The Iron Palace

Having enjoyed Morgan Howell's Queen of the Orcs trilogy and the first two books in this one, I was eager to complete the trilogy. I was disappointed in the last book because Yim and Honus had to suffer even more and be parted seemingly forever.

Seventeen years have passed and Yim and her son have been living in relative safety in the Gray Fens while mother tries to keep a dark secret from her son. Of course, such an effort has come to naught as the servants of Lord Bahl are determined to have their Lord back and usher in another dark era. There's three different main storylines in this - Froan's search for his destiny, Yim's search for her son, and Honus' search for Yim. There's a few other storylines (revolving around Gorm, for show more example)

Morgan Howell's writing ability alone deserves five - no, ten - stars. He has a skillful pen and can describe things wonderfully and realistically, and I am in awe of his creativity.

However, what made me drop the overall rating to three stars is the way this story ended. Yim has been through so much, god dang it, and then for Gorm to do what he did to her just crushed me. She has been through so much, I wanted her to have a break for once! But nooo... :( Her connection with Karm is revealed, and that also affected the rating of this book - it made no sense to me and was a letdown. If this book had ended differently, I would have given it a higher rating. show less

The is the last in Howell's The Shadowed Path trilogy, and is an excellent closer to the series. The struggle Yim has with the darkness inside and out is well crafted. Honus, Froan, Cara - all struggle and some prevail. I can't say much more without giving away the plot.
One thing I found intriguing was the frequent Christian metaphors used: the goddess as both divine and mortal; the goddess who created the world but gave it's creatures free will; the idea of love being the only thing to overcome darkness. I have no idea what religion Howell ascribes too, but I found this recurring theme interesting. As a Christian, it made me wonder.
I would also say I was please with how Howell handled the sex scenes. They were not graphic or crass or show more TMI. Even the violence and gore weren't graphic, but enough to give the idea without being gratuitous.
My only complaint is I feel more time could have been spent on how Honus moves from anger to faith instead of the pages of "camping and walking and trudging". Still, this didn't diminish the overall story. This series overall is an excellent example of solid story telling, with rich characters, complex plot, intrigue and deeper message. Worth the time to read. show less