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Everything comes to a head in this grand finale of the Alex Verus series. Alex fights an epic battle against the marid jinn possessing Anne, takes a final stand with the Council, and has the final showdown with Richard he's been dreading for over a decade. Alex's laundry list of feats is a mile long: save his true love Anne, minimize collateral damage, fight off petty politicians, survive two armies holding grudges against him, save his friend Vari who's been possessed by another jinn, stop his arch nemesis, former master, and boogeyman Richard, and - just in case he gets bored - save the world. No problem. Oh yeah, and even if he accomplishes these things, there's a magical artifact slowly killing him, and he's still public enemy #2 (behind Anne) in magical Britain. Actually, this sounds very fitting for 2021.
Unlike previous books where there was a caper, adventure, or detective work, this book was 100% war. I know some readers don't mind when the final battle takes up an entire book, but to me that reads like a pacing problem. Jacka had 12 books these battles could have happened over, but everything before the last book was just a warm up where Alex had to come to terms with his darker side. Alex's quest for self-acceptance really was what he needed to complete, not trying to play his enemies' games. Battle scene after battle scene gets very repetitive and didn't offer enough adventure to really quench my thirst. I was mostly very happy with the ending though. All the loose ends were tied up. My only complaint was that several characters went through major transformations and traumas, and we only got a snippet of how they were coping.
Unlike previous books where there was a caper, adventure, or detective work, this book was 100% war. I know some readers don't mind when the final battle takes up an entire book, but to me that reads like a pacing problem. Jacka had 12 books these battles could have happened over, but everything before the last book was just a warm up where Alex had to come to terms with his darker side. Alex's quest for self-acceptance really was what he needed to complete, not trying to play his enemies' games. Battle scene after battle scene gets very repetitive and didn't offer enough adventure to really quench my thirst. I was mostly very happy with the ending though. All the loose ends were tied up. My only complaint was that several characters went through major transformations and traumas, and we only got a snippet of how they were coping.