Allan Cole (1943–2019)

I really thought this was excellent. The book starts by laying the background of a peaceful people, high in the mountains, while in nearby kingdoms a massive war had recently raged. Out of this comes a wizard who must stave off or win the next war against a very evil opponent. The writing is good, the plot is good, and I thought there were some very unique components to this book, not your typical fantasy.

The writing style, which was a little clunky throughout the trilogy, seemed worse in this one, and the pacing was a little weird. I wonder if this book just got less editing than the others, there were a bunch of typos and whole section where italics didn't end where they should have. Anyway, it was a little odd how much time was dedicated to incidental battles, then the reconciliation of various characters and the ending that the whole series was building up to were just breezed through show more like it was no big deal. show less

As this series went on, it got progressively more original, more unique, and the perils and challenges for the characters got greater and greater. The whole world is threatened with disaster if the remaining followers of Safar Timura can't figure out a way to stop the cycle and free him, and defeat their enemies. I thought this was very original, and well written. I have no idea why it is not more popular, it is at least as good as most of the fantasy written 10 years ago.

Overall, a good end to a good series. The finish may have been a bit simple and anti-climatic considering the amount of intrigue and action in the rest of the books, but on a whole I still really liked it.