Reaping the Aurora, the third book in the Ley trilogy by Joshua Palmatier, is now out in paperback. As the final book, it is not meant to stand alone and continues where the previous volume, Threading the Needle, left off. This fantasy trilogy covers the destruction of the ley system that provided magical power for the city of Erenthrall and the attempts by the survivors to rebuild the system, or at least stabilize what is left.

The book opens with a statement that Erenthrall has completely changed. The once-magnificent city has sunk into the ground with shattered towers and broken buildings from the instability of the ley and subsequent distortions and earthquakes. Alan, a former city guardsman, and a team of people from the Needle, the headquarters of the Wielders who can control the magical power of the ley lines, have returned to the ruined city to figure out who has survived, especially among the Gorrani who had previously attacked the Needle, and whether they were a danger to the Needle. They forge an alliance by necessity with the Temerites, whose Matriarch has been unable to return to her own city.

Meanwhile, back at the Needle, the young Wielder Kara and Commander Ty struggle to maintain control while supporters of Father Dalton, who previously led the White Cloaks, plot to overthrow them. But healing the remaining distortion on the ley requires help from all the remaining Wielders, including those still loyal to Father. And then the Father, whose preaching is carefully monitored by Kara and Ty, announces he has had a new prophecy of disaster. This leads to a climax where the Wielders work their magic to save the city of Tumbor, while the Needle is attacked simultaneously by both outside forces and an internal rebellion.

Fans of political intrigue will find a lot to enjoy here. I also liked how the Healer Morrell discovers new facets to her power--healing the walls of the Needle and later the crystals used to control the Ley.

Unfortunately, there is no summary of the previous books nor a list of characters, both of which are needed as the author does not provide sufficient reminders in the text. And this book lacks the interesting ambiguity of Shattering the Ley, in which the Kormanley were terrorists, but used terror to fight against an evil baron. And this third book has a lot less emphasis on the ways in which concerns over controlling the Ley mirror concerns of our own environmental movement. Moreover, the first third of the book is rather slow with the events in Erenthrall largely unnecessary for the overall plot.

I enjoyed the first book, Shattering the Ley. Unfortunately, I did not feel that the other two books of the trilogy were as good as the first. Readers who are tired of pseudo-Medieval fantasies (which are not as dominant as they were a decade or so ago) and want a fantasy that says something meaningful about today's concerns would do well to read the first book in the trilogy, Shattering the Ley and then deciding if they care enough about the characters to want to read the other two volumes.