This was an enjoyable enough read, bringing together the overall trilogy's characters and story lines to form an epic conclusion. I was very glad for the (incredibly efficient) summation of the previous books at the start.

However, it's also a book that didn't manage to leave a big impression on me, one way or another (hence this very short review!) There were a lot of moving parts, and I didn't engage fully with all of them because of that, but it also wasn't a "tricky" book to get through - it was engaging enough to keep me reading.

Another excellent fantasy story in this excellent series: gripping, well plotted and entertaining.
I was glad to catch up with Flore and loved the world building and the plot.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc copy of this book. Awesome world building and character development. As always, nicely written.

I really enjoy Ian Green's writing but there was something about this last book that left me wanting more. Maybe that was the point? I don't know, I don't feel like it fully captured me.

A brilliant end to a compelling trilogy with one of the most badass mother’s seen in fantasy. The worldbuilding was as rich as ever and the plot was winding and clever. Loved every second.

5/5 stars! So I somehow didn't realize that this was the last book in a trilogy. But the author still did an amazing job of filling in the necessary details that reading it first was still possible. I enjoy Ian Green's other series, so was very excited to read this book. There is non-stop action in this story and it kept me hooked from the very first page. The conclusion shook and amazed me and I can't wait to see what Ian Green writes next.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This, being the third instalment in the trilogy, starts more or less immediately after the previous book ends. It’s seamless. The book continues to follow Flore as she seeks Marta, Ashbringer as she tries to reconcile herself to her new fate, Brude as she faces what really underpins her people’s tragedy, and Tullen, whose true sense of disassociation from the world and its inhabitants becomes increasinglya apparent.

Overall, I continued to like it. The best thing about this particular book was the worldbuilding – most of the loose ends were tied, and we understood much of what drives the main characters and events. The author also shed further light on the history of the world, helping the reader unravel the ambiguity that followed the trilogy since its inception. The characters continued, for the most part, to be interesting (more about this later), and, for me, Brude, Tullen, and Ashbringer really stood out, with an increasingly complex psychological profile of each being woven as the story unfolded.

That being said, this is probably the weakest of the three books, and somehow, it came across as tired. It was much more “philosophical” in nature (referring to the fundamentals of philosophy in the book’s own universe, for the most part), and much less character driven. I frankly lost the plot at some point – the immense volume of details, conflicting narratives about these details (from the perspectives of multiple characters), and longwinded descriptions.

Some loose ends in character development from previous books somehow were never followed up on. Thomas, who was a very interesting character earlier on, lives in the background of this one. Yselda is somehow turned into a whimpering and shattered little girl. Cuss somehow finds peace and is able to kill ruthlessly while staying affable. Flore’s usual pragmatic and ruthless approach to problem solving somehow turns into a random grabbing at straws to save the day. There are more examples, of course.

I also found the pacing even more off the previously. The book progressed in leaps and bounds, and the various scenes felt more like highlights in a TV series than a typical plot progression in a book. This, together with the over abundant focus on worldbuilding and the book’s internal mythology, made this book flow far less well than its predecessors.

The ending was also somehow off kilter, vs the mood in the rest of the book. It’s like a scene from a more-or-less feel-good epic fantasy series bolted on at the end of a grimdark book series. It felt too good to be true, and I found it less rewarding frankly.

Finally, I continued to find the interludes unnecessary. They’re like companion short stories that only diehard fans might want to read, but add very little (if anything) to plot development. The book would have been smoother without this.

I’d, of course, recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the previous book and found the trilogy overall interesting. I’m grateful this was not the first book in the series, as I might not have continued with it. I hope the author’s subsequent books are better able to repeat the near magical first two books of this series.

There are elements of Warhammer and Norse mythology in this book that meld really well, the characters are engaging and you develop a rapport for their predicament as the story unfolds, I really enjoyed this book and would heartily recommend it