Queen Of Fire

There isn't a lot for me to say about this one. The book was...long. I felt like there were pacing issues throughout the book. We spent an inordinate amount of time focusing on little details and plot threads in the beginning, and then breezed past major developments and events later on. Characterization seemed like a mess, with Vaelin becoming this immortal Gary Stu character and trekking through the arctic for a good 2/3rds of the book. Queen Lyrna's developments were also somewhat abrupt, and the whiplash between her motives and character decisions was real. The ending was also abrupt and unsatisfying, with several plot threads just left hanging. I don't know if the author was planning on there being another book in the series, or if he's planning on picking up these threads with another series entirely, but as it is most of the non-main plots aren't acknowledged.

In short, this series ended a fair distance away from its 5-star beginning. I was very disappointed.

I didn't like this book as much as the other two. After I rated 2 stars, I read some reviews. Most people have said in better ways what I also think of this book, but a few points I would like to re-iterate.

1 - Too many characters. I honestly don't think I remember half of their names. Even if you tell me one of their names right now, I don't know if it was the guy who lasted for 2 pages in some meeting in this inhospitable place, the guy who got his magic power described only to never use it, the guy who was on some vision, etc... this was bad on book 1 and 2, but by 3 they just kept piling.

2 - The change in high level story. To be honest this started on book 2. Book 1 was all about Vaelin, and the tension between kingdom / government and the "Faith". You get this sensation the book is about the 7th Faith coming out of the shadows, and the inner works of a kingdom. By book 2 there might be a couple passages about the Faith. Book 3 is all about a kingdom invading another. It changed from a book about politics, with crafted descriptions why a certain character had to be killed because he was hungry for power, and his son was one of the brothers (one of the 6 Faiths), then by book three you're getting dozens of detailed description of how to charge an army with horses on your flank.

3 - "Some character" saw in the eyes of "another character" - so much of what each character is feeling is simply perceived by other characters through their eyes. I am sorry, but you can't really glimpse at someone else's and know their life story and why they're about to do whatever they want to do. In stories, you're supposed to show through character actions and dialogue why they're doing something. It would be fine if this was used a couple times, but I think it was used hundreds of times. I had to ask myself multiple times just how could one of the characters know so much about the other by half a second of looking into their eyes. And it's not like there were a few characters good in reading other people, everybody could tell exactly what others were thinking by just the tiny glitter on the corner of someone else's eyes.