I've read FSIS about 5 times by now so I was sooooo excited for this book, and it did not disappoint!

The plot took a vacation for like 90% of the book but the best part of BK's books is the characters anyway, so it was still awsome.
I'm so happy to finally have read more Tycho, Jax, and Callyn, I already miss them

Tycho is too precious, too nice, and too generous for this world. For any world. Somebody needs to find him a therapist asap tho.
He deserves So. Much. More

I loved seing Jax and how he adaptated to Emberfall. His relationship with Tycho is so precious. I love them so much

I'll forever cherish those first 100 pages of them together

it was perfection, I need thousands of pages of this

We need more Noah!!!!

Since he'll be going to Emberfall in the next book

, I hope we'll get scenes of him and Jax (with or without Tycho). They're like, the only two people who realize how Tycho is "working himself into the ground" with his responsibilities, as Noah said.

Rhen! I need to re-read the Cursebreakers trilogy, I whish we'd had his pov in AHSFAB, his few scenes where amazing.
Harper was amazing as well 😌

Malin was a complete surprise but I loved his character, i hope we'll see more of him I the next book!

I liked Sephran until he started being like "Hum, Tycho left u blah blah blah blah" and now I kinda want to punch him

I also had a few chapter of *uh, maybe Alek isn't that bad*, but lol of course he is

I promise I'll never roll my eyes again when a sequel book re-explains what happened in the previous one, because damn, this was terrible.
It's been 15 months, how am I supposed to remember who Felix or Kylynn are ?!?!?! (I actually still don't know who Kylynn is and I read the whole book)
It doesn't take much, just a short explanation the first time they're mentioned in the book! Maybe this way I wouldn't have spent the first 150 pages being entirely lost. Or just a longer character list at the beginning.
Similarly,

why are the isles that made up 50% of the book not on the map

?

The plot was nice (once the first 150 pages of confusion were read). The

exploration of the isles was really interesting, it kinda felt like an 'cultural sampler' lol

. It was definitely my favorite part of the book.

Rip Trager, I liked him, but then he said "that's my favorite isle yet" when landing so of course he died 🥲

Violet annoyed me sometimes,

mainly because of how stubborn she is when it comes to trusting Xaden. Thankfully Ridoc was here 😌

I'm glad we got Rhi and Imogen's pov for a chapter each, I hope it'll be more common in the next books.

Aaric was such a highlight of the book!!!!

I hope we'll see more of him (especially with given his signet). But really I like how he's just quiet and thinking until it's usefully for him to act (that's too rare in this book lol)

I feel like the gods where more important in this book than in the previous two, so wonder if they'll be even more relevant in the next two

I debated how to rate this book for a long time, because it feels like I strongly disliked or did not care for a chunck of it and adored the other half 😅, so 3.75/5 it is

O.M.G
It has been a long time since a book kept me up until 3am but damn, it was worth it.

I loved the world building, although it was a bit hard to follow at the beginning (but there's a character list, glossary, and location list at the end of the book!).
But I got quickly used to the universe and wow, it's amazing.

The characters were all really well developed and fleshed out. I'm curious to see what they become in the next books. (

RIP Catellinus tho. You'll be missed

)

The plot was soooo good as well. Maybe a bit slow a few times, but only when it was needed.

And that ending. Wow

I was absolutely not expecting how the last 60 pages started resembling more of a slasher horror movie than a fantasy novel

The plot twists were twisting hard

I have So. Many. Questions. left and I absolutely can't wait for book two.

