Lackluster climax

It's a shame that it took two books and 400 more pages before the battle finally happened and was contained to a mere chapter or two. Then to have the last 150 pages or so spent quickly tying up the loose ends made the ending feel quite rushed. So many pages of this trilogy were spent on scenes with such low impact, detailing everything as though it was important, that I almost wish one or two characters were left out all together since their storylines tended to put a damper on the main action lines.

es hat mich überraschend schnell wieder gepackt ;)

It was a great to read about Trudi's magic world again. I recommend for those who loved the previous series. Albeit, not being up to par, it still answers a lot of questions left behind on the anterior series and closes some chapters while leaving others open to new ones. I was quite happy to see how some characters evolved from one series to the other, especially Regin, obviously ;)
Read it!

3.5 stars

M'ha fet una mica de pena acabar aquest llibre i pensar que ja no sabré més coses de la Sonea i companyia. Però ja he posat La sacerdotisa blanca a la llista de llibres per llegir :-D

Aquest llibre ens porta el desenllaç de la història que va començar amb La maga, tants anys enrere. Les traïdores estan decidides a atacar Sachacka i abolir l'esclavitud. I aquest últim llibre és la preparació per la guerra, així com la guerra en sí.

Si hagués de posar algun però a aquest llibre seria que la guerra contra els ashakis és massa ràpida i massa fàcil. Sí que és veritat que les traïdores porten segles preparant l'atac, però s'esperaria que hi hagués una mica més de resistència...

Tot i així, m'ha semblat un gran llibre i un gran final d'història, malgrat que em fa pena que s'hagi acabat.

A destacar l'evolució dels personatges d'en Lorkin i la Lilia, la petita sorpresa referent al páramo i l'ús de les gemmes. No descarto rellegir els 7 llibres d'aquí a uns anys...

Another brilliant book written by one of my favourite fantasy authors. I've grown very fond of the characters and the story was thrilling and full of unexpected twists and turns. The world Canavan has created is really perfect and interesting. I don't really have anything bad to say about this book, I felt as if I got the answer I needed and enough was unanswered to keep the story interesting and vivid in my mind. This is truly a good series to escape into.

This book was good, however I was left feeling a little dissatisfied with the ending, not because of anything particularly wrong with it, but more because there's so so much more I want to know about this world and Canavan currently has no more stories for it. I really want Kyralia to encounter Igra, I was a little disappointed after they were introduced in 'The Ambassador's Mission' that nothing more was really made of it, beyond giving a starting point for some changes to some laws that we won't actually get to see take effect.

Spoiler

I really enjoyed watching the complete turnaround for Sonea's feelings towards Regin, however
I would have liked more romantic interaction between them before being told 'oh and she moved in with him' right at the end. I do think it seemed like a natural romance, despite, or perhaps because of, all the existing antagonism between them.

I liked Lorkin and Lilia's threads in this. They seemed to have more action, which felt like something they were lacking a little in the earlier books. My heart broke a little more for Dannyl with each page of his story I read.

Spoiler

I was quite disappointed with Cery's death. For two reasons. Firstly he was pretty much my favourite character in the first trilogy. Secondly it seemed a needless waste which lacked flair and effort. While I appreciate those in fantasy worlds are likely to die of natural causes as well as dramatic ones, I don't really wish to watch it happen to one of my favourite characters. I would rather have it hinted at in a sequel set a long way in the future. But then that's just me.

My only major criticism of this book is that it felt like the overall arc should belong to someone, but it was really hard to tell who, and I think Canavan almost fell back on Sonea out of habit.

Katharine is a judge for the Sara Douglass 'Book Series' Award. This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

I won't be recording my thoughts (if I choose to) here until after the AA are over.