I loved the whole Wayfarer Redemption Series. I had to slow myself down from reading these books too fast because I enjoyed them so much. Pure brainless fluff, but super fun. I fell in love with the main characters. ( )

Tencendor is a wasteland. The forests are gone and each man or beast remaining in the land wanders aimlessly absorbed in a nightmare of insanity and pestilence. Bound to the temporary safety of Sanctuary, the inhabitants of Tencendor await the Demon's final assault. When they have succeeded in bring life to their master, Queteb, the all-powerful Midday Demon, there will be no shelter from destruction. According to prophecy, only the Starson can offer hope. But Caelum is plagued by nightmares, and fears that if he enters the Maze, Drago will kill him.

The first three books in this series were fabulous. But I think that Douglass stretched the story way too far. The ties that bound this mythology together begin to unravel. The characters leave much to be desired, the story is splintered, and the brutality is often unnecessarily gruesome. Too many loose threads remain - who are the people of the forest? Where did the enchantress come from? What on earth was that Zenith/Wolfstar thing all about? And was it really necessary to tie this vision to an 'old earth' which did nothing for developing the story?

I really couldn’t enjoy this – I tried, but it just didn’t work for me. It gets three stars only because I know Sara Douglass is a much better writer than this.

Maybe there is another one to come that will tidy up all the loose ends and provide an ending that does justice to the strength of the earlier books in the series. ( )