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tsilverman's review against another edition
2.0
I kept this on my "Currently Reading" shelf a few days after I finished it because I was just so disappointed in the ending. It's like I was hoping that maybe it had been a bad dream. But no. Queen Muriel died and didn't come back, making her entire character development over the four books completely useless. It wasn't even a purposeful death. Well, maybe for Anne. But Muriel didn't sacrifice herself. Robert just killed her. Like. What. Why. UGH.
Also the end was SO rushed. A huge fight between three super powers, summed up in a paragraph. And after all that, Anne was still queen of Crotheny?? How could the people be remotely okay with that? She was a demon. Yeah, she made the choice to (somehow?????) be defeated through Austra and the new Briar King, but like so what? She made bad decision after bad decision. One good choice doesn't cancel all those out. Including SENDING HER MOTHER TO HER DEATH. What was the point of that? Sir Neil and Lady Berry ended up being the ones to deal with the hell rune, maybe Anne could have just sent them. Muriel had nothing to do with that.
The first book was amazing. The second and third were decent. This one? I want a rewrite. Not a fifth book. Just a complete do-over.
Also the end was SO rushed. A huge fight between three super powers, summed up in a paragraph. And after all that, Anne was still queen of Crotheny?? How could the people be remotely okay with that? She was a demon. Yeah, she made the choice to (somehow?????) be defeated through Austra and the new Briar King, but like so what? She made bad decision after bad decision. One good choice doesn't cancel all those out. Including SENDING HER MOTHER TO HER DEATH. What was the point of that? Sir Neil and Lady Berry ended up being the ones to deal with the hell rune, maybe Anne could have just sent them. Muriel had nothing to do with that.
The first book was amazing. The second and third were decent. This one? I want a rewrite. Not a fifth book. Just a complete do-over.
jlsigman's review against another edition
4.0
I'd give it 4 1/2 stars if I could.
There are times when I wanted to throttle the author, as he dangled things in front of us and then refused to explain them. But everything came together nicely but not too neatly, as it should.
There are times when I wanted to throttle the author, as he dangled things in front of us and then refused to explain them. But everything came together nicely but not too neatly, as it should.
mw2k's review against another edition
2.0
A mess. This is the last of what are four books of steadily decreasing worth. Without getting into it (and quite a few of the other reviews here have nailed it) the characters now verge on the ridiculous, the situations aren't much more logical. Sure, it wraps up pretty well, but quite frankly, it's a very disjointed bizarre end to what was (at least the first two books) a great series.
Crazy stuff.
Crazy stuff.
jenniedee's review against another edition
3.0
Overall I thought this series started out with a lot of promise, but by the last book I was reading just to see what happened. I felt like the final resolution was rushed, and like the character development just stopped at the beginning of book 3, so I was hard-pressed to care too very much about what was going on. One bias I should mention is that, though I love sword-and-sorcery worlds, I am not actually big on descriptive battle scenes and tend to skip through them quickly. There are lots of descriptive battle scenes in the series, so if you like them better, you might like the books better, too.
kayswear's review against another edition
2.0
More of the same. I'm still a bit worn out from the short chapters that each end with a cliffhanger, and the strict rotation between the storylines and characters. I think the author didn't do a very good job describing the various thrones and the relationships between them and how they relate to the fanes and holy sites - I still don't have a good mental model of who I should have expected to work together or against who. If you're able to suspend these kind of questions and allow for mysterious character motivations, this story is good. I enjoyed the ride but I'm not entirely clear on exactly what happened at the very end.
julieputty's review against another edition
4.0
The final book in one of the greatest fantasy series I've ever read and... I didn't love it. It's very good, but I didn't feel fulfilled by it. I think in a few years I'm going to read the whole series again, but I'm just a little unthrilled.
I still think this is a fabulous series and I recommend it to any fans of epic fantasy. It's simply excellent.
I still think this is a fabulous series and I recommend it to any fans of epic fantasy. It's simply excellent.