I’ve been planning a (re)read of Wars of Light and Shadow for over a year now – inspired by Janny Wurts announcing that she had completed the first draft of the final volume. I’ve been avidly following her updates on Facebook since, and Song of the Mysteries (Book 11) is now in its final round of edits before it goes to the publisher. With all of the publishing disruptions, paper shortages and shipping delays, I know it is probably unrealistic to expect that it will be released by December 2023, but a girl can hope right?

I have eight books to reread and two to read for the first time. I paused reading (but not buying) at the end of the third arc, deciding that I would wait until the final volume was released before reading the rest of the series. I am now ready to start that journey.

I’m going to start off trying to read one book a month. Depending on how life and work go, there may be some slippage, but for now the schedule is 11 months for 11 books (being optimistic on the release date of book 11). I have had 3 friends express interest in joining me in a reread (or a new read for one), so I’m going to “host” it here – with full spoilery discussions for each book. If someone falls behind, no problem, they can just wait to visit the discussion post for each book until after they’ve completed the book.

If you’re reading this and want to join in, please do. No matter when you see it. The discussion posts will still be there for you to comment on, and read others’ thoughts, regardless of when you come to this series. The books are getting harder to find new, but are still fairly easy to find second-hand. Plus they are all now available as eBooks. Edit: you can still get them all in paperback from Blackwell’s UK – some volumes periodically go out of stock but then they get more in, sometimes at higher prices (I’m guessing due to paper shortages, etc, or print on demand restock), and Blackwell’s posts internationally for no added cost.

I’ve created a page, that I will also add to the main menu, to collect links to all of the posts as part of this (re)read for easy access.

As part of my bookshelf spotlight Fantasy Friday, I’m due to post about Wars of Light and Shadow on 27th January. Handy timing as I’m planning to kick off the (re)read on 1st Feb. So this will be an intro to the series.

So, here’s the planned schedule:

• Arc 1
  • Curse of the Mistwraith – February
• Arc 2
  • Ships of Merior – March
  • Warhost of Vastmark – April (if you have the hardcover of Ships of Merior, it includes this volume)
• Arc 3 (Alliance of Light)
  • Fugitive Prince – May
  • Grand Conspiracy – June
  • Peril’s Gate – July
  • Traitor’s Knot – August
  • Stormed Fortress – September
• Arc 4 (Sword of the Canon)
  • Initiate’s Trial – October
  • Destiny’s Conflict – November
• Arc 5
  • Song of the Mysteries – December 🤞

On the first day of the month, I’ll post a kick-off post for that month’s book. And on the last day of the month, I’ll post a spoiler discussion. This will be a post where I share some of my thoughts and invite anyone to discuss their thoughts, things they have figured out, questions they have, in the comments for any and all to respond to. To comment, you don’t need to have a WordPress account, or any other type of linked account, you can just use your email address. There is also the option to be notified on any other comments in the post so that you can see what else is added to the discussion that you might want to respond to. Or, you might want to just lurk and have a silent discussion with what is posted, after you’ve read each book. For me, I’m often finding that I don’t want to just post a spoiler-free review of a book when I have completed it, especially one I love or have a lot of thoughts about, and sometimes I just want to share my thoughts and see what others think – sometimes someone else has a perspective that answers questions a book as raised for me.