3.5 out of 5 stars (3.5 / 5) This marks the end of the five book series! Relos Var and Xaltorath are trying to destroy the world with no care for life. Our main three are trying to save it but the possibility that they won’t be killed in the process is getting smaller and smaller.

Lyons really does an incredible job with the characters in this series. The main three (plus a few others) kept me coming back, curious to see what would happen next. The story was fast-paced with building and strategic plotting in the beginning, then an all-encompassing climax brought about the end.

I truly thought I understood the majority of the characters and their lives, but with each character brought in for the finale, I learned I didn’t quite retain what I needed to. With so much going on, I often felt confused. Throughout the series the extensive family trees just get more complicated. That came into play a lot with this installment and I was lost a few times. This started my bewilderment which I believe only increased as the story commenced.

It was so fast-paced, that the characters barely had enough time to act, let alone ponder and debate feelings. I believe this left me conflicted because I wasn’t caring what happened. My emotions were not warring and the tension and adrenaline wasn’t felt.

I loved the ending! It wasn’t perfect, which made it perfect. Not every single thing was wrapped up but the plans to do so are in place. There were a few items that made me wonder if she is considering a spin-off series but I’d actually love to see what else Lyons can create before coming back to this world again. As her debut series, I was astonished many times and hope she can keep up the incredible writing, just maybe not such a complex world next time!

Audio review: Having multiple narrators added so much to the book! Each voice was paired perfectly with the character. Each was fabulous with adding excitement to each scene. It honestly added so much to the story and I’m happy I was able to experience it. My only two issues were one female voice by a male narrator grated on me a bit, and the other was that two names sounded too similar when said aloud (Xaltorath and Volkoroff). The latter had me rewinding a few times to fully understand what was happening. I highly recommend the audio, it just added to the experience of the series.

This is the final book in a rather large, 5 book series. While other books in the series had odd (and sometimes confusing) storytelling methods (like jumping back and forth between timelines with the same characters), this one just rolled toward the ending. There are POV changes, but that’s it. Kihrin and his friends have to try and stop the end of the world and we follow them jumping from one near disaster to another. I was slightly disappointed with the final confrontation. It was almost lackluster when you consider how big this series is. I still enjoyed this book (and series) and do think this is one that would benefit from being read all together.

Grab your Cornerstone, prepare your glyphs and get ready for the fast paced, entertaining conclusion to The Chorus of Dragons series!! I have been a fan of this series from the beginning and am both so happy with the finale and also sad that we are leaving this extraordinary universe behind. Kihrin, Teraeth, Janel, Qown, and Thurvishar among many others have become some of my favorite characters and I will miss them. If you are familiar with this series, you know it is complex, with many threads and literal timelines that need to be wrapped up. Jenn does a masterful job of weaving all these threads into a coherent story, while making sure certain characters get their due, and you still get hit with a few twists. Normally I would summarize the events in the book, but even Senera couldn't do that in a few sentences!! LOL. Just know it's a ride and you get lots of great dragon action!! Could've really used a kiss between.......oh just go read it and find out!

4.5/5 stars
Many thanks to Tor Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

I received an ARC of The Discord of Gods from TOR in exchange for an honest review.

I have read this entire series and it was a fun and enjoyable ride. This book completes the series in a very satisfactory way. Obviously, being the 5th book in the series, if you haven't read the previous volumes you will be completely lost. There is so much going on in this series. This final chapter moves along very quickly and has a rapid pace, but that is perfect for the scenario of racing to stop the end of the world by the main characters.

This book continues the themes established in the previous books with the rich history and conflicts between nations and characters. I still greatly enjoy the footnotes that are in each chapter as adding some pieces of additional info and a lot of little bits of humor. This series is not a casual read because of the multiple POV, plot points and number of characters you are introduced to and fallow. Add to that the ability of some people to body swap, reincarnation, and races that are virtually immortal...it can be difficult to keep up with everyone and what they have been involved in. It is not nearly as much as some other series out there, though. The rich depth and interactions between characters are great and throwing in history from past lives just adds to the depth of story,

This is definitely on my recommended series list for people. I enjoyed it greatly and was quite satisfied by the conclusion of the story.

I received an ARC of this book from Tor in exchange for an honest review.

When the first book in "A Chorus of Dragons," The Ruin of Kings, was released, somehow a mere three years ago (!), it received considerable hype and media coverage, which I think it is fair to say it didn't completely live up to. Now the fifth and final book, The Discord of Gods, is coming out to much less fanfare, despite being a stronger and more assured entry and a fitting conclusion to a satisfyingly dense epic fantasy series. Never say the world is fair, right?

A capstone book like this, which delivers the final thousand pages in a five-thousand page epic, is not for everyone, and in particular does not step far outside the bounds of what the series has already delivered. To be fair, there's not much the series hasn't tried to do yet. All four previous entries feature multiple points of view, extensive flashbacks (sometimes to millennia before the main events of the book), footnotes that sometimes try too hard to be clever but usually succeed, complicated magic, deaths, resurrections, battles, and the fate of the entire world. It would seem like there's no room left to up the stakes, and yet somehow, there is! Those who found the style and atmosphere of The Ruin of Kings to their liking will not be disappointed by any of the books in the series (personally, I thought the fourth installment, The House of Always, was the strongest, because the driving mystery and final twist felt the most intense and surprising); Lyons continues to craft messy, believable relationships between interesting characters while delivering a metric ton of world-building that often spills over into asides and footnotes. Others may have found The Ruin of Kings to be somewhat over-complicated and thought some of the twists felt a little too deus-ex-machina, while some of the mysteries and backstory felt too far removed from the story to be relevant. On the latter two fronts, the series has improved, with greater space allowing the reader the necessary knowledge to follow along and highlighting how some earlier moments of "surprise" seem in fact close to inevitable in hindsight. Having bridged the satisfied and unhappy camps after the first book, or even first two books, of the series, I find myself solidly in the former at series' end, and happy that I've followed Kihrin, Janel, Teraeth, and the rest of the gang on a wild journey through time and space.

At this point I stray into spoilers for the previous books of the series, though I'll avoid them as much as possible for this book itself. It's just hard to talk about the last book in a series without talking about the rest of the series! In each previous entry, the stakes have escalated, no mean feat given that The Ruin of Kings features a demon invasion of Quur, and The House of Always disposes of a time-traveling demon who has reset the entirety of history multiple times in a quest for Unlimited Power. The puzzle of "what are demons, and where do they come from," has been a running theme ever since Xaltorath's first appearance, both as a question about what cruelties people can bring themselves to visit upon others and as a technical puzzle within the world of "A Chorus of Dragons." The Discord of Gods finally delivers an answer to this question, and one that I found satisfying, having previously guessed at its outline as the origins of this universe's inhabitants and the Eight Guardians became clearer. As befits the final book in the series, The Discord of Gods also dispenses with the conceit of having the book be a record of past events in order to leave open the possibility of death (however impermanent it may be, though the possibility of resurrection is in serious question following the death of Death herself) for all characters. There are still enough footnotes to hint at survival for our running commentators Serena and Thurvishar, but Lyons keeps her cards close to the vest until the very end, though a genre-savvy reader may be able to spot the final gambit coming by applying their experience of other climactic epic fantasy endings. This more linear structure benefits the book, helping trim out some of the more egregious uses of point-of-view shifts and time jumps to create artificial suspense, and leaving a more focused and lean narrative in its wake. While The Discord of Gods can't quite match the locked-room ambiance of The House of Always, I found its climactic confrontation more than satisfying. These days, it seems like being able to write any ending to an epic fantasy series is itself a fact worthy of praise; fortunately, Lyons does not rest on those laurels and delivers a good ending to boot.

Four out of five stars. A strong conclusion to a sprawling, complicated, and entertaining epic fantasy series.

Discord of the Gods is the triumphant finale to Jenn Lyons’ A Chorus of Dragons series. Having left the characters in an impossible situation at the end of book four, I was overjoyed to receive an ARC. I absolutely loved every second of this book- I still want more! While Jenn Lyons is often pitched as a perfect author for fans of Sanderson, Lord of the Rings, Rothfuss, and more- Lyons is truly in a high fantasy league all her own. She is unafraid to play with time, reincarnations, expansive magic systems, and creates a beautifully inclusive queer-norm world. The characters are so beloved, it would be fantastic to see even more about what happens to them after the final page. I hope she returns to the world one day, as I think there are many stories she could choose to continue.

