Book rec for a change...

The stresses of lockdown really did a number on my ability to enjoy new fiction - even fanfic I sometimes struggled with. And while I'm starting to come out the other side of that, it's not often I find a new book and really fall in love with it. But over the last year or so I've seen a number of recs for Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor - I finally got round to picking it up last weekend, didn't want to put it down and have already bought a number of the shorter books with the same characters. It's in no way a clone of The Goblin Emperor, which I also love, but it does also have likeable, competent characters who want to make the world a better place, and interesting world-building. If that sounds like your kind of thing, I'd recommend giving it a try.