In the thrilling conclusion to USA Today bestselling author David Dalglish's new epic fantasy trilogy, a usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people.

A little disappointing, I had expected more from the final book in the trilogy. That being said, it was still pretty entertaining.

Rating: 2.3/5

Review: This was a whole heck of a lot better than the previous novel. The title gives the whole thing away, but there you go. Really great cover art.

The characters, as usual were all OTT in expression, all powerful and speshul. I liked the Vagrant before, as he was rendered mundane in many ways which kept the story line grounded. About a third of the novel is guts on the floor type filler. Battles this excessive in graphic rendering gets very olde.

The constant movement and finely rendered world building lent for a thriving story line. There is still the wokey component interleaved with a chapter dedicated to this crap. Easy enough to skim.

The twists and turns to the plot are great but you know where you are going to end up thanks to the title.

Early released ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This will be a spoiler-free review.

"The Slain Divine" wraps up author David Dalglish's "Vagrant Gods" series, one that that I had the fortune of discovering thanks to the opening book, "The Bladed Faith" being listed under the Reccommendations tab in Goodreads. I immediately took to the series, especially with the elements of upheaval and revolution, faith in others (whether they are ordinary people or divine beings), and the erasure of culture. Now, on this day, I have concluded my trek through the series by finishing "The Slain Divine"- where Dalglish saves the best book of the series for last. Along with the themes that I previously listed, The Slain Divine does its best with character work and action sequences. I intend to discuss both of them, along with plot progression.

First for the characters: Though Cyrus is considered the central protagonist of this series, the amount of point-of-view page time has decreased from around 50% of "The Bladed Faith" to about 25% here in this book. Over the course of the preceding books, around ten additional characters have acquired their own POV chapters, with their own personal character developments on close display. Some characters that stuck out to me are the following:

Cyrus- Obviously, the central character, but he and The Vagrant are becoming less separate from each other. Similar to the superheroes that all of us have seen, Cyrus doesn't have a plan for what happens if he wins. He feels that he cannot simply drop The Vagrant and just exist as Cyrus. That he must stay as a weapon rather than a person.

Keles- The closest to a deuteragonist of the series, her character work continues improvement. She is the closest to an anchor to Cyrus, preventing him from completely shedding his humanity. Similar to Cyrus, she also doesn't have a true plan about what she is to do if her side wins, but as the role of a Queen rather than the Queen's weapon.

Mari- Dalglish says in the "Note from the Author" section at the end that Mari was his favorite. I can see why- he must've had fun writing her character. Her relationship with Arn is especially wholesome.

Arn and Dario- The book continues the attempted reconciliation of the estranged brothers. Following Arn sparing Dario's life close to the end of the previous book, Dario now has a POV and must decide what he thinks is right. Whether he can understand what Arn is trying to get through the him with. As for Arn, he continues to be a steadfast ally to Thorda and his daughters.

Thorda- Similar to "The Sapphire Altar", Thorda doesn't have the active role that he had in "The Bladed Faith". Thorda has reached the point where he has put his trust in his allies to operate without any insistant approval. He and Cyrus now have a relationship of equals, rather than mentor and student.

Now onto the action sequences. I won't speak long on this, but Dalglish has a knack for writing these. I've read works where the action is too over-written, and I tend to tune out some of the action. For this book, and its predecessors, that is not the case. The sequences are well crafted, with the motions and positions of the fighters are much considered, as are the exact tendencies of the fighters themselves.

Finally, I would like to conclude with discussing the plot progression. With the arrival of Lucavi onto the island nation of Thanet for its incarnation ceremony (expected to pass on its being into a chosen heir), it is clear that the final conflict between two forces, being the Thanet revolutionaries vs. the Everlorn Empire, is reaching its final stages. The end of "The Sapphire Altar" has revealed that Everlorn paragon Soma is actually the Dagon the serpent god, one of Thanet's ruling gods long before the events of the series. His alignment in the situation is interesting, because of his disdain towards the current occupiers of Thanet...but also Endarius and Lycaena, his betrayers when he was cast away. Furthermore, there is also Sinshei's strong desire to be the Heir-Incarnate of her father, Lucavi. So strong, that she will temporarily align her interest with the revolutionaries in order to create the exact scenario that she wants. There is also the fact that Cyrus's state of being, known as the "Vagrant", has been imbuing its own personality into Cyrus, seem to be creating a different man altogether. These issues present as obstacles to the revolutionaries plan to end the reign of Lucavi.

Dalglish brings back an aspect from "The Bladed Faith", where he titles a chapter as "The Night Before", where several characters their point-of-views before initiating a risky all-or-nothing plan, with great unknowns. This reminds me very much of famous musicals such as West Side Story ("Tonight Quintet") and Les Miserables ("One Day More"), where the characters also deal with a tense night before drastic action.

5/5, best book of the series. Improves on already-strong preceding books. Looking forward to future works from Dalglish.

An epic conclusion to a remarkable trilogy. The series' biggest strength was always the characters and the deep bond between them. This last installment highlights this fact even more. David Dalglish action scenes are always a delight to read and the culmination of the series allow him to deliver some thrilling action sequence.

A full review will be posted on social media 2 weeks before release per the publisher's instruction.

ARC Feedback: There were multiple long stretches of chapters without Cyrus POV in favour of spending more time with other characters. The other books in this series had a great balance of everyone's POV, but this was a bit lost in this one.