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A review by eyreguide
Tyrant's Throne by Sebastien de Castell
5.0
The Greatcoats series is one of my favorite fantasy reads ever, and it was a little bittersweet going into the final book in the series. I absolutely love the characters and how the author writes them with so much emotion and heart. The characters have their quirks as well, which brings a lot of humor to an otherwise dark narrative. But although every book has some seemingly insurmountable conflict brewing, there is this sense of idealism and hope that makes me love the world of Tristia and I am fully invested in how Falcio and his Greatcoats will try to make their world a better place.
Tyrant’s Throne has a compact, suspenseful plot that I found absolutely riveting. There are many twists and turns and new revelations about characters and backstories that expanded the world and made for a compelling finale to the series. The plot begins with a breakdown of a dangerous scenario and how justice can prevail. The ending is pretty much a similar set-up, and that symmetry is a beautiful framework for the story.
The way the stakes are raised throughout the series is fascinating to me. In the first book, the conflict is comparatively small in scope and each novel successfully creates a bigger backdrop to the issues the characters face, until in Tyrant’s Throne - I truly felt afraid that the Greatcoats would not be able to win because their opposition was so strong. The story also created a villain who is so different, yet so perfect as the antithesis of everything the Greatcoats stand for. And this villain would not have been as effective if he was not the final boss in this series. The pacing and structure of the whole series has led to this final novel, and I’m impressed at the author’s crafting of the story.
I’m such a big fan of this series because of the heart and the idealism of the main character, in spite of some of the amoral beliefs, the greed and desperation of the people in Tristia. It’s a tribute to the characters though, that good and evil aren’t really cut and dried, and the choices made by some individuals made sense given their background and their alternatives. The story is also interesting to me as the conflicts feel relevant to today as well as being a throwback swashbuckling adventure with enthralling action and suspense. I’m sad that this series is over (in a way), but this has been an excellent read all the way through.
Tyrant’s Throne has a compact, suspenseful plot that I found absolutely riveting. There are many twists and turns and new revelations about characters and backstories that expanded the world and made for a compelling finale to the series. The plot begins with a breakdown of a dangerous scenario and how justice can prevail. The ending is pretty much a similar set-up, and that symmetry is a beautiful framework for the story.
The way the stakes are raised throughout the series is fascinating to me. In the first book, the conflict is comparatively small in scope and each novel successfully creates a bigger backdrop to the issues the characters face, until in Tyrant’s Throne - I truly felt afraid that the Greatcoats would not be able to win because their opposition was so strong. The story also created a villain who is so different, yet so perfect as the antithesis of everything the Greatcoats stand for. And this villain would not have been as effective if he was not the final boss in this series. The pacing and structure of the whole series has led to this final novel, and I’m impressed at the author’s crafting of the story.
I’m such a big fan of this series because of the heart and the idealism of the main character, in spite of some of the amoral beliefs, the greed and desperation of the people in Tristia. It’s a tribute to the characters though, that good and evil aren’t really cut and dried, and the choices made by some individuals made sense given their background and their alternatives. The story is also interesting to me as the conflicts feel relevant to today as well as being a throwback swashbuckling adventure with enthralling action and suspense. I’m sad that this series is over (in a way), but this has been an excellent read all the way through.