The plot. She thickens! This is probably my favorite one so far in the series. Onward to book four!

An entertaining installment, but this drags a little bit. The descriptions of military life and strategy add believability to the narrative, but I felt bogged down in the details when I wanted to get to what was going to happen next.

In dem Buch hat Jim Butcher endlich seine "Stimme" gefunden. Das bisher mit Abstand beste Buch der Serie. Mal gucken wie es weiter geht.
;D

I really love this series, even more than McCaffrey's Pern & Lackey's "Companion's" series.

Awesome!

There's a part at the end that I felt shouldn't have happened, but overall another good addition to this series.

Solid, well-crafted fantasy with an engaging plot and involving characters--more rare than it sounds.

This was my favorite in the series so far, but there are three more books left, so I'm hoping to not be let down! I'm adjusting to Kate Reading's reading of these books so that her battle scenes (of which there were a lot in this book) no longer feel completely emotionless. And she does a good job with the scenes that are not battle scenes. I particularly loved her reading of the Isana scenes. But I also think Butcher is growing as a writer by this book and it just feels a lot more polished.

As in previous books, Butcher splits his focus among his different main characters. This time Amara and Bernard end up on a quest with some past enemies ("the enemy of my enemy" and "politics makes strange bedfellows"), and while this part of the book was the least interesting part of the story, there were some amazing scenes that had me laughing or cheering. One might argue that it was the villains who made it so interesting, but I really liked the group as a whole. Isana's story seemed somewhat isolated from the main action, but her story is also integral to everything that is going on (no spoilers). Her story is broken up into the past and present and that helps give context to everything that is going on. But it also breaks us out of the action which could seem a bit jarring to some. Personally, I enjoyed her part of the story.

And then there's Tavi's part of the story. Talk about learning under fire! Without getting too much into it, his part of the story had the highest body count in the series so far. I've said before that battle scenes and sieges are totally not my favorite parts of a book and normally I tune out from half of it. But I found just about everything in his part of the story to be interesting as he navigated politics, leadership, military service, and relationships. But I really like his friends and his ability to try looking at the big picture always (which often gets him into trouble with the powers that be), and Kitai is awesome. The last two hundred pages had me absolutely riveted, in no small part because of his story. And there are several surprises that show up that will leave you wanting to read more. There was one big surprise at the end that I was both surprised by and not surprised by, but I'll leave you to discover that on your own. Like in the previous book, don't read the end first!

I was going to take a break before jumping into the next book, but I will probably jump in right away. This is the advantage of reading a series that is already complete! No waiting required!

Growth and wisdom

I'm reading the series for the fourth time. It still is exciting and awesome as it was the first time. Only now it includes anticipation. All those grand moments I know will come. The World building is excellent, the humor is infectious the characters are amazing and lovable. Even those who lose the path but then find it again

Sluggish in parts but definitely worth the finish!