dbguide2's reviews
787 reviews

Stewart put her heart into this book, making it a great ending to a fierce trilogy. The characters grew, they evolved, I’m not mad about how their stories end – which can happen quite easily, let me tell you. If Stewart wants to write a novella set in the future about what happens far after the war. I like wars in fantasy, but I like the build-up and aftermath even more. Not sure why – maybe it’s the politics I like? Building/restoring communities? Also it’s making me want to go back and reread the trilogy! Which is great because I’m all for the re-readability of a book/series. I want to go back to the world and the characters. One thing that’s clear with this trilogy is that it’s so much of a unique story, worldbuilding, and characters. I think that’s why it’s good and how it builds it way up – even when the plot reaches its climax it doesn’t stop being good and unique. That’s what I want and like in books.

I didn’t realise that there was a time jump (two years) between the second book and this one. It did jar me a bit and took me a bit to get back into the story but luckily it didn’t stop me from enjoying it. Although Stewart did make the time jump work which is something that isn’t the case for everyone. 

I did feel a bit more connected to the other main characters that I wasn’t (connected to) in this book. Even though we’re finishing the book and therefore won’t be spending time with them, I think I gained a better understanding for them and started to like them a bit. Although Lin and Jovis remain my firm favourites. I really liked going on their journeys and see them through the pain and fights they have to deal with. The ossalens were great, I’d definitely like to know more about them in any way. They had such personality and I think Stewart had a fun time writing them. 

I enjoyed this tremendously! It definitely amped up my interest in the trilogy and I could see why other readers love it. It improved the characters we already met while introducing new ones. The action was better this time around, the politics (which was already good in the first one) were even more interesting this time. I’ve grown to like politics in fantasies, especially when they’re done well and that’s the case here.

I like wars and battles (in fantasy books) but I like the lead-up to the war more. Figuring out who your allies are, whom you can trust and what secrets can you tell them. Lin really grew as a character in here. She had to take on a lot of extra responsibility and grow into her power. Jovis just continues to be my utter favourite throughout the series. He’s funny, he’s good, he’s just… Jovis, I don’t know what to tell you. The others (Phalue etc) were a bit more interesting this time around but I still had to make myself pay attention when it were their chapters. I did like how they all had to take up more responsibility too, just like Lin does, but they’re all extremely different people. The focus is a bit more on Lin and Jovis – plots, characterisation, so I didn’t feel too bad about having difficulty reading it. 

Stewart only improved on the world-building and magic system in here, She definitely shines in those aspects and I hope that stays by her others books (I plan to read the new one this year – hopefully). I’m always happy to follow an author if it means I get good worldbuilding and magic system. I don’t think I got that “Second Book Slump” feeling that a bunch of sequels tend to have – which I’m happy about. Seeing as I wasn’t entirely enjoying the first book, I’m glad I felt better this time around. 

I’m someone who really loves dual and multi povs but multiple audio narrators… I’m still getting there. It is easier when there’s at least one male narrator to at least change things up at the risk of the female narrators sounding the same. But when you’re listening at double speed just about everyone sounds the same. It’s not the book’s fault that I rated it 3.5 (even though that’s not really a low rating). It took a while to get into the story and the characters. In fact most of the trilogy was me trying to fully understand the story and characters. The action was great, Stewart is good at letting her readers be immersed in the world and action. I found that she’s good at writing physical action and magic – which is great because not many authors can successfully balance the two. The magic system was confusing but also interesting! I didn’t expect myself to understand it by the end of the first book (although I didn’t really understand by the end of the trilogy either) and I’m glad it didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.

There’s five main characters and all of them have their own chapters. It took me awhile to like Lin, the Emperor’s daughter who’s trying to make her father proud of her. I think it was around the mid-mark (of the book) that I liked her a bit more and also further on (into the series). She’s a strong character who figures out what she wants and her place in the world – I liked that. Jovis was probably my favourite main character. He’s got that ‘accidental dad vibe’ to him which showed when he got an animal companion – who was absolutely adorable and basically my other favourite character. I almost immediately liked him and liked getting to his chapters. I had an issue where I’d started reading Lin as as Upper YA (like she’s 18 or a bit younger) and Jovis as nearly 30. So I side-eyed this book for a while until I realised that Lin = adult. I still don’t know her actual age but after that I felt better 😅. For most of this book she did feel younger but at least not actual teenager. Other than that I liked their relationship and was happy to follow it.

The next two characters (Phalue and Ramani) are in the same place so you get a lot of the same plots (but different feelings). It didn’t help that their individual character voices weren’t distinct in my opinion, though their personalities were well-written. I would’ve picked one, not both of them as a point of view – but I couldn’t tell you which one I would’ve chosen. My least liked POV is Sand, an outsider, and not much is really revealed about her at the start. She was an interesting character but I don’t think I ever really liked her.