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wazbar's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
This is the fourth in the Seven Citadels tetralogy, which in my opinion is better considered one novel in four volumes than a series of four novels. I absolutely recommend reading them all, starting with Prince of the Godborn.
Harris has a real gift for throwing relief on her characters through their interactions. The story that unfolds in the Seven Citadels is basically all laid out in the beginning, but it is a genuine delight to visit all of the places it goes and see the color invested in them. The world is fascinatingly broad but also feels deep enough that a person could live out a whole life almost anywhere in it. There's such tremendous love invested in all the people of Zindar, no matter how large or small a role they play in the "plot."
Hard to talk about this last entry without talking about its ending. I'll do so in vague terms. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure that I like this ending, but I loved getting there so much I still recommend the Seven Citadels unreservedly. I think, like some of my other favorite novels, I'll come to like the ending more, but I need time to think on it.
I'll say this about the ending however: if you have made it to the end of these four books and expected their many conflicts resolution to resolve in temporal terms, you have not been paying attention to their substance. Pursuing a spiritual resolution though it seems absurd and hopeless is like, the entire theme of this series. So. It ends the only way it ever could.
Harris has a real gift for throwing relief on her characters through their interactions. The story that unfolds in the Seven Citadels is basically all laid out in the beginning, but it is a genuine delight to visit all of the places it goes and see the color invested in them. The world is fascinatingly broad but also feels deep enough that a person could live out a whole life almost anywhere in it. There's such tremendous love invested in all the people of Zindar, no matter how large or small a role they play in the "plot."
Hard to talk about this last entry without talking about its ending. I'll do so in vague terms. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure that I like this ending, but I loved getting there so much I still recommend the Seven Citadels unreservedly. I think, like some of my other favorite novels, I'll come to like the ending more, but I need time to think on it.
I'll say this about the ending however: if you have made it to the end of these four books and expected their many conflicts resolution to resolve in temporal terms, you have not been paying attention to their substance. Pursuing a spiritual resolution though it seems absurd and hopeless is like, the entire theme of this series. So. It ends the only way it ever could.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and War
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