Very solid. This series didn't give the same emotional toll that his original series did but was otherwise enjoyable and would recommend.

Summary
Belleger and Amika have finally found peace with each other. But war threatens from without, and it's a greater, more dangerous war than any of them could have envisioned.
Review

It pains me to admit that I have not [shudder] read the middle book of this trilogy. My impression is that I didn’t miss that much in terms of plot.

This series is titled The Great God’s War, and the martial aspect comes to fruition in this final volume, which is essentially one very long (600 page) collection of battle scenes. I found it wearing, especially because there’s no map to help envision the various strategic moves. After a while, I found it hard to stay interested in tactical decisions that lacked context and tended to blur together. In part, that’s because of the characters’ histrionics.

Any fan of Donaldson knows that his characters will tend toward the selfish and dramatic, with a likelihood of freezing under pressure. He set that template in Lord Foul’s Bane, and hasn’t strayed far from it since (though a bit more so in his short fiction). It’s become at least a trademark, if not a crutch. Here, he applies it in spades. Character after character is anguished by their need (and willingness) to sacrifice others, but taken aback by any suggestion that they pay a price themselves. And ‘anguish’ is the operative word here; characters have the choice of two responses: flat stolidity or wailing, tooth-gnashing anguish. Never does anyone say, “Sure. That will be mildly difficult, but we’ll give it a shot.”

At one point, Queen Etsie learns the nature of her undeveloped magic power, and the price for it. It’s a power that’s not terribly useful, and it’s not really clear why she feels driven to explore it. At the same time, the price, while certainly life-changing, is small compared to the stakes and terms that are constantly thrown around. Yet, paying that price seems to drive her to extremes of depression, as if someone had asked her to torture her children one by one. It’s on par with the generally overwrought feel of the book, and I found it really trying – especially as the Queen and King repeatedly ask others for the impossible, but cry their eyes out over paying any price themselves. That’s a bit exaggerated, but then, so is the book.

I’d ordinarily think that – as I suggested in a review of the first book, Donaldson is in a bit of a rut or even decline, but I felt the Thomas Covenant series ended fairly well. I do think that this most recent trilogy is not a success. From the awkward naming (Bellegerin and Amika as warring nations) to the overdramatic characters to the endless battle scenes to the loose threads, there’s a lot that could have been better.

A host of things unexplained in this concluding volume. The Final Decimate ends up underwhelming, and its nature unclear. The magic system as a whole begins to fall apart – or muddle together – at the end; what’s a decimate and what isn’t remains unclear, beyond the simple, formal designation. The nature and origin of the dreaded enemy? No attempt made to explain it at all. The motivations of the characters, beyond serving the plot? Well, they serve the plot, and, you know, this must be done, despite the vast, incalculable price. I guess.

The book is largely what I anticipated, based on the first in the trilogy, but longer and more angsty. I think that Donaldson is a talented writer, and I wish I could say that I’d loved this book or series, but I can’t. In my view, he’d do better to try something really different – not just a new genre (as in the Gap or The Man Who series), but something a little more lighthearted and without quite so much drama.

The cover, as with the first book, is pretty, but only somewhat related to the book itself.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

I was a fan of Stephen R. Donaldson’s Thomas Covenant series back in the day. So when I got the chance to read The Killing God, I jumped at it. (No, I hadn’t read the first two in the trilogy. Y’all know how I am sometimes.)

Here we see two countries, Belleger and Amika, historical enemies united by the marriage of Bifalt and Estie, preparing for war against the Great God Rile. Rile and his forces are coming for the Last Repository and all the knowledge it holds. While Bifalt prepares for war, Estie rides for the Last Repository, hoping to learn more about the power she holds and how she might use it to defend her people.

The relationship between Bifalt and Estie is strained. They parted on less than loving terms. Bifalt hates magic and it pains him to know that his wife could become a Magister. Estie longs to reconcile with her husband, but is driven to know more about this power of hers. What power is it? What can it do? What price will it exact from her?

We’ve got some good fantasy elements here: good versus evil, a conflicted hero (and heroine), a seemingly insurmountable quest. Donaldson uses them to good advantage and writes a story that, once it sucks you in, is hard to put down.

The Magisters’ powers were fascinating, and the price that each seemed to require the wielder to pay wasn’t always what you’d expect. Rile’s forces were also not the standard slash-and-burn soldiers. It was never a given that the good guys would win this one!

There wasn’t a lot of character development on the side of evil – they were just the Big Bad and had to be stopped. But the Magisters, Bifalt’s soldiers, Bifalt and Estie themselves, were all nicely written and made me care about what happened to them. Okay, some more than others. Some of the Magisters were just jerks and not terribly likeable, but I suppose wielding great power (and in some instances, carrying a very heavy burden for others) could make you that way.

