A review by alanathehangry
Age of Empyre by Michael J. Sullivan

5.0

A great ending to a fantastic series. It's hard to grade a book within a series. When it first started with Raithe and ol' awkward Malcolm, we had no idea the events that would unfold. It's so fun to think about the beginning until now. It started so small and expanded so large, but taking reasonable-sized steps so that the reader could follow along the whole way through, growing with the characters and growing to love them even more.

There was a lot of lore and history in this book which I think slowed down the pace. Conversations between Brin and the gods in particular. While it was fascinating, I think slowed it down. I have so many thoughts and I keep going back and forth between them. Did a character really deserve this? Is this what should've happened? A good thing to note here is that I haven't read the Riyria Chronicles or Revelations. Doing that next :)

Spoiler

I LOVED Minna coming back. She and Suri are probably my favorite characters. They seem like one unit to me. I love Suri's individualism and her arc in the novel is so wonderful. I still get teary-eyed when I think about Suri and Arion.
The lines: "You sure?"
"Pretty sure."
Slay me.

Spoiler

I think the thing I most took offense to was Roan's forgiveness of Iver. Well, not the forgiveness, but the way she did it. Embracing him, rocking him, crying with him. It felt too much for how terribly he had treated her.

Spoiler

I was so happy to see Raithe. So happy to see his dragon protect Persephone. So happy to see him happy, ready to welcome Persephone to eternity. It was beautiful.

All in all, it's the characters. I love so many characters in this book like they are my friends. Suri, Minna, Persephone, Arion, Raithe, Roan & Gifford (OTP), Moya. Wonderful, wonderful characters. Thank you, Michael J Sullivan!