The Demon Apostle

This book was in 3-star territory for awhile, and then it started sliding and sliding, and hit bottom right at the end.

As with books 1 & 2, I listened to Graphic Audio and then skimmed the book. I think I've gotten used to Graphic Audio adding “dramatisations” to the dialogue and skipping descriptions. So no problems there.

The good thing about book 3 is that the focus is now fully on subtle confrontations and political conflict, which began in book 2. The poorly-written “monster war” is finally behind us. Unfortunately, missed opportunities and dangling plot points made this just as disappointing.

The villains have much better characterisation than the protagonists. From the Father Abbot, to Francis, De'Unnero, and even the rather ineffectual King Danube had better moments than the good guys. The good guys felt like they're mostly just swept along when events happen, especially Elbryan, who faded into a supporting role. Pony was obviously painted as the main character, having her go through the most emotional changes and suffering. But I think it was done poorly, because I got the impression that Pony simply became a selfish and not very likeable character.

Even though the monks are now in the forefront, they continue to be as generic as they were in the previous two books. Again, there was no attempt to explain why this order of monks had so much influence over the people. The story tells that these monks mostly stand apart from the common folk, so what gives them their considerable influence over the people that even the court fears them? This is the primary reason why the conflict between church and state fails - it just doesn't show why should the state be afraid of the church.

The magic system became even more “for convenience's sake” only. When someone needed to be fatigued, then the magic fatigues them. When they really shouldn't be fatigued, then they won't be the least bit tired. And there's several instances of “new” or “just-discovered” uses of the stones, and yet no one seems to bat an eye much. These monks are completely not-curious about the stones and their potential.

But I wasn't at all bothered by all of these plot holes, since the previous two books had already dropped my expectations drastically. I was simply enjoying the narration while doing something else... right up until the end.

The finale was really weak. The trigger was horrible. Pony basically decided to impulsively go after Markwart alone... again! And this time, leaving a trail of massive destruction through the city. The final encounter was over pretty fast. And it was over in a very unsatisfying way. The wrong people died (Elbryan was way more likeable than Pony), some just won't die (I liked De'Unnero as a character, but him dying would've been a good closure), and one plot point that should have stopped, suddenly restarted. A baby that's barely 6 months (in the womb!) somehow survived a spiritual fight with a demon (and got extracted without the mother knowing!). This just came out of nowhere (although the epilogue will shed light on the reason, it's really very very forced). Side rant: Juraviel, who had once thought of Elbryan as a brother, was changed (retconned?) to "son".

The last chapter wrapped up the main plot so quickly that I was wondering whether the author was literally rushing for a deadline. Aside from the main plot, there's no closure of anything else.

3.5 ✨

Better than book 2 but just couldn't capture the charm of the first book