David
If you are feeling a bit bogged down by the relentless combat filler and lack of answers in the first two books, stick with it! I had my doubts about whether the jeopardy and payoff would ever truly hit, but the ending of this trilogy is breathtaking.
I read the last 300 pages of the finale in one breath. The scale of the ending plays out like a massive IMAX movie in your mind, packed with incredible twists and turns. Elvar has easily become one of my favorite literary characters of all time. Gwynne perfectly sticks the landing on the buildup, an absolute masterclass in how to deliver a grand finale.
Enjoyed this pretty much from start to end and definitely feel invested into all the characters. Also loved adding the POV from the "bad guys" to show that morality is not always as straightforward as it seems. This does somewhat suffer the same affection as the first book in that alot happens without really feeling like you are getting meaningful answers or plot line conclusions. The pretty much sets up the third book to be absolutely epic, or a great disappointment.
Some great world building and really a great basis for what I hope will be an awesome trilogy. But honestly and king of frustratingly this book gave me more questions than answers.
This was not helped by the fact that the first half of this book is a slog. It takes a while to build a connection with the characters and on top of that there are a lot of well written supporting cast that you are also introduced to to learn aswell. Due to the three POV's I found it hard to keep up, but when I did finally connect to each character and know who everyone was I really started to enjoy this. Also loved the last 200 or so pages, they are definitely a ride with lots happening and some epic scenes for the mind.
However Just felt like we could have a bit more payoff at the end, I will come back and update this review once I finish the trilogy , but as a standalone it was fine. Just not great.
