Into the Narrowdark: Book Three of The Last King of Osten Ard

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It's quite the tapestry that Tad Williams has woven. If you like fantasy that doesn't hit you over the head with magic spells, or world-spanning tales with numerous rich characters, you'll enjoy what Williams has brought to the table here. I know I did * DEN OF GEEK *

Into the Narrowdark: The Last King of Osten Ard, Book 3

Given this is the third book in the series, and all of them are tome-length, and the comment above on the complicated plotting, it goes without saying this is not a book to be read on its own. For those still reading, there will be some inevitable spoilers for the first two books, The Witchwood Crown and Empire of Grass (not to mention the original decades-old series that began this story). I’m also assuming you’re going to recognize the following names and plot points. Meanwhile, a deadly army of Norns led by the ageless, vengeful Queen Utuk'ku, has swept into Erkynland and thrown down the fortress of Naglimund, slaughtering the inhabitants and digging up the ancient grave of Ruyan the Navigator. Utuk'ku plans to use the Navigator's fabled armor to call up the spirit of Hakatri, the evil Storm King's brother. Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my process stuff with you, my friends and readers, since Narrowdarkhas just hit the shelves. As I said, I’m moving forward finishing Navigator’s Children, and I think I’ve got the hardest of the problems dealt with. Now I can just concentrate on writing the ending to the whole TLKOOAstory, finally, for the first time. Tad Williams is a master storyteller, and the Osten Ard books are his masterpiece. Williams’ return to Osten Ard is every bitas compelling, deep, and fully-rendered as the first trilogy, and he continues to write with the experience and polish of an author at the top of his game.”—Brandon Sanderson, New York Times-bestselling author of Mistborn It’s been . . . fun, in a strange, painful way, because it’s really hard work, and I love a challenge. But it’s also hard work and a challenge, so it’s slower than if I was just writing a final volume from scratch. And sometimes it makes my head really hurt. But, like I said, challenge.

Summary

Panoramic, vigorous, often moving…. Williams adroitly weaves together the tales…heralding a suitably epic and glorious conclusion.”— Publishers Weekly

Into the Narrowdark full spoilers thread : r/TadWilliams Official Into the Narrowdark full spoilers thread : r/TadWilliams

As you may have heard me say online, this last volume, The Navigator’s Children, has proved to be the strangest and most difficult book I’ve ever written. Because the pandemic largely shut down publishing for much of two years while I was working on the first iteration of Navigator(when it still represented the third and final volume of the TLKOOAtrilogy) it was clear that I would have a long stretch of dead time before any books could be published. I had the short volume of Brothers of the Windstill to write, which I had previously planned to do after TLKOOAwas completed, but the Covid-bomb blowing up publishing schedules made me decide to write it before completing Volume Last of TLKOOA, which was then still a trilogy. Anyway, at that point, I split the final volume into two parts, Into The Narrowdark(I’ll call it IND; it’s out now!) and The Navigator’s Children(called NVCfrom now on). I put aside the half of the story which would become NVC(and finalized INDwhile also writing Brothers of the Wind( BotW). This whole process took about a year, during which time I made many changes to various plots in INDwhile leaving NVC‘s first draft still unfinished, a sort of time-capsule of What I Had Planned, though many, many necessary changes/new ideas/improvements had come to me during the preparation of INDand BotWfor publication, and they changed what NVCwould be in many ways.

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Even the Sithi, fairy-kin to the Norns, are helpless to stop Utuk'ku's triumph as her armies simultaneously march on the Hayholt and force their way into the forbidden, ogre-guarded valley of Tanakiru - the Narrowdark - where a secret waits that might bring Simon's people and their Sithi allies salvation - or doom. By the way, I believe that The Last King of Osten Ardhas now passed Memory, Sorrow, and Thornfor the longest time I’ve spent on one project. I’m not 100% positive, but I’ve always remembered writing that first multi-volume story as taking about seven years—starting Dragonbone Chairto finishing To Green Angel Tower. I believe I started TLKOOAin 2014, so we’ve slipped past that old record. Tad and his wife Deborah Beale are also working on the third ORDINARY FARM novel, currently titled The Heirs of Ordinary Farm. There is no publication date for this book yet. However, this is his next project now LAST KING is finished. First up, the books will be given their own titles. The first volume - now Book III of The Last King of Osten Ard - will be called Into the Narrowdark. The second - now Book IV of the untrilogy - will retain the original title of The Navigator's Children.