WHAT. THE. HELL. oh my gosh, this whole series was a terrifying, heart wrenching, literary masterpiece. So much pain. So much hatred.
I've spent a moment now, staring into space, hoping for a different outcome. It will never come. This is life, and to be able to encapsulate that feeling simply through words, is a magic I will never comprehend. ( )

"It's a long march to liberation.
Sometimes you've got to bend the knee.
Sometimes, at least, you've got to pretend."

She finally understood what it meant. It wasn't about surrender. It wasn't about surrender. It was about the long game. It was about survival.

I'm still processing the ending of this book and reprocessing the previous 2 because of it! I'm very satisfied with how it ended. and given the circumstances, it made sense to me. It's like you already had than inkling on how it's going to end but you're still hoping for the best. I like that some things were left unclarified Venka just like how life is, sometimes we'll just never know. I recommend that we read books like this to remind us that we pay a very high price for war especially for the common people ( )

7/10
This book is unrelentingly grim, and the satisfying, somewhat surprising, conclusion does not do enough to mitigate the hundreds of pages of largely unlikable, unsympathetic characters who are either unable or unwilling to grow. Maybe I’m missing something (or a lot of things) but I kept finding excuses to not continue reading or just skimming to get through it.

Problems for me:
—Too much Rin. I know, I know, she’s the main character and the focus of everything, but I felt trapped in her head, wrung out by her roller coaster of emotions and motivations, and exhausted by her life. I imagine the author meant for it to be that way, but for me, it detracted from the story. I just wanted out, a different perspective, a better understanding of the overall story.
—Too many questions about the Hesperians. Why were they so technologically advanced? And did Sister Petra die or just go quietly insane while strapped to her own examination table?
—The Trifecta. They ended up being destroyed relatively easily, it seemed. I know the march to Mount Tianshan was grueling for Rin, but the actual annihilation of these incredibly powerful beings seemed almost anticlimactic.
—The ending. Rin did a 180 in a relatively short amount of time. Yes, she’d had time in Arlong to realize how difficult actual governance was and how broken and ruined Nikan was (thanks in large part of her actions). But she did not go to Speer intending to give up her dream of ruling, or her plan to decisively defeat the Hesperians. Kitay’s refusal to give her access to the Phoenix was unprecedented but would she really have so easily changed her mind—not just her mind, but her fundamental personality, her reason for being? I get it—it was noble, it was necessary, and it was a resolution and a conclusion to what would otherwise be an unending saga of war and destruction as Rin would eventually burn down the world and all its civilizations. But it was a pretty radical reordering of her thinking and the core of who she was after hundreds of pages of something else entirely.

Redeeming points:
—The author does a thorough job of showing the wide range of devastating impacts of war on both combatants and noncombatants. Hard to read but unflinching and honest.
—The characters surrounding Rin were sometimes more interesting than she was. Venka, for example:was she a spy for Nezha? Was she truly a friend to Rin? Was she loyal to both of them, or really, just looking out for herself? Nezha: exactly what was done to him by Petra and the Hesperians? And was the Dragon destroyed, simply subdued, or was Nezha’s connection to the Dragon disrupted or broken? Kitay: I wish we had some chapters from his POV! My favorite scenes were always the ones that he was in.

I’m glad I read this series but would not consider rereading it and would hesitate to pick up other books by this author. ( )

One of the best fantasy trilogies I have read. The moral questions this book poses , the implications of everything it tries to communicate, the cost of freedom, the cost of ambition. This is a true masterpiece of a series in my opinion. Brutally honest about war and suffering and human nature, but at the same time remains hopeful. No matter how bad things turn there is hope. I cannot comment on the plot of the book, as I am too scared to spoil it for anyone reading this and ruin the pleasure. Read it, be shocked by all of its twists and turns. A true MASTERPIECE. ( )

fucking insane book series ( )