Even better, the author has a new series set in the same world and the first book is already out. I can't wait to re-read this series in a few years time, looking at things knowing how they are going to end, taking more in that I may have missed. Honestly looking back at the first book now, I feel like the characters, wondering how it got to the end, things were so different. Everything you want for an epic conclusion is here battles, individual fights, revelations, twists, betrayals, character arcs and resolutions. I think all the characters have been done so brilliantly, people are not the same as they were at the start, a natural progression done seamlessly.
I'll be honest, I felt people cutting onions around me a few times at the end there. People die, lots and lots of people, people you've known from the first pages of the first book. For a series that started out slow the last book is basically non stop action. It has heroes, proper heroes, and villains. It is not the most original thing I have ever read, but everything it does that you might have seen before it does extremely well. It deserves its place on the shelf of “great fantasy reads” and watching (or reading) John grow in strength as an author through the series was an absolute joy.Īs this is the final book in a four book series I'll keep it short and sweet. Fans of Robin Hobb, fantasy in general, epic worlds and true page turners will love this. I went into this book with no expectations and was left feeling incredibly grateful that I got to experience this work. The world building is extremely well done with just the right amount of depth without feeling like you are reading the wiki page for one particular tree.
Skills of characters, particularly the main protagonist, Corban, feel earned in an incredibly authentic way. Jaw to floor action scenes are delivered at pace and what some may consider “book finishers” or “end points” crop up in the most unexpected places. There’s more to it and the nuances of each fleshed out character and the beliefs they hold make sure that each person reading the series will have a different opinion on what is right and wrong. What John manages to do so incredibly well is blur the lines. Before I realised what was happening, I was drawn in, engaged, invested and unable to put this book, or the subsequent 3, down until I had finished them all. I must admit halfway through the first book that things were following an expected, even if well done, path.īut then things change. On the surface and after a few pages in, you might start thinking you have Johns work pinned down under a classic fantasy trope of “bad fights evil” or “boy from nowhere rises up”.