WOW, There is so much folklore, many callbacks from previous books, and so many terrifying yet also somehow beautifully written moments from the opening execution scene to the very end. If you like sci-fi, fantasy, hero's journey stories, or any of Mark Lawrence's other work you will love this!
Full review on YouTube

The Girl and the Moon is the third book in the Book of the Ice epic fantasy trilogy by Mark Lawrence. Released 26th April 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Berkley Ace imprint, it's 416 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. 

This is a powerfully written story set in a cohesive and immersive world. The author is talented and quite adept at not just descriptive prose and believable characterization, but also with the nuts and bolts craft of writing. It's a substantial book and once I sat down to read it, the world fell away and I was surprised to discover the amount of time which had gone by when I was finished. 

Although it's somewhat self contained and the author does a good job of bringing readers up to speed (there's even a precis before the beginning), it works much better as part of the trilogy. It's set in a cohesive universe which contains much of the author's oeuvre, and although it's recommended to have read the two books in this trilogy before beginning the third, it's not necessary to hunt down the other trilogies beforehand. 

Five stars. Definitely one of my best reads for 2022, this would be a great choice for public library acquisition and for the home library. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC in return for an unbiased review.

In this final installment, Yaz and gang arrive at the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where they are given sanctuary from Eular who is powerful in this age of Abeth. Here there is crossover with the characters from Book of the Ancestor. I enjoyed the movement of the story and it's conclusion. Lawrence should continue writing prequels to this world - I'd like to get more of the Missings' story. His world building in Book of the Ancestor and Book of the Ice is phenomenal.

Well here are my thoughts on "The Book Of Ice" by Mark Lawrence the final thought is that in comparison to his other works this one was a disappointment only surpassed in lack of entertainment value possibly by "The Red Queens War" trilogy. I would not recommend either of them to anyone. These ratings must be from dedicated fans that give him high marks regardless of the quality of the story itself (the writing itself is always superb). The "Broken Empire" trilogy was a masterpiece but had some disturbing scenes that make it not for everybody but the "Book of the Ancestor" trilogy was superb in every way. Since he seems to follow each masterpiece with a trilogy that does not measure up maybe in 2-3 years there will be another masterpiece level trilogy, I will keep my fingers crossed. This was not worth the time it took to read it since I was expecting much, much more.

4.5/5 stars.

I think this one really tied a lot of threads together and I really enjoyed more insight into the greater timeline within Mark Lawrence's worlds. Yaz really grew on me as a main character but I did still like the addition of POVs in books two and three.

This is the third and final novel in the Book of the Ice trilogy. Full disclosure: I seem to have forgotten to read books 1 and 2 of this trilogy. But guess what? I was only slightly lost when I started reading. Mark Lawrence is a master of world building, and I was all too willing to jump into a narrative involving characters already two books into their journey, because I felt that I knew this world. From reading the Book of the Ancestor trilogy, I know that his ability to weave together components of a series is remarkable and so compelling to follow. I understand from other Mark Lawrence fans that he also excels at weaving parts of all his series set on Abeth, the Ice, the Corridor, and the Convent of Sweet Mercy. For these reasons, I jumped into The Girl and the Moon and was not sorry. The book started with a high stakes situation and the action rarely slowed from there. 

[Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an advanced reader copy of this book.]

The Girl and the Moon is the third and final installment of the Book of the Ice trilogy that must be read in order.

I have spotted the connection to the Book of the Ancestor trilogy which published just prior to this series and is currently my only prior experience with the author’s books. Both take place on the planet Abeth and worldbuilding is shared. I have since learned from long-time Mark Lawrence fans I was chatting with that in truth, there are also connections to two other previous series that took place on earth and that Girl and the Moon ties in strongly to wrap up threads for all four series. Let me reiterate that one can read this current series without the others or read some of the others and do fine, but, I take it, that getting the inter-connection of all the series is the ultimate experience. I see that I need to do a backlist read in my future.

