The Last Echo of the Lord of Bells

A pretty weak conclusion to a good series that really established John Bierce as a very talented fantasy author with a strong imagination and storytelling ability. This volume generally abandoned the strong character work done in the previous couple books for bloated, never-ending action scenes and very confusing character turnarounds. The ending failed to land the right way, and it seemed that the plot was pretty linear, even for a progression fantasy novel. Usually Bierce delivers pretty decent endings, so maybe with this one he probably just wrote himself into a wall and had too many threads to tie together. However, I'm willing to give Bierce a pass for this, and am looking forward to his next work with anticipation.

Loved the return of the characters once again. I did feel like it went very slow and then very fast. The pacing in general wasn't really that great and a bit all over the place. I loved the story and am very sad that this is the end of the series. I do think it is a good one. 

I don't really know how to feel about Alustin's ending. I didn't fully love it, but if it had ended the other way, I would also not have been satisfied. I'm not sure if it was for the best either way. Excellent books, can't wait to see what Bierce has for us next. 

Really solid end to a very fun series. It's rare to say that a series increases in quality with each book but I think it's true here. And 800+ pages for one battle? Usually I'd hate that but it worked great.

Great series ending to one of the og progression fantasy series. I think my only real complaint is that there were a lot of chapters with a non main character, completely new pov that don't serve to further the plot. Like a few chapters to just have “cool battle scenes” is fine but I felt like there was a significant number here when I just wanted to get back to the main story. I think everyone's arcs wrapped up well and all had their time to shine. Excited to see the gang again in a followup multiverse book.

May 20th, 2023:


A satisfying conclusion to the series and yet a little more. 

Every genre has a formula unique to it. Can't write mystery without a mystery obviously and certainly can't write fantasy without an element that's outside the realm of normal possibility. 

John Bierce's writing is one that does recognizes the formula but doesn't limit itself in the confines of the formula.

Mage Errant has a consistent theme of drastic situations and yet minimalizing on the depth of emotional angst as much as possible with some characters and balancing it out elsewhere to see what descisions would be made. To see how the story would play out.

It sounds artificial and yet works perfectly for this series and writing style and this conclusion followed the same idea to a T.

Therefore, I don't think this series would work for everyone, it certainly did wonders for me and I'm glad to have found it. 

I also can't wait to see what else John Bierce has in store for us.


Final rating: 4.5/5

Disappointed it over, I really wish there had been a bit more growth for the main characters. The end of book 6 the gang had accomplished some spectacular advancements in their personal progression but it honestly felt like we never saw the fruit of those efforts. Increased potential check, realized potential, nope. I love the series but I feel as if the main characters got their story line hijacked by Alustin and they where way to oaky with how things went down. Like maybe if there was a few more books I wouldn't feel so bummed. Solid book but as the end of the series it fell really flat. I know we will likely see more of them but not in their own books. Not as main characters. I leave it as a five start rating because the writing is excellent, but I feel a deep need for more of this story in a quality I feel wont ever be told. Maybe a post time skip follow up triology? idk...