Chains of the Earth
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"The Divide separating the east from the west, the realms of death from the realms of life, has fallen. Sarine and her champions find themselves overwhelmed, assaulted on every side by swordsmen, assassins, and skinchangers infiltrating, killing, and twisting even their most loyal allies against them. Every victory hides a defeat, and yet there is still hope. If Sarine can learn the true nature of her powers, she can make a final stand against the Regnant, to challenge him and remove his death grip on the world's heart. To find the truth, she must journey to a new continent and find new allies, rallying their strength, and wielding every strain of magic in the world in a final battle between life and death"--
Series
Featured Series
3 primary books#3 in The Ascension Cycle
The Ascension Cycle is a 3-book series with 3 released primary works first released in 2017 with contributions by David Mealing.
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Amazing series. Once again I am blown away by the fact that every one of the different characters and their respective magic systems could have been an entire series unto themselves. I'm glad they weren't, so that I got to read the whole story in a relatively short time, but this could have been 5-10 stand alone books (or even trilogies) that then culminated into what we have here. We could have had several books about Arak'Jur and his people, more about Tigai and that entire side of the world (and more if he felt like it), each with completely distinct magic systems as well. I wouldn't be alive by the time Mealing finished it I think, but there is so much history in these three books.
I want to give credit as well for not going with the easy ending that I expected when starting the first book. Or the second. Or third, etc. So many times in this final book I thought we had to be nearing the end of the story, but my Kindle said I still had a long ways to go! And even with all that blue-balling, the eventual ending was perfect. Well done, it was refreshing to see something different for a change, yet something that also made sense.
I really have nothing negative to say about this series at all. There was literally ONE paragraph that I didn't care for in the entire series, which got a tiny tiny tiny bit into politics, but that was it. And of course that paragraph was still no big deal even if it hadn't been about one-one millionth of the total words.
I cannot recommend this series enough. I wish there were more like it; great and memorable characters, great world mechanics, and a great ending...all without making me wait through endless padding books to get there because the author/publisher decided they could milk some more money if they stretched it out. Nothing in this series felt like it wasn't needed for the story, and I appreciate that.
I'd love to see something like an Amazon Prime series made from these, but the budget would be monstrous I think. I mean, I don't think Arak'Jur pooped without mareh'et's blessing :p