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4.61 AVERAGE
4.61 AVERAGE
fast-paced
adventurous
dark
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, War
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
5/5
Of War and Ruin, and Bound and The Broken in general, is a love letter to epic fantasy. This is a massive book, spanning across a vast majority of this grand, sprawling world.
Now I understand that I have this book sitting at a 5/5, but that does not mean it’s without its flaws. Not many, but I do feel as though I should bring them up now, so that I can get to talking about all the things I loved.
•Cliche dialogue/humor
There is no doubt that Cahill’s prose improved improved from Of Blood and Fire up until now, but I have to say, a good portion of the banter in this book was either bland, or corny. I understand that this will probably be the most subjective complaint that I have, because humor is subjective, but it really does feel like Sanderson’s humor, (which can also be very hit or miss), but with even less polish.
•Copy and paste emotional maturity
I think it’s great that Cahill has injected characters into his series that aren’t afraid to cry, as I feel that is missing in a lot of fantasy narratives. Men and women cry, that’s a fact of life. My problem stems from the fact that nearly *every* man and woman in this book cries when faced with something of emotional severity, (besides Farda, my goat). It didn’t impact my emotional attachment to these characters, but it was something that slightly grated on me. When everything is worthy of tears, nothing is, in my opinion. And don’t get me wrong, there are a plethora of scenes that did deserve them.
With that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff.
•Characters
Our massive ensemble cast are all either incredibly likable, or incredibly interesting, I struggle to find even one character that I won’t be excited to read about in the next book. The standouts in this one are most certainly Farda, Kallinvar, Dayne, Calen, Rist, Ella, and Arden. The path of Calen’s character arc is moving in a direction that I could see him becoming one of the best characters in fantasy, but as it stands, he’s sitting comfortably in A tier, a very solid and stalwart protagonist to champion this series. Farda, and Dayne were fantastic last book, and in The Exile, and they both excelled here too. Farda’s pseudo-redemption arc has been so much fun to follow, and the inner machinations of his mind, and why he leaves things up to the fate of his coin tosses is such a compelling premise. Dayne and House Ateres as a whole have also come so far in such a short period of time. His evolution into an honorable exactor of vengeance was done so well, and it’s clear that he’s being set up to absolutely knock things out of the park in the next entry. Ella’s passage from fleeing refugee to a hardened badass druid was also executed both efficiently and enjoyably, culminating in her incredible sacrifice at the end of the book. And Kallinvar, The Grandmaster of the Knights of Achyron. Being closer to a static character throughout the previous books, an arc in this book began to take shape for him, compounding on the fact that he was already an honorable badass, we are now starting to see the weight of leadership and loss attack him at every turn, and his reactions to these hardships were equal parts gut wrenching and inspiring.
•Action/Impact
The grandiose scale, and battle of this book has reached the highest that it’s been since The Fall, and I suspect this is only the tip of the iceberg. Several battles took place over the course of this 430k page behemoth, with the final battle sprawling all over the map at the blood moon’s peak. Cahill is at his best when writing action scenes, his transparent prose lends itself incredibly to action and combat, and on the scale that this book reached, it reached the highest crescendo that we’ve seen so far.
I loved this book, and I eagerly await book 4.
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes