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liljatherobin's review
2.0
The worldbuilding ends up being too vague/incomplete and the antagonists become borderline comical and really disappointing in this last book. Pacing was also really weird and slow, it took me a huge effort in some parts to not start spacing out.
mrjspancakehouse's review
3.0
A final battle to end the misery that always over whelms the Icemark. This book although entertaining feel a bit short compared to the other two. Starting with a bit of a slow start and what felt like a rushed ending. That's not to say the story it self was not awful, it just did not feel as "evil" as I suspected it to be. Here we have Cornus and Media two powerful adepts. All they really manage to do is amass an army of ice demons that get decimated in 1 whole chapter towards the end. The flow of the story was about on par with the first two, transitioning between a battle, more information of the darkness as well as the point of view of Erinor.
The ending stayed true to the entire "vibe" of the series. A Happy style ending with a loss or two of characters. I personally feel the deaths of Ollie, and Olympia was a bit annoying. No real in depth explanation. Although secondary characters, Ollie was still a disappointing death since he was in all books. I like when important characters die. I don't like when they die just to kill off characters, and try to bring emotions that feel false. When the Thar and Krisafitsa where both in comas it just felt cheesy. They where both amazing characters with attachments, not to mention Erinor shoved quivers of arrows into the Thar's back. I thought that was it for him; little to my amazement he lived.
With that being stated the book was enjoyable, and still ended up to be a good conclusion to the Icemark Chronicles. We have some Fun loving characters, and although little progression happens with them in this book. The first 2 where next to amazing.
The ending stayed true to the entire "vibe" of the series. A Happy style ending with a loss or two of characters. I personally feel the deaths of Ollie, and Olympia was a bit annoying. No real in depth explanation. Although secondary characters, Ollie was still a disappointing death since he was in all books. I like when important characters die. I don't like when they die just to kill off characters, and try to bring emotions that feel false. When the Thar and Krisafitsa where both in comas it just felt cheesy. They where both amazing characters with attachments, not to mention Erinor shoved quivers of arrows into the Thar's back. I thought that was it for him; little to my amazement he lived.
With that being stated the book was enjoyable, and still ended up to be a good conclusion to the Icemark Chronicles. We have some Fun loving characters, and although little progression happens with them in this book. The first 2 where next to amazing.
daffz's review
4.0
The books in this series just get progressively better and it's very clear that the writing style has evolved since the first book. The Last Battle of the Icemark also felt slightly more mature than the other books in the series, it had some pretty gruesome scenes that were described in detail.
I loved a lot of things about this book. The vampires were amazing in the second book and they continued being great in this one, their ending made me really happy. I also loved seeing Cressida get a slightly bigger role, her scenes with her love interest were cute
The ending in general was really bittersweet but hopeful.
This book was a nice end to a good series that any fan of military fantasy should check out.
I loved a lot of things about this book. The vampires were amazing in the second book and they continued being great in this one, their ending made me really happy. I also loved seeing Cressida get a slightly bigger role, her scenes with her love interest were cute
Spoiler
and it was nice that the book ended at their weddingThe ending in general was really bittersweet but hopeful.
Spoiler
Oskan's sacrifice was really well done even though it was also very upsetting, seeing Thirrin alone at the end was even worse.This book was a nice end to a good series that any fan of military fantasy should check out.
asteinke19's review
4.0
Don't particularly love when characters get ,arried and have kids in the story... I miss the parents too much.
little_red_dragon's review
3.0
A wonderful ending to a well-written trilogy. It's full of suspense and action. Well worth the time. Highly recommended.
roshk99's review against another edition
4.0
Great end to a fantastic series. A mixture of mythology, fantasy, and history culminate in an action-packed plot
fredicia's review
5.0
I think Stuart Hill wrote a wonderful ending to the series. Honestly, I couldn't have asked for anything more than what was given.
que_bella's review
4.0
I just finished this book for the second time, and I loved it!! (just like I knew it would ;) It was interesting to reread a book (I'm not usually someone who does that sort of thing) but I kind of liked seeing how much I remembered (after about *does math in head* 3ish years??? *does math again to make sure* yeah. 3 YEARS PEOPLE!!) Anyways, I still loved it but I will say, read the other two books before it, IN ORDER, before reading this book. The only reason, ONLY REASON, I was able to read this book again without the other two was because I had read it before. Even if it was 3 years ago... AND I LOVE THIS BOOK, NO MATTER WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE DOWN BELOW. THAT'S JUST A BUNCH OF RANDOM BLAH THAT JUST SOMEHOW GOT THERE ON MY CCOMPUTER SCREEN AND I LEFT IT THERE!!
