has more than 500. There were quite a few editing issues as well, especially in the second half of the book. I am assuming they will be taken care of before publication. But these are minor complaints.
Towards the end it is clear that we could be in for a long ride, a fantasy series of many books. If it happens, I’ll be there.
One more fun quote:
”The fairy-lord seemed to attempt a reassuring look, but he clearly had not done so in some time and the effect was mixed.”
Many thanks to the author, DAW, and NetGalley for the free ebook!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Oh wow, if this is how Tad Williams writes his books I'm definitely going to binge read his other books in the Osten Ard Saga! The Splintered Sun precedes The Dragonbone Chair by 300 years and is described as a starting point for newcomers and if this book is anything like the earlier works, I have a lot of books to read before Flan and his Crows return!
The characters, the setting, the pace, and the writing are all right up my alley.
4.25 stars
Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The characters, the setting, the pace, and the writing are all right up my alley.
4.25 stars
Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
I received an eARC via NetGalley
Tad Williams returns to the world of Osten Ord this time with a throwback adventure fantasy featuring many of the elements you'd expect from Williams (young characters cast into events much bigger than themselves, a divers cast of fantasy creatures, and of course lots of politicking!) but with a Robin Hood style twist with Flann's Crows!
While the book does certainly have its darker and grittier moments, the biggest thing that stood out to was just how fun this was! The adventure elements are very strong (raiding a tomb, flight through mountains and swamps) and while some of these elements are a bit familiar, and the story a bit predictable, it's not trying to be anything other than what it is (which is pretty great!).
If you are a fan of Williams' phenomenal Osten Ard world and want more, this is a great one to jump back in! If you are looking to try out something from the world and aren't ready to commit, this also works as a good jumping off point! While this certainly doesn't reach the highs of the two flagship series, it's an immensely entertaining book that will keep you coming back for more!
Tad Williams returns to the world of Osten Ord this time with a throwback adventure fantasy featuring many of the elements you'd expect from Williams (young characters cast into events much bigger than themselves, a divers cast of fantasy creatures, and of course lots of politicking!) but with a Robin Hood style twist with Flann's Crows!
While the book does certainly have its darker and grittier moments, the biggest thing that stood out to was just how fun this was! The adventure elements are very strong (raiding a tomb, flight through mountains and swamps) and while some of these elements are a bit familiar, and the story a bit predictable, it's not trying to be anything other than what it is (which is pretty great!).
If you are a fan of Williams' phenomenal Osten Ard world and want more, this is a great one to jump back in! If you are looking to try out something from the world and aren't ready to commit, this also works as a good jumping off point! While this certainly doesn't reach the highs of the two flagship series, it's an immensely entertaining book that will keep you coming back for more!
July 24, 2026
I received a copy of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
3.5/5 a bit conflicted on this one and what to rate it.
This is marketed as a fun Robin Hood adventure and while that's part of it, Tad really just does his thing here and it's not drastically different from other books in this world, you have to enjoy being in this world because it is a very deliberately paced and often slow burn.
Some of the difference here is the scale is a bit more constrained, we're not doing a world wide epic fantasy but there's still plenty of POVs, a contested throne succession, a lot of ingredients for epic fantasy that we know and love.
Overall this is a really good book and I enjoyed reading it, Tad is one of my favorite authors. The reading experience is great and his moment to moment writing is some of the best. There's a lot of beautiful writing and great turns of phrase, it lives up to his pedigree here.
However, I really think the plot is one of the slowest we've seen in Osten Ard so far and there's a lot of anticlimactic moments. After finishing the book I'm wondering what the point of it was and that's not a good feeling after investing so much time on it.
There's some good world building nuggets and good exploration of the magic but I was hoping for a bit more, there's some hints at larger things at play but I needed something more to really make me eager for the next book.
I will definitely continue the series but I'm not as hungry for more as I was hoping to be. There's a lot of great characters and the slow building that I had with them was good, so there was a nice mix of characters, world building, action, and the slow burning plot.
3.5/5 a bit conflicted on this one and what to rate it.
This is marketed as a fun Robin Hood adventure and while that's part of it, Tad really just does his thing here and it's not drastically different from other books in this world, you have to enjoy being in this world because it is a very deliberately paced and often slow burn.
Some of the difference here is the scale is a bit more constrained, we're not doing a world wide epic fantasy but there's still plenty of POVs, a contested throne succession, a lot of ingredients for epic fantasy that we know and love.
Overall this is a really good book and I enjoyed reading it, Tad is one of my favorite authors. The reading experience is great and his moment to moment writing is some of the best. There's a lot of beautiful writing and great turns of phrase, it lives up to his pedigree here.
However, I really think the plot is one of the slowest we've seen in Osten Ard so far and there's a lot of anticlimactic moments. After finishing the book I'm wondering what the point of it was and that's not a good feeling after investing so much time on it.
There's some good world building nuggets and good exploration of the magic but I was hoping for a bit more, there's some hints at larger things at play but I needed something more to really make me eager for the next book.
I will definitely continue the series but I'm not as hungry for more as I was hoping to be. There's a lot of great characters and the slow building that I had with them was good, so there was a nice mix of characters, world building, action, and the slow burning plot.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
It may have taken Tad Williams more than two decades to return to the world of Green Angel Tower with the sequel series, The Last King of Osten Ard, but here we are again, only two years since that wrapped up, and we find ourselves in Osten Ard once again, this time with the launch of a prequel series, starting with The Splintered Sun.
This hearkens back to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn in that it follows two children as the primary characters, surrounding them with politics and mythology, but it feels like a simpler, more streamlined tale. It's a story that slowly grows beyond them, adding characters and POVs as we go, but it's the children who serve as its heart.
In terms of plotting and pacing, this almost feels like two books in one, which makes sense knowing that Williams began it as a standalone book before deciding it would be part of a series. You can see the bones of the standalone book, and it's a good one, a solid tale that certainly delivers on its Robin Hood promises. Left to be that, I think the pacing would have been tighter, the narrative more immediate, but you can also see where elements were layered on to give it the depth necessary to justify a full trilogy. For me - and, I suspect, for established fans - those additional elements are the most interesting parts of the story, but the way in which they're incorporated does see the pacing falter in places.
Honestly, I struggled a bit in the first half, finding it hard to maintain my interest, and I think it was because I recognized what was happening. I felt the weight of those elements being inserted, felt how they diverted or paused the plot, and found myself impatient for the plot to get moving. The second half, though, is better, stronger, and more cohesive. You can almost feel where Williams began writing a series as opposed to rewriting a standalone, and everything comes alive. More characters, more plots, more mythology, more conflict, and more complexity... the book just feels more.
Vedra and Daley were an interesting pairing, siblings-by-circumstance if you want to call it that, and the way their relationship evolves through the book is exceptionally strong. I wasn't sure of Flann at first, and Xaniko initially felt forced into the story, but to say they both grow on you is an understatement - and the heartbreaking glimpse into the Norn's heart is powerful stuff. While the two villainous princes seemed a little over-the-top, I became increasingly interested in the people surrounding them, both those tied to their cruelties and those dragged down because of them. Finally, I have to say something in praise of Liam, the gentle giant who seemed wasted for so much of the book, but who steps up and becomes a hero before the end.
There's a lot that happens in The Splintered Sun, but not a lot that's resolved, and I suspect that may leave some readers wanting. So many goals are established that you figure at least one of them will prove to be pivotal, but it seems Williams isn't ready for that. Again, had this been left as a standalone, maybe we'd have gotten that resolution, but as the first book in a trilogy, it raised more questions than it offers answers. Personally, I'm fine with that, and am looking forward to finding out more about the Shadow on the Dream Road, the Norns working from the shadows, and the shadow cast by Vedra's scrying.
https://bibrary.blogspot.com/2026/08/...
This hearkens back to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn in that it follows two children as the primary characters, surrounding them with politics and mythology, but it feels like a simpler, more streamlined tale. It's a story that slowly grows beyond them, adding characters and POVs as we go, but it's the children who serve as its heart.
In terms of plotting and pacing, this almost feels like two books in one, which makes sense knowing that Williams began it as a standalone book before deciding it would be part of a series. You can see the bones of the standalone book, and it's a good one, a solid tale that certainly delivers on its Robin Hood promises. Left to be that, I think the pacing would have been tighter, the narrative more immediate, but you can also see where elements were layered on to give it the depth necessary to justify a full trilogy. For me - and, I suspect, for established fans - those additional elements are the most interesting parts of the story, but the way in which they're incorporated does see the pacing falter in places.
Honestly, I struggled a bit in the first half, finding it hard to maintain my interest, and I think it was because I recognized what was happening. I felt the weight of those elements being inserted, felt how they diverted or paused the plot, and found myself impatient for the plot to get moving. The second half, though, is better, stronger, and more cohesive. You can almost feel where Williams began writing a series as opposed to rewriting a standalone, and everything comes alive. More characters, more plots, more mythology, more conflict, and more complexity... the book just feels more.
Vedra and Daley were an interesting pairing, siblings-by-circumstance if you want to call it that, and the way their relationship evolves through the book is exceptionally strong. I wasn't sure of Flann at first, and Xaniko initially felt forced into the story, but to say they both grow on you is an understatement - and the heartbreaking glimpse into the Norn's heart is powerful stuff. While the two villainous princes seemed a little over-the-top, I became increasingly interested in the people surrounding them, both those tied to their cruelties and those dragged down because of them. Finally, I have to say something in praise of Liam, the gentle giant who seemed wasted for so much of the book, but who steps up and becomes a hero before the end.
There's a lot that happens in The Splintered Sun, but not a lot that's resolved, and I suspect that may leave some readers wanting. So many goals are established that you figure at least one of them will prove to be pivotal, but it seems Williams isn't ready for that. Again, had this been left as a standalone, maybe we'd have gotten that resolution, but as the first book in a trilogy, it raised more questions than it offers answers. Personally, I'm fine with that, and am looking forward to finding out more about the Shadow on the Dream Road, the Norns working from the shadows, and the shadow cast by Vedra's scrying.
https://bibrary.blogspot.com/2026/08/...
July 9, 2026
Classic fantasy at its core, a masterfully told adventure.
