A review by lolajoan
The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A wonderful conclusion. This series has everything that classic fantasy should: a sweeping novel world with a rich history; high stakes; normal people doing things they never would have thought they could; intense relationships; beautiful descriptions; and a lyrical sense of full-circle completion by the end. And it doesn't have some of the things that I hate about classic fantasy: obvious author-insertion faultless heroes; pathetically one-dimensional descriptions of women, non-white males, etc.; mind-numbing over-description of politics, war tactics, and history (obviously these things can all be important and integral to the story, but there are appropriate amounts); a rigid morality and class system that are unnecessary; and non-sensical deus ex machina. There are some flaws in this series, though. I prefer a magic system that can arguably make sense, but in this series the magic is mostly just the power of the gods and therefore not limited by any physical laws. I also really like the newer trends in fantasy to let go of traditional ideas of gender, relationship structures, and uniformity within races/nationalities, and this series could easily have adapted to those new ideologies if it were written today. All that being said, this is a great read. The characters are rich and nuanced, each having their own motivations and needs. Some are more vivid than others, at least for me, but that's okay. The story is big and complex but intertwined in ways so that all comes together in the end. The writing is gorgeous, and I enjoyed the textile analogies in the the worldview as well as the Toronto landmarks in the "real-world" parts of the story. It is a slower read but totally worth it.