Throughout the past five books, Lyons has carefully crafted an intricate magical system and unique cast of characters. My favorite part about this series is the characters, their growth and change, but also the complex web of alliances and relationships. Seeing Kihrin’s growth and story arc is lovely, but so is the growth of characters like Senera and even Relos Var. The world feels immersive and real; Lyons writes such strong world-building. I cannot wait to reread all of the books now, knowing that Lyons is a master storyteller and has no doubt known from the very beginning where she intended to take the story. She has an incredible ability to juggle so many story threads and somehow pull them all together into a cohesive and thrilling finale.

I would highly recommend the series A Chorus of Dragons to anyone who enjoys high fantasy, LGBTQ+ rep in fantasy, or simply a stunning epic tale. Discord of the Gods releases on April 26, 2022. Thank you so much to Jenn Lyons, Tor Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

This is a superb conclusion to an intriguing series.

One of the challenging/fascinating aspects of this series is that the extent to which so many of the world building facts/concepts set up in the first book had been totally reversed by the end of the last. Keeping the narrative credible while this was done was a remarkably skilled writing effort.

Obviously, much of the "heavy lifting" was accomplished by using multiple viewpoints and the "unreliable narrator" mechanism, but maintaining overall consistency while transforming a young thief (in the first book) into a "god of energy" was extremely well done.

Unfortunately, growing the number of viewpoints/narrators from the two of the first book to the 7++ in the this one made it very difficult (cognitively) to continue to keep track of what was happening - and when, as the timeline became disjointed.

There was also - especially in this book - a strong tendency to introduce "just so" coincidences when needed to drive the narrative along a particular path. This meant that the character behavior was often inconsistent - by the end of this book various of the characters were behaving (of were shown to have behaved in the past) in ways that were totally incompatible their prior behavior (and not in ways that could be explained by a Gaesh or a need to present a particular image). I expect the tight deadline played a role.

Finally the lack of a meaningful explanation of the magic system (especially the soul/ousology bit) left some key questions unresolved. For example, a key element of the plot presented there was some sort of energy to be released by "fully aligning with the universe" BUT such alignment would result in a loss of immortality. How or why (or even what a "soul" is in the book) is totally unanswered. How the initial group transferred to the book universe (and why it was necessary) is completely unexplained.

However, at a higher level these are just nit-pcks.

Overall, a truly superb capstone to a superb series.

Ultimately though,
T his was an lot of energy

The Discord of Gods is the final book in Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons, a series I've loved so much (after a first book that was kind of a miss to be fair) that I've been doing a reread of each book for this blog. The series has a lot of tics that would ordinarily annoy me - each book is written as if it's a text compiled by one of two characters complete with footnotes, even when that doesn't make sense; each book starts in media res even though that doesn't always work; etc. - and yet what it otherwise contains has overpowered those annoyances, with a ton of amazing characters (after a first book where that was a weakness), great relationships, and a tendency to make each book a bit of a puzzle box plot where you have to keep reading to figure out how things really fit together. And so I've been so eagerly awaiting this fifth and final book....and have kind of reread it repeatedly since finishing it before even writing this review.

And The Discord of Gods delivers for the most part. While for once the plot doesn't start in media res, it retains its puzzle-box'ish nature, as the book sets up events, pieces, and characters to come into play in the final conclusion of the story, all the while jumping between a large assortment of protagonist and antagonist characters in the process. It's a puzzle box that works incredibly well by being super fair, with the reader having all the pieces to figure out what might happen, without the conclusion ever being super predictable (at least to me), thus keeping things highly entertaining and satisfying all the way through. And the characters and relationships remain excellent, as everyone begins the final steps towards saving or dooming the world. It's not a perfect conclusion, as it has a decent chunk of parts that feel kind of superfluous in the end, but it's still incredibly incredibly satisfying, and makes this series definitely one I will highly recommend to any lover of fantasy.

SPOILER WARNING: I will be doing a separate short spoilery review to talk about some things more in depth about what happens in this book. This review will try to keep spoilers of this book to a minimum, but will still Spoil books 1-4 a bit, since there's no way around it. You have been warned.



-------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Vol Karoth, the King of Demons, is finally free from his bindings, and able to act to destroy the world. And so Xaltorath (self proclaimed Queen of Demons) and Relos Var (the wizard turned dragon who created Vol Karoth) begin to put their own plans into motion, both of which rely on using Vol Karoth for their own ends. For Xaltorath, those plans involve the destruction of everything. For Relos Var, those plans involve the saving of the world....no matter how many lives that might cost, so long as it results with him ascendant with all the powers of the Eight Immortals.

