Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme where we randomly select a book from our Goodreads To Be Read list and share it with the world. It’s hosted by Lauren’s Page Turners, so be sure to link back to her site so that we can all see what everyone plans to read!
The Broken Crown (The Sun Sword #1)
by Michelle West
Fantasy
768 pages
First Published in July 1997, by Daw Books
From Goodreads: The first novel of the acclaimed Sun Sword series introduces readers to a war-torn world of noble houses divided and demon lords unleashed…
Tor Leonne–the heart of the Dominion of Annagar, where the games of state are about to become a matter of life and death–and where those who seek to seize the crown will be forced to league with a treacherously cunning ally…
Tor Leonne, ancestral seat of power, where Serra Diora Maria di’Marano–the most sought-after beauty in the land, a woman betrayed by all she holds dear–may strike the first blow to change the future of the Dominion and Empire alike…
Averalaan Aramarelas–that most ancient of civilized cities, the home of the Essalieyan Imperial court, has long been a center of magics both dark and bright. And though the Empire won its last war with the Dominion, and survived a devastating, magic-fueled battle with a far deadlier foe, both those victories were not without their cost…
But now the realm is on the brink of a far greater confrontation, faced with an unholy alliance that could spell the end of freedom for all mortal kind.
I kept seeing this at the used bookstore, and thanks to a recent desire to read more fantasy by lesser-known women authors, I decided to buy the book a few weeks ago. Now I just need some time to sit down with this little chunker and start reading.
Traveling in Books 
This really depends on your tastes and preference for reading orders, but if you like to read chronologically, you might want to pick up Hidden City first. It is technically in a different series, House War, that straddles the Broken Sword series (Broken Crown is the first book in that series) but the events in the first couple of books happen before the events in Broken Crown and you have some character crossover. You can read this series on its own, but you may miss some of the nuances of the world that the overarching story is set in. There is another 2 book series, The Hunt Brothers, that also predates these books and falls in a weird place in the timeline inside the House War series. There are LOTS of books and they are long, but I absolutely love this series and can say they are well worth your time.
Good to know! It’s good to hear that you enjoyed the series, because I don’t know if anyone else who has read it. I will start with this one since I already own it, and then go on to the others if I like this one. The used bookstore has the rest of this series (I think), and they have been there for a while, so I should be able to get the others if I want to continue the series.
At one point, these were really hard to find. I don’t know if they still are, but grab them if you can!
Michelle West (also Michelle Saraga and Michelle Sagara West) is one of my favorite authors. She writes epically long books with tons of characters and underlying plot threads. These books have a lot of political intrigue (in world politics, not real world politics) and a really interesting and unique (in my opinion anyway) world/magic. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it!