These are very strange books (not in the way one might think--there are some pretty weird books out there!) Even my least favourite of them is worth reading, but they're all slightly off-kilter compared to the normal run of fantasy novels, so you should know what you're getting into.

First, these are gentle books. I read the first in the series the night my beloved dog died unexpectedly, and I scoured the internet for news of a fantasy series that wouldn't upset me. Daimbert & Company is essentially the rice pudding of fantasy books. It's not whimsical and twee, it's not violent and disturbing, it's a big warm hug of nice people trying their best, generally up against some kind of antagonist that wound up in that position either (a) by accident, or (b) because they meant well. So there's suspense and tension, but (until this book) about the same amount of suspense and tension as in an episode of Friends.

Second, there's a lot of Christian religion, but it's not really urban fantasy. Every single place mentioned is not in our Earth. It's your typical fantasy realm with kingdoms and castles and a fabulous quasi-Arabian bit down south, but for some reason they're all Christian there. (Oh, and I'm a total atheist/scientist, and this inclusion didn't bother me at all, it's not proselytizing any more than Lord of the Rings tried to talk us into worship the Valar, it's just background-setting and milieu). The protagonist's best friend is a Catholic priest. So that's interesting, but it's also sort of off-putting, because I don't think it's fully thought out, it doesn't make sense. It's essentially an Other Realm that's Christian.

Third, and this goes with the afore-mentioned gentleness, everyone's very nice, and they hem and haw a bit, and Daimbert's somewhat annoying (you want to yell "just get over it already" quite a few times), and (at least in the earlier books) I felt he ought to cut Elerius a bit of slack (Daimbert just really seems to hate the guy and never gives him the benefit of the doubt). And then in this last book, it's almost like Daimbert causes the bad stuff to happen by pushing his antagonist to the brink (over 30 years, really!) but doesn't recognize it (nor does the author, I think). It's like Homer Simpson driving Frank Grimes to his death, he's just oblivious.

And yet, what a marvelous read. This one's longer than the others (I think, it's hard to tell on Kindle sometimes), and epic in scope, and full of twists and turns, and enjoyable resolutions, and it all kind of works, even while you're wincing about how Christianity doesn't make sense, or how Elerius can just go flat-out Eeeeeeevil all of a sudden. If you've read the first 5, obviously, read this one too. If you're new, read 1, if you like it, keep going!

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve ( )

A very strong conclusion to the Daimbert series - in some ways this is the best yet from this fine fantasy writer.