A Cavern Of Black Ice

The first in the Sword of Shadows series (which is still not yet complete with over 5 years since Jones published the last book) and a gritty, epic fantasy. Jones started writing her brand of grittiness before the arrival of the new wave of gritty with the likes of Abercrombie, Lynch, Bakker, and the likes. At this time there was only Martin and Cook who were writing with a  gritty style.As such, Jones' work doesn't exhibit the typical 'grimdark' style that you may be used to with say an Abercrombie-influenced novel, but the world is still harsh and the characters suffer,though horror after horror. However, it's still a work where the heroes are good and the villains are bad -- this is not a work of morally ambiguous characters.But it's a great epic epic fantasy set in a dark cold world (literally -- the landscape is ice) where bad things happen and happen) with a clear quest goal in mind. It brings to mind a more gritty version of the classic Wheel of Time style questing adventure. Plenty of stuff that makes a gritty quest fantasy worth reading: action, loss, love, and death.It's thoroughly a great read, though with the author showing no new signs of finishing off the series, it's hard to really care anymore..