Ganz ehrlich: dieses Finale ist viel, viel besser als seine Vorgänger! Schade, dass man sich zuerst mehr oder weniger durch zwei Bände quälen muss, bevor die Geschichte anfängt richtig unterhalsam zu werden. Die Handlungen laufen endlich zusammen und man gewinnt einen tollen Überblick über die gesamte Situation. Das Finale hat eine interessante, abwechslungsreiche Perspektive, indem man nicht direkt involviert ist.
Einzig das Ende bringt einen faden Beigeschmack. Natürlich finde ich es schön, wie auch der Vorgänger Der Gilde der Schwarzen Magier mit einbezogen wird und es eine Erklärung zu dem Ödland gibt. Trotzdem mag ich es nicht, wie angedeutet wird, dass eine weitere Geschichte folgen könnte. Sollte dies der Fall sein, so hoffe ich, dass es komplett neue Charaktere geben wird. Denn so schwelgt man mehr in den Erinnerungen und kann sich kaum auf die aktuelle Handlung einlassen.
Einzig unklar ist mir, was die Handlung rund um Cery soll. Für mich wirkt das total an den Haaren herbei gezogen um 1. Cery wieder dabei zu haben und 2. eine weitere homosexuelle Beziehung einzuführen. Dieses mal sind diese weitaus deutlicher als noch in Die Gilde der Schwarzen Magier. Aber ebenso wie damals sind mir die Liebesgeschichten total egal, ich lese diese Bücher, weil ich Magie möchte!
Es sind keine guten vier Sterne, denn das Ende und die daraus resultierenden Befürchtungen dominieren in meinem Kopf. Trotzdem ist es ein toller Abschluss. Nur wegen dem allein sollte man sich die Reihe nicht antun. Lest lieber die ursprüngliche Trilogie erneut.

I have no idea why I bothered to finish this series. Seriously.

This is better than the previous book, but only worth 2.5 stars. Most of the characters were fairly dull and the story slow and predictable. I am glad i have now finished this series. I do have other Canavan books, so hopefully they will revert back to the storytelling from her first trilogy.

Having read some of the other reviews I was pleasantly surprised by the majority of the book. The characters are already well developed and a pleasure to read but I was left quite unsatisfied, in particular by the second half of the book. Looking at the map, Sachaka isn't small but I was left feeling you could count the people involved in the last confrontation. There is never any doubt of the outcome, very little to lend any feeling of tension or drama to the story's climax. It has been so long since I read the first trilogy that I can't remember if this is typical for Trudi Canavan.
The trilogy just fizzles out leaving room for sequels that I'm left wondering if I really want to read.

Trudi Canavan is one of my favourite authors and for good reason. The worlds she makes are compelling and different from the vast majority of fantasy out there.

This book is the third and final book in the Traitor Spy series which picks up about 20 years or so after the events of the Black Magician Trilogy. When I first found out that there was a continuation of that series I was worried it would be a bit of a money grabber, but this series and the prequel are each well written and really add to the story that was already known.

It has been almost a year since I read the previous entry in the series and I will admit I remembered very little of the events - Canavan has a knack in this book at reminding you of the events of previous books without recapping them and does so to great effect.

As to the events of this book I am glad with how they all turned out with the exception of

Cerys death

. Yes there were hints throughout that something was wrong but for

him to die like that

it felt so... wrong. When you recall how this person acted in the original trilogy it seems like such a waste. Lorkin has definitely grown up from the youth we were first introduced to, Dannyl is, to be honest, as naive as ever but that's part of the reason why I like him! I also quite liked the growth in the relationship between Sonea and Regin. He has a clear character arc over the six books and is a great example of how you can go from really disliking someone to actually wanting to hear more about them. There were some cliché moments here and there

like how all the traitors could see that Sonea and Regin liked one another and thought that they were lovers before it was acknowledged or even really noticed by Sonea

.

Was this the best end to the series... well, no - I found the events at the end of the original trilogy to be much better (after all who can forget the shock at

Akkarins

death??), but it worked. There were also some hints there as to a possible continuation (I swear the ballshooter referred to in the last pages is a gun - and how interesting would it be to see the Guild learn about and adapt to guns??), if that is the case I look forward to reading more about this world.

