Peter V. Brett

A solid conclusion to the series. The main shortcomings were the lack of a real twist (I’d been hoping Kaji was the Alagai Ka, and that there would be more revealed about Kaji’s journey to the core - perhaps the topic of another series/book?). Overall, it felt like a safe way to finish the series, but not one that surprised or amazed the reader. I think a flashback-style would have helped here, with Arlen, Jardir, and Renna traveling to the core amidst flashbacks to Kaji’s experiences.

Overall, nothing amazing, but if you’ve reached book 4, this was an adequately satisfying conclusion.… (meer)

I thought this book was... actually quite good!

There's a lot of little things that frustrate me about this series, and this book in particular (such as the vomit inducing dialoge between Arlen and Renna), but when you take a step back it's not hard to notice that the story here is actually quite well told. What I think this series does lack is precisely the "Game of Thrones" style of worldbuilding. As someone who doesnt particularly like GRRM's series, I must admit that it does a good job of bringing an entire world, rather than simply subsets, to life by having a vast array of characters. In this series, the world is basically two halves, with external cities and towns included but not very relevant to the main plotline (at least not in terms of characters). This detracts from the worldbuilding somewhat, since the impressive detail with which Brett paints the two main cultures is overshadowed by questions about why the other parts of the world are not also a part of the story, with their own story to tell.

I have other minor complaints, which I think are probably more just personal frustrations with the style than actual flaws in the book. This volume makes me want to recommend this series to fellow readers of the fantasy genre - there are setbacks in the series, but ultimately the story is impressive, unique, and very much worth reading.… (meer)