The Light of All That Falls

WHAT A SATISFYING ENDING.

The Light of All that Falls was an amazing ending to a phenomenal trilogy. There were a few things I was a little disappointed on, but honestly? I can look past those. They really don't ruin my enjoyment of the series as a whole. (If you're really interested what I was disappointed on click the following, but it IS a spoiler I thought there would be more to the Shammaeloth reveal -- maybe that he and El were the same being, or that somehow Caeden was Shammaeloth the whole time. I wanted there to be something twisty there, but there wasn't. He was just evil, like Tal knew he was. Also a tiny little bit disappointed that Aelric just SHOWS UP randomly to save the day. I know the author is going to explain that in it's own story, but it felt a little cheap here.) Each of the main characters gets an complete wrap up of their arc without feeling like anyone got left out or short-changed. But Caeden's story...Caeden's story was the best out of all of them.

Throughout the whole series, Caeden has this upward journey of figuring himself out, of trying to be a better man than he actually is. His past is full of awful, cruel decisions, and it seems that in this book of the series, he actually examines his past, and comes to the conclusion that no one is to blame but himself. He could have just blamed Shammaeloth, could have just stepped over it all but he didn't. Choice is very important. He chose to do all those cruel things, and Caeden actually owns everything he did. Caeden then takes the knowledge he gains and grows from it. CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT that actually works! Yay!

TLATF does have some nice surprise twists and reveals along the way, just what I was hoping for when I started the series. Niha being Davian's mom was SO GOOD. Time travel is used to the fullest – forcing characters to admit that nothing can change the past. It doesn't matter what you do, it's going to happen. BUT – that doesn't mean it has to happen the way you think it will. Time travel is one of my favorite...tropes? Devices? I'm not sure what the right word is there, but whatever. I love time travel when its done right and it is DONE RIGHT in this trilogy.

The story comes to a close with a complete circle. Almost everything is wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow. I'd rate this at a 4.5 stars if I could, docking half a star for the items under the first spoiler tag above.