Yaz, Quina, Thurin, Erris, and Mali have arrived in the Corridor only to be confronted by the evil lies of Eular who has them set to be executed in the first, heart-stopping scene. He has taken the box and has plans to join the powerful opposition that will endanger all on Abeth. He must be stopped. They are floundering in the new environment of the green-belt Corridor and are out of their league with the society and politics there as well as the tech and magic. Yaz must use all she has learned and is learning to unpack the mysterious Arc and fend off Seus at the same time. The middle third of the book is this band getting the knowledge and experience they need to do this. Sacrifice, tough-fought situations, strengthening friendships, and a march to that incredible end left me reeling even days later.

Like with the Book of the Ancestor trilogy, I was taken by the complexity of the Abeth world, the four magics, the dire nature of the conflict, twisting plot, but most of all, by the camaraderie of the band of those setting out to do what is right. I wasn’t particularly taken by Yaz for the longest time, but put her in that group of friends and they are amazing as a whole.

I want to chatter about the connections that finally made perfect sense and blew me away, but… spoilers. I will say the action and suspense is hard hitting and made my heart race, the reveals did the same. I had emotional moments that swung from loss and sadness to the rush of hard won victory and hope.

I didn’t want it to end even while I raced to the pages to get that end. I am having a hard time coming down off this book and know it has made my best of the year list. As to suggested readers, this will appeal to fantasy and sci-fi fans because the world crosses both genres. Don’t hesitate to grab up this trilogy and expect to binge once you get to the first cliffhanger (and it won’t be the last) and want to keep reading.

This review was originally posted on <a href="https://booksofmyheart.net/2022/05/05/%f0%9f%8e%a7-the-girl-and-the-moon-by-mark-lawrence/" target="_blank"> Books of My Heart</a>
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<i>Review copy was received from NetGalley, Publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.</i>

Like Mark Lawrence does at the beginning, which I always appreciate as it is a year between books, I will reiterate a few things from previous books.  My first experience with Mark Lawrence's work was with <strong>Red Sister</strong>, from the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/185644-book-of-the-ancestor" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em><strong>Book of the Ancestor</strong> </em></a>trilogy. The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/259647-book-of-the-ice" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em><strong>Book of the Ice</strong></em></a> series is set in the same world, earlier in time.  I would read the series itself in order.  I don't think it is necessary to have read the <em><strong>Book of the Ancestor</strong></em> trilogy, but it does make it much easier to adjust to the world and know about the different groups of people and their skills.  It was a much faster and more engaging read for me knowing more, and I had much less of the slow down I get with first book syndrome trying to understand the world.

I did not like Yaz in the <em><strong>Book of the Ancestor</strong> </em>trilogy.  In this trilogy, I appreciate her strength and commitment.  Her life is far from easy. The ice is a harsh place. She is loyal, even at great personal peril.  Everyone wants her as an ally or friend as she develops her talent with the stars.  I liked Yaz but struggle to connect her with the "other" Yaz.

<strong>The Girl and the Moon </strong>continues where we left off and it is a constant battle for our group.  They are always fighting and working to bring certain things together, to get into the ARC and Yaz is working with the stars and ship hearts.  Her friends and enemies both fight to keep her safe and give her a chance to use her talents with the stars and ship hearts.   There are many, many battles.

Yaz uses the stars and hearts to access the path, to also travel in time. We see her and others doing time traveling and bending.  I got a bit lost with some of the times travels and characters and battles.  I thought, especially with the time travel, we would see more of the characters I knew from the <em><strong>Book of the Ancestor</strong></em> trilogy.  It didn't connect up as well as I had hoped.   I am certain I would have benefited from reading all three books of this trilogy together, although it seems a lot more based on the Missing and their technology, than the other trilogy did.

Rarely have I come across a book this well-rounded. As the conclusion of The Book of the Ice trilogy, Mark Lawrence has outdone himself. And that is saying something, as this man has integrated so much folklore, many callbacks from previous books, and so many terrifying yet also somehow beautifully written moments from the opening execution scene to the very end. If you like sci-fi, fantasy, hero's journey stories, or any of Mark Lawrence's other work you will love this. Yaz and her friends are at the end of their journey from the ice, but still have so many things to answer like who is Eular? How can they help Taproot? How can they save the people of their world? Should they? What are they going to do with Theus?