Instantly, I fell in love with this cast of characters. I was rooting for Vedra, Daley and the Crows the whole journey.
It was so nice to be back in Osten Ard, I absolutely love the original series, MS&T will forever be one of the best tales ever written. Comparatively, “The Splintered Sun” feels lighter and more airy, possibly a “simpler” more straight forward kind of story, which I feel should help the general public get into Osten Ard culture, and dip their toes into the vastness of the realm.
The events that took place in “The Splintered Sun” are set into motion wonderfully, I’m mostly happy with the outcomes, because they felt “real.” It’s a bleak world, and not everything will happen how you think, or plan it will. You must adapt and persevere, or you’ll end up with an arrow in your neck.
Excited for the next installment of Crow adventures.
Thanks to DAW and NetGalley for the ARC.
Instantly, I fell in love with this cast of characters. I was rooting for Vedra, Daley and the Crows the whole journey.
It was so nice to be back in Osten Ard, I absolutely love the original series, MS&T will forever be one of the best tales ever written. Comparatively, “The Splintered Sun” feels lighter and more airy, possibly a “simpler” more straight forward kind of story, which I feel should help the general public get into Osten Ard culture, and dip their toes into the vastness of the realm.
The events that took place in “The Splintered Sun” are set into motion wonderfully, I’m mostly happy with the outcomes, because they felt “real.” It’s a bleak world, and not everything will happen how you think, or plan it will. You must adapt and persevere, or you’ll end up with an arrow in your neck.
Excited for the next installment of Crow adventures.
Thanks to DAW and NetGalley for the ARC.
Read
August 13, 2026everyone in this book had the same conversation one thousand times
October 3, 2026
This was my first Tad Williams book, and I have to say I am happy with it.
This book MOSTLY follows two main characters. Vedra, a young island girl who had been sold by her parents and now having escaped has discovered that she has a talent for scrying (telling the future), and Daley a young child who used to be part of an acting troupe- but has left after his boss murdered his mother. When Vedra and Daley cross paths, they try simply to survive but Daley's sticky fingers have other plans.
When Daley winds up stealing a message and a ring that REALLY didn't belong to him, Daley and Vedra get thrown in the middle of a scramble to decide who becomes the next king. The choices are the King's oldest bastard - already the first lord, the King's Brutal younger bastard and the King's legitimate son, never previously named heir. It is then they get taken into a group of outlaws reminiscent of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Like I said I really enjoyed this. I think a few expectations need to be set going in. It is being billed as fast paced. The Splintered Sun is a slow paced authors idea of a fast paced book. It's not that it's slow by any means, but it isn't Mistborn, Red Rising, or Dungeon Crawler Carl paced. If you want a blisteringly paced action adventure this is not that. This does have a really steady momentum that I really enjoyed. It balanced really well a very classic fantasy style of writing, while also never verging into boring or slow territory.
This story does have a lot of Robin Hood inspiration, after all Robin Hood tells the story of Prince John usurping the absentee King Richard's throne. This is quite similar to the plot going on here, but rather than one usurper, we have a few. The mighty King Tethtain is living in a self imposed exile, never having named an heir. His son Ewain, wishes to be declared heir, meanwhile Tethtain's bastards are each also seeking the throne.
The magic system of scrying is interesting and is poised to be something that defines the rest of the series. It is dangerous, it is mysterious, its mysteries are best known to a species that generally isn't willing to share those secrets. There are heists, battles, cons, rescues in this story.
I will have to jump into the rest of the stories from Osten Ard soon.
This book MOSTLY follows two main characters. Vedra, a young island girl who had been sold by her parents and now having escaped has discovered that she has a talent for scrying (telling the future), and Daley a young child who used to be part of an acting troupe- but has left after his boss murdered his mother. When Vedra and Daley cross paths, they try simply to survive but Daley's sticky fingers have other plans.
When Daley winds up stealing a message and a ring that REALLY didn't belong to him, Daley and Vedra get thrown in the middle of a scramble to decide who becomes the next king. The choices are the King's oldest bastard - already the first lord, the King's Brutal younger bastard and the King's legitimate son, never previously named heir. It is then they get taken into a group of outlaws reminiscent of Robin Hood and his Merry Men.
Like I said I really enjoyed this. I think a few expectations need to be set going in. It is being billed as fast paced. The Splintered Sun is a slow paced authors idea of a fast paced book. It's not that it's slow by any means, but it isn't Mistborn, Red Rising, or Dungeon Crawler Carl paced. If you want a blisteringly paced action adventure this is not that. This does have a really steady momentum that I really enjoyed. It balanced really well a very classic fantasy style of writing, while also never verging into boring or slow territory.
This story does have a lot of Robin Hood inspiration, after all Robin Hood tells the story of Prince John usurping the absentee King Richard's throne. This is quite similar to the plot going on here, but rather than one usurper, we have a few. The mighty King Tethtain is living in a self imposed exile, never having named an heir. His son Ewain, wishes to be declared heir, meanwhile Tethtain's bastards are each also seeking the throne.
The magic system of scrying is interesting and is poised to be something that defines the rest of the series. It is dangerous, it is mysterious, its mysteries are best known to a species that generally isn't willing to share those secrets. There are heists, battles, cons, rescues in this story.
I will have to jump into the rest of the stories from Osten Ard soon.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the arc!
What do you get when you take the story of Robin Hood, mix in a pinch of Wheel of Time and a dash of Lord of the Rings? You get Tad Wiliams’ newest book “The Splintered Sun.” I thoroughly enjoyed this high fantasy behemoth that was half cozy band of travelers on a quest and half mad dash to escape danger. While there are many things to love about this story, I particularly enjoyed the depictions of the villains who were compelling without being cardboard cutout “boogeymen.”
What keeps this book from being a solid five stars for me is a pitfall common to many first books in an epic series; the lack of a clear overall theme. As an avid fantasy reader I find the series that stick with me the most are those that strive to impart some kind of overarching hypothesis about the world or human connection. While I clearly understood the motives and thrust of the quest of this book I remain unclear about the story’s ultimate point of view regarding the events that were unfolding.
Overall, this was a cozy high fantasy tale with enough tropes to feel comfortable and enough novelty to keep me engaged: A great start to a fantasy series that I look forward to continuing as future books are published
What do you get when you take the story of Robin Hood, mix in a pinch of Wheel of Time and a dash of Lord of the Rings? You get Tad Wiliams’ newest book “The Splintered Sun.” I thoroughly enjoyed this high fantasy behemoth that was half cozy band of travelers on a quest and half mad dash to escape danger. While there are many things to love about this story, I particularly enjoyed the depictions of the villains who were compelling without being cardboard cutout “boogeymen.”
What keeps this book from being a solid five stars for me is a pitfall common to many first books in an epic series; the lack of a clear overall theme. As an avid fantasy reader I find the series that stick with me the most are those that strive to impart some kind of overarching hypothesis about the world or human connection. While I clearly understood the motives and thrust of the quest of this book I remain unclear about the story’s ultimate point of view regarding the events that were unfolding.
Overall, this was a cozy high fantasy tale with enough tropes to feel comfortable and enough novelty to keep me engaged: A great start to a fantasy series that I look forward to continuing as future books are published
September 29, 2026
This was my first Tad Williams book and I think it was a great entry into his work, but it didn't quite land for me.
The worldbuilding was solid and easy to grasp, while making it obvious from the start that there is so much more to discover than what this novel shows. The character work was fine, and although there were many different characters and POVs, each was easy to recognize and follow.
The prose was great and flowed from page to page. Williams does an excellent job in immersing the reader into his world.
However, the story is where this book lacks the most. The plot built up nicely with rising stakes throughout, but it all came tumbling down with a disappointing ending. I felt let down and expected more after a 500 page journey. I don’t even know why anything that happened mattered in the end. I understand this is the first book in a bigger series, but I expect more than just a gentle setup from an opener.
But that does mean that there is a lot more to discover in a second book...
The worldbuilding was solid and easy to grasp, while making it obvious from the start that there is so much more to discover than what this novel shows. The character work was fine, and although there were many different characters and POVs, each was easy to recognize and follow.
The prose was great and flowed from page to page. Williams does an excellent job in immersing the reader into his world.
However, the story is where this book lacks the most. The plot built up nicely with rising stakes throughout, but it all came tumbling down with a disappointing ending. I felt let down and expected more after a 500 page journey. I don’t even know why anything that happened mattered in the end. I understand this is the first book in a bigger series, but I expect more than just a gentle setup from an opener.
But that does mean that there is a lot more to discover in a second book...
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Reading The Splintered Sun reminded me of watching The Force Awakens (Star Wars). I was excited to return to a world I loved, only to realize I was getting essentially the same story with a different cast. I still enjoyed it - but I wanted a new adventure, not another version of one I'd already read.
We're back in Osten Ard following Flann, a charismatic outlaw whose band of misfits gets caught up in a struggle over the rightful heir to Hernystir's throne. Williams knows how to write classic fantasy, and there's plenty to enjoy here. The banter between Flann and his companions is genuinely entertaining, and I loved the relationship between Vedra and Daley. Their bond brings some much-needed tenderness to a world that hasn't been particularly kind to either of them. And Williams's prose still has that wonderful, old-school fantasy charm that makes Osten Ard such a pleasure to return to.
But goodness, Daley is practically Simon 2.0. Another young, reluctant hero swept into a much bigger adventure, surrounded by familiar character types and following a journey that feels awfully close to one we've already taken. Even the fight over who gets to sit on the throne feels like a repeat of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. It's not one particular plot point that's too familiar. It's the whole shape of the story. I kept waiting for something to surprise me, but it rarely did. Maybe I read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn too recently...
Still, this is a house with good bones. It's classic fantasy to its core, full of familiar tropes from an author who helped define the genre. The story is enjoyable, even if it doesn't offer much that's new. I actually think this could be a great entry point into Osten Ard. You don't need to have read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn to enjoy it, and you might even enjoy it more if you haven't.
A solid 3 stars. I loved being back in Osten Ard, but I wish Williams had given me a little more to discover.
