For all its high-fantasy flourishes and indulgences, this is a series that has often addressed more serious topics, most memorably in sorrowful exploration of climate catastrophe. in an effort to import some gravity, takes on several major themes: the impact on ordinary people of the vanity and vacuity of the rich and powerful; the natural consequences of unrestrained mining of the planet’s resources; the danger of becoming, through the act of opposition, that which you oppose; the risks and psychic perils of using friends to advance one’s personal ambitions; the responsibility that accompanies great
