u/Thicc-as-Theives

I finished a 'Kite Runner', 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' and 'And The Mountains Echoed' in this order a few weeks ago. This post is mostly about ATSS because I felt as though it was the most impactful of Hosseini's novels and I will reference these other novels in a generalized way to avoid spoilers if you haven't read them yet.

To start, I just wanted to say how reading this book made me feel so helpless. The gravity of having your life dominated by where you can go, what you can wear, and who you can even be seen with is such a hopeless existence. it's unbelievable that this still currently happens and that this book is probably not far from the existence of real women during the Islamic emirate/rise of the Taliban and modern day Afghanistan. in contrast, I did appreciate Hosseini's ability to show that even with such a hostile takeover, there's still a beautiful culture and people underneath.

When I first picked up ATSS after reading The Kite Runner, I thought it was going to be another book about the escape from a war ravaged country, the obstacles of immigration, and the difficult retention of your culture. To my surprise, ATSS was about the opposite. It was about the people who couldn't escape their situation and had to survive under incredible difficulty while their own culture was being destroyed and replaced around them.

Some parts of this book were very difficult to read. >!Laila having to save herself after her parents are killed by a stray rocket. Her only option is to be married and used by a degusting man to avoid detection is one of the most disturbing and heartbreaking things I've ever read. !<

This book also has one of the bravest and most heartfelt stories I've ever read. >!Laila and Mariam's friendship and love for their children. Their attempt to escape and Mariam's sacrifice to save Laila so that she can live a live a full life with Tariq. !<

It's not often that I read a book and think that it's important. Not entertaining, interesting, or educational. But important. This books importance comes from its ability to illustrate a perspective in so many enlightening angles that makes the reader feel so small and helpless that you can feel nothing by empathy for the characters. My goal is to find more stories like this and to share them with others so we can all be better for it.

{SPOILERS ALL}

Needless to say from my rankings, I enjoyed the whole series a lot. J.A. does an amazing job of attaching cynicism and humor together to make amazing characters. I listened to every book and had the pleasure to hear Steven Pacey's many voices and his creative use of the characters.

From the rankings themselves, I'm usually shocked to see that some people rank 'Best Served Cold' as one of there lower books. For me personally, the original Frist Law books were kind of dry and colorless. But when he started to take off with the setting in BSC and got a feel for the geography, he really nailed it. The introduction of Styria and its diverse cityscapes and its similarities to medieval Italy and France, geographically and politically, made it very hard to put down.

My favorite Character/Character arc:

>!Bremer dan Gorst. What a misunderstood mountain of a character. Although his dialogue in every book besides 'The Heroes' were tragically short, I loved his monologues in The Heroes. The self distain for himself/everyone around him and love he had for Lady Finree was touching and disturbing at the same time. I was pretty grossed out when Finree confronted Gorst and accused him of whoring in the Cardotti's House of Leisure but he was partially vindicated in 'Sharp Ends' by just needing a shoulder to cry on and not being a degenerate. Overall, I liked Gorst because he was a contradiction. He was insanely strong and yet incredibly timid conversationally. He spoke in short sentences but had massive monologues in his head. He wanted to be a victim but no one ever gave him sympathy.!<

2nd favorite character:

>!Orso Dan Luthar. He was a consistently good person throughout the Age of Madness and that's probably why he had to die. Every other character in this series was getting flipped on their heads (from a character arc POV), but Orso stayed relatively the same. He had to grow up to be a king but he was a natural diplomate, a leader on and off the battlefield, and genuinely wanted to help people. I liked his humor and his love for the little people around him. He had every reason to be an aristocratic bastard like his father (literally), but was naturally empathetic. I think his lack of character arc was supposed to highlight that even if someone has good intentions and his a genuinely a good person, it doesn't make them any less of an obstacle when it comes to burning down a corrupt system. In a way, its this characters job to always go down with the ship because they wouldn't have it any other way. !<

I loved this series overall and just started 'The Shattered Sea" Trilogy. Tell me what you think!

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Current ranking of The First Law series - Age of Madness [SPOILERS ALL]