This epic conclusion to Yaz's story can't be missed!

“Without the moon we would have been swallowed up long ago.”

Mark Lawrence’s The Girl and the Moon is a hopeful, solid conclusion to The Book of the Ice. Unlike Lawrence previous trilogies, such as The Broken Empire, Yaz’s story offers up an ending that is far more optimistic than his darker trilogies.
Yaz and her friends find themselves being persecuted by Euler for crimes the Abbes deemed appropriate, to be thrown in the Glasswater sinkhole, secured in irons. All while powerful, ancient forces, like Seus, seek the ark of Veritas; a device capable of threatening the world. Yaz and Quina are disguised as novices and are taught to follow the teachings of the Church, while Thurin and Erris go after Eular, an ancient entity that threatens to destroy Yaz’s world by bringing down the moon.
Throughout the book, I found myself enjoying Yaz and her friend’s awkwardness in the new, green world they find themselves in. From the beds, new clothes, and the fact that the two could stuff themselves until they were full. It provides a stark contrast to the previous books, where the girl of the Ictha went from struggling across the ice and scavenging for food in harsh conditions, to comical scenes of Yaz and Quina getting excited about the large banquets the Church provides every day. More than once throughout reading The Girl and the Moon I was laughing.
Granted, this is starkly juxtaposed by the latter half of the novel, where Lawrence excels as a dark fantasy writer by writing graphic scenes of Yaz and her friends struggling to survive against Eular. There’s plenty of action throughout the novel and certain scenes could be pulled straight out of a science fiction novel which, I must admit, was what I really loved the most about The Girl and the Moon. It reminded me of reading a C. J. Cherryh novel or, if I may take some liberties, of a fictionalized Hawking’s lecture on space and time.
Throughout reading The Girl and the Moon, I felt I would have had a stronger connection to the convent and sisters if I had read The Book of the Ancestor, and I would strongly encourage you to have read that trilogy before reading Lawrence’s latest one.
My only gripe about the conclusion to the girl of the Ithca’s story was that I wanted a deeper connection with the characters. Sure, there were a few instances where I was concerned about Yaz’s survival, but certain relationships felt like afterthoughts in the grander scheme of the story. Of course, I must admit that Lawrence’s strength is in his worldbuilding and grim storytelling, and Lawrence’s is writing a dark fantasy novel here. Perhaps, certain characters relationships were meant to fall through the cracks and be left unresolved? This is a dark fantasy after all.
In conclusion, Yaz’s ending is a little non-typical of a Mark Lawrence novel, leaving me feeling more hopeful for the characters in this story than in his The Broken Empire trilogy. And I applaud Lawrence for flexing his scientific knowledge throughout the story. I assure you that you will not be disappointed in Yaz’s story, where time itself can be manipulated and her fate changed forever.

This is the conclusion of the story of Yaz, a girl from the ice who has now finally reached the Corridor and the Convent of Sweet Mercy within it, but her enemies are a step ahead of her, and there is all sorts of peril in her being there.

I really enjoyed my time with the Book of the Ice series. It’s a different story in a world that I already enjoyed greatly from the Book of the Ancestor series. If you’ve read the Book of the Ancestor series, you will definitely see the connections between the two stories in this volume. Actually, all of Mark Lawrence’s series connect together, and I found it absolutely brilliant.

I really enjoyed Yaz as a character, so it was always easy to cheer for her. I also really enjoyed Quina and Mali in this volume as well. The relationships that have grown over the course of this series are really well put together, and I found myself having real feels about them.

The last quarter or so of this book was very, very twisty, and I couldn’t put it down for important tasks (like working). I was completely engrossed in this book at my desk to the point where my boss had to remind me to take a lunch (which I did, but only to read more). It was that good. I’ve had this experience with almost all of Mark Lawrence’s books and honestly, I really hope that this continues happening, because nothing beats a book you can’t put down, amirite?

The Girl and the Moon rounds out the Book of the Ice trilogy by Mark Lawrence, and I must say the finale is breathtaking. With surprising twists and turns, the story rarely slows down.


