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I finished Dawn of Wonder this week, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The imagery stayed strong and the characters and relationships were engaging, even if not all that multi-dimensional (I'd rate them 2.5 dimensional). The plot was nothing special; supporting characters commented a couple of times on how often the main character overheard crucial information or found himself in the middle of events. It was enough to get us from one cool scene to another and give the characters some kind of growth. On the whole, a good "comfort food" fantasy story.
I knew going in that some people objected to Christian themes in the story, and I also object to some of those themes (humans are garbage, criminals are double garbage, you can only overcome your faults through awe and terror of a perfect being), but they set the stage for some enjoyable scenes, even the big "witness" moment. If people want to use their deepest heartfelt beliefs as fodder for a fantasy story, more power to them as long as they do a decent job of it.
I was still feeling like fantasy, and contemplated an Elantris or Name of the Wind re-listen, but poked around Audible and ended up with Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia, also read by Tim Gerard Butler. It's darker than Dawn of Wonder, but still solid sword-and-sorcery comfort food for my inner adolescent. I'm not up for much more than that in present circumstances. I actually started reading Cixin Liu's sequel to The Three Body Problem and had to put it down as too bleak.
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