Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.
This week my Can’t-Wait-For is The Last Stand of Mary Good Crow by Rachel Aaron!
Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fantasy
Representation: Biracial MC
Published on: 1st June 2022
Goodreads
Deadwood meets The Lord of the Rings in this Epic Fantasy of the West!
Hungry darkness, haunted guns, tunnels that move like snakes—the crystal mines of Medicine Rocks, Montana are a place only the bravest and greediest dare. Discovered in 1866, the miraculous rock known as crystal quickly rose to become the most expensive substance on the planet, driving thousands to break the treaties and invade the sacred buffalo lands of the Sioux. But mining crystal risks more than an arrow in the chest. The beautiful rock has a voice of its own. A voice that twists minds and calls unnatural powers.
A voice that turns men into monsters.
Mary Good Crow hears it. Half white, half Lakota, rejected by both, she’s forged a new life guiding would-be miners through the treacherous caves. To her ears, the crystal sings a beautiful song, one the men she guides would gladly burn her as a witch for hearing. So, when an heiress from Boston arrives with a proposition that could change her life, Mary agrees to push deeper into the caves than she’s ever dared.
But there are secrets buried in the Deep Caves that even Mary doesn’t know. The farther she goes, the closer she gets to the voice that’s been calling her all this time. A voice that could change the bloody story of the West, or destroy it all.
I’d read a few of Aaron’s books before – and enjoyed them! – but she won me as a fan forever with her Heartstriker series about shapeshifting dragons, and I haven’t missed a single one of her books since 2014.
I’M NOT ABOUT TO START NOW.
Does Last Stand sound very different from anything she’s written before? Absolutely. But that makes it exciting! I don’t require my favourite authors to write the same sort of book over and over, and I’m very happy to pivot and see where Aaron’s going next. Epic fantasy meets Wild West is not something I’d pick out for myself usually, but when your faves hop (sub-)genres you’ve gotta hop with them!
Besides, I’ve been craving some good alternate-history books. This definitely sounds like it’ll fit the bill!
I hit the preorder button minutes after the newsletter announcement hit my inbox, and I regret nothing!
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