Yaz and her friends have made it to the Corridor and the Convent of Sweet Mercy, where nuns train young girls who possess ancient gifts. But unfortunately, Yaz's enemies are two steps ahead of her, and the Book opens with lethal danger. At the center is Yaz, who is trying to open the Ark of the Missing and save the world. Her ability to control the stars plays a crucial role in this.


Thrilling stuff.


In The Book of the Ancestor, Lawrence has created an entire world, complete and round with its history, customs, traditions, languages, and secrets. Then in Book of the Ice, he shakes up the pieces and offers exciting revelations that will astonish followers of his books. There are new layers to the world of the Ancestor, and they ARE exciting.

I'll also mention that The Girl and The Moon confirms certain theories about the interconnectedness of Mark's books. Prepare for many surprises and thrilling discoveries. But I won't spoil anything here.

Lawrence knows how to balance conflict and character development with the central mystery. He juggles the personal and the epic with admirable skill and leads his characters to a deeply satisfying, well-earned conclusion.


The Girl and The Moon offers excellent closure to the series. I can't wait to see what Mark writes next.

Incredibly satisfying conclusion to an amazing trilogy!

This is only the second of Lawrence's series' that I've read (the first being the Book of The Ancestor Trilogy), so I have a LOT o f catching up to look forward to. From what I understand this trilogy ties in with all the other series as well, though I definitely saw connections to the Ancestor's trilogy immediately (and it made me miss those characters so much more!) Returning to the Convent of the Sweet Mercy made me so happy!
My emotional reactions aside, this was a wonderful finale to the journey of Yaz and her companions. The growth of these compelling characters in such a challenging and well built world. It's hard to write a properly glowing review without spoiling anything... so do yourself a favor and pick up this set of book immediately!




Thank you to NetGalley and for providing this E- ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Mark Lawrence's The Girl and the Moon is the third installment in the authors Book of the Ice series. The Girl and the Moon picks up immediately after the cliffhanger ending from The Girl and the Mountain. The story is set on the planet of Abeth. Abeth is an ice-bound world with a think strip of land known as the Corridor circling its equator, kept free of ice by an artificial moon. On Abeth, there are four old bloods that show in a small majority of children:

Gerant - which makes you grow very big.
Hunska - which makes you very fast.
Marjal - which can give you some of a variety of lesser magics, like command over shadows, water, air, rock, fire, etc.
Quantal - which can give you major magics, including accessing the vast power of the Path, and the ability to weave the threats of existence to achieve more subtle manipulations of people and things.
The Missing are people of a fifth tribe that arrived before these four tribes and were thought to have vanished by the time they arrived.

16-year old Yaz is an Ictha Ice clan member who has completed a perilous journey from Black Rock, and arrived at the Corridor, and it exceeds and overwhelms all of her expectations. She has the blood of the Missing and can control Stars, and is said to be key to opening the Ark which will destroy the moon. Her traveling companions are Thurin born under the ice with powers over water and fire, Erris is 5,000 years old and we're not really sure if he is real, or a doppelgänger of someone who lived centuries before, Quina is a hunska who was rescued by Yaz, and finally Mali, a Sweet Mercy Novice who lost her friends, and her hand before Yaz found her.

Everything at Sweet Mercy Convent seems different but some constants remain: her old enemies are still two steps ahead, bent on her destruction. Sweet Mercy is dedicated to the worship of the Ancestor. Within its walls, young girls with the traits of the four original tribes of men are raised to killers, honing their skills to deadly effect. But like the Corridor itself the convent is packed with peril and opportunity. Thanks to the treasonous Eular, Yaz and friends were found guilty of murder and as the story opens, their sentence is about to be carried out.

Thanks to Seus's desire to bring down the moon so that the ice will close over the Corridor and reduce mankind to an ever more tenuous survival on the ice, the fate of everyone squeezed between the Corridor’s vast walls, and ultimately the fate of those laboring to survive out on ice itself, hangs from the moon, and the battle to save the moon centers on the Ark of the Missing, buried beneath the emperor’s palace. Everyone wants Yaz to be the key that will open the Ark – the one the wise have sought for generations. After all, she is the rare blood of the Missing who can control the stars.

