The third and final part of the Riyria Revelations features,
as did the previous two, a pair of stories, namely Wintertide and Percepliquis.
Wintertide is about half (or less) the length of the latter
story, and comes as the new empire is going from strength to strength. The
empress has been arranged to marry Regent Ethelred after which she will be
disposed of and Hadrian and Royce go their separate ways, which doesn’t work
out well for either of them.
Wintertide does a good job of ratcheting up the tension as
the political conniving of Saldur and Ethelred approach its climax, and it has
a gloomier air than previous, more light-hearted, parts of the story.
Percepliquis tells of a race against time to find the horn
(first mentioned, I think, on board The Emerald Storm in the previous book).
Without it certain doom will strike the world, but it’s hidden in the lost city
of Percepliquis. The empire
dispatches a small band of heroes (and Royce) to track the lost city down and
then infiltrate it and find the horn, which is reckoned to rest in the tomb of
Novron.
I really liked Percepliquis, particularly as there’s a
proper conclusion to the story. Perhaps as importantly, just about everything
regarding Novron and what really happened at the founding and end of the first
empire is revealed. There’s also a nice touch right at the end.
The story’s a bit more foreboding than the first two books,
and a bit more serious, but that fits the nature of the final part of the
trilogy (or six-parter, as you prefer).
The series has been very well-integrated throughout, with
the plot and various characters clearly planned using cunning.
The only real annoyance is that I don’t think there’s
another full-length book by Mr. Sullivan out. On the other hand, there is a
short story called The Viscount and the Witch which is free for the Kindle.
I’ll be taking a brief break from downloading any new books,
because I really need to work on the final read through of Bane of Souls. After
that’s done, I’ll look back to this post from mid-February for some more ideas
on what to get next:
Thaddeus
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