Their relationships are thrown into further turmoil by a prophecy from Innis Lear, the magical nation to their north: “The dragon will burn, the lion will break and the wolf will choose the end.” But when Hal’s mother leads a rebellion, commits regicide and crowns herself queen, Hal is thrust into a position of authority over both her lover and her now-deposed prince. Prince Hal never wanted to be a prince she was happy as one of the Lady Knights of her liege, Banna Mora, and in love with the Wolf of Aremoria - her fellow knight Hotspur. Gratton’s LADY HOTSPUR (Tor, 592 pp., $29.99) is set 100 years later in the same world and inspired by “Henry IV” - and, as the title suggests, imagines the principal characters as women instead of men. Tessa Gratton’s “Queens of Innis Lear” spun “King Lear” sideways, giving Lear a black queen and mixed-race daughters, and setting the story in a fantasy analogue to Britain teeming with root and star magic. So consider this column a chaotic pantry from which to prepare a week’s worth of meals: Here are six very different books, remarkable enough in their difference, I hope, to feed at least that many different hungers. Plans, like time, have proved remarkably elastic during this pandemic, and books I’d intended to discuss here have been delayed half a season or more, while books I didn’t cover upon their release have taken on new significance.
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