But sometimes wanting isn’t enough. So, while Quina and Yaz are expected to join in on the training with the other Sisters, Yaz has to find a way to destroy Eular and his minions. While being hunted by forces which are far superior, more resourceful and always a step or two ahead of her, Yaz isn't ready to surrender to inevitability of her death at the hands of Seus, or Eular. As Yaz struggles to open the Ark, all the while trying to deny Seus, Quina is finding friends and a home within the Convent, and Mali gets a peek at her future thanks to a quirk in time.

It is fair to say that I am confused as to the timing of this series in comparison to the authors The Book of the Ancestor. One could call the series a companion. Truth be told, I had to go back and read the final pages of Nona Grey's series to find out if she would be making an appearance or not. This is a series that blends fantasy with science fiction and I couldn't have been more impressed with the authors world building and his characters like Mali and Quina, get a chance to shine outside of being aligned with Yaz.

Okay, so The Girl and The Moon. What is it? Well, it’s the concluding novel in Mark Lawrence’s The Book of the Ice trilogy. And it’s also bloody brilliant.

That reaction probably isn’t a great surprise to most of you, who know I’ve been a fan of Mark’s work for quite a while now. But I want to emphasise it again, for those of you nodding along and saying “Yeah but you like everything he writes”. Yes. Yes I do. It’s intelligently written, with complex characterisation which builds complicated, human characters out of hardship, friendship, and the occasional bout of violence. It’s written with an eye to a world which makes sense, which is rich in detail, which has a history that we’d love to see mor e of, even as we soak up the grandeur, strangeness and similarities unrolling in front of us. And it has stories that make you want to keep reading. That last one, perhaps most of all. It blends together characters and world and story into a delightful narrative gumbo, one which it’s impossible to stop eating. I mean reading.

And all of those traits are on display here. Yes. But this one is a stunner, even by the usual high standard for Lawrence’s work. My initial review was just a line that said “I was up until one-thirty in the morning reading this, and I have no regrets”. That is still very true. And I have every expectation that if you’ve come along on the journey of Yaz and her friends, as they trudged through endless ice, through the subterranean husks of haunted worlds, and through the under currents of their own understanding…well, then you won’t have any regrets reading this, either.

I will make one caveat: this is the final book in a trilogy. There is a summary of the previous two books at the front, so if you haven’t read the first two in a while, that’ll brush up your memory. And if you haven’t read either of them, you could probably use that summary to come in and not be entirely lost. But really, if you’re new to the series, go back to the start, you won’t regret it.

Which is a whole lot of words just to say, this is a book that anyone invested in Yaz’s story, and the world of Abeth, should read. But you should. Go get a copy!

I don’t want to mine too deep, for fear of spoilers, but let’s talk a little bit about Abeth. It’s a world we’ve seen before (in the Red Sister series), but mostly the nicer, sunny bits, filled with politics, magic and murder. And then we’ve had The Book of the Ice, which has been filled with a lot of, well, if we’re honest, ice. And also some magic, and, yes, sometimes a murder. But we’ve seen characters moved out of their element, seen them adapt, work together, understand each other, and push forward together. Here, they’re doing something a little different - stepping into a climate that isn’t trying to kill them, and into a society which operates by different rules, and may well, in fact, try to kill them. The sense of personal connection and social disconnection is done beautifully, as our intrepid band rapidly find themselves out of their depth. They have each other to rely on, but they don’t know the rules, and they don’t know how to survive in a world which isn’t bounded by the necessity of subsistence survival. From a characterisation point of view, this is beautifully done - watching new bonds form, watching each of Yaz’s friends, and Yaz herself, struggle with the idea of abundance, in even a transient sense. Watching them try to understand what it is that drives people with so much to do some pretty awful things. And it also says to the reader, I think, that these strangers in a strange land, they’re not stupid, or bad, or wrong in their strangeness, they just operate in a different context. Something we could all stand to think about in our own lives, perhaps.

