Friday Firsts – Twelve Kings of Sharakhai by Bradley Beaulieu

Friday Firsts is a new meme that will run every Friday here on Tenacious Reader. It will feature the first few sentences/paragraph of my current book and my first impressions as well. It’s meant to be a quick and easy way to share a bit about what I am reading, and I would love to hear others join in sharing their current reads as well.

IN A SMALL ROOM beneath the largest of Sharakhai’s fighting pits, Çeda sat on a wooden bench, tightening her fingerless gloves. The room was cool, even chill compared to the ever-present heat of the city. Painted ceramic tiles lined the walls. A mismatched jumble of wooden benches and shelves that had clearly seen decades of abuse made it feel well loved if not well cared for. Were Çeda any other dirt dog, she would have sat in one of the rooms on the far side of the pits, the ones that hosted dozens of men and women. But Çeda was given special dispensation, and had been since winning her first bout at the age of fourteen. By the gods, five years already. She tightened her hands into fists, enjoying the creak of the leather, the feel of the chain mail wrapped around the backs of her hands and knuckles. She checked the straps of her armor. Her greaves, her bracers, her heavy battle skirt. And finally her breastplate. All of them had once been…

Beaulieu, Bradley P. (2015-09-01). Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (Song of Shattered Sands) (p. 1). DAW.

My First Impressions

Ha, well, my first impression was I completely get why the people who read this book enjoyed it so much! Having this strong female protagonist in Çeda was exactly what I was looking for. As you can gather from that first paragraph, she is not just strong willed and determined, but also a fighter that can kick some serious ass. I know women characters can be strong in many other ways, and I always appreciate that, but I have to confess, I do love it when they can also stand their ground strong in battle, or in this case, the fighting pits. So early on, my impression was this book is going to be good!

What are you reading right now? Did it start out strong? Feel free to share in the comments, and also feel free to link up!