Reviews

Another solid fantasy. I really liked the callbacks and Chekov's Guns. Wish there had been a trebuchet but what I got was solid as well. Not sure I liked the retcon of making Isana Tavi's mom and making his grandpa the lord of the realm but I'm not really trippin'. Lots of stuff happened that can't be explained and I guess that's magic. Can't explain everything

katounettetae's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

socialamoebaemily's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Fantastic!! This might actually be my favorite one. Book 1 is the intro to the world and characters, Book 2 gets starts setting up more of the overarching storyline and now in Book 3 things really start moving. This is an amazing epic fantasy series and I highly recommend it!!

kp333's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

mastersal's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5 stars

I picked this book shortly after book 2 as I really wanted to see what happened next. It been a while since a series has captivated me as much. Kudos to Mr. Butcher for crafting an entertaining and engaging tale, which also doesn’t take itself too seriously.

This book picks up 2 years after the events of Book 2 - so Tavi is a young adult now at 19-20 (?). The book features one of the most exciting battle sequences that I’ve read in a while. It’s basically the siege of Helm’s Deep in a book long format. Yes, I knew what would happen and I wasn’t really scared for lot of our heroes - but that made it the best kind of cheesy fun. This series continues to be comforting in a familiar sense.

Spoiler

For example, I was originally thinking Tavi and Kitai would be a doomed romance. Humans and Merat - star crossed lovers etc. However, at the end of this book I am convinced that Tavi will convince the entire empire to accept his relationship with Kitai. Ingrained prejudice cannot survive against his main-character magic powers.

Our other characters, Bernard, Amara and Isnana are here as well but honestly they continue to be the most part of the book. Mr. Butcher in fact very neatly sidelined Isana throughout the book - so much so that I was amused. She continues to serve a very small and particular function in the book - once which I called in book 1 - but otherwise she has very little to do here.

Spoiler

As expected Tavi turned out to be the grandson of the first lord. Isana was married to the Prince in secret and she feared for Tavi who is called Octavian - and yes I get the reference to Romance history.

The only reason she is around in the series is to set up Tavi’s backstory. All gender politics and exploration of the empire and women is shelved to the side in this book. Which is probably a good thing since that is not Mr Butcher’s strength.

In fact, the romance continues to me some of the most comically purple prose that I’ve read. Now I am a fan of purple prose and there are a few potatoes here which made me grin but your mileage may vary.

“She felt an answering passion in [redacted for spoiler], the feral call of the flesh, the rising tide of his passion …”

omancio1204's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

emoticonnie's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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