Does absence make the heart grow fonder? Somehow, after taking a year between reading book 2 and this, I came back enjoying the characters (and the story) much more that I did in the previous books. I wasn’t bored. Each of the POVs, since everyone was separated, moved the plot, built the characters, in a way that I liked more. Maybe it was the time away and the second book’s ending, that made me want to know where the characters all ended up. 

I still felt that The One Who Waits was one-dimensional compared to Taristan, Erida, and the wizard. If you were to remove him, the villains could honestly stand on their own. I just never felt the chilling presence; one that you felt from Sauron from LOTR (which I know is a big inspiration for this series). I wanted to see his manipulative influence, the control, his “voice”, his power on the page, which I didn’t think we got a lot of by the end. 

In addition, the ending felt a bit condensed, with some plot threads not weaved in, but it also tellingly open for continuation. Overall, a surprising good conclusion to this trilogy.

Audiobook wise, I continued to enjoy the multiple narrators and their characterization.