There's only one thing standing in Xaltorath and Relos Var's way: Kihrin beat them to it, and sacrificed himself restore Vol Karoth's soul - his own soul - and now is in control of the alleged "King of Demons". With this power, Kihrin and his friends plan on pulling the biggest con ever on Xaltorath and Relos Var, stopping their plans for good and saving the world in a way that doesn't sacrifice millions of lives.

Unfortunately, doing so will require Kihrin to actually be able to control Vol Karoth's powers in a way that doesn't result in him destroying everything, something his foes are all too willing to take advantage of. Even worse, Relos Var and Xaltorath both have devastating backup plans, ones that even Kihrin and his friends could never have anticipated......
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Every book in this series has been written as if it's a text written by either Thurvishar (books 1 & 3) or Senera (Books 2 & 4) documenting what happened leading up to a certain major event for at least one other major character to read (with footnotes from the writer making often humorous or explanatory comments about events that occur). The Discord of Gods sort of continues that framing device, as the book contains footnotes from both Thurvishar and Senera (who often snark at each other), although unlike the prior books, it doesn't explain how this text is being made and who it is being made for....thus leaving it a mystery what could have happened (with some of the footnotes very cleverly teasing events in an ambiguous way).

But really, like the last two books, this is a story that is told in snippets and chapters from one of many many characters' points of view: Tyentso, Kihrin, Thurvishar, Senera, Xivan, Galen, Jarith, Sheloran, Qown etc. etc. - even hitting some of the antagonist's points of view at times (we get a few chapters from Relos Var's perspective). The story very much continues to build upon the character developments and relationships as they've shifted and grown over the series, with different alliances of characters forming to various ends as the good guys attempt to deal with the major antagonist's master plans coming together.

But even more than that, so much of this book is essentially the story pulling together puzzle pieces from the prior novels, as well as establishing new puzzle pieces based on those foundations, such that these plots and ideas can come into play. And the story is so so good at that, making the actions of most of the characters and most of the plots make total sense as they come about, even if they often aren't wholly predictable. Pieces that we've heard about and had explained but never seen before naturally show up here in full splendor, and characters' habits from the prior books from the core of how they act here and it all comes together in a finale that works generally pretty damn well. Not only does it work well - but well, it's FAIR - with the story giving you all of the things you need to even guess what the main characters are going to do throughout the story in such a way that it never feels pulled out of the air (unlike the end of Book 1), even if it isn't something you may see coming a mile away. And the ending is just pretty great and fitting, a satisfying conclusion to the whole series in total.

Not everything works of course, with one major subplot reminding me of parts of Book 1 in that it well, doesn't seem to matter in the grand scheme of things (and while one main antagonist is using this subplot as a distraction, the book carries on with it past the point that seemingly should matter. There's a few continuity errors I think, and one plot element I think seems to be wrong and shouldn't affect a character the way it does. And yet to be honest, none of that matters because this is just so so good as a series ender, with the characters all getting fitting conclusions, and the battles between the protagonists and antagonists - with dragons, demons, wizards, and more all colliding - just coming off near perfectly.

I've loved this series, and this book only cemented it more as one of my favorites. (More specifics in the spoilery post).

Jenn Lyons’s A Chorus of Dragons series was billed as a hair-of-the-dog solution for Brandon Sanderson withdrawal, which was one of two reasons I initially picked up her first book, The Ruin of Kings. This backfired immediately, as I plunged through the four books that were out at the time, leaving me with Jenn Lyons withdrawal after finishing the fourth book, The House of Always. Ending on a cliffhanger where one of your main characters transitions into the embodiment of a dying star is just mean, Lyons.

The Discord of Gods answers questions that have been woven through the series since book one, tying up threads like the origin of demons, the cycle of reincarnation, and everyone’s mother issues. Lucky for us, Lyons gives us a detailed timeline of everything that’s happened. Ever. And anytime I felt a little lost in the callbacks, chances were a snarky footnote was available to remind me of what I’d forgotten.

