I really enjoyed the first three books in this series, and have been looking forward to the fourth entry for a while. Naturally, spoilers abound.
We resume our adventure with Tharok on the rampage and set
fair to invade the very pinnacle of the Empire, which has just ‘fallen’ in
surprisingly concordant fashion to Iskra Kyferin. Meanwhile, Tiron, and his
vastly diminished band of allies, manage to escape the massacre of the
Ascendant’s forces but find themselves in the middle of nowhere and with
precious few supplies.
One of the things I like the most about this series is the combination of internal and external struggles, and how well the storylines weave together. Perhaps the best example of this is Audsley, who goes from bookworm to demonically destructive. But is he the manipulator, or the manipulated?
The remaining forces of the Empire assemble to try and fend off the seemingly unending tide of kragh, the first of many grand battles within this book. Another aspect I like is that while the author is unafraid to have prolonged storylines he’s also not worried about snipping them off when the time is right, and we see a number of significant secondary characters meet their doom, alongside a very dramatic ending that utterly alters, in a plausible yet unexpected fashion, the nature of the conflict.
It remains a very easy to read series, with more depth added to the backstory of the world in a way that’s relevant rather than being a full-blown info-dump, so if the lore of this world is something you’re into then the revelations here add quite a bit.
I’ll probably read something else next, just for the sake of variety, but fully plan to read parts 5 and 6 fairly soon. If you haven’t read any of this series I’d strongly advocate checking it out.
Thaddeus
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