The Gates of Night

Of the trilogy, the third book is probably the best - a sign of improvement given that this is Keith Baker's first trilogy. It has good suspense, moral dilemmas, plot twists (although a little obvious) and a deeper study into the character's thoughts and motivations.

It nicely builds on the characters introduced and set up in the first two. Despite still not liking Daine at all (he gets annoying at times with his need to whine or complain about things not of his business), I found myself liking Jode and Pierce. And I got a little fond of Xu'sasar, especially the few parts where it was told from her perspective.

The character interactions and their journey itself on the other planes was filled with very good imagery and great storytelling. It was an adventure!

I'd have given it another star if not the ending - which was really abrupt and resolved nothing but the main plot. And the it did even that made the whole “save the world” trip feel totally inconsequential. The author either ran out of ideas or out of pages.

In short, the whole read from front all the way until the last chapter and the epilogue was a good read. Quite disappointed that the ending left a sour aftertaste with all those loose threads.

(One final note: The proofreading was again quite bad - with a lot of glaring errors).