Reunion

Another great Jennifer Fallon series. Fallon's “middle period,” this series and Tide Lords, are action-heavy epic fantasies that should be way more popular among fans of Sanderson and other more popular action fantasy authors.

This series had a lot in common with Tide Lords, though I thought Tide Lords was slightly more dynamic, convincing, and shocking. Both series have a very fun and bantery vibe for the first 80% of the series, with kitchen sink elements thrown in like crazy, plot twists, and a lot of very entertaining character interactions. But around the halfway point of the final book in each, the classic Fallon elements come in. The books get very dark, obscure side characters end up becoming the heroes of the story, and the characters slowly lose their humanity (something, if you reread, was coming all along, and you never noticed). Above all, in both series, there's a sense that the story was just a footnote in history, but clearly it's important enough that we are reading it and enjoying it.

I liked this aspect of both the Tide Lords and the Rift Runners. Many, as I can see below, do not.

Anyway, this book had a bit of a chaotic finale that didn't seem to be 100% executed correctly, but the chaos is kind of in line with the rest of the series, which felt a bit more haphazard than Tide Lords, and I can't help but think that part of that was intentional. Loved the characters, loved the ending, and I'm glad Fallon has an extensive back catalog because I cannot wait to mine it.