Vikash Balasubramanian

This was a really good book. Highly engaging, but not skimping on character development either. The female protagonist Ellina is a very well written character, she is a badass, and we know she is without the prose having to mention it a thousand times like in some other books I have read. The male protagonist Venick is not as well written, but he is quite interesting in his own right.

Most first books in a fantasy series, take some time to build the world, the magic system and flesh out characters, politics, which makes them kind of drag, but not this book. Even though there were not many fight sequences, the story was engaging enough to keep me hooked. But after finishing the book I did come to the realization that the magic system or the political system is not developed enough, but it's fine. Not every book needs to have an incredibly complex magic system or a huge political system full of intrigue.

Now let's come to the main strength of this wonderful book, it makes you feel. Most romances in fantasy go in two ways, either they are drama filled angsty affairs or simply a filler afterthought where one character simply acts as a romantic placeholder for the main character's affection.
For the first time in a long time, I actually care about the romantic arc in a fantasy novel. It is very relevant to the plot and there is no unnecessary drama or angst, and the book manages to make you care about what the characters are feeling in a very subtle way instead of just filling up pages. Definitely looking forward to the second book.

Where do I begin? I started this series as a light fun read to transition between more difficult books. This ended up being my most anticipated release this year.

I would say it's right up there with Ghostwater and Blackflame as one of the best books in the series. Excellent pacing as always, probably a bit too fast paced initially for my liking but slowed down well towards the middle. More importantly I think Will's character development has improved a lot from his previous books. Although it's very difficult to have good character development, well developed magic system and a fast action pace in a single book unless it's a behemoth, so it was understandable that character development suffered a bit in earlier books.

I very rarely go for a long series because most of the time I just get bored when the pace slows down to a crawl or the books get very repetitive, but I have no such issues so far with this series. Can't wait for the next book already.

The book was enjoyable and engaging, but mainly because of the context and work done by the previous books.

We finally get to see Lindon advance to the point where he actually stands out and is not just an underdog that has to trick his way past the opponent.
On the other hand there was no plot advancement at all. This was essentially equivalent to a typical stage in video games where you just take a break from the questline and just grind for levels and hunt for loot in some isolated dungeon.

Looking forward to the next book and hope something significant actually happens plot wise.

What an absolute disappointment. Way too rushed. In fact it seems worse than the normal rushed endings, it just seems like the author gave up on the series and decided to wrap things up as quickly as possible. Which is made even worse because of how slow progression was in book 1

(Spoilers Below)

We have no clue what the motivations of big bad were, we meet him and in a single scene he is defeated by our completely untrained magician.

There is basically no character progression. Hero learns that everyone has been lying to him and his parents have died? He is angry for a few pages and then no reaction after. And he just helps his liars with no explanation needed?

And the romance, lol no progression here either. Teenage infatuation in first book, and then we just have them get together in the epilogue.

Just don't bother starting the series, or if you have reached this far don't bother finishing it, the author surely hasn't bothered to.

This is a hard series to rate. It does a lot of things wrong. But it also does a lot of things right.

Let's come to the biggest thing wrong with the book. It's the incomplete and inconsistent world building. The technology that the duskers have, how their economy works, their social hierarchy, none of that makes any sense. Their geography makes no sense, I have no clue how big the land they live in really is.

But despite all the poor world building, I think the book accomplishes what it sets out to do, it makes you feel. It makes you feel the fear the protagonists experience. It makes you feel the love and loyalty they have, and their despair and confusion. It's pretty good character work. It does have a YA feel to it sometimes, complete with moronic decisions and a hint of a love triangle, but the author makes it work.

It's very different from the books I typically go for, I prefer epic fantasy, but I am glad I read this one.