Jack
Holy roly poly in a scoop of guacamole. I'm not entirely sure what happened here.
This was probably my second favourite in the series, only losing to Siren Depths (It seems me and the GoodReads reviews are in agreement here). This story starts out solid, being a very succinct continuation to it's predecessor ‘Edge of Worlds', and then it begins it's decline...
One thing that feels like a boon to the book, is that Moon becomes one of many perspectives. He doesn't feel quite as focussed on–although that somewhat remains–and allows us a look at more parts of the world. It doesn't feel like it revolves around him as much. This book doing that, made me realise how much more that would've happened in the prior books.
There's this incredibly well done part, where following the chapter where we learn about the weapons ability to kill all the Raksura, we cut to Frost trying to be a grown up queen in the court, and having an important milestone reached by her attending her first meeting. It's both an adorable and heart-wrenching “think of the children” moment, and the juxtaposition was incredibly powerful. It is for that reason why I'm so confused as to why we didn't get more of those scenes! Instead just Moon vaguely thinking about “The Reaches”. More scenes of child Raksura just being children would've raised the stakes massively and increased our resentment for the villains even more.
I want to say before writing this, that there are plenty of positives however, having just left the Three Worlds, the negatives are more prevalent in my mind due to the ending.
One source of annoyance in this book, was the imagery. I don't know if it was me, but it felt much harder to imagine the locations here, because so many new spots were introduced in such rapid succession. I'd imagine this is to sell the “ticking time bomb” vibe that is trying to be conveyed–and that is done successfully–but it still leads to a much less textured reading experience than the other books.
The ending is where this all comes apart at the seams. What actually happened? 300 pages of this book are of the main plot line, and then the last 100 pages feel like an entire other book that was squished into the ending here. Song's death is barely even considered, and Root's grief is not even mentioned. Jade and Moon manage to sort out an emotional gap between them, that feels like it could be a drama saved for a 6th book, in about 4 pages.
Verdoin, this character we had so much time built up to as a truly deceptive and sociopathic arsehole, is suddenly just removed as the primary antagonist. Suddenly it's this random other Hian who we don't know or care about, and hardly has a personality–I don't even remember her name–and it just feels like a clumsy attempt to make an explanation on how the Raksura know how to disable the machine, and to tie up the end with a convenient bow by having a corroborating witness. It might honestly just be proof of a bit of failed planning, because even if Verdoin had stayed the villain, her willingness to use the machine that would've killed her wouldn't line up with her selfish personality.
On the topic of characters. These books just have too many to be impactful. Some characters benefit from being returning characters from other books, but generally if a new character is introduced as and occupies any role other than a main character, the legwork is just not put into making them into fleshed out beings that you can connect fully to. The cast is colossal, and books simply don't focus enough on them to make them feel like anything other than cannon fodder. Song's death is the most apt example of this for sure. When she died, I kinda just went, “Who?”
Wells pretty much never kills off her darlings, and it somewhat reduces the tension. This honestly felt like a book where some of our protagonists should've died. I think Stone would've been a logical choice, as an end of life sacrifice sorta thing.
Moon's children continue to just be sorta forgotten about, as in the last book, and it just makes you wonder how much he actually cares about them.
The Fell attack on the Reaches is just really convenient. It feels like a flimsy device to say why the others can't go off to try and help prevent the Hians and have to stay in the Reaches.
The Weapon is just not explained because Forerunners, I guess? It can just do what the plot demands of it at any given time. It has a real Deus Ex Machina (or Machina Ex Deus?) feeling to it.
Chime's transformation and new magic abilities, while able to be of actual use, are never explained. Still. I held off complaining about this in all the other reviews, but even in this finale, it isn't even addressed. At all.
The Half-Fell Queen and her flight don't even get close to a good enough exploration. Their moral implications are barely looked into, and their relationship with the Raksura remains essentially stagnant throughout. It feels like absolutely wasted potential if you ask me. Kethel and Moon sorta get to have a rudimentary alliance, but it barely goes beyond that.
I think the series was worth reading, and it's still firmly in my favourites I've read, accounting for all it's issues, just for the sheer uniqueness and fun quality it has. I don't think this ending spoiled it entirely. If nothing else, the first 3 books definitely work as their own thing, and you could probably get away with pretending these 2 didn't happen if you really disliked them that much.
The feeling I get from this book is 1 of 2 things happened:
1. The publishers told Wells it needed to be shorter, or maybe they weren't willing to take another book deal because the others hadn't sold quite as well, so she had to condense what was going to be another trilogy into a duology.
2. Wells grew fed up with writing about the Three Worlds after almost a decade, and just decided she wanted to hurry up and finish, without leaving fans on too much of a cliff-hanger. Perhaps writing such a long book after the relatively shorter lengths of the others left her drained and fed up with the universe as a whole.
I have no evidence for either of these, but it's the only way I can come up with a reason for what happened with this ending, because the other 4 books have proven Martha Wells is able to write a compelling and decently paced story, even if the characters themselves could do with a little fleshing out and work. I'd say the plot tends to be the most solid part of Wells writing most of the time, actually. It baffles me that it struggles so much here.
This is only getting 3/5 instead of 2/5 because it still managed to keep me hooked enough to finish in 3 days. That's an achievement.
