3/5

A lot of trilogies have the issue of a saggy middle, where it feels more like filler than anything else to connect to the end. Unfortunately this book felt very much like that.

We continue with three major characters (and one minor) but I would argue only one was actually pushing the plot forward in a meaningful way through the book.

I love Tamas and his pov, which is why I was quite disappointed in his chapters. It was certainly filled with lots of action and tactical decisions and clever combat. But that’s it. There was no more of his charm from the first whatever the the next crisis that comes up from his coup. It’s just him and his soldiers traversing through a war zone. I just felt let down. Only at the very end did anything more meaningful truly happen.

Taniel has the same issue where you spend a lot of time just watching him make one arrogant and stupid decision after another. At least he has some variation of the setting he is in which made it slightly better, but not by too much. I’m just waiting for him to grow up and take responsibility.

Finally the only view point I think stayed consistently good was Adamant. He continues his investigation to find his family and I really enjoyed the twists and turns. He does feel a little super human and I am surprised he can still walk after all the beatings. But overall he was by far the best part of the book.

Now, Nila. Honestly I am still not sure why she is part of the book. I do not particularly enjoy her view point. It just feels quite boring compared to the rest despite the twist at the end. So here is hoping to that actually having a good payoff in the next one.

Another issue I have is how women in general are treated in the series. They are always used as props or referenced relative to the other men. Even the ones in high seats of power are relegated to being dismissed and just written poorly. Why are they all crying all the time? Ka-poel being the worst offender here though. I did not enjoy how the series handled any of her interactions and used her as a prop to advance Taniel’s own story instead of fleshing her out as her own person. There were multiple scenes that were just gross and unnecessary added for shock value and just once again giving Taniel a plot point. Incredibly disappointing considering just how strong she is in magic.

Continuing on, plot wise, nothing really happened until the very end, making most of the book kind of unnecessary. And the most interesting part of the previous book, the gods coming down into the world, has been completely ignored as well throughout most of it. That was such a shame.

The magic itself is also still feeling very disjoint and a little unclear. It’s used sparingly in interesting ways and I am just not loving it. Again hoping for this to improve in the last book.

Overall I think this book could have easily been cut down and summarized in a few chapters in the following book instead of being one giant volume itself.