A review by gages
Into the Narrowdark by Tad Williams

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I feel like this is one of the greatest standard fantasy stories of all-time. Big prophecies, heavily symbolic characters, big battles/sieges. If you're just looking for a well-written fantasy story, the Last King of Osten Ard series is great! For me, the highlight of the book is the histories of the Sithi, the pure, the tunikeda'ya, and the Hikeda'ya peoples. Their leaders tell them different versions of the same story (the leaving of the Garden) and you can see how those retellings shape each different group. Williams does a great job of showing AND telling these histories. My struggles with the series is that almost nothing new is being tried. Predictable twists, one-dimensional characters, and a setting that has been done before. Its just every normal fantasy trope being executed to a very high degree. Williams is a fantastic writer, but, as someone who has read many, many fantasy books, I was hoping to find something new in this series. That being said, I will definitely be reading the final book when it comes out because I'm a nerd for fantasy genre.