Thank you to NetGalley, Hodderscape, and Tad Williams for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
We're back in Osten Ard following Flann, a charismatic outlaw whose band of misfits gets caught up in a struggle over the rightful heir to Hernystir's throne. Williams knows how to write classic fantasy, and there's plenty to enjoy here. The banter between Flann and his companions is genuinely entertaining, and I loved the relationship between Vedra and Daley. Their bond brings some much-needed tenderness to a world that hasn't been particularly kind to either of them. And Williams's prose still has that wonderful, old-school fantasy charm that makes Osten Ard such a pleasure to return to.
But goodness, Daley is practically Simon 2.0. Another young, reluctant hero swept into a much bigger adventure, surrounded by familiar character types and following a journey that feels awfully close to one we've already taken. Even the fight over who gets to sit on the throne feels like a repeat of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. It's not one particular plot point that's too familiar. It's the whole shape of the story. I kept waiting for something to surprise me, but it rarely did. Maybe I read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn too recently...
Still, this is a house with good bones. It's classic fantasy to its core, full of familiar tropes from an author who helped define the genre. The story is enjoyable, even if it doesn't offer much that's new. I actually think this could be a great entry point into Osten Ard. You don't need to have read Memory, Sorrow and Thorn to enjoy it, and you might even enjoy it more if you haven't.
A solid 3 stars. I loved being back in Osten Ard, but I wish Williams had given me a little more to discover.
Thank you to NetGalley, Hodderscape, and Tad Williams for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Check out our full interview with Tad Williams on Realm Runners!
https://youtu.be/8fwJKMafPxM?si=fHih-...
I loved this book. I remember reading The Dragonbone Chair when I was younger and it feeling as close to Tolkien as I'll ever read, by a living author. And thank goodness, Tad is still crushing that vibe; for my money, there's no better author of that classic epic fantasy out there today.
The biggest differences between those earlier Osten Ard books, and the Splintered Sun is twofold; the pacing is much quicker, and it's more dialogue focused, both of which will make it an "easier" read for the fantasy fans today. As much as I loved exploring the castle with Simon for 200 pages in the Dragonbone Chair, even Tad recognizes that a slower start may not be for everyone, and The Splintered Sun may not move at a breakneck pace but it is noticeably quicker.
Dialogue is also a key element that was primarily focused on in this book. It is witty, insightful and full of emotion throughout, making the characters jump off the page and feel like people we've known our whole lives. The POVs were split and I enjoyed my time with each of them.
Overall, this is a must read for those of you who are looking for that "throwback" fantasy feel. It was a joy to go back and spend time in the world of Osten Ard, and I'm very much looking forwards to the next book!
Special thanks to DAW for the ARC, and Tad Williams himself for joining us on the podcast!
https://youtu.be/8fwJKMafPxM?si=fHih-...
I loved this book. I remember reading The Dragonbone Chair when I was younger and it feeling as close to Tolkien as I'll ever read, by a living author. And thank goodness, Tad is still crushing that vibe; for my money, there's no better author of that classic epic fantasy out there today.
The biggest differences between those earlier Osten Ard books, and the Splintered Sun is twofold; the pacing is much quicker, and it's more dialogue focused, both of which will make it an "easier" read for the fantasy fans today. As much as I loved exploring the castle with Simon for 200 pages in the Dragonbone Chair, even Tad recognizes that a slower start may not be for everyone, and The Splintered Sun may not move at a breakneck pace but it is noticeably quicker.
Dialogue is also a key element that was primarily focused on in this book. It is witty, insightful and full of emotion throughout, making the characters jump off the page and feel like people we've known our whole lives. The POVs were split and I enjoyed my time with each of them.
Overall, this is a must read for those of you who are looking for that "throwback" fantasy feel. It was a joy to go back and spend time in the world of Osten Ard, and I'm very much looking forwards to the next book!
Special thanks to DAW for the ARC, and Tad Williams himself for joining us on the podcast!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Rating 3.5
Beautifully immersive, with rich worldbuilding and a compelling cast of memorable characters.
The novel's greatest strength is its worldbuilding. Hernystir feels vividly alive, with its layered history, folklore, and political tensions enriching every chapter. Tad Williams has a remarkable ability to create settings that feel ancient and lived-in, and that talent shines throughout this book. The new cast is equally engaging, particularly Flann Alderwood, whose outlaw charm makes him an easy character to root for. Vedra and Daley each offer distinct perspectives, giving the story a broader scope than a traditional single-hero narrative.
That said, the novel spends a considerable amount of time laying the groundwork for future installments, which occasionally slows the pacing. While I appreciated the immersive attention to detail, there were stretches where the momentum lagged, and I found myself wishing the plot would move forward more quickly.
Even so, Williams' prose is thoughtful and evocative, and the blend of political intrigue, folklore, and subtle magic kept me invested throughout. The conclusion is satisfying, though it feels more like the opening chapter of a much larger saga than a fully self-contained adventure. Readers who enjoy richly imagined epic fantasy with unforgettable characters and expansive worldbuilding will find plenty to love in The Splintered Sun.
Overall, The Splintered Sun is a strong beginning to a new chapter in the world of Osten Ard. Longtime fans will appreciate the fresh historical perspective, while newcomers will find it an inviting entry point into one of fantasy's most enduring settings. It's a rewarding return to a beloved world and leaves me eager to see where the series goes next.
Beautifully immersive, with rich worldbuilding and a compelling cast of memorable characters.
The novel's greatest strength is its worldbuilding. Hernystir feels vividly alive, with its layered history, folklore, and political tensions enriching every chapter. Tad Williams has a remarkable ability to create settings that feel ancient and lived-in, and that talent shines throughout this book. The new cast is equally engaging, particularly Flann Alderwood, whose outlaw charm makes him an easy character to root for. Vedra and Daley each offer distinct perspectives, giving the story a broader scope than a traditional single-hero narrative.
That said, the novel spends a considerable amount of time laying the groundwork for future installments, which occasionally slows the pacing. While I appreciated the immersive attention to detail, there were stretches where the momentum lagged, and I found myself wishing the plot would move forward more quickly.
Even so, Williams' prose is thoughtful and evocative, and the blend of political intrigue, folklore, and subtle magic kept me invested throughout. The conclusion is satisfying, though it feels more like the opening chapter of a much larger saga than a fully self-contained adventure. Readers who enjoy richly imagined epic fantasy with unforgettable characters and expansive worldbuilding will find plenty to love in The Splintered Sun.
Overall, The Splintered Sun is a strong beginning to a new chapter in the world of Osten Ard. Longtime fans will appreciate the fresh historical perspective, while newcomers will find it an inviting entry point into one of fantasy's most enduring settings. It's a rewarding return to a beloved world and leaves me eager to see where the series goes next.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I have read the Dragonbone Chair from Tad and started on the second book in that series but ultimately decided not to continue. Since this book is brand spanking new and written in the same universe I thought I would give it a shot because Tad is definitely a beloved author and I wanted to be wooed by this book. I have come to the realization that maybe his writing is just not for me. Listen, nobody is more upset with this realization than I am because I see how everyone loves his writing and I want to be one of them but I was bored reading this book. I know many other readers are going to love this one and I do see the appeal, I just don't feel it. There is a solid story here and definitely a lot of character work but it just didn't pull me in the way I had imagined.
Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Pub Date: 10/6/26
Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Pub Date: 10/6/26
October 4, 2026
The Splintered Sun by Tad Williams
The Splintered Sun is an atmospheric return to Osten Ard: its strongest characters and deepening mythology kept me invested, while its slow pacing and tendency to delay its most compelling developments. I enjoyed the book more than I loved it, so four stars feels right, not because it was consistently satisfying, but because its best elements stayed with me and left me eager to continue. The clearest example is Flann and his Crows, who quickly became the most engaging part of the story.
The biggest success for me was Flann and his Crows. I wasn’t expecting an outlaw band to become my favourite part of the book, but I found their chapters the easiest to settle into. There’s something much more immediate about following people who are trying to survive and make their own rules while everyone around them is worrying about crowns, bloodlines and succession. I cared about what happened to them, which isn’t something I could say equally about every storyline.
Vedra and Daley were more complicated for me. I was intrigued by them, particularly Vedra and the mystery surrounding her abilities, but I sometimes felt as though the book was deliberately holding me at arm’s length from them. I understood why the mystery was being maintained, but there were moments when I wanted to know more about these characters rather than being given another hint about them.
The political conflict, the Crows, the mysterious children, the immortal exile and the ancient forces beginning to stir are all individually interesting. This is a book that takes its time positioning all the pieces on the board. I understood that this was a slow build, but I wasn’t always convinced that every part of that build needed to take quite so long.
At the same time, I can’t pretend the slow pace didn’t work on me eventually. The further I got into the book, the more I started thinking about what was happening beneath the surface. The immortal exile in particular made me rethink the earlier events, because suddenly the succession struggle didn’t seem like the main story at all. It felt like the characters had accidentally wandered into something much older and much more dangerous.
And this is where being an Osten Ard fan probably colours my opinion. Knowing where this world eventually ends up made me much more interested in the history behind what I was reading. I kept wondering how these events might echo through the centuries and whether things that seem relatively small here will eventually become important in the world of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.
There were characters I wanted more of, sections I wanted to move faster, and moments when I wasn’t sure whether my patience was being rewarded or simply tested. But there were also enough scenes where I found myself completely absorbed, enough characters I genuinely cared about, and enough unanswered questions that I finished the book wanting to continue.
That’s probably why I’m landing on four stars rather than three. I didn’t love every part of The Splintered Sun, and I wouldn’t call it an effortless read, but it got under my skin enough that I kept thinking about it when I wasn’t reading. And ultimately, I think that’s a pretty good sign.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a chance to review an e-ARC and give an honest opinion.
The Splintered Sun is an atmospheric return to Osten Ard: its strongest characters and deepening mythology kept me invested, while its slow pacing and tendency to delay its most compelling developments. I enjoyed the book more than I loved it, so four stars feels right, not because it was consistently satisfying, but because its best elements stayed with me and left me eager to continue. The clearest example is Flann and his Crows, who quickly became the most engaging part of the story.
The biggest success for me was Flann and his Crows. I wasn’t expecting an outlaw band to become my favourite part of the book, but I found their chapters the easiest to settle into. There’s something much more immediate about following people who are trying to survive and make their own rules while everyone around them is worrying about crowns, bloodlines and succession. I cared about what happened to them, which isn’t something I could say equally about every storyline.