The Traitor Queen is the final volume in Trudi Canavan’s Traitor Spy Trilogy. I read the first two books as they came out and while I only have vague recollections about the plot of the first book, I didn’t find this to be an issue at all with picking up the story again.

The Traitor Queen is very much two story lines running parallel with little impact on each other. There are a few minor common characters — most notably Sonea, who was the main character in the Black Magician Trilogy set earlier in the same world — but for the most part the two story lines took place in different countries and didn’t intersect. I didn’t have a problem with this as I was already invested in both sets of happenings from the earlier books. I can see how others may find this more irritating, however. The two story lines did come together at the very end in terms of having related consequences on the future of the world, but otherwise weren’t very thematically linked either.

The war that takes place in the The Traitor Queen is fairly short by fantasy book standards (and by Canavan’s own past writings) but what I found interesting was that it dealt with non-combatants caught suddenly in a war zone. And not miscellaneous peasants (who always get caught in war zones in these sorts of things) but foreign diplomats who don’t necessarily have a clear “side” and who will have to deal with whichever side does win. Assuming they’re not caught in the cross-fire. Although the shortness of the war meant this wasn’t explored in a large amount of depth, I very much liked that it was included and that there were tangible consequences for the observers.

I continue to like all the characters we’re supposed to like in this series. My favourite is easily Lilia who grows quite a bit as a person throughout this book. There are few lesbian protagonists in fiction, so it’s nice to see that the number isn’t actually zero. And she gets to save the day. (Actually, given what happens in Sachaka as well as in Kyralia — where Lilia is — the Traitor Spy Trilogy is fairly heavy in empowered women, so yay.) My only objection to Lilia’s story is that I would’ve liked to see a bit more of a conclusion to her run-ins with the novice bully magician.

Canavan has left the ending open so that there might be a sequel but with all the loose ends absolutely tied up. From her website, I see that Canavan is working on something in a completely different world, so I wouldn’t be expecting more Kyralia/Sachaka/Allied Lands books soon if at all.

I recommend this series to fantasy lovers, especially those who enjoy non-medieval Europe settings. Of course, you should start from the first book in the trilogy, Ambassador’s Mission, then read the second, The Rogue, before reading The Traitor Queen. If you want the full effect, I suggest reading the Black Magician Trilogy first (The Magician’s Guild, The Novice, The High Lord) but that isn’t necessary for the Traitor Spy trilogy to make sense. Although if you’re thinking of reading the Black Magician Trilogy, Traitor Spy does contain spoilers for the ending as the consequences are important to the world building.

4 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog, Tsana's Reads.

Nos acercamos a la conclusión de la historia que comenzó en El gremio de los magos, lo que no quiere decir que no tenga la posibilidad la autora de seguir sacando libros en el mismo mundo. Muchos os preguntaréis si merece la pena leer la reseña del séptimo libro de una saga, y probablemente el único motivo para leerla sea confirmar lo que las anteriores reseñas ya decían: nos encontramos ante una saga de fantasía muy buena, que no llega a ser del todo excepcional y que se atreve a jugar con algunos de los tabúes más comunes de la literatura fantástica. Todo eso sigue igual, y en este caso lo que más nos puede importar es cómo se resuelven las situaciones que habían quedado en suspenso en el anterior libro. Para aquellos que no quieran leer el resto de la reseña, y solo quieran saber si merece la pena: sí, la merece. Por si acaso, aviso que puede que más adelante haya spoilers, al tratarse dela reseña del séptimo libro de una macrosaga..

Sigue leyendo

Damn, I'm finally done with this entire world. It took longer to read this one than the others cause #finalssuck. But it was really nice. It wrapped up very abruptly, but the characters got to complete their arcs. I also was definitely not expecting the big event to happen, even though that was literally hinted at since I think #1. I wished Canavan explained more of the history portions and the emotional parts missing their impacts was still... frustrating (a character! died! and it was merely glanced at! what!) but I've really enjoyed settling into the universe for 4 months. It is a relaxing series, I have enjoyed the characters, and the romances were sweet. Definitely something I'd like to revisit sometime again.

Das war leider ganz schön enttäuschend...