**Note** all of these names are badly spelled so if you have read this book, just shake your head and move on because I know it's bad, I just don't have the book or enough will to care and change them and spell them right, because honestly. Who really does care? I'm just trying to get the plot across, not the fine points of pronouncing these names or describing their origin and meaning. NOW ONTO THE ACTUAL PLOT AFTER A MEANINGLESS RANT/THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE!! sorry about that, but again, I just don't feel like it's worth it to go through the 'hard' effort of deleting it so that annoying paragraph is going to stay, however much you hate it.
Therrin and Oskan are recovering from the last war (with the Bellorum clan I believe) but (like always) there's something not right in the spirit realm (the darkness/plain of desolation I think) and Oskan believes it's Medea, their daughter they outcast into darkness(in the last book). Anyway, not only that but there is a threat to the south of people Hypolitian (that was spelled really bad... just letting you know) and they are an undefeated force, trying to take over the Polypotian (also spelled really horribly) empire. So, Therrin and Oskan have to decide what to do when faced with impossible decisions with everything at risk. Because Medea is not alone. The most evil of all Adepts in growing in strength, and is almost ready to invade the Physical Realm (yes, it's supposed to be capitalized) and declare war on the Goddess. What will they be willing to sacrifice to defend their people and kingdom, when it might come to allying with the very people they've been taught to hate and fought against? Not only that, but is it possible for love to survive and flourish, as well as begin in this war torn place?
**Another note and quite possibly another tangent (maybe you'll be lucky and it'll be cut off because of the numbers of characters I have left. But probably not ;) AND SPOILERS! JUST THOUGHT I'D LET YOU KNOW!! and I don't know why I'm yelling...
I've noticed that a common theme in all a common theme in all three books is that Therrin and Oskan allways seem to be faced with 1) war It's like all the books are focused on a different war, one after another. Give an economy to replenish itself before plunging it back into war again! Geeze! 2) Heavily outnumbered It's like everything they do, more to the point every battle, they're outnumbered. True, it makes for a better excitement and action scene, but it's predictable. 3)There's always some kind of family struggle that ties in with a dark Vs. light deal. In this book, it was Medea and Cronus Vs. Oskan Witchfather. They're all related and two of them are dark, but one of them kind of just wants to be accepted and loved (I won't tell you who incase you haven't read the book but it's not that hard to figure out...) In the second book, it was also Medea Vs Oskan Witchfather, just without Cronus. In the first book, there was less, but I do believe that King something-that-starts-with-an-R-who-was-Therrin's-dad was murdered...
Anyway, if you've made it this far, I commend you (for what it's worth) and hope that you don't feel like you've wasted your time. Though I'd be lying if I told you you hadn't wasted at least five minutes reading this and continuing to read this nonsense that I don't even know why I, myself am writing. Maybe it's just because I'm procrastinating... Anyways, I've got stuff to do, stuff that I really should be doing instead of writing these worthless words, and so I'm going to do them now. So you to, yes you, the reader, you should probably go find something to do besides sitting there and doing nothing like I am. (No offense or anything, I just thought that maybe there was something that you should be doing and were procrastinating, like me. But I still am, so if you want, have a little more procrastination!). Anyways, seriously, I'm going to get off and have a wonderful day/night/afternoon/random time of day that you might happen to be reading this annoyingly long book review that isn't really a book review anymore, and have a wonderful day/week/month/whatever time period you need to be wonderful for however long you want it! Have a wonderful life! Unless it's opposite day, then have well, the opposite of wonderful, and happy, and amazing, and, well, whatever things you want the opposite of but make sure it's really opposite day or else you just might find those ugly things sitting at your doorstep. Now you see why I'm a writer! Usually it's better than useless chatter that no one's going to see anyways... But if you are reading this, I hope you'll like this any maybe comment about how you made it this far and how amazing/opposite of amazing you think this is JUST DON'T HATE! It took me, what *does math for the third time* thirty minutes to write this? About thirty minutes so don't bring me down or rain on my parade! It's a free country (at least where I am it's a free country...) Anyways, this is goodbye for real and I only had 14,000 characters that I could have spent wasting your time, but I have decided that enough is enough and I really need to do those things that I was going to do...FOR REAL! I'M GOING AND YOU SHOULD TOO AFTER YOU HIT THAT LIKE BUTTON!!