Vedra and Daley were more complicated for me. I was intrigued by them, particularly Vedra and the mystery surrounding her abilities, but I sometimes felt as though the book was deliberately holding me at arm’s length from them. I understood why the mystery was being maintained, but there were moments when I wanted to know more about these characters rather than being given another hint about them.
The political conflict, the Crows, the mysterious children, the immortal exile and the ancient forces beginning to stir are all individually interesting. This is a book that takes its time positioning all the pieces on the board. I understood that this was a slow build, but I wasn’t always convinced that every part of that build needed to take quite so long.
At the same time, I can’t pretend the slow pace didn’t work on me eventually. The further I got into the book, the more I started thinking about what was happening beneath the surface. The immortal exile in particular made me rethink the earlier events, because suddenly the succession struggle didn’t seem like the main story at all. It felt like the characters had accidentally wandered into something much older and much more dangerous.
And this is where being an Osten Ard fan probably colours my opinion. Knowing where this world eventually ends up made me much more interested in the history behind what I was reading. I kept wondering how these events might echo through the centuries and whether things that seem relatively small here will eventually become important in the world of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.
There were characters I wanted more of, sections I wanted to move faster, and moments when I wasn’t sure whether my patience was being rewarded or simply tested. But there were also enough scenes where I found myself completely absorbed, enough characters I genuinely cared about, and enough unanswered questions that I finished the book wanting to continue.
That’s probably why I’m landing on four stars rather than three. I didn’t love every part of The Splintered Sun, and I wouldn’t call it an effortless read, but it got under my skin enough that I kept thinking about it when I wasn’t reading. And ultimately, I think that’s a pretty good sign.
My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a chance to review an e-ARC and give an honest opinion.
October 6, 2026
The Splintered Sun is my first time reading a book by Tad Williams, so I didn't know what to expect. I really enjoyed this story. Williams did a really good job building this large complex world as well as quite a few different characters. When reading this story, I felt as though I had a good understanding of both Vexra and Daley and the complexities of their relationship, which truly is a found family type of relationship. Through them we also meet Flann and his crows. He was also an interesting character. I liked how Williams used Flann's conversations with others to really help us get to know him, his motivations, and how he viewed the idea of necessary sacrifices in times of war. His discussions with Mearna was always so interesting, especially with her usually offering beliefs in opposition to his. We got to learn more about Ewain during his conversations with Daley and Rumon. I think Scaeth was well-written as a villain.
The pacing became a challenge around 45% into the book because a lot of time was spent in Xaniko's house and the woods. There were a number of conversations about why Flann and Xaniko were doing things a certain way or people asking them questions without getting any real answers during the middle chunk of the story. While some of the conversations were interesting, the story felt like it wasn't really moving forward. In this big chunk of the middle section of the story we see Daley's experience on the Dream Road while Vedra is training in a different way and trying to figure herself out. Mostly, it felt like not much was happening. There's so much buildup to getting Ewain in front of his father, but when it happens it feels so lackluster and the interacrion a little rushed. I understand the intention of the pacing was meant to demonstrate the status of the king and the impact of the White Starling. Regardless, I was still invested in the story and characters so I wanted to see how things would progress.
Ultimately, I really liked this story and believe others will too. I believe this story is supposed to be many, many years in the past before Dragonbone Chair so I don't believe anything will be spoiled for that story.
Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The pacing became a challenge around 45% into the book because a lot of time was spent in Xaniko's house and the woods. There were a number of conversations about why Flann and Xaniko were doing things a certain way or people asking them questions without getting any real answers during the middle chunk of the story. While some of the conversations were interesting, the story felt like it wasn't really moving forward. In this big chunk of the middle section of the story we see Daley's experience on the Dream Road while Vedra is training in a different way and trying to figure herself out. Mostly, it felt like not much was happening. There's so much buildup to getting Ewain in front of his father, but when it happens it feels so lackluster and the interacrion a little rushed. I understand the intention of the pacing was meant to demonstrate the status of the king and the impact of the White Starling. Regardless, I was still invested in the story and characters so I wanted to see how things would progress.
Ultimately, I really liked this story and believe others will too. I believe this story is supposed to be many, many years in the past before Dragonbone Chair so I don't believe anything will be spoiled for that story.
Thank you to Netgalley and DAW for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
4.25⭐️ The Splintered Sun is set 300 years before the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series and can serve as an entry point into the world of Osten Ard, depending on how you like to start a series. Thank you to DAW for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. And thank you RB Media for the ALC preview.
I really enjoyed my time with this Robin Hood esque story with a found family element that left me needing the next book in the series. This was originally going to be a standalone that got turned into a series and you can sort of see this in the differences between the first and second half of the book. The character work was done well, although it felt a bit repetitive in some parts, so I became pretty invested into almost all of the characters we see and I’m looking forward to where their stories are going to go. The plot kept me hooked, the pacing was a bit faster in the beginning compared to what I would normally expect from book 1s, and I loved seeing the connection to MST. While this is marketed as a prequel to an epic fantasy series, this book does seem smaller scale and even though we have multi POV with a good amount of characters, it doesn’t feel as epic and large scale as MST. I do think it’s important to note there isn’t much payoff in the end, but being book 1 in a series and the focus being on the characters, I didn’t mind this. But if you’re a plot reader, this may not be for you until there are more books in the series for the plot to progress more and have more payoff.
Start your Osten Ard journey with The Splintered Sun if you want a faster paced, smaller scale action adventure story with found family and a more contained story that doesn’t leave off on a huge cliffhanger.
Start your Osten Ard journey with the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series if you want deeper world building and lore, a slow paced classic epic fantasy, and a more tradition feel to a completed large scale fantasy series with amazing prose.
Overall, I loved this book and I liked the different vibe compared to MST. There were some repetitive parts so this could have been shorter a bit to keep tighter pacing, but I can’t wait to continue this series and new readers can absolutely start with this book as long as they are ok with an uncompleted series and are looking for the elements I mentioned above. You really can’t go wrong with any Tad Williams book, his prose is amazing, and I highly recommend diving into your Osten Ard journey.
The audiobook was absolutely amazing and I loved the narrator. His ability to capture different voices to give each character a unique personality really added so much life to the story and made it feel even more immersive. I highly recommend the audio!
I really enjoyed my time with this Robin Hood esque story with a found family element that left me needing the next book in the series. This was originally going to be a standalone that got turned into a series and you can sort of see this in the differences between the first and second half of the book. The character work was done well, although it felt a bit repetitive in some parts, so I became pretty invested into almost all of the characters we see and I’m looking forward to where their stories are going to go. The plot kept me hooked, the pacing was a bit faster in the beginning compared to what I would normally expect from book 1s, and I loved seeing the connection to MST. While this is marketed as a prequel to an epic fantasy series, this book does seem smaller scale and even though we have multi POV with a good amount of characters, it doesn’t feel as epic and large scale as MST. I do think it’s important to note there isn’t much payoff in the end, but being book 1 in a series and the focus being on the characters, I didn’t mind this. But if you’re a plot reader, this may not be for you until there are more books in the series for the plot to progress more and have more payoff.
Start your Osten Ard journey with The Splintered Sun if you want a faster paced, smaller scale action adventure story with found family and a more contained story that doesn’t leave off on a huge cliffhanger.
Start your Osten Ard journey with the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series if you want deeper world building and lore, a slow paced classic epic fantasy, and a more tradition feel to a completed large scale fantasy series with amazing prose.
Overall, I loved this book and I liked the different vibe compared to MST. There were some repetitive parts so this could have been shorter a bit to keep tighter pacing, but I can’t wait to continue this series and new readers can absolutely start with this book as long as they are ok with an uncompleted series and are looking for the elements I mentioned above. You really can’t go wrong with any Tad Williams book, his prose is amazing, and I highly recommend diving into your Osten Ard journey.
The audiobook was absolutely amazing and I loved the narrator. His ability to capture different voices to give each character a unique personality really added so much life to the story and made it feel even more immersive. I highly recommend the audio!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you to NetGalley and DAW for providing a copy of this novel!
This was my first Tad Williams novel and I absolutely loved it! I was a little worried when I saw this was a prequel series, but I had no problem following the story and it never felt like characters were getting "name dropped" or anything. I was completely pulled into the world from page one. I really liked William's writing style. It was simple enough that the book was a pretty quick and easy read, but descriptive enough that I felt like a had a good grasp of the world and characters.
Speaking of characters, I loved them all! This book is in third-person... limited? I think. It's been a couple days since I finished it, so I don't remember exactly, however, I do know that it shifts perspectives quite a bit. Normally, when I read a novel with a bunch of perspectives, some will stand out and others will annoy me. That wasn't the case in this book. I liked each of the perspectives and what they added to the story. I also just liked all the characters, in general. They each feel unique and I had no problems keeping them straight even though there was such a large cast of characters.
I was also very invested in the story itself. I do not know if the outcomes of this novel/series are already known to readers of later books in this series. But, since this was my first book in the series, I had no idea what was going to happen next and was on the edge of my seat.
I loved this book and can't wait to read more in the series! One unfortunate thing th0ugh is that I don't want to read any further installments in this series for fear of "spoiling" the prequel.
This was my first Tad Williams novel and I absolutely loved it! I was a little worried when I saw this was a prequel series, but I had no problem following the story and it never felt like characters were getting "name dropped" or anything. I was completely pulled into the world from page one. I really liked William's writing style. It was simple enough that the book was a pretty quick and easy read, but descriptive enough that I felt like a had a good grasp of the world and characters.
Speaking of characters, I loved them all! This book is in third-person... limited? I think. It's been a couple days since I finished it, so I don't remember exactly, however, I do know that it shifts perspectives quite a bit. Normally, when I read a novel with a bunch of perspectives, some will stand out and others will annoy me. That wasn't the case in this book. I liked each of the perspectives and what they added to the story. I also just liked all the characters, in general. They each feel unique and I had no problems keeping them straight even though there was such a large cast of characters.
I was also very invested in the story itself. I do not know if the outcomes of this novel/series are already known to readers of later books in this series. But, since this was my first book in the series, I had no idea what was going to happen next and was on the edge of my seat.