It’s great to see Yaz taking the lead here, a woman who has really been growing into herself. Deciding who she is and what she actually wants has always been a struggle, and we’ve seen that before in the fragments of “devils” that she’s encountered, broken pieces of their former selves. But Yaz is taking hold of parts of herself and examining them, holding onto them, making her sense of self something she shapes, something not defined by the expectations of those around her. That’s a powerful message, and one that will resonate strongly with a lot of readers. And, to be fair to Yaz, she does this while also kicking some serious butt, getting an understanding of her own emotional vulnerabilities, planning to save the world, and making new friends. Basically, Yaz is awesome. And she’s backed by an amazing supporting cast, from nefarious unspeakable ancient evils, right through to the mechanised spirit of a teenage ancestor, and out the other side to familiar faces from the ice plains. And she’s going to meet more than a few new friends and enemies in this story, too (and there’s some connections into Lawrence’s other work, if you’re paying attention).

Anyway, I’ve gone on long enough.

Yaz is great, a protagonist with a fascinating perspective, and with energy and resilience that makes her a pleasure to follow along with. Her fellow cast add excellent flavour to the stew - as does Abeth itself, a rich world with a diverse, multi-layered history which I’d love to explore further. And the story, as I said way back at the start of this review, was one that kept me up until waaaaay too late. It kept me turning pages, and it’ll do the same for you.

So we’re back to the top, and the big question is, should you read this? Yes, yes you should. As fast as you can!

The Girl and The Moon by Mark Lawrence is the 3rd and final book in The Book of Ice trilogy. I loved Lawrence’s Book of Ancestor series, and did enjoy the first two books of Book of the Ice series. This was a very good conclusion to this series, though as previously noted in the last book, I did have some mixed feelings.

The Girl and the Moon picks up where the last book ended, with the evil priest Eular, pushing to decapitate the heads of Yaz and her friends, since he deems them as enemies. The Abbess of Sweet Mercy Convent insists based on the laws of the Ancestor, that they be thrown into the water to drown. Of course, the Abbess and the nuns have secretly set for them to survive, with the evil priest satisfied after a period of time.

Yaz and Quina stay at the convent to learn more and train from these nuns, teaching them many gifts along the way, while Mali, Thurin and Erris go on another trek. We do get POV’s of Yaz, Mali and Thurin, which gives us hints of what is to come (past and present). Yaz is determined to find the shipheart and the stars to help open the Ark, and stop the false god from taking control. Yaz is throughout the book, constantly hunted by so many forces that are out to destroy her, with so much action that threatens her and her friends lives. Having been brought up in the ice lands, seeing only bitter cold, ice, snow, they are shocked to see the Greenlands, filled with greenery, plants, and lots of food.

What follows is an amazing and compelling story with so much detail, resolutions, twists and turns throughout the relentless ride to the climax. We continue to learn more about the other clans, including the Missing, Black Rock, Sweet Mercy Nuns and the evil God, Seuss, not to mention adding new friends (novices).

The Girl and the Moon was an exciting non-stop action filled story, but my mixed feelings are based on the so many details, which got confusing at times, especially with the constant changes, as well as enemies. What I did love about the story was Yaz, who was a fantastic heroine, and all her fabulous friends that were loyal to her, and we got to see so much of them.

This is a difficult review to do, since there is so much that happens from start to finish, and to tell too much more would be spoilers. As I had noted previously, this series was a fantasy in a different kind of world that is beyond normal. The cruel conditions, the dangerous people, the constant battles and the need to survive keeps us engrossed into this story. The last 1/3 of the book was an amazing and tense climax that was a great finale for this series. If you enjoy fantasy, you can never go wrong with Mark Lawrence.

This book is obviously the third in the Book of the Ice trilogy, and anyone who has read the first two (not to mention any other Mark Lawrence books), won't take much convincing to pick this up. I'm happy to say that Lawrence has once again stuck the landing in a pretty spectacular manner. The book picks up directly after the end of the previous story, with Yaz and her friends having finally arrived in the corridor (and of course immediately confronted with danger).

