Reviews

It's over?! It can't be over! I have so many more questions! I have so many unresolved feelings!!

Okay. As endings go - this book is... curious. I couldn't put it down - so in that regard, I can't complain. I loved so much about this book - Hemiola, all the Cheris stuff, the battles, the assassination attempts, and of course getting to know more about Jedao and his (dark) relationship with Kujen.

However...this book also had a lot of content that left me feeling ambivalent. I feel like there are fewer twists and surprises here (compared to the first two where you had Jedao and then Cheris pulling long-cons the entire book). The plot was pretty straightforward here - still exciting, but definitely in a different way.

Baby!Jedao was a real mixed bag for me. On the one hand - asking what a young, pre-Ruo-tragedy Jedao would look like is a fascinating question. On the other hand - he was so young and so desperately naive that he sometimes made for a painful narrator (especially for this series which normally avoids smacking you over the head with foreshadowing and exposition - when I figure something out 10 chapters before Baby!Jedao, it must be really obvious). He's also, for a lot of reasons, a significantly less interesting character than General!Jedao.

Spoiler

I also think the thing I was most excited about in terms of Baby!Jedao was his inevitable meeting with Cheris, but when it came - it was extremely brief and not.. as exciting... as I'd hoped. (Even though the abrupt ending made sense given the circumstances). I did think it was very telling that Cheris withheld information about Ruo's death from him. That event is really what made General!Jedao who he was, and the lack of that experience is why Baby!Jedao can be someone entirely new. But while living out the rest of his life as a prisoner of Mikodez working on reforming Shuos ethics seems like the kind of thing idealist General!Jedao might have approved of... it's a strange ending for this... strange character. So many mixed feelings about Baby!Jedao!!!

I also have sooooooo many mixed feelings about Kujen playing such a large role in this book. Was it interesting? Yes. But did I want the final book in this series to spend so much time on a portrait of a monster who I don't care about? Maybe not? I honestly don't know. I'll have to see how I feel upon rereading.

I would have loved to see Khiruev in this book. (Like where was she?? Why wasn't she in this one?!) I also would have loved to have gotten more of an ending for Brezan. (Are he and Tseya happy??? Did he make up with his family????)

However I can't really blame Lee for keeping things simple. Cheris's ending is perfect and poignant, and I guess that will have to be enough.

Ultimately the thing about this book is that it feels like an atypical conclusion for a trilogy. To a degree, Raven Strategem has the more satisfying ending. (A world remade, the future unknown - an epic and spectacularly satisfying twist). With this book, we see the messy aftermath, and it's... messy. There's a lot going on in this book and I'm not sure if all of it works.

However, despite being a little critical - I also loved this book and I know I will be rereading this entire series within the year. I love this world - I am so invested and so attached to all these characters. I basically just want more, even though this is in many ways a fine ending (even if it leaves a lot of questions unanswered).

In short - this trilogy sets the bar for me in terms of science fiction and space opera - the fact that I'm somewhat dissatisfied with the ending really just speaks to how much I loved it and how much more time I'd be willing to spend in the Hexarchate.

Until next time!

saloninareads's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

luketolvaj's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

kleonard's review against another edition

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4.0

This whole series is brilliant, and this conclusion is very satisfying. There's plenty of info in this installment that I do wish had come much earlier in the series, but perhaps it was the author's desire for readers to piece it all together before having details confirmed in this book.

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