I loved this book and can't wait to read more in the series! One unfortunate thing th0ugh is that I don't want to read any further installments in this series for fear of "spoiling" the prequel.
October 6, 2026
I loved this one! Tad Williams takes us back to Osten Ard about 300 years before the events of The Dragonbone Chair. If you've ever wanted to try his work but felt nervous about starting with a massive series, this is your way in.
The best way I can describe the vibe is a mix of The Witcher and classic epic fantasy. We follow a scrappy band of outlaws and misfits through a kingdom full of political scheming, dark magic, and dangers that aren't always human. I'm a sucker for a found-family crew, and this one delivered.
The pacing is steady and never feels rushed, and the details and world building are as intricate as you'd hope from Williams. I really appreciated the organized plotline, where bit by bit he adds new POVs and details to expand the story. You can tell the world has been lived in and thought through, but it never felt like homework to me. I was happy to sink into every scene.
For the lovers of Osten Ard, this will scratch the itch and give you an amazing way to explore the world once more.
If you've been eyeing The Dragonbone Chair but kept putting it off because it's intimidating, start here. You get the richness of the world and the quality of the writing without the big commitment up front, and I think it will make you want to dive into the rest of the catalogue. I can't wait for more!
Thank you to Tad Williams for this epic adventure and bigger thanks to Daw Books for allowing me to explore this world. Whispers* and ruining my TBR for the forseeable future, I have to add the entire catalogue now.
The best way I can describe the vibe is a mix of The Witcher and classic epic fantasy. We follow a scrappy band of outlaws and misfits through a kingdom full of political scheming, dark magic, and dangers that aren't always human. I'm a sucker for a found-family crew, and this one delivered.
The pacing is steady and never feels rushed, and the details and world building are as intricate as you'd hope from Williams. I really appreciated the organized plotline, where bit by bit he adds new POVs and details to expand the story. You can tell the world has been lived in and thought through, but it never felt like homework to me. I was happy to sink into every scene.
For the lovers of Osten Ard, this will scratch the itch and give you an amazing way to explore the world once more.
If you've been eyeing The Dragonbone Chair but kept putting it off because it's intimidating, start here. You get the richness of the world and the quality of the writing without the big commitment up front, and I think it will make you want to dive into the rest of the catalogue. I can't wait for more!
Thank you to Tad Williams for this epic adventure and bigger thanks to Daw Books for allowing me to explore this world. Whispers* and ruining my TBR for the forseeable future, I have to add the entire catalogue now.
September 14, 2026
3.25 stars! I’m very conflicted when it comes to this book. This is my first Tad Williams and The Splintered Sun is marketed as a good entry point into his Osten Ard world, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing a lot of context? This felt like a very zoomed-in adventure quest while I kept wanting to learn more about the larger world, politics, and magic.
We follow many POVs and I did enjoy all the characters, many of them very endearing and layered. However, because the scope is so zoomed-in and the plot moves quite slowly, we spent a LOT of time with these characters yet didn’t get the character development to show for it.
I think this book is primarily set-up for the following books to come in this prequel series because it held a slow and steady pace with little to no climactic moments and not even really any payoff at the conclusion. There was also a lot of repetition and I think this could have been about 200 pages shorter.
I did really appreciate Tad William’s writing style and can see why he is a well-loved author. I do think I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had read other books set in this world first.
We follow many POVs and I did enjoy all the characters, many of them very endearing and layered. However, because the scope is so zoomed-in and the plot moves quite slowly, we spent a LOT of time with these characters yet didn’t get the character development to show for it.
I think this book is primarily set-up for the following books to come in this prequel series because it held a slow and steady pace with little to no climactic moments and not even really any payoff at the conclusion. There was also a lot of repetition and I think this could have been about 200 pages shorter.
I did really appreciate Tad William’s writing style and can see why he is a well-loved author. I do think I probably would have enjoyed this more if I had read other books set in this world first.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Why do I feel like I have to justify myself if a book doesn't hit 100% for me? :D
In Splintered Sun, we follow several POVs, but the overall plot is that a band of noble exiles turned outlaws is trying to help the rightful heir of Hernystir claim the crown. The first two characters, Vedra and Daley, managed to fully and completely irritate me throughout the whole book, slowly making me nitpick everything and everybody else. What kept me reading was only a mild curiosity about how it would all develop, and I was vibing with being in the fantasy setting, but the book just fizzled out into nothing. Is the book a really long entry chapter into the next book? I'll be there for it, but dear god, I hope I never see some of these characters again.
In Splintered Sun, we follow several POVs, but the overall plot is that a band of noble exiles turned outlaws is trying to help the rightful heir of Hernystir claim the crown. The first two characters, Vedra and Daley, managed to fully and completely irritate me throughout the whole book, slowly making me nitpick everything and everybody else. What kept me reading was only a mild curiosity about how it would all develop, and I was vibing with being in the fantasy setting, but the book just fizzled out into nothing. Is the book a really long entry chapter into the next book? I'll be there for it, but dear god, I hope I never see some of these characters again.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you Netgalley and DAW books and Hodder for a digital advanced readers copy of the Splintered Sun. My last foray into the world of Osten Ard was 2021 but reading this book felt so familiar. The world and characters are fully realized and captivating. A standalone heist fantasy? It was as thrilling and high stakes as I was hoping it to be. It definitely made me want to go back and read the other books in the Osten Ard series as there is a lot of lore and magic and events that foreshadows the previous series. Fans of Tad Williams are in for a treat with this one! Publsihes tomorrow 10/6/2026
Did Not Finish
September 26, 2026DNF. I'm tapping out. I was into this one for a while. But by chapter fifteen, I was super bored. So I'm done.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Bad Plans, Worse Music, Excellent Outlaws: The Messy Making of Legend in Tad Williams’s “The Splintered Sun”
A rightful heir needs saving, the Crows need rehearsing, and history needs quite a lot of editing before anyone will want to sing about it
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | September 26th, 2026
Difficult things happen to stories on their way to becoming legends. Motives simplify. Logistics vanish. Bad jokes improve in the retelling. The frightened people at the edge of an adventure become anonymous helpers, while the person holding the bow acquires a cleaner silhouette. Tad Williams’s “The Splintered Sun” is fascinated by that laundering. Set roughly three centuries before “The Dragonbone Chair,” it returns to an Osten Ard whose future generations will remember outlaws, kings, betrayals, and songs more readily than the grubby sequence of choices that produced them. Williams begins not with Flann Alderwood, the outlaw chief best equipped for legend, but with Daley, a ten-year-old mummer’s child whose mother dies after a confrontation with the troupe-master Yuval. Grief turns into arson. Then Daley hears Beppe trapped inside the wagon he has set ablaze and goes back for him. Before the dynastic machinery starts turning, the novel has already made heroism inconvenient.
Even Williams’s own account of the book’s origin points toward that gap between lived event and remembered story. In an August 2026 newsletter, he explained that an old Jack Mundwode song embedded in “The Dragonbone Chair” led him to wonder whether Flann’s Crows might represent the historical company from which a later outlaw legend descended. He invokes the Robin Hood tradition, but the more revealing part of the comparison is his wish to restore what legend tends to discard: quarrels, ethical disagreements, untidy motives, the ordinary friction of people who have not yet been edited into folklore. “The Splintered Sun” occupies the interval between an event and the story that will one day make the event look inevitable.
Much of the plot is dynastic clockwork, though Williams wisely puts small hands inside the mechanism. King Tethtain is old, absent from Hernystir, and increasingly unreliable. Phelan, his elder illegitimate son, governs as First Lord; Scaeth, another illegitimate son, has soldiers and appetites of his own; Ewain, Tethtain’s only son born within marriage, has the strongest conventional claim but not his father’s acknowledgment. Daley, fleeing into Hernysadharc after his mother’s death, takes shelter with Vedra, a fourteen-year-old Harchan immigrant who survives by scrying. His compulsive climbing carries him into a tower at Knockbeg, where he overhears dangerous political business and steals Scaeth’s signet and an incriminating letter partly because the ring reminds him of his mother. Private grief accidentally grabs hold of public history. The mistake draws both children toward Flann’s Crows and Xaniko, an ancient Hikeda’ya exile whose Threadbare Hall contains rather more history than sound masonry.
Every item in that summary is ready for a ballad: rightful prince, secret letter, forest outlaws, fairy lord, murderous rival, hidden journey. What Williams keeps adding is friction between the shape of the tale and the experience of the people trapped inside it. Daley does not want to save Hernystir. Vedra does not dream of becoming a useful seer. Mearna knows that a good plan can still use a child badly. Xaniko withholds information because he believes ignorance may protect people, which is an exquisitely adult way of converting care into control. The Crows do not become persuasive because the novel declares them a found family. They sew, cook, scout, rehearse dreadful music, nurse wounds, quarrel about tactics, and keep track of who has not come home. Williams makes care logistical before he makes it sentimental.
The sharpest rebuke to the epic machinery comes from Daley. On the way to Dun Ard, Ewain tries to explain the righteousness of the cause, but Daley has had enough of being recruited by other people’s nouns. “We’re not pieces. I’m not. Vedra’s not. We’re real,” he says after comparing the adults’ plans to a board game. The syntax is tiny and devastating. “We” contracts into “I” and “Vedra,” then returns as a human category rather than a faction. Ewain speaks in princes, causes, enemies, obligations; Daley answers by naming persons. When Ewain asks whether the justice of the cause matters, Daley points out that he did not even know Phelan’s or Scaeth’s names before strangers made their struggle his daily problem. The scene does not overturn the adventure. It makes the adventure answerable to the people it needs.
Rather than turn Daley into a precocious political philosopher, Williams keeps his intelligence bodily and local. The boy climbs because height gives him distance from other people, then discovers that distance makes him an excellent witness. He speaks rarely, so his longer bursts arrive with pressure. His world is concrete: food, ledges, doors, pain, whether Vedra is near, whether a wall can be scaled, whether an adult is lying. Vedra’s attention moves differently. She notices social judgment, hospitality, obligation, and the possibility of being sent away. Mearna sees relational consequences before the strategists do. Bellicent reveals herself through the gap between what she reports about Scaeth and what the reader can see her admitting. Williams’s rotating close third does not reinvent its vocabulary for every point of view, but it repeatedly changes what information feels urgent. History is never neutral lore here. It is something half-known, mistrusted, misremembered, or explained by people who have reasons for explaining it that way. Even the comedy changes with the watcher: Flann’s jokes can look like charm, evasion, or recklessness depending on who has to live with the consequence. The shifts are modest at the sentence level and consequential in judgment.
