Trudi Canavan is one of my favourite authors. She creates worlds that are so well thought out, but logical in their own way. They have a set of rules about how things work, and never breaks your belief in that world. However this novel and as a result, the trilogy felt flat. There were so many threads that looked to lead somewhere and Canavan does a masterful job of making sure all these threads are tied up. However, there seems to be a bit of a tiny ending, instead of the epic ones penned in the original Black Magician Trilogy, or even the prequel.

I feel that the story could have done with more compartmentalising the stories. If the second novel had handled the story of Cery and the rogue magician completely, I feel that greater weight could have been given to the villains of each case. As it stands, Skellin is never felt to be a significant threat to the guild. Beyond the fact that he manages to find Cery, wherever he is hiding, we never see him as villainous, nor did I feel him as a significant threat to the guild. I now wish that he had gained knowledge of Black Magic, and the mad scramble of of the guild scrambling to meet this immediate threat.

With the story of the Skellin handled in the first novel, the third novel would be free to expend more energy on showing us more of the evils of Sachakan society, as more than just slave owners. With the threat of Black Magic once again made to the guild. Lorkin's plan to obtain gem-stone knowledge would have much more significance.

Sometimes I feel like the magicians guild is full of idiots. With knowledge that black magicians can take their magic from magically infused stone, or the battle ground shield. Why is there this huge shock that they can create a store stone? What is it other than something that can hold more magic in smaller space?

In the first novel, we are asked to ponder Sonea's decisions on what she would do? Turns out that the answer was not much. It would have been much more satisfying to have Sonea meet up with Dannyl and Tayend at the embassy, and having to fend off a couple of higher magicians with her saved up energy.

Despite all these shortcomings, which while gripes, do not impact the story much. It did not stop my enjoyment of the novels at the time of my reading them. It does however taint my love of the storyline once you have the complete picture. There are no highs and lows that are experienced like in the first series. There is but one truly epic magical battle, and it is not even a struggle. It completely one sided and lacking in excitement. The one true threat, one of betrayal, has a change of heart and chooses not to do anything. Leaving this more like a historical story based on true events than any sort of adventure.