The story does take a while to get rolling, and Rile’s motivation for wanting to wipe out the Last Repository wasn’t terribly clear to me. But that didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the book. I will go back and read the first two in the series, to see if Rile’s actions make more sense to me after reading the story as a whole.

Four stars, and I recommend The Killing God and The Great God’s War series to anyone who’s a fan of high fantasy, with main characters that make you care about how things turn out for them. Stephen R. Donaldson doesn’t give us a quick read, but he does give us a damn fine story here.

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this conclusion to the series for the most part. I felt that some parts were a little slow and the plot began to lose me. For this reason, I couldn't give it a full 4-star rating. I think, overall, I would recommend this trilogy to those who enjoy a long read with a good payoff. I will likely pick up another book by this author when I'm craving a dense, impactful read with characters that are hard to forget about.

I was not, to put it mildly, a fan of The Seventh Decimate, the opening book of Stephen R. Donaldson’s GREAT GODS WAR trilogy. Book two, The War Within, was an improvement, but marginally. The good news is that book three, The Killing God, is a big jump up, though the obvious bad news is one has to get through the first two to arrive here, begging the question of is it worth the journey? Warning: spoilers for the first two books to follow as I try to answer that question.

The long-awaited invasion of Belleger by the Great God Rile is about to commence. At the point of invasion, King Bifalt readies his plans and defenses against Rile’s overwhelming force. Meanwhile, his wife and ally, Queen Estie of Amika, has journeyed to the Last Repository, the great library where she hopes to awaken the sorcery she’s just discovered she carries within her, though she doesn’t know what her power is or how it might help them against Rile.

As noted, The Killing God is a vast improvement on the prior two books, lacking any of the issues that caused me so much grief earlier. The book flows smoothly, propulsively forward; the language is rich and vibrant without any of the repetition that so marred earlier book; the plot grows organically rather than relying on implausible actions/choices. Characterization has been smoothed out (especially with regard to Bifalt) and spread amongst a larger group we become deeply invested in, particularly Bifalt’s general and captains.

Donaldson offers up some quite moving scenes, as well as a number of tense one on one confrontations and major battle scenes, each of which is its own type of battle, offering its own type of readerly anxiety. One of my favorite segments involves a relatively unique way of portraying one such battle, with the Repostitory’s magical “far-lookers” relaying the events to Queen Estie and others, but thanks to the darkness and the inability of the far-lookers to hear, increases the suspense and tension as they struggle to accurately describe what is happening on the battlefield. And this being Donaldson, there are also a number of fraught, more interior or philosophical debates, particularly with regard to the wielding of power, the obligations of duty, tyrants’ fear of knowledge, and the difficulties and joys of human relationships.

The Killing God isn’t wholly without flaw. I’d argue that it could be a bit better balanced between battles and non-battle scenes, even if the battle scenes are vividly portrayed. And I found myself, as has been the case throughout the series, wishing for a greater sense of the world beyond these characters. The battle against an implacable foe in Donaldson’s earlier THOMAS COVENANT series, for instance, had such powerful impact because readers were so attached to the Land and the people within it. Here, that sense of just what Bifalt and Estie are fighting to protect isn’t as fully realized or felt and while that doesn’t have much impact on the individual scenes, it does rob the book a bit of a larger effect.

So is it worth the journey to arrive here at The Killing God, a book that honestly feels wholly detached from the series in its quality, almost as if it were written by a completely different author? It’s difficult to say. I certainly thoroughly enjoyed this read, and as is the case with everything, time (it’s been a few years obviously since I read book one) softens the memory of less pleasant moments. And given how much excellent writing is out there, recommending one reads two weak books (one quite so) to get to an excellent one seems a bit silly. But I supposed I’d say give The Seventh Decimate a shot and if you react less strongly to it, just keep going. If you have the same reaction I did, consider skimming through it just to pick up plot (but don’t feel bad about just giving up on the series if you so choose), then read book two, which isn’t great but certainly better, and finally settle in for a good attentive read with The Killing God.

This is the conclusion of another well written series of books (this one is the conclusion) by the author. I first read him a number of years ago starting with the Thomas Covenant series. It contains many of the elements that readers of fantasy would expect: two kingdoms, one good and one not so good, magic, heroes and heroines. There is good character development, but bear it in mind that it is not a quick read.

I received a free ARC copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

Another epic adventure from Stephen R. Donaldson. A thrilling and satisfying conclusion to the series.