Returning to Atlantis with High Expectations: The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards

I really loved the characters from the first book in The Tarot Sequence, not to mention the worldbuilding and the relationships. And since the end of the book left those characters with a clear goal in an interesting situation with a bad guy designed to be creepy as well as challenging, picking up the second book in the series was a really easy decision. And how can you possibly ignore that cover?

The Hanged Man (2019)
Written By: K.D. Edwards
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Pages: 386 pages (Kindle)
Series: Book 2 in The Tarot Sequence
Publisher: Pyr

The premise:

The last member of a murdered House tries to protect his ward from forced marriage to a monster while uncovering clues to his own tortured past. The Tarot Sequence imagines a modern-day Atlantis off the coast of Massachusetts, governed by powerful Courts based on the traditional Tarot deck. Rune Saint John, last child of the fallen Sun Throne, is backed into a fight of high court magic and political appetites in a desperate bid to protect his ward, Max, from a forced marital alliance with the Hanged Man. Rune’s resistance will take him to the island’s dankest corners, including a red light district made of moored ghost ships; a surreal skyscraper farm; and the floor of the ruling Convocation, where a gathering of Arcana will change Rune’s life forever.

Minor spoilers for the first book.

Discussion: I have made a terrible error. I’ve become seriously invested in the lives of awesome characters in a compelling universe, and now I have a book hangover. Anyone else do this? Okay, good, it’s not just me. And the biggest problem? There’s no sequel yet! This is why I don’t read series that aren’t complete. You break your rule one time… This is especially damning, since it looks like Edwards is gearing up for a longer series rather than the nice quick trilogy like I thought. What have I done?

Like every good sequel, this made me desperately want to go back and read the first book again. It had almost everything I loved from The Last Sun. Wonderfully complex characters with relationships full of conflict and sass set in a world with such vivid magic and history. We got to see Rune and Brand kicking ass and talking back, as usual, but we also got to see them reacting to the consequences of their previous actions. Yes, they beat the bad guy, but there are also two teenage boys to manage. Rune is now responsible for both Max and Quinn, two young men who have their own histories and powers that give them some pretty wild opinions and ideas of their own. I really loved watching Rune figure out that he was building a kind of family and struggling with how to raise children who are rapidly becoming adults. And while it wasn’t exactly said, I like the idea that Rune was getting to use his own experience with trauma to help other broken children.

One of the highlights of this book for me was getting to see Quinn really come into his own as a prophet. He’s always had this power, but now, with practice and experience and a little bit of maturity, he really got to shine. He stepped away from the fumbling awkward youth who knows too much, into a self-confident young man with the ability to sift through multiple versions of the future. Quinn really became Rune’s superpower, giving him the edge they desperately needed against the Hanged Man.

Edwards does a fantastic job creating really despicable villains who are just so powerful, you can’t imagine the light at the end of the tunnel. The Hanged Man truly frightened me with his power and disregard for humanity. Not to mention his predilection for mutilation and murder. But all that just compelled Rune and the others to be smarter, and faster, and better even than they were in the first book. It meant Rune really had to count on and use his allies, and I loved getting to see him actually work with some of the other Arcana. We knew Lord Tower was a BAMF, but this time we got to see the rest of his colleagues in action. And that showed us how close Rune is to finally wielding the type of power he was born to wield.

My only complaint throughout the whole book was that Rune and Addam’s relationship really felt sidelined. Addam’s intentional pursuit of Rune and Rune’s awkward response was one of my favorite parts of the first book. And given how that one ended, I expected a lot more development of their relationship in the second book. Except there just… wasn’t. They seemed established and comfortable with each other, but that was as far as it ever went. Addam was there when Rune needed him, but mostly he felt like an afterthought. There were no “moments” between them to really grow their relationship. In the first book Addam thought Rune was the Atlantean equivalent of his soulmate, but Rune adamantly disagreed. This would have made a great source of conflict between them in The Hanged Man, but it was never mentioned again except for one short, vaguely unsatisfying conversation. It really felt like a missed opportunity to me, especially considering how well the other characters and relationships were portrayed.

In Conclusion: As usual, I couldn’t put it down, and I’m looking forward to a lot more fun and games with these characters. Given the very slow reveal of some of the deeper secrets and the looming trouble on the horizon, I’m expecting a lot from the rest of the series, and maybe that’s where this forgotten romance will resurface. I’m willing to wait and find out if Edwards is planning to highlight it in other books. I’m just going to grumble about it, because I want it now. Give me more books, please!