Beautiful.

Exceeded every single one of my expectations. This was everything I wanted and everything I didn’t know I needed. I have always loved Chaol - even when half of this fandom seemed to hate him - and his character deserved this journey. The emotion, the pain, the healing, and dragging yourself out of grief and darkness - just marvelous. Reminded me a lot of HoF in the best possible way.

We now have such a huge cast of characters, finally including numerous POC characters! I am a tad overwhelmed at the expanse of this world, but also blown away at the depth and creativity behind it.

When that “holy shit” moment happened near the end where we learn the history of the Valg... I just about fucking DIED. So unexpected, and masterfully done. Everything makes so much sense now. I am still reeling.

The fact that we got to take space from the other characters *coughAelincough* and have a different story line right before the final book was a brilliant move on SJM’s part. I cannot even tell you how fucking excited I am to read this last book now. I needed the break and the chance to explore new characters and story lines. Chaol, Yrene, Sartaq, Nesryn.... I love you all. Sartaq was swoooooooooon and I love love love all the rukhin, especially Borte!! The entire Southern Continent stole my heart.

The only real bummer was no Manon, but we got Yrene and that’s a pretty sweet deal.

The few qualms I have: the book could have been much much shorter without sacrificing any content, and basically all my usual qualms about Sarah’s writing style and language use which I’ve kinda decided I just need to accept from her at this point.

It was nowhere near perfect, but I adored it regardless. It’s up there with Heir of Fire as my favorite in the series, and really solidifies the fact that I love books and plots about healing and mental illness rep. It isn’t often done in fantasy, and I give SJM a lot of kudos for that. THIS is the storytelling I love from her and what I want more of in the future.