In sentence after sentence, Williams prefers lucidity to display, yet he is exact about rhythm. After Daley’s mother dies, long sentences of shock contract into two words: “Light. Fire.” White space follows, and the next remembered action is Daley carrying a torch toward the wagons. That cut does more than another paragraph of grief could have done. Elsewhere, especially on the Dream Road, syntax loosens and imagery arrives faster than interpretation. Vedra can perceive before she can understand; Daley, by contrast, often understands by reducing the world to its practical terms. The distinction is not absolute, but it shapes meaning: Daley’s trauma compresses language, while Vedra’s visions flood it with more sensation than she can safely organize.
Perception is the book’s most persistent trap. Vedra works through mirrors and reflections. Xaniko’s dragonglass device is called the Witness. Letters must be decoded; spies catch fragments; scryers receive images without reliable meanings; Daley sees conversations from roofs without possessing their context. The Amber that links him to Xaniko is described as solid sunlight, “like a splinter broken from the edge of the daystar and fallen to earth,” the title’s strongest internal resonance. Yet the Amber illuminates by exposing. It connects Daley and Vedra across distance while also creating a route through which something hostile can approach them. Access to an image is never quite the same thing as knowledge.
At Dun Ard, that distinction becomes cruel. Williams does not prevent Ewain from reaching his father with one more ambush. He lets the expedition succeed geographically and then breaks its governing assumption. Ewain stands before Tethtain and begs him to look at his face, remember his mother, recognize the evidence of blood. Tethtain responds that his wife died in childbirth and the child died too. Ewain protests. Witnesses corroborate him. The king repeats the sentence. The structure has delivered everyone to the promised destination only to reveal that the destination cannot perform the function assigned to it. A quest designed to secure recognition culminates in the discovery that authority itself has become incapable of recognizing.
Pressed against Ewain’s expanding plea, Tethtain’s repetition becomes almost mechanical. Ewain’s language keeps opening outward: look, remember, compare, acknowledge. Tethtain’s contracts into a memorized formula, closed to revision. A living body cannot dislodge the sentence already occupying the king’s mind. Williams even makes the king’s posture participate: Tethtain curls into his tall chair “like a spider shrinking back into a crevice,” physically retreating from the evidence his office requires him to judge. In a novel full of mirrors, Witnesses, disguises, intercepted messages, and half-understood visions, he becomes the supreme failed reader. His problem is not simply that he lacks information. He has information standing in front of him and cannot alter the story through which he interprets it. The crown stops looking like a solution because the man wearing it can no longer read what is before him.
And yet Williams refuses the easiest conclusion. Ewain remains the sympathetic claimant; Scaeth is murderous; Phelan is dangerous; the Crows continue to regard the prince’s survival as worth terrible risk. “The Splintered Sun” unsettles the moral sufficiency of hereditary power without giving up the rightful-heir structure that generates its adventure. Its politics are skeptical from below but still conventional at the crown. That boundary should stay visible. One reader may feel Williams has troubled an old fantasy structure enough to make it newly alive; another may feel he has mainly made monarchy nicer company.
During one of Mearna’s best conversations with Vedra, the novel offers a rival way of belonging. Mearna explains that friendship necessarily risks betrayal, then observes that Flann and Xaniko resemble one another because both have been hurt, dispossessed, and driven away. Vedra supplies the expansion: “Exiles … All of us.” Flann has lost land and status. Mearna has been displaced. Xaniko is cut off from his people and from the life he shared with his dead wife. Vedra’s first home has become unlivable. Daley has lost his mother and every structure that followed from her. The kingdom arranges identity through blood, title, ownership, and sanctioned inheritance. The Crows arrange it through shakier practices: usefulness, affection, memory, argument, return.
In practice, the Crows earn the warmth the novel gives them. Tika heals people who would otherwise die. Mearna notices when Vedra has been frightened into silence. Diarban’s music is sometimes art, sometimes disguise, sometimes coded message. Mollie’s hospitality at Threadbare Hall begins with baths and food before anyone bothers with destiny. Near the end, when Xaniko is inexplicably stronger after being brought home, Mollie says only that “the house helps him,” then clarifies that it is “his place.” In a novel crowded with castles, camps, ruins, towers, and contested lands, the most restorative architecture is the least impressive one: a cracked house held together by habit, memory, and people who know where the cups are.
Membership, however, never becomes morally spotless. The adults who protect Daley and Vedra also deploy them. Xaniko withholds. Flann compartmentalizes. Daley is sent with Ewain because his peculiar relation to the Dream Road makes him useful. Late in the book, with Xaniko wounded and the Crows trapped in the Greenwrack, Vedra enters the Dream Road and finds him confused enough to mistake her for the granddaughter he has never met. She recognizes the error and exploits it, calling him Grandfather so he will tell her how to guide everyone out. Afterward, while the others praise her, she thinks: “I tricked him.” The sentence is plain because the discomfort is not. Her growth into agency has not preserved her innocence. It has made other people dependent on decisions she can no longer keep clean.
If Vedra learns that responsibility can require deception, Flann learns its bloodier arithmetic. At Serpent’s Vale he has Scaeth in his sights and desperately wants to kill him. Instead he shifts his arrow to Hrinvart Firemouth because the mercenary captain’s death is more likely to provoke the battle his plan requires. “Responsibility is a curse,” he mutters afterward. The joke is characteristically quick, but the choice underneath it is ugly: Flann has selected the death that will produce the most useful cascade of other deaths. His charisma does not exempt him from calculation. The man most likely to look splendid in a ballad has to live through the arithmetic the ballad will omit.
Then comes Chimney Ridge. Flann deliberately turns the Pucai against trapped mercenaries, and the tactic works with horrifying efficiency. Diarban hears men screaming below until he can no longer bear to look. Flann’s hand shakes. He calls what they have done “plain murder,” even as he insists Scaeth forced his hand. Williams is not exposing Flann as fraudulent. Flann is brave, loyal, inventive, and frequently marvelous company. The Crows really do save lives. Their schemes really do outwit stronger forces. The problem is what later storytelling will edit. Centuries afterward, a song could turn Chimney Ridge into a clever victory in a stanza. The novel makes us remain in the present tense long enough to hear the screaming stop.
Roominess is where Williams’s generosity starts charging interest. The novel’s length is not itself the problem. Much of its pleasure lies in routes taken, local histories, meals, disguises, bad rehearsals, small jobs, and the business of getting a company from one dangerous place to another. Osten Ard feels inhabited because connective tissue is rarely disposable. But strategy is sometimes explained once by events and then again in dialogue. During a long account of how Phelan, Scaeth, and Hagan might be maneuvered into damaging one another, Vedra finally complains that the explanation is making her head spin. The joke lands because the reader may be nodding beside her. There is not too much politics. There is occasionally too much explanation of politics already made legible. Williams is unusually good at letting a road, meal, rehearsal, or quarrel carry history obliquely; the weaker stretches arrive when that confidence gives way and characters start diagramming the very pressures the preceding scenes have already taught us to feel.
Of course, some of that amplitude belongs to the design. A story interested in the mess beneath legend should contain things the ballad will not: preparations, conflicting accounts, people learning news at different times, distances that have to be crossed rather than skipped. But that defense cannot become a blanket pardon. Some connective passages merely keep the machine serviced. Uatha carries more thematic weight than psychological complexity, functioning as religious certainty fused with coercive power without receiving the inward dimensionality Williams grants Bellicent. Phelan’s bodily difference is also described twice through strikingly similar images of grotesquerie, a blunt old fantasy shorthand in a book otherwise alert to the unreliability of surfaces. Williams’s humane attention is generous, but it is not evenly distributed.
Put plainly, the materials are old: secret heir, magical relic, forest band, rival half-brothers, hidden routes, ancient shadow. The surprise lies in where Williams spends feeling. A more conventional adventure would make the prince’s recognition the catharsis. Williams denies it. A thinner found-family story would end with an adult announcing that the children have been adopted. Williams instead gives Vedra a quieter sentence. When Flann assumes that she and Daley will travel with the Crows, she answers, “I … I didn’t know we were wanted.” The pause contains a whole education in conditional hospitality.
One internal echo makes the ending better still. Daley’s earlier complaint is that adults keep deciding what he and Vedra will risk. At the end, Daley instantly says he is going with the Crows, but Vedra checks the assumption: did he know, or did he want? The distinction is small enough to miss and large enough to contain the book’s moral education. Knowing what others have planned for you is not the same as wanting it. Later she asks whether staying is what he really wants. He nods. Only then does she say, “We’re Crows now.” The movement is grammatical before it is sentimental. “We” is no longer the category somebody else has assigned them. It is a word the children enter by consent.
Unfinished politics, however, do not make an unfinished novel. Ewain is not crowned. Tethtain is not restored. Scaeth, Phelan, and Hagan remain dangerous. The Shadow has barely come into focus. “The Splintered Sun” is the first Flann’s Crows book, followed by “The Crooked Tower” and “The Holly Ring,” so some unfinished business belongs to a larger architecture. The first volume still needs its own shape, and it has one. The kingdom’s succession remains unstable; the children’s place in the world does not.
Legitimacy is the book’s public argument, but recognition is its private one. That is where “The Splintered Sun” comes closest to Katherine Addison’s “The Goblin Emperor,” though Williams reaches the question from the margins rather than the throne. The Crows cannot confer a crown. They can offer food, shelter, dangerous work, bad music, unwanted advice, medical attention, trees for Daley to climb, and the prospect that Vedra’s gift might be taught rather than merely exploited. It is an imperfect polity, occasionally manipulative and always vulnerable. It is also the most functional form of belonging the novel can imagine.