The cast of A Chorus of Dragons has been steadily expanding, and getting queerer with every book. Our favorite thruple doesn’t get as much screen time as I wanted, but the tradeoff is that other characters and couples get an extended spotlight. Everyone is charming, awkward, sexy, and brilliant. After finishing Discord, I wanted nothing more than to run back to book one and start all over again, just so I can spend more time with all of these people.

While I would have been content to sit back and drown in queer romance, the action, the magic, and everything else is still so engaging. I was (almost) fine when action and combat took over from the kissing, but only because Lyons makes it all sound so fun.

Finales always leave me with a mix of feelings, but The Discord of Gods makes bittersweet taste so good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for allowing me to preview this book.

All good things must come to an end. It’s a cliché because it’s true, but less cliché is the truth that not all good things come to a good end. Fantasy buffs know all too well the disappointment of loose ends and failed character arcs. Therefore, fantasy buffs—rejoice! For The Discord of Gods is an ending so action-packed, so character-intense, and so utterly intent on outdoing every book that’s come before that it boggles the mind. How can Jenn Lyons possibly fit everything into one last book? But she does. And then some.

This has been an incredible series. It had inspired several of us at Geeky to start a podcast specifically so that we could talk more about these books, and it has inspired me personally to go bigger and wilder in my writing and my roleplay campaigns. It’s been an amazing ride, and while I’m sad to see it end, I’m so glad to see it end so well. And I can’t wait to see what Jenn Lyons will do next.

Full review at Geeklyinc.com

I'm incredibly sad that this is the end of this series. I have deep love for most of the main characters. This was a really good way to end the story without ending the universe if that makes sense. I could have done with more of my thruple together, but the love story happening in the footnotes helped. Beautiful. I hope Jenn Lyons writes something else soo !!

I want to keep this review spoiler free since I read the ARC about a month before the book is due out. This series has been one of my favorite doorstop fantasy series! The protagonists are interesting and the villains all manage to avoid being mustache twirling over the top sorts despite being super powered…. I am really impressed with her skill with pacing a story. These are five long books. Somewhere in the 2500+ pages I would have expected a bit of a lag here or there but I didn’t get that. The world building was also well developed and interesting. If you like the epic fantasy sub genre and you have been waiting in this one to be finished before trying it, as I know some folks do, I do recommend this series wholeheartedly.

One of the most inventive and challenging fantasy series of the last decade comes to a riotous conclusion in The Discord of Gods. The final book in Jenn Lyons' A Chorus of Dragons series brings to mind that phrase "Hate to see them go, but love to watch them leave". I have fallen so madly in love with Lyons' strange and darkly humorous cast of characters over the course of the series that the idea of it being over had me dragging out The Discord of Gods, I was reluctant to say goodbye to the queerest, twistiest, most challenging fantasy narrative I've had the pleasure of reading,

In this finale, all the threads of Lyons' epic story are being tautly drawn together as Kihrin & Relos Var barrel towards their final showdown. Much of this book is a maneuvering of game pieces into place, characters & objects being moved from place to place, exchanging hands as Kihrin & Relos Var rush to outsmart each other. And while it is always lovely to see a plan come together, I wished for so much more lingering from this book. I did not look forward to saying goodbye to these characters and their strange and complex world, and by the end of Discord of Gods I still felt as though I didn't really get to say goodbye at all. The book lacks closure for me, which on the one hand is hopeful that Lyons may revisit this world in the future, but also disheartening after such a long journey.

I had hoped for more of what we were spoiled with in The House of Always, rich character moments and tremendous character development as the whole team comes together to face the real Big Bad. But instead having assembled it's fighters Discord seems content to simply let the plot play out without allowing much time or space for the characters or the readers to process anything deeper than defeating the villain and saving the world.

Some characters, like Tyentso, do have more POV time in this book, but other character subplots and romantic subplots are kind of left drifting in the wind. The trio at the center of the story Janel/Kihrin/Tereaeth hardly see each other at all, Galen/Qown is left up in the air, and while Thurvishar & Serena seem to have come to an understanding, I desperately wanted to relish in it. To drown in all the beautiful development and relationships that I've seen grow over the course of 5 books and that is definitely missing here, What this book needs is a much heftier epilogue. Tell me what happens to Telea!!!

This book also follows a rather straightforward narrative style compared to its predecessors. It follows a linear timeline as it hops between multiple POVs, which is very tame compared to the innovative and challenging twisting narrative the series has been known for. And while this change isn't necessarily a disappointment it does feel a little somehow less than the first 4 installments.