Holy roly poly in a scoop of guacamole. I'm not entirely sure what happened here.
This was probably my second favourite in the series, only losing to Siren Depths (It seems me and the GoodReads reviews are in agreement here). This story starts out solid, being a very succinct continuation to it's predecessor ‘Edge of Worlds', and then it begins it's decline...
One thing that feels like a boon to the book, is that Moon becomes one of many perspectives. He doesn't feel quite as focussed on–although that somewhat remains–and allows us a look at more parts of the world. It doesn't feel like it revolves around him as much. This book doing that, made me realise how much more that would've happened in the prior books.
There's this incredibly well done part, where following the chapter where we learn about the weapons ability to kill all the Raksura, we cut to Frost trying to be a grown up queen in the court, and having an important milestone reached by her attending her first meeting. It's both an adorable and heart-wrenching “think of the children” moment, and the juxtaposition was incredibly powerful. It is for that reason why I'm so confused as to why we didn't get more of those scenes! Instead just Moon vaguely thinking about “The Reaches”. More scenes of child Raksura just being children would've raised the stakes massively and increased our resentment for the villains even more.
I want to say before writing this, that there are plenty of positives however, having just left the Three Worlds, the negatives are more prevalent in my mind due to the ending.
One source of annoyance in this book, was the imagery. I don't know if it was me, but it felt much harder to imagine the locations here, because so many new spots were introduced in such rapid succession. I'd imagine this is to sell the “ticking time bomb” vibe that is trying to be conveyed–and that is done successfully–but it still leads to a much less textured reading experience than the other books.
The ending is where this all comes apart at the seams. What actually happened? 300 pages of this book are of the main plot line, and then the last 100 pages feel like an entire other book that was squished into the ending here. Song's death is barely even considered, and Root's grief is not even mentioned. Jade and Moon manage to sort out an emotional gap between them, that feels like it could be a drama saved for a 6th book, in about 4 pages.
Verdoin, this character we had so much time built up to as a truly deceptive and sociopathic arsehole, is suddenly just removed as the primary antagonist. Suddenly it's this random other Hian who we don't know or care about, and hardly has a personality–I don't even remember her name–and it just feels like a clumsy attempt to make an explanation on how the Raksura know how to disable the machine, and to tie up the end with a convenient bow by having a corroborating witness. It might honestly just be proof of a bit of failed planning, because even if Verdoin had stayed the villain, her willingness to use the machine that would've killed her wouldn't line up with her selfish personality.
On the topic of characters. These books just have too many to be impactful. Some characters benefit from being returning characters from other books, but generally if a new character is introduced as and occupies any role other than a main character, the legwork is just not put into making them into fleshed out beings that you can connect fully to. The cast is colossal, and books simply don't focus enough on them to make them feel like anything other than cannon fodder. Song's death is the most apt example of this for sure. When she died, I kinda just went, “Who?”
Wells pretty much never kills off her darlings, and it somewhat reduces the tension. This honestly felt like a book where some of our protagonists should've died. I think Stone would've been a logical choice, as an end of life sacrifice sorta thing.
Moon's children continue to just be sorta forgotten about, as in the last book, and it just makes you wonder how much he actually cares about them.
The Fell attack on the Reaches is just really convenient. It feels like a flimsy device to say why the others can't go off to try and help prevent the Hians and have to stay in the Reaches.
The Weapon is just not explained because Forerunners, I guess? It can just do what the plot demands of it at any given time. It has a real Deus Ex Machina (or Machina Ex Deus?) feeling to it.
Chime's transformation and new magic abilities, while able to be of actual use, are never explained. Still. I held off complaining about this in all the other reviews, but even in this finale, it isn't even addressed. At all.
The Half-Fell Queen and her flight don't even get close to a good enough exploration. Their moral implications are barely looked into, and their relationship with the Raksura remains essentially stagnant throughout. It feels like absolutely wasted potential if you ask me. Kethel and Moon sorta get to have a rudimentary alliance, but it barely goes beyond that.
I think the series was worth reading, and it's still firmly in my favourites I've read, accounting for all it's issues, just for the sheer uniqueness and fun quality it has. I don't think this ending spoiled it entirely. If nothing else, the first 3 books definitely work as their own thing, and you could probably get away with pretending these 2 didn't happen if you really disliked them that much.
The feeling I get from this book is 1 of 2 things happened:
1. The publishers told Wells it needed to be shorter, or maybe they weren't willing to take another book deal because the others hadn't sold quite as well, so she had to condense what was going to be another trilogy into a duology.
2. Wells grew fed up with writing about the Three Worlds after almost a decade, and just decided she wanted to hurry up and finish, without leaving fans on too much of a cliff-hanger. Perhaps writing such a long book after the relatively shorter lengths of the others left her drained and fed up with the universe as a whole.
I have no evidence for either of these, but it's the only way I can come up with a reason for what happened with this ending, because the other 4 books have proven Martha Wells is able to write a compelling and decently paced story, even if the characters themselves could do with a little fleshing out and work. I'd say the plot tends to be the most solid part of Wells writing most of the time, actually. It baffles me that it struggles so much here.
This is only getting 3/5 instead of 2/5 because it still managed to keep me hooked enough to finish in 3 days. That's an achievement.