On my scale, “The Splintered Sun” earns 84/100, or 4/5 Goodreads stars. Its best scenes understand that seeing is not understanding, legitimacy is not recognition, protection can become control, and a good cause can still turn people into pieces. The repeated strategic exposition matters; some antagonists are flatter than the pressures they embody; some of the traditional machinery remains traditional rather than transformed. But the strongest formal choices keep revising what initially looks like a straightforward adventure, and the book’s affection for its people rarely blurs its awareness of what they ask from one another.
Still, the image that lasts is not a throne or even Flann with a bow. It is a battered company returning with wounds, grudges, unfinished business, and two children who assume they are about to be sent away because experience has trained them to expect it. The kingdom has spent the novel arguing over who may inherit it; the Crows answer a smaller question without ceremony. They make room. Someday a song may remember an outlaw hero and a prince saved from treachery. “The Splintered Sun” is better because it lingers just before that song begins, while the blood is still wet, the jokes are still bad, and belonging is still something that has to be asked for, offered, and chosen.
A rightful heir needs saving, the Crows need rehearsing, and history needs quite a lot of editing before anyone will want to sing about it
By Demetris Papadimitropoulos | September 26th, 2026
Difficult things happen to stories on their way to becoming legends. Motives simplify. Logistics vanish. Bad jokes improve in the retelling. The frightened people at the edge of an adventure become anonymous helpers, while the person holding the bow acquires a cleaner silhouette. Tad Williams’s “The Splintered Sun” is fascinated by that laundering. Set roughly three centuries before “The Dragonbone Chair,” it returns to an Osten Ard whose future generations will remember outlaws, kings, betrayals, and songs more readily than the grubby sequence of choices that produced them. Williams begins not with Flann Alderwood, the outlaw chief best equipped for legend, but with Daley, a ten-year-old mummer’s child whose mother dies after a confrontation with the troupe-master Yuval. Grief turns into arson. Then Daley hears Beppe trapped inside the wagon he has set ablaze and goes back for him. Before the dynastic machinery starts turning, the novel has already made heroism inconvenient.
Even Williams’s own account of the book’s origin points toward that gap between lived event and remembered story. In an August 2026 newsletter, he explained that an old Jack Mundwode song embedded in “The Dragonbone Chair” led him to wonder whether Flann’s Crows might represent the historical company from which a later outlaw legend descended. He invokes the Robin Hood tradition, but the more revealing part of the comparison is his wish to restore what legend tends to discard: quarrels, ethical disagreements, untidy motives, the ordinary friction of people who have not yet been edited into folklore. “The Splintered Sun” occupies the interval between an event and the story that will one day make the event look inevitable.
Much of the plot is dynastic clockwork, though Williams wisely puts small hands inside the mechanism. King Tethtain is old, absent from Hernystir, and increasingly unreliable. Phelan, his elder illegitimate son, governs as First Lord; Scaeth, another illegitimate son, has soldiers and appetites of his own; Ewain, Tethtain’s only son born within marriage, has the strongest conventional claim but not his father’s acknowledgment. Daley, fleeing into Hernysadharc after his mother’s death, takes shelter with Vedra, a fourteen-year-old Harchan immigrant who survives by scrying. His compulsive climbing carries him into a tower at Knockbeg, where he overhears dangerous political business and steals Scaeth’s signet and an incriminating letter partly because the ring reminds him of his mother. Private grief accidentally grabs hold of public history. The mistake draws both children toward Flann’s Crows and Xaniko, an ancient Hikeda’ya exile whose Threadbare Hall contains rather more history than sound masonry.
Every item in that summary is ready for a ballad: rightful prince, secret letter, forest outlaws, fairy lord, murderous rival, hidden journey. What Williams keeps adding is friction between the shape of the tale and the experience of the people trapped inside it. Daley does not want to save Hernystir. Vedra does not dream of becoming a useful seer. Mearna knows that a good plan can still use a child badly. Xaniko withholds information because he believes ignorance may protect people, which is an exquisitely adult way of converting care into control. The Crows do not become persuasive because the novel declares them a found family. They sew, cook, scout, rehearse dreadful music, nurse wounds, quarrel about tactics, and keep track of who has not come home. Williams makes care logistical before he makes it sentimental.
The sharpest rebuke to the epic machinery comes from Daley. On the way to Dun Ard, Ewain tries to explain the righteousness of the cause, but Daley has had enough of being recruited by other people’s nouns. “We’re not pieces. I’m not. Vedra’s not. We’re real,” he says after comparing the adults’ plans to a board game. The syntax is tiny and devastating. “We” contracts into “I” and “Vedra,” then returns as a human category rather than a faction. Ewain speaks in princes, causes, enemies, obligations; Daley answers by naming persons. When Ewain asks whether the justice of the cause matters, Daley points out that he did not even know Phelan’s or Scaeth’s names before strangers made their struggle his daily problem. The scene does not overturn the adventure. It makes the adventure answerable to the people it needs.
Rather than turn Daley into a precocious political philosopher, Williams keeps his intelligence bodily and local. The boy climbs because height gives him distance from other people, then discovers that distance makes him an excellent witness. He speaks rarely, so his longer bursts arrive with pressure. His world is concrete: food, ledges, doors, pain, whether Vedra is near, whether a wall can be scaled, whether an adult is lying. Vedra’s attention moves differently. She notices social judgment, hospitality, obligation, and the possibility of being sent away. Mearna sees relational consequences before the strategists do. Bellicent reveals herself through the gap between what she reports about Scaeth and what the reader can see her admitting. Williams’s rotating close third does not reinvent its vocabulary for every point of view, but it repeatedly changes what information feels urgent. History is never neutral lore here. It is something half-known, mistrusted, misremembered, or explained by people who have reasons for explaining it that way. Even the comedy changes with the watcher: Flann’s jokes can look like charm, evasion, or recklessness depending on who has to live with the consequence. The shifts are modest at the sentence level and consequential in judgment.
In sentence after sentence, Williams prefers lucidity to display, yet he is exact about rhythm. After Daley’s mother dies, long sentences of shock contract into two words: “Light. Fire.” White space follows, and the next remembered action is Daley carrying a torch toward the wagons. That cut does more than another paragraph of grief could have done. Elsewhere, especially on the Dream Road, syntax loosens and imagery arrives faster than interpretation. Vedra can perceive before she can understand; Daley, by contrast, often understands by reducing the world to its practical terms. The distinction is not absolute, but it shapes meaning: Daley’s trauma compresses language, while Vedra’s visions flood it with more sensation than she can safely organize.
Perception is the book’s most persistent trap. Vedra works through mirrors and reflections. Xaniko’s dragonglass device is called the Witness. Letters must be decoded; spies catch fragments; scryers receive images without reliable meanings; Daley sees conversations from roofs without possessing their context. The Amber that links him to Xaniko is described as solid sunlight, “like a splinter broken from the edge of the daystar and fallen to earth,” the title’s strongest internal resonance. Yet the Amber illuminates by exposing. It connects Daley and Vedra across distance while also creating a route through which something hostile can approach them. Access to an image is never quite the same thing as knowledge.
At Dun Ard, that distinction becomes cruel. Williams does not prevent Ewain from reaching his father with one more ambush. He lets the expedition succeed geographically and then breaks its governing assumption. Ewain stands before Tethtain and begs him to look at his face, remember his mother, recognize the evidence of blood. Tethtain responds that his wife died in childbirth and the child died too. Ewain protests. Witnesses corroborate him. The king repeats the sentence. The structure has delivered everyone to the promised destination only to reveal that the destination cannot perform the function assigned to it. A quest designed to secure recognition culminates in the discovery that authority itself has become incapable of recognizing.
Pressed against Ewain’s expanding plea, Tethtain’s repetition becomes almost mechanical. Ewain’s language keeps opening outward: look, remember, compare, acknowledge. Tethtain’s contracts into a memorized formula, closed to revision. A living body cannot dislodge the sentence already occupying the king’s mind. Williams even makes the king’s posture participate: Tethtain curls into his tall chair “like a spider shrinking back into a crevice,” physically retreating from the evidence his office requires him to judge. In a novel full of mirrors, Witnesses, disguises, intercepted messages, and half-understood visions, he becomes the supreme failed reader. His problem is not simply that he lacks information. He has information standing in front of him and cannot alter the story through which he interprets it. The crown stops looking like a solution because the man wearing it can no longer read what is before him.
And yet Williams refuses the easiest conclusion. Ewain remains the sympathetic claimant; Scaeth is murderous; Phelan is dangerous; the Crows continue to regard the prince’s survival as worth terrible risk. “The Splintered Sun” unsettles the moral sufficiency of hereditary power without giving up the rightful-heir structure that generates its adventure. Its politics are skeptical from below but still conventional at the crown. That boundary should stay visible. One reader may feel Williams has troubled an old fantasy structure enough to make it newly alive; another may feel he has mainly made monarchy nicer company.
During one of Mearna’s best conversations with Vedra, the novel offers a rival way of belonging. Mearna explains that friendship necessarily risks betrayal, then observes that Flann and Xaniko resemble one another because both have been hurt, dispossessed, and driven away. Vedra supplies the expansion: “Exiles … All of us.” Flann has lost land and status. Mearna has been displaced. Xaniko is cut off from his people and from the life he shared with his dead wife. Vedra’s first home has become unlivable. Daley has lost his mother and every structure that followed from her. The kingdom arranges identity through blood, title, ownership, and sanctioned inheritance. The Crows arrange it through shakier practices: usefulness, affection, memory, argument, return.
In practice, the Crows earn the warmth the novel gives them. Tika heals people who would otherwise die. Mearna notices when Vedra has been frightened into silence. Diarban’s music is sometimes art, sometimes disguise, sometimes coded message. Mollie’s hospitality at Threadbare Hall begins with baths and food before anyone bothers with destiny. Near the end, when Xaniko is inexplicably stronger after being brought home, Mollie says only that “the house helps him,” then clarifies that it is “his place.” In a novel crowded with castles, camps, ruins, towers, and contested lands, the most restorative architecture is the least impressive one: a cracked house held together by habit, memory, and people who know where the cups are.
