Crown of Renewal

With Crown of Renewal, Elizabeth Moon concludes the seven book series of Paksenarrion's world. In her characteristically thorough and meticulous way, Moon gathers up all of the threads and loose ends developed over the previous six books and weaves them into a spell-binding conclusion (all puns are intended). While some of the chapters serve to extend the development of the plot or present the gossip among villagers as a way of telling how a character or event ended, some chapters really soar, the chapters on the elvinhome being especially lyrical.

Transformation has been a theme in all of the earlier books in the series, but now, from Fin Panir in the far west to the Pirate Bay in the east, from the north marches to the arid dunes of show more southern Aare, transformation is the biggest source of conflict and also the most powerful of solutions, all the while exposing the true, deep nature of each of the characters. Each is given their hour upon the stage to reach their well-deserved fortune or comeuppance. It was a joy to read the conclusion of each of these threads, to feel the essence of these fascinating people, to know how things finally turned out, but it was also sad, knowing that this was the end of the story for each one. The series has had a life since 1982, with the start of Sheepfarmer's Daughter, but as the dragon says, change happens!

And indeed it does, but a discussion of the events that await the reader would be all spoilers, would give away the essence of the story. Let's just say that transformation is pervasive, from elves ending up wondering if the Singer is changing The Song, from Marshals considering revising the Law of Gird and questioning whether they have been teaching a correct version in the first place, to the social effects on communities and individuals of magic appearing all over the land.

This is fantasy at its best, with the reader feeling the true essence of good and evil, of the pain that change brings, of the joyous ecstasy found in nature and the profound sadness of loss. And the ending was so good that I cried. One hopes Elizabeth Moon lives a long and fruitful life and continues to gift us with treasures like the Paksenarrion series!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( 5 stars ) show less

I received an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley.

I've greatly enjoyed this extension of the Paksenarrion series, and as I approached this book I couldn't help but be a little sad. I recently finished up the last book in C.E. Murphy's Walker Papers series as well; alas, many of my favorites are wrapping up.

I won't delve into spoilers here--and there are so many--but this book is everything I hope it would be. Moon is masterful in how she juggles viewpoints and a massive sprawl of geography. The situations are dire, but there' also a great positive feel to the book. I am endlessly fascinated by how she uses the faiths of Gird and Falk, and how these great figures manipulate (in good ways) the lives of their followers. Arvid's plot is show more very rewarding in this regard. Actually, I was quite satisfied with how all of the characters evolved.

Now whenever I see a dun cow, I will think of Gird and smile. show less

The final book in Paladin's Legacy. (Note that I was extremely irritated by the epub I got from Kobo; each paragraph was formatted as a chapter. It was readable in the online reader, but not on my Kobo until I dealt with it in Calibre.)

Various plot threads from the preceding volumes are dealt with to come to a conclusion. I personally felt it was too much of a deus ex machina ending and felt let down as a consequence. Dorrin's arc in particular seemed to suffer from this.

Overall, the series was satisfying and the world and its history hung together. However, there were some issues with the concept of the magelords being able to take over bodies; it seems it was a thing back in the Girdish War but not discovered until Kieri awoke the show more mages in the west. Also, just why did the Verrekai family not use the regalia they held? Why did they rebel against the crown when they did? That was never clearly explained.

Recommended. show less

Odd - it's a lot of fun to read, but as the sweeping conclusion to a 5- (or 8-) book series, it's lacking a lot. It has this awful problem of being like real life. Some of the various problems that have been bedeviling our heroes end up linking more-or-less directly; many don't directly link up, and are solved locally. Gird's Cow deals with one lot of problems - or two. Dorrin and the regalia deal with another pair - one that's been a hovering danger throughout, one that didn't seem all that serious until this book. Kieri (and Dorrin) set up the dealing with another problem - but the solution is sort of negative, "this problem won't be randomly popping up any more" rather than some grand battle that ends the problem. In fact, the show more solution creates a new set of threads - what will the magelords do now? And Camwyn, and Dorrin, and Hornguard - which is brought up as a question in the latter half of this book, then never gets mentioned again... Also, the news of the solutions filters about quite slowly, and often in the form of rumor rather than solid fact. As I said, very like real life. There aren't any grand conclusions, there are solutions but they always lead to more matters. And new threads - new events, new characters, new events for characters - keep adding themselves to the story, so there's no neat, clean ending. I hope this means more Paksworld - EMoon has said she's got a bunch of short stories that she intends to publish, but I don't know how many of them will continue the series and how many will be fill-in or prequel. Though I'm sure I'll enjoy them all. I got this ARC from Netgalley. I spotted a few typos and thinkos, but only a few - hopefully they'll be caught in the final editing sweep. show less

Well, there you have it. The final title (for now at least) in the Paladin's Legacy series. While it is sad to say goodbye to these well-drawn and dimensional characters, I was glad to see where everything went.

But it also seemed that the endings were a little rushed? Tidy? Not everything was resolved perfectly, but almost as though Elizabeth Moon wanted to make sure she used every thread that she had introduced in the first series to weave in these ends. Some of the finalizing story lines came out of nowhere (such as Kieri Phalen's nightmarish upbringing), but then others made brilliant though sad conclusions (Dorrin Verrakai).

Just as with the Paks trilogy leading to five more books, perhaps there will be later writings that will show more continue these excellent characters' stories, or their children's stories. Maybe? show less

A grand finale!

As Elizabeth Moon says in her very coherent introduction this is not a story for the first entry reader into those works that began with Legend of Paksenarrion. And who, having read that great beginning, can forget the feisty true fighter that she was, her humble beginnings, her refining under fire, and the blessings of Gird that upheld, tested and shaped her. Crown of Renewal is the grand finale that draws the many threads together, weaving the various books into a whole, giving us insight into the how, why, when, and what of all that has gone before.
We meet old favourites and find new heroes. We are reminded of old situations as new happenings, familiar and known, are referenced. Paks's previous capture by Iynisin, the show more dark elves, is recalled by new attacks and resulting poisononous wounds inflicted by them. Then there's the opening horror of the fate of the Filis, a son of Count Andressat at the hands of Alured the Black. I for one, am again ensnared enough to reread the stories gone before (having read them all at least once, if not two or three times) to capture their essence, and distill this new gem. The convergence of the various plots is wonderful. Answers to the questions about Dorian and the crown realia, the Mage lords, the Dragon, all the streams and various tributes merge together to reveal the full picture.
A longtime fan (there are many of us) and collector of Moon's works, this is the crowning piece to the Magnus opus collection, the Paladin Legacy, that Paksenarrion heralded.
I was touched by Moon's dedication, a tribute to another longtime fan.
I dare to hope for side stories from time to time, snippets even of other characters and events met throughout the Paladin Legacy.

A NetGalley ARC show less

I really enjoyed this as a conclusion to the series. It did spend more time on wrapping up all the plotlines than on any new plot, but it was for me a very satisfying wrapping up. There was a great deal of deus ex machina (or deus ex dragon, perhaps), but I like my fantasy with extra interfering gods, so that's all good in my view. This book felt a bit like the dessert at the end of a heavy series.