I don't want to get in to too much detail about the book, since there are some pretty good twists and turns along the way, but the end pulled everything together in a very cool way. From looking at some of the other reviews it seems as if there are also connections to Lawrence's other works aside from the Ancestor trilogy. I'll have to go read those next to make sure that I get the full picture.

I loved reading Yaz's story, and this trilogy was an exciting and original follow up to the Ancestor trilogy.

Mark Lawrence was once asked in an interview if he was a planter or a pantser—whether he planned his stories far out in advance or flew by the seat of his pants—and he described himself as the latter. After finishing The Girl and the Moon, it’s getting harder and harder to believe him. The final chapter of the Book of the Ice series not only caps the trilogy with an exceptionally strong finish but it also feels like an exclamation mark on his entire body of work, culminating all the major storylines from his other series throughout his publishing career into an Avengers: Endgame-style finale filled with triumph, tragedy, and hope.

Books one and two spoilers ahead.

After escaping Black Rock, traversing the ice, and making their way through a warp gate, Yaz, Theus, Quina, Thurin, Mali, and Erris have found themselves inside Sweet Mercy Convent, awaiting trial for theft and murder, thanks to the treacherous Eular. Right out of the … ahem... gate, the first few chapters place our heroes under heavy duress and the book is basically unputdownable until the opening sequence is resolved. Mark has a talent for strong openings, but this is his fastest, most exciting, highest-stakes opening sequence out of any of his novels, full-stop. The second quarter of the novel slows things down a bit as the troupe gets situated into their new surroundings, and the story does start to feel like it loses a bit of direction, as the characters don’t really know the best path to take. That quickly changes around the halfway mark, as there is a dramatic shift, several plot twists, some surprising character choices, and we’re off to the races until the rollercoaster ending.

The last line of dialogue feels like the both the symbolic and definitive end to the Broken Empire & Abeth saga, with a clear message that the last pages of this universe have been written, and something else entirely is on the horizon for Mark’s next projects. I get a sense that for the first time it will be unlinked to anything else he’s written before. If true, I’ll be sad to see this incredible world go, but it has been concluded with the utmost care for its characters and environment.

There was one moment about 80% of the way in when a few lines of dialogue casually dropped, and it changed everything. Careful readers and longtime fans will pick up on the reference and will have their perspective on the whole trilogy re-evaluated, though it is possible to miss! Looking back, knowing what I know now, I am seeing the clues doled out along the way. I like to think I’m good at picking up on these things, but this time I was blindsided by the revelation and absolutely adored it. It’s rare to feel such an unexpected payoff that feels so earned and justified, and Lawrence pulled it off beautifully.

The Book of the Ice series is less of a sequel series than a companion series to The Book of the Ancestor, and strangely enough, I think that can be said for all of Mark’s series. Even though they take place at different points along the same timeline, there’s a fair argument that a new and thrilling experience can be gleaned by reading any of his series in any order you choose. I read them in order of publication, but I’m now curious at the different perspective I’d have gained if I read them in a different order. It’s a testament to Mark’s jazz-like style of storytelling – sometimes it’s the words not said that speak loudest – which adds to the mystique of each new volume’s release.

The Girl and the Moon is not only an exciting and rewarding finish to Yaz’s saga, but also a love letter to the universe and the fans who have appreciated its construction over the years. It is a rare book that makes its preceding books even better.

Oh bittersweet emotions of finishing a series I’ve been reading for years 🥲 This was an absolutely stunning conclusion to the story I’ve been following since Red Sister. My only complaint is that it’s done, and I’m not ready for it to be over.

I went into this book series excited. I loved The Book of the Ancestor series. As Book of Ice takes place in the same world, I was eager to jump in. The first one was fine and opened up more of the world's past, but the second killed my enthusiasm for the series. There was so much chasing and nothing else. I wanted to give the last book a chance to see the series wrapped up. And I'm not sure what it meant. Other reviews have mentioned that it answers his other series, but I'll be confused forever since I've only read two of his series.

I'm sad that I will have to walk away from this author because I got burnt from all of those chase scenes in caves. If you cut down all those scenes, this would have been a duology instead of a trilogy.

This review is based on an advanced copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.