Hardcover, 240 pages
English language
Published Sept. 25, 2022 by Del Rey.
Very satisfying conclusion with a few "oh shit" moments of realization moments before Novik whips the curtain back.
Finally, a brilliant satisfying conclusion to a trilogy. All three books were genuinely inventive. The character arcs were satisfying, and didn't feel forced. All in all, the most enjoyable trilogy I've read since the Broken Earth series.
This was a very good series. The rules for how magic works in this world were refreshingly different from other magic series I've read. The protagonist is delightfully abrasive.
Best book in my favorite fantasy trilogy in a long time.
I have thoughts... Not entirely done processing the story yet.
There's a lot of good stuff in here, but I feel like the time spent describing how magic works took the place of the fun relationships and banter that I loved from books 1 and 2.
El is dealing with a lot and we see her struggling to process it. She becomes very passive in several parts of the book, which felt like a very big turn from her usual self. Is that an effect of her trauma, or bad writing/plot development?
El's relationship with Liesel certainly changed a lot. It felt like an odd choice for El's main sidekick throughout the book. Still thinking over this character...
I really wanted to see more of El and Orion together. That was definitely missing from the story.
Mostly I feel like Novik tried to touch on some great themes, like processing …
I have thoughts... Not entirely done processing the story yet.
There's a lot of good stuff in here, but I feel like the time spent describing how magic works took the place of the fun relationships and banter that I loved from books 1 and 2.
El is dealing with a lot and we see her struggling to process it. She becomes very passive in several parts of the book, which felt like a very big turn from her usual self. Is that an effect of her trauma, or bad writing/plot development?
El's relationship with Liesel certainly changed a lot. It felt like an odd choice for El's main sidekick throughout the book. Still thinking over this character...
I really wanted to see more of El and Orion together. That was definitely missing from the story.
Mostly I feel like Novik tried to touch on some great themes, like processing trauma, but lost a lot of fun parts of books 1 and 2 that makes it worth slogging through the emotional trauma parts.
I need to read this again, when I'm not recovering from covid and fighting off migraines. I'm really curious what a reread will reveal.
Aughhh! The long awaited sequel!
I really wanted to love this, but it seemed a bit thrown together. We didn't get much characterization of anyone, and there was too much time spent running around to different locations. I was very emotionally detached from this one.