Overall, The Discord of Gods is a solid conclusion to A Chorus of Dragons series, wrapping up the plot in epic fashion. However, it lacks some of the beautiful bold narrative choices and meticulous character work that made the series so irresistibly unique and fun leading up to this. I'd be thrilled to return to this world any time Jenn Lyons sees fit, and I look forward to seeing what she might come up with next. Because regardless of the unconventional narration, and the convoluted world building A Chorus of Dragons is going down as one of my favorite fantasy series of all time, because it was always worth the challenge.

A fantastic ending to one of the weirder and more imaginative fantasy series I've read in a while. All the plot threads present in the prior four books are wrapped up in this fast paced finale.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

3.5 stars

After having received an arc of each of the previous books, I was ecstatic to obtain this one. I want to preface this by saying I love the characters. Literally every one—I never minded all the POVs or switching between them. Unfortunately, this book, for me, was slow. I enjoyed the story overall, but all the pieces were slow going. There were points where I almost forgot what the plot was supposed to be. The ending did surprise me. Knowing all I did about previous books, I should’ve anticipated something. It didn’t even cross my mind. I’m still in love and would recommend this series to everyone.

A triumphant ending to an incredible epic fantasy series. Loved every page and can't wait to reread all five books in one go.

I expected something great when i started this book, and my god did it not disappoint. This is easily one of the best books I've ever read.

There couldn't have been a better end to this series.

Thank you to Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Books and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC!

The Discord of Gods is a fast-paced and fitting conclusion to the A Chorus of Dragons series. The novel features many of the hallmarks of the series, the insanely complex character connections and relationships, the wit and the banter, and a whole lot of gods, god-kings, and dragons running amok. Though The Discord of Gods wraps up the series, it doesn’t exactly tie everything up neatly in a bow. While I can respect that this ending is rather fitting for a series with messy relationships, backgrounds, and identities, I found it left me feeling like it was incomplete.

Perhaps most out of character for this series, is that The Discord of Gods is a very linear and straightforward story. There is no story within a story or both first and third person. Instead, The Discord of Gods is a fairly typical narrative, which I found both a relief, and surprisingly, a bit of a disappointment. The most out of the norm storytelling feature of The Discord of Gods is characters squabbling over petty details in the footnotes. I’ve never really cared for all the footnotes in the series to begin with, so I was less than enthused with these small diatribes in The Discord of Gods. And after fighting through the strange narrative frameworks in the other entries in the series, which included different timelines of the same character told in different point-of-views, and other novels which included a story being recounted to our narrator who was also narrating, I found it a bit unexpectedly lackluster to have a “normal” fantasy narrative, which jumped from character to character. But maybe this decision to scale back the story-within-a-story was in response to just how positively confusing the narrative in the previous entry in the series, The House of Always was. Regardless, I was surprised by how little I had to “work” to make sense of what was going on in this novel.

By far my favorite perspective in The Discord of Gods was that of Emperor Tyentso’s. I love this woman—she’s sassy, confident, unapologetic, and capable. I was absolutely thrilled that she’s given a lot more “page time,” so to speak, in this novel. One thing I’ve loved continually throughout this series is author Jenn Lyons’s ability to write realistic banter between characters, and this wit leaps off the page through Tyentso. I think this humor has really been an essential part of the series throughout, especially due to the often heavy topics of slavery, genocide, godhood, family murder, past lives, betrayal and more.

Though The Discord of Gods is no exception to this brand of the humor, I do feel like that because the novel is so fast-paced and not over-encumbered by sticking to an oddball storytelling method or three, that there wasn’t nearly as much character development—there simply wasn’t any time for it. Instead, the novel hurtles toward its conclusion, with everyone mostly magically getting along because of the fact that they have much more pressing issues with which to deal. This breakneck speed makes for an exciting read that is hard to put down, but it also is unsatisfying in that certain revelations or events aren’t given the time or the weight they deserve as a result. Things happen, are dealt with, and then it’s simply on to the next catastrophe.

Unfortunately, I found that this way of handling the subject matter rendered me unable to feel very much tension or other emotion over situations for the characters. I knew that a solution would be found and things would be dealt with and another issue would arise that would likewise be solved—even if it completely undid previous, constantly explained (think “beating a dead horse” explained), solutions in the blink of an eye. It was a little bit frustrating, and I soon learned to just go along for the ride of the novel, without getting too attached to any one solution, method, or character.