Membership, however, never becomes morally spotless. The adults who protect Daley and Vedra also deploy them. Xaniko withholds. Flann compartmentalizes. Daley is sent with Ewain because his peculiar relation to the Dream Road makes him useful. Late in the book, with Xaniko wounded and the Crows trapped in the Greenwrack, Vedra enters the Dream Road and finds him confused enough to mistake her for the granddaughter he has never met. She recognizes the error and exploits it, calling him Grandfather so he will tell her how to guide everyone out. Afterward, while the others praise her, she thinks: “I tricked him.” The sentence is plain because the discomfort is not. Her growth into agency has not preserved her innocence. It has made other people dependent on decisions she can no longer keep clean.
If Vedra learns that responsibility can require deception, Flann learns its bloodier arithmetic. At Serpent’s Vale he has Scaeth in his sights and desperately wants to kill him. Instead he shifts his arrow to Hrinvart Firemouth because the mercenary captain’s death is more likely to provoke the battle his plan requires. “Responsibility is a curse,” he mutters afterward. The joke is characteristically quick, but the choice underneath it is ugly: Flann has selected the death that will produce the most useful cascade of other deaths. His charisma does not exempt him from calculation. The man most likely to look splendid in a ballad has to live through the arithmetic the ballad will omit.
Then comes Chimney Ridge. Flann deliberately turns the Pucai against trapped mercenaries, and the tactic works with horrifying efficiency. Diarban hears men screaming below until he can no longer bear to look. Flann’s hand shakes. He calls what they have done “plain murder,” even as he insists Scaeth forced his hand. Williams is not exposing Flann as fraudulent. Flann is brave, loyal, inventive, and frequently marvelous company. The Crows really do save lives. Their schemes really do outwit stronger forces. The problem is what later storytelling will edit. Centuries afterward, a song could turn Chimney Ridge into a clever victory in a stanza. The novel makes us remain in the present tense long enough to hear the screaming stop.
Roominess is where Williams’s generosity starts charging interest. The novel’s length is not itself the problem. Much of its pleasure lies in routes taken, local histories, meals, disguises, bad rehearsals, small jobs, and the business of getting a company from one dangerous place to another. Osten Ard feels inhabited because connective tissue is rarely disposable. But strategy is sometimes explained once by events and then again in dialogue. During a long account of how Phelan, Scaeth, and Hagan might be maneuvered into damaging one another, Vedra finally complains that the explanation is making her head spin. The joke lands because the reader may be nodding beside her. There is not too much politics. There is occasionally too much explanation of politics already made legible. Williams is unusually good at letting a road, meal, rehearsal, or quarrel carry history obliquely; the weaker stretches arrive when that confidence gives way and characters start diagramming the very pressures the preceding scenes have already taught us to feel.
Of course, some of that amplitude belongs to the design. A story interested in the mess beneath legend should contain things the ballad will not: preparations, conflicting accounts, people learning news at different times, distances that have to be crossed rather than skipped. But that defense cannot become a blanket pardon. Some connective passages merely keep the machine serviced. Uatha carries more thematic weight than psychological complexity, functioning as religious certainty fused with coercive power without receiving the inward dimensionality Williams grants Bellicent. Phelan’s bodily difference is also described twice through strikingly similar images of grotesquerie, a blunt old fantasy shorthand in a book otherwise alert to the unreliability of surfaces. Williams’s humane attention is generous, but it is not evenly distributed.
Put plainly, the materials are old: secret heir, magical relic, forest band, rival half-brothers, hidden routes, ancient shadow. The surprise lies in where Williams spends feeling. A more conventional adventure would make the prince’s recognition the catharsis. Williams denies it. A thinner found-family story would end with an adult announcing that the children have been adopted. Williams instead gives Vedra a quieter sentence. When Flann assumes that she and Daley will travel with the Crows, she answers, “I … I didn’t know we were wanted.” The pause contains a whole education in conditional hospitality.
One internal echo makes the ending better still. Daley’s earlier complaint is that adults keep deciding what he and Vedra will risk. At the end, Daley instantly says he is going with the Crows, but Vedra checks the assumption: did he know, or did he want? The distinction is small enough to miss and large enough to contain the book’s moral education. Knowing what others have planned for you is not the same as wanting it. Later she asks whether staying is what he really wants. He nods. Only then does she say, “We’re Crows now.” The movement is grammatical before it is sentimental. “We” is no longer the category somebody else has assigned them. It is a word the children enter by consent.
Unfinished politics, however, do not make an unfinished novel. Ewain is not crowned. Tethtain is not restored. Scaeth, Phelan, and Hagan remain dangerous. The Shadow has barely come into focus. “The Splintered Sun” is the first Flann’s Crows book, followed by “The Crooked Tower” and “The Holly Ring,” so some unfinished business belongs to a larger architecture. The first volume still needs its own shape, and it has one. The kingdom’s succession remains unstable; the children’s place in the world does not.
Legitimacy is the book’s public argument, but recognition is its private one. That is where “The Splintered Sun” comes closest to Katherine Addison’s “The Goblin Emperor,” though Williams reaches the question from the margins rather than the throne. The Crows cannot confer a crown. They can offer food, shelter, dangerous work, bad music, unwanted advice, medical attention, trees for Daley to climb, and the prospect that Vedra’s gift might be taught rather than merely exploited. It is an imperfect polity, occasionally manipulative and always vulnerable. It is also the most functional form of belonging the novel can imagine.
On my scale, “The Splintered Sun” earns 84/100, or 4/5 Goodreads stars. Its best scenes understand that seeing is not understanding, legitimacy is not recognition, protection can become control, and a good cause can still turn people into pieces. The repeated strategic exposition matters; some antagonists are flatter than the pressures they embody; some of the traditional machinery remains traditional rather than transformed. But the strongest formal choices keep revising what initially looks like a straightforward adventure, and the book’s affection for its people rarely blurs its awareness of what they ask from one another.
Still, the image that lasts is not a throne or even Flann with a bow. It is a battered company returning with wounds, grudges, unfinished business, and two children who assume they are about to be sent away because experience has trained them to expect it. The kingdom has spent the novel arguing over who may inherit it; the Crows answer a smaller question without ceremony. They make room. Someday a song may remember an outlaw hero and a prince saved from treachery. “The Splintered Sun” is better because it lingers just before that song begins, while the blood is still wet, the jokes are still bad, and belonging is still something that has to be asked for, offered, and chosen.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I had such a fun time with this novel! The characters were easily my favorite part, especially Vedra and Daley and their found family dynamic. Flann and the Crows were also so much fun. Overall, I loved the mix of adventure, political intrigue, magic, and mystery. The worldbuilding is fantastic without feeling overwhelming, and the whole book is a true epic fantasy, unlike a lot of stories lately that are just very long and dense with little to no plot or character development. Tad Williams' writing is bright and sharp and makes everything feel alive, with the entire novel being very atmospheric. It's a complex, yet thoroughly planned-out book, and I'm very excited to see where the story goes next.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Splintered Sun
by Tad Williams
A story of two thrown together siblings. The book shows the nature of great world building. The layer culture and religious connotations help bring life to the world. The mission of the siblings to find safety makes this a good young adult reading book.
by Tad Williams
A story of two thrown together siblings. The book shows the nature of great world building. The layer culture and religious connotations help bring life to the world. The mission of the siblings to find safety makes this a good young adult reading book.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I received an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This was my first Tad Williams book and it definitely will not be my last. I had such a fun time reading this book and loved Flann’s band of outlaws. I am so excited to see where this series goes from here. We have 2 evil half brothers fighting to become the next king and both trying to murder their other half brother who is the rightful heir to the throne.
2 children, Vedra and Daley are instrumental in the mission to save the Prince from his evil brothers.
The character work and world building is excellent and the pacing was wonderful. If you are a fan of epic fantasy then this is a must read.
This was my first Tad Williams book and it definitely will not be my last. I had such a fun time reading this book and loved Flann’s band of outlaws. I am so excited to see where this series goes from here. We have 2 evil half brothers fighting to become the next king and both trying to murder their other half brother who is the rightful heir to the throne.
2 children, Vedra and Daley are instrumental in the mission to save the Prince from his evil brothers.
The character work and world building is excellent and the pacing was wonderful. If you are a fan of epic fantasy then this is a must read.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Much like a fantasy version of Robin Hood defending England from Prince John crossed with Lloyd Alexander’s YA series about the swineherd who becomes king.
Nice touches of symbolism in the details like describing the drummer boy jumping between rooftops and trees like a squirrel, then having the villain dressed in a squirrel trimmed outfit. Ten-year-old Daley is the primary driver of the plot and seems much better at telling the future than the scrier. Indeed, she fails to deliver the warning of her only recurring vision till the final 80 pages. All help from the immortal Norn was agonizingly drawn out and piecemeal. The middle is slow and wallows. No plans are shared with the reader. The Norn doesn’t even tell the prince who he can trust at court, which seems suicidal. Instead of explaining anything, Xaniko wastes time telling the group he doesn’t have much time and why the girl isn’t ready to do her task. Other than getting Daley access to the secret message, the girl doesn’t seem necessary until chapter 52. The first dog combat broke suspension of disbelief for me completely. On p409 the island isn’t an island anymore and they can ride horses home instead of a boat. Then the author sets about torturing and killing every POV character and ally. The ending was limp and unsatisfying. I still have no idea what the title means. Do not recommend.
Nice touches of symbolism in the details like describing the drummer boy jumping between rooftops and trees like a squirrel, then having the villain dressed in a squirrel trimmed outfit. Ten-year-old Daley is the primary driver of the plot and seems much better at telling the future than the scrier. Indeed, she fails to deliver the warning of her only recurring vision till the final 80 pages. All help from the immortal Norn was agonizingly drawn out and piecemeal. The middle is slow and wallows. No plans are shared with the reader. The Norn doesn’t even tell the prince who he can trust at court, which seems suicidal. Instead of explaining anything, Xaniko wastes time telling the group he doesn’t have much time and why the girl isn’t ready to do her task. Other than getting Daley access to the secret message, the girl doesn’t seem necessary until chapter 52. The first dog combat broke suspension of disbelief for me completely. On p409 the island isn’t an island anymore and they can ride horses home instead of a boat. Then the author sets about torturing and killing every POV character and ally. The ending was limp and unsatisfying. I still have no idea what the title means. Do not recommend.
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