I love this series. I was so disappointed that they didn't at least have any physical ARCs of this third book, especially when it turned out there is fourth book, that came out this year! So I gave in finally, and purchased the paperback copy so that I could try to read it before the 4th book came out, and I could read that e-galley. Well, paperback matches the first two ARCs. However, since I finished this while I was in New Orleans for ALA, I put it in the extra duffel bag I bought to help transfer all my books home on the plane. Unfortunately, that bag got caught out in the rain at the airport I guess, because when I got home and grabbed it from the luggage carousel, it was all wet, the whole bag. And so my paperback is in pretty bad shape. I'll probably buy another copy of it. I want it in halfway decent shape on my shelf.

Enough about that, more review of the actual book. As I mentioned, I love this series. You can read my reviews of the first two books here: Legacy of Kings and Empire of Dust. Now, it had been about 2 years since I'd read the 2nd one, but really, I got caught up pretty quickly with the way the author writes each chapter. Each chapter is from a different character's viewpoint, and we do get several characters to follow. But by now, you can tell who is who pretty easily. Once again the author so seamlessly wove history throughout this magical fantasy of a story that I was putting the book down every once in awhile as I was reading so that I could Google a specific historical name to find out just what they might really have been through or done. At least as far as records show. Even things that were changed were done in such a way that it didn't change the overall historical facts or knowledge in any major way. In a way we got a couple new characters' viewpoints this time, but again, the author makes sure they are written in a way you know it is a different person.

This is another series I will always highly recommend. Now to find time to fit the e-galley of book 4 in before it possibly expires! If it does, I'll just buy it next year when it comes out in paperback I guess!