Once The Discord of Gods is done hurtling to its final confrontation, it rather abruptly ends, with what feels like extremely little fanfare. It’s almost as if the author forgot that this was a conclusion to a five book series, spanning over 2,842 pages, and thought she was just finishing up another entry in said series, with a follow up already on the way. I thought surely there would be a long epilogue or an after the battle time-skip, like many other fantasy series, detailing where the characters ended up and what they were doing after the big confrontation that the series was building up to this entire time. I couldn’t help but feel very disappointed that there wasn’t more exposition, especially since certain characters never even return in the after-battle scenes, leaving me wondering what the heck happened to them.

It was like all the work was put in to get to the final confrontation and not put into the characters doing the actual saving of said world. And sadly, this final confrontation ended so quickly after so many other and longer battles, that I found myself asking, “That’s it? It’s really over?” I honestly expected The Big Bad to come back in yet another form and was rather perturbed when he did not. Though I expected to be sad or emotional that one of my favorite series was coming to an end, I was surprised that I just mainly felt disbelief.

As the characters are what kept me coming back to the series, I felt saddened that they weren’t really given the time and conclusions I felt they all deserved. Despite this, I can’t help but wonder if this lack of a neat, wrapped up ending for each of the characters and their own struggles points to a sequel series, which will detail these things further. I just felt that too many things were left unresolved for my liking, and though that is in keeping with the nontraditional nature of this series and its willful blind eye to the “rules,” I would not be at all surprised if the author purposefully left her ending rather open in order to return to her world and its characters again in another saga. And I will say that The Discord of Gods, does seem to hint that more content is on the horizon.

Reading the entirety of A Chorus of Dragons has been an altogether unique experience—I’ve never read anything quite like this series. With its focus on past lives, extremely interconnected relations, and nontraditional storytelling methods, I often felt confused and overwhelmed. There were never enough family trees, appendixes, or charts to help me keep track of everything. Despite always feeling out of my league when reading this series, I always enjoyed the challenge of reading the books, their magic system, their humor, and their characters, whom I loved—even the villains—and always found myself reaching for the next installments. Though I think The Discord of Gods is a fitting end to an often puzzling series, if I don’t view it with the possible lens that more content is coming, I find it rushed, anticlimactic, and disappointing. That being said, if there are future entries to the series or a spiritual successor, I’ll undoubtedly read them.

This book and this whole series have been a complete 11/10... Im in awe of Jenn Lyons ability to have all these different characters off doing all these different things that are leading to a cohesive plan to finally (hopefully) stop Relos Vars and his ultimate plan of killing basically everyone..

In the beginning I had only one or two favorite characters, Kihrin and Janel... but by the end I really couldn't imagine the story without any one of them..and I loved getting to read from all of their different perspectives.

This series has everything you could possibly want... action, romance, betrayal, magic, found family. DRAGONS.. and so much more. and as this is the final book anything can and does happen...

If you have loved the previous book this one will NOT dissapoint, and if your thinking about starting this series now that its finished DO IT.. It sucked me in from the first book, and kept me glued to the pages and invested in the characters and plot through the other 4.. I was never bored.. and I kept thinking about it when I was forced to put it down until I was able to pick it back up again..

I would definitley recommend reading the entire series, and for those that might be worried that they might have forgotten some details Jenn Lyons gives us a great summary of the events that take place in the first four books.

I will absolutely be buying this book to complete my collection, and I will absolutely by reading anything else Jenn Lyons writes..

A great ending to a wonderful high fantasy series perfect for fans of George RR Martin and other complex political sword and sorcery series. The journey of Kihrin and his friends comes to a wonderful end that is satisfying for readers who have enjoyed the other four titles. I would recommend that readers read this series from the beginning, picking up this fifth book first would probably be very confusing and not allow readers to see all of the character development and growth shown in the previous books.

For fans of the series, this book has almost every favorite character's point of view shown as the pieces for the final battle get set up. As with the other books, the fast pace plot and fun character asides make this long book seem much shorter than it is! I personally did not enjoy the footnotes as much in this title as I did in previous series, but that might be because I read it digitally and clicking back and forth was not always successful and took me out of the story.

This series is an easy sell to fans of complex high fantasy reads!