Member Review

I enjoyed the first two books in this trilogy (much as I enjoyed the author’s earlier series) but they were four star reads for me, somehow nearly but not quite delivering on the promise of their premise. I was therefore delighted that this final instalment does a great job of pulling together all the different threads of the story and reaching a satisfying conclusion in terms of both the big picture politics and the characters’ interpersonal relationships.

Rather like in the author’s two Broken Empire trilogies, but unlike in the earlier books of this series, the book makes use of dual timelines. One picks up exactly where Book Two ended, with Nona and various other Sweet Mercy convent members and others fleeing the aftermath of the fight at Sherzal’s palace. The focus here is on Nona and Zola’s trek across and through the ice, half creating a diversion to allow the others to escape, half trying to get their stolen shipheart to safety. The second starts three years later, with Nona and her contemporaries preparing to become fully fledged nuns, and the Empire in the grip of a devastating war. The two strands had quite different vibes and complemented each other well. In the first, I liked that we got to know the rather mysterious Zola better as a person and got to understand more about the ice tribes, the black ice, and the demons that can possess people. In the second, I liked the ultra-high stakes, the scheming, and the way the great mysteries of the series are gradually resolved. I was also relieved that the “mean girls” and cruel teacher elements that sometimes felt a bit overdone in earlier instalments were toned down. There was still a bit of that, but on the whole, the convent was able to put pettiness aside in the face of an existential threat, which was refreshing. I think it also helped that Nona was a bit older and more experienced here than in earlier instalments, which made her prowess and the things she was entrusted with a bit more believable and the threats she faced a little less horrifying.

It’s worth noting that one of my absolute favourite characters dies “offscreen” somewhere in the three year gap between the two timelines, which at first, I was horribly disappointed by. But it gradually became satisfyingly clear that they were still driving the plot from beyond the grave.

Inbetween the general entertaining steady movement of the plot, there were a couple of standout punch the air moments: Nona deciding which order to join, Sister Pan showing how she got her reputation as one of the greatest quantals of all time, a couple of characters’ dramatic demises. And there was also the quieter satisfaction of seeing how plots and schemes came to unexpected fruition.

I often find that final instalments end up being the weakest books in a series or that at the very least, the ultimate ending disappoints. But on balance, I thought this was probably the best book of the trilogy and wrapped everything up nicely. Overall, compared to Mark Lawrence’s other books, I’d rate this series somewhere between Prince of Thorns and the Red Queen’s War.

I received an ARC of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review (though I had already pre-ordered it at Amazon, so for the record, was also willing to pay good money for it!)