**Note** all of these names are badly spelled so if you have read this book, just shake your head and move on because I know it's bad, I just don't have the book or enough will to care and change them and spell them right, because honestly. Who really does care? I'm just trying to get the plot across, not the fine points of pronouncing these names or describing their origin and meaning. NOW ONTO THE ACTUAL PLOT AFTER A MEANINGLESS RANT/THE PARAGRAPH ABOVE!! sorry about that, but again, I just don't feel like it's worth it to go through the 'hard' effort of deleting it so that annoying paragraph is going to stay, however much you hate it.
Therrin and Oskan are recovering from the last war (with the Bellorum clan I believe) but (like always) there's something not right in the spirit realm (the darkness/plain of desolation I think) and Oskan believes it's Medea, their daughter they outcast into darkness(in the last book). Anyway, not only that but there is a threat to the south of people Hypolitian (that was spelled really bad... just letting you know) and they are an undefeated force, trying to take over the Polypotian (also spelled really horribly) empire. So, Therrin and Oskan have to decide what to do when faced with impossible decisions with everything at risk. Because Medea is not alone. The most evil of all Adepts in growing in strength, and is almost ready to invade the Physical Realm (yes, it's supposed to be capitalized) and declare war on the Goddess. What will they be willing to sacrifice to defend their people and kingdom, when it might come to allying with the very people they've been taught to hate and fought against? Not only that, but is it possible for love to survive and flourish, as well as begin in this war torn place?
**Another note and quite possibly another tangent (maybe you'll be lucky and it'll be cut off because of the numbers of characters I have left. But probably not ;) AND SPOILERS! JUST THOUGHT I'D LET YOU KNOW!! and I don't know why I'm yelling...
I've noticed that a common theme in all a common theme in all three books is that Therrin and Oskan allways seem to be faced with 1) war It's like all the books are focused on a different war, one after another. Give an economy to replenish itself before plunging it back into war again! Geeze! 2) Heavily outnumbered It's like everything they do, more to the point every battle, they're outnumbered. True, it makes for a better excitement and action scene, but it's predictable. 3)There's always some kind of family struggle that ties in with a dark Vs. light deal. In this book, it was Medea and Cronus Vs. Oskan Witchfather. They're all related and two of them are dark, but one of them kind of just wants to be accepted and loved (I won't tell you who incase you haven't read the book but it's not that hard to figure out...) In the second book, it was also Medea Vs Oskan Witchfather, just without Cronus. In the first book, there was less, but I do believe that King something-that-starts-with-an-R-who-was-Therrin's-dad was murdered...
Anyway, if you've made it this far, I commend you (for what it's worth) and hope that you don't feel like you've wasted your time. Though I'd be lying if I told you you hadn't wasted at least five minutes reading this and continuing to read this nonsense that I don't even know why I, myself am writing. Maybe it's just because I'm procrastinating... Anyways, I've got stuff to do, stuff that I really should be doing instead of writing these worthless words, and so I'm going to do them now. So you to, yes you, the reader, you should probably go find something to do besides sitting there and doing nothing like I am. (No offense or anything, I just thought that maybe there was something that you should be doing and were procrastinating, like me. But I still am, so if you want, have a little more procrastination!). Anyways, seriously, I'm going to get off and have a wonderful day/night/afternoon/random time of day that you might happen to be reading this annoyingly long book review that isn't really a book review anymore, and have a wonderful day/week/month/whatever time period you need to be wonderful for however long you want it! Have a wonderful life! Unless it's opposite day, then have well, the opposite of wonderful, and happy, and amazing, and, well, whatever things you want the opposite of but make sure it's really opposite day or else you just might find those ugly things sitting at your doorstep. Now you see why I'm a writer! Usually it's better than useless chatter that no one's going to see anyways... But if you are reading this, I hope you'll like this any maybe comment about how you made it this far and how amazing/opposite of amazing you think this is JUST DON'T HATE! It took me, what *does math for the third time* thirty minutes to write this? About thirty minutes so don't bring me down or rain on my parade! It's a free country (at least where I am it's a free country...) Anyways, this is goodbye for real and I only had 14,000 characters that I could have spent wasting your time, but I have decided that enough is enough and I really need to do those things that I was going to do...FOR REAL! I'M GOING AND YOU SHOULD TOO AFTER YOU HIT THAT LIKE BUTTON!!
kajsaschubeler's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
5.0