Juana Garcia/The Cougar
With an atmosphere any fantasy lover can get lost in, the “Six of Crows” series gives readers intricate world building in a limited number of books.
In the fantasy genre, Leigh Bardugo’s duology not only is able to set up clear surroundings for the plot in both books, but is able to do so while cycling between the points of view from six main characters.
With each separate character we learn a piece of the plot, all while getting a taste of the character’s personality, thoughts and impressions on what is going on. Being able to experience this with six characters at a time, and make all of them vary from one another, is a feat.
One of the six point of views the reader sees is Kaz Brekker, a complex character if there ever was one.
While the plot of the books focuses on the characters needing to complete a heist for a massive reward in return, it shows the different motivations they have and what completing this job means to each one.
The “Six of Crows” characters are not only so diverse in personality that makes each chapter from a different perspective vary from the one before it, but Bardugo has received praise in the diversity and representation written into her books.
This is not Bardugo’s only fantasy work, as she has another series “Shadow and Bone”. This series is held in the same world as “Six of Crows” called the “Grishaverse”. Characters of both book series will be featured in the upcoming Netflix show “Shadow and Bone”.
Seeing the world created within the “Grishaverse” on screen will be exciting as the trailers and sneak peeks already look promising to do the books justice.
To go through reading these books, especially if you are doing so to prepare for the upcoming show, there is a lot of hints to backstory that can’t be skimmed or skipped when trying to grasp the overarching plot.
In this world Bardugo builds, we learn about “Grisha,” which are people with powers or abilities, conflict between fantasy countries, as well as the power dynamics of characters in gangs and monopolies in the book’s main setting “The Barrel”.
With each little detail, the author helps paint the picture for each reader and truly immerse us into the world created.
Typically, fantasy readers see book series that consists of four or more books to cover all of the world building details, plot and character development, but Bardugo is able to do this all in the “Six of Crows” duology and do it well.
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