I really enjoyed this series, but the third book seems to end abruptly. McClellan spend 3 entire books (plus background short stories) introducing us to these characters and then just cuts it off with a rather unsatisfying ending. This book reads like the part of an epic fantasy series where the plot really starts getting interesting and you finally have a grasp on what the bigger story actually is but then it just ends and there are no more books. ( )

McClellan is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I really wish I would have read these books before the 2nd trilogy instead of after, but they were still amazing. I think Borbador is my favorite character from this trilogy. This series did leave me very confused about Taniel's relationship with Ka-Poel, because it seemed completely different in the 2nd trilogy.

If you're looking for magic, political intrigue, action, and real characters you could easily do worse than this series. Bonus - the narrator is excellent! ( )

As Book 3 opens, Tamas has sneaked into the capital city, Adopest, ahead of his army which are returning, helped now by allies. He finds that the city is occupied by a Brudanian army led by Lord Claremonte who is seemingly there to fight an election to become Prime Minister. Oddly, he has pulled down the ancient cathedral and every other church in the city, and his men have publicly murdered the priests - but no one objected and it hasn't barred him from possible election. The god Kresimir is currently in suspended animation, thanks to the sorcery of Ka-Poel the "savage" sorceress, but has not disappeared as a possible peril.

Inspector Adamat is still trying to track down his kidnapped son and early on discovers his terrible fate, which was foreshadowed. Nila is now being trained by Bo as his apprentice. And Taniel, who escaped his enemies, is hiding in the hills, on the run from soldiers sent by a person he once thought was a friend.

This book has to bring to a satisfying conclusion a lot of different plotlines and keep the tension high with more revelations of treachery. On the whole it does so, but I found it clunky that a key character is suddenly introduced late in the book. It would have been far better if this character had been seen much earlier on, especially as there were definitely opportunities given that this was a union leader in the city and quite a bit of the story has revolved around the main union representative, Ricard.

Another issue I had with the story is Adamat's short-lived grief over his son's fate. Forced to conceal it from his wife and pretend that the boy is dead, he then arranges with Bo to give the boy a painless end. This degenerated into a sort of Shakespeare moment when Bo comes in, near the end of the story, to tell him the deed has been done. From being a big driver in book 2, it has fizzled out as a number of character arcs have done previously.

The main plus point of this volume for me, surprisingly, was the development of the teacher-pupil relationship between Bo and Nila. Interestingly and despite what was said in book 1 about the insatiable sexual appetites of the Privileged magicians, Bo does not broach the subject of a relationship despite Nila's obvious attraction to him, and she is disillusioned at one point when she witnesses a clinch between him and another Privileged. In this volume, she isn't the annoying wimp that she appeared to be in book 1 and most of book 2, but I still find it a weakness that her powers were not indicated even subtly before she met Bo, and also that she somehow has the ability to manipulate the elements via the Else without having to wear runed gloves - every other Privileged has to have those to be able to use their power. That is yet another thing that is never explained in this series. It was good though to have it confirmed at the end of the story that the 'gods' are a form of very powerful Privileged, even more powerful than the special Privileged such as Julene: ones who can transfer their essence and abilities to another body when necessary.

There is one big white elephant in the story - if one of the villains behind a lot of this wanted Ricard dead, the bomb attack on his HQ seems to have been singularly mismanaged. A lot of the book deals with Adamat's investigation into this attack, and the only material effect, apart from keeping him occupied, seems to be so that he can eventually discover the real identities of Claremonte and the late-introduced character mentioned above.

Despite the various weaknesses mentioned above, the last part of the book is a tour de force as the various battles play out. The ending is slightly predictable, but has a nicely bitter-sweet quality. Overall, I would rate this a solid 3 star read. ( )

The series ended the only and best way it could have. ( )

Very nice conclusion of the series with lots of action and some interesting surprises. ( )