What is the command of isolation?
What's the Rendering? Is it when they first started using Will?
Obiteum and Luceum copies of Res? Like how in the first ruin there was 3 maps of the island?
Caeror run the maze, got cloned and sent to the two other dimensions, but the original in Res died?
Luceum's chapter started with a triskel, which symbolizes infinity, unity, and connection, while Obiteus's chapter started with an ank, which symbolizes life. Is that relevant?! It wouldn't be here if it wasn't I suppose.
How did that wooden boat get to the Academy infirmary?!?!?!?
Why did Emissa try to kill Vis?!?!?! Did she really thought he was doomed or something!??!?
After the naumachia, a physician took samples of Vis and showed him pictures of Luceum and Obiteus. How did he got these?!?!?
What power was in Suus?!?!?! Is it cloned in another way?!?!?
Why was Belli in the labyrinth in the first place?!?!? How did she know?!?!?!?
Melior. Did he run the maze?!?!?! Is that how he gained power?!?!? Or is it because of Suus?!?!?!

It was nice, just not the time of book I prefer.
In a way it kind of reminded me of The Little Prince (what with all the 'adult with a very dull, gray life, meets magical children and learns to see the world in colors and do what makes him feel complete). Again, not the kind of stories I like too much.

I wish we'd had other POVs, I think I'd have found Arthur soooo much more interesting than Linus. (Edit: well apparently that's the plot of book 2)

Idk if him being a phoenix was supposed to be a plot twist, but I had found it quite obvious from the second phoenixes were mentioned, and it just made me frustrated at Linus for not understanding it 😅

Overall he frustrated me a lot.

Also, characters had a tendency to go on monologues about how people are more than what they look like, etcetera, etcetera, and while that is true and an important thing to say, when it's said 3 times per chapter it starts feeling... unnatural? Because who speaks like that all the time?!

Patroclus you are too nice and innocent for this world

The last 2hours or so disappointed me a bit mostly because I was just yelling at the character that they where obviously doing exactly what would bring their death, but that's just Greek mythology being Greek mythology 🥲😭
Prophecies fulfilling themselves


Also I'm thinking about Delo and Griff from The Aurelian Cycle trilogy, whose quotes where inspired by Patroclus and Achilles, and their ending quote

Herongraystairs you will always be legendary 🥹😭

Jem is of course as amazing in this adaptation as he is in every one of his appearances 😌

This manga adaptation was really nice overall! I do prefer the art style of the TMI graphic novel, as it feels less croded, but the manga was still awsome.
The one weird thing is that some pieces of the novels where taken out of the manga, but the characters still made references to the scenes later, so that took me out a bit. It definitely would be confusing for someone who hasn't read the books. The plot is not so relevant, as it's mostly the characters... waiting for things to happen? But that's just TID, this goes for the novels as well.

And how dare they take out the Gideon scones scene!!!!!
Also, RIP Gabriel and Cecily's relationship development, they had like, 2 scenes here.

Oh and what's this with the runes?! Why does it look like they're drawing them in the air ?!

There goes my 5th time reading this book.

By now I know pretty much all of what's in that book, but it was nice to revisit it as an audiobook !
My one critic about it is that Jax's narrator sometimes felt a bit flat to me? I think he lacked emotions a bit.

The story in itself was really great! A perk of having read it 5 times in 13 months is that now I notice everything,

like how obvious Alek's manipulations are

.
For me, Tycho and Jax are the best part of the book, their relationship is just so... perfect? It's rare to see such healthy and awsome relationships in romantasy

Tycho having the same narrator as Harristan in Destroy the Day is insane but also so good.
Giving Alek Tycho's narrator for the epilogue is vile 💀😂

Idk how to rate this book 😅
It has nice fun facts, but it's mostly a pretty book (so having read it digitally, it looses some of its appeal)

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH
I'd read it once before, but in print, and I loved the audiobook !

I hadn't listened to an audiobook since *checks stats* 2022, so it's been a while, and I loved that format !
Unlike for Star Wars audiobooks, there wasn't any sound effects like explosions or rain which is a bit disappointing, but I guess it's the SW audiobook that are the exception here.
I loved the narrators, they where amazing, the only tiny moment that bugged me was Tessa and Quint's voice in Carrick's monologue. That was... different.

As for the story, well, I still love it just as much one year later. There's less political intrigue in this one than the other two, but that's fine because the best part is the characters (as in all of Brigid Kemmerer's books)
Harristan and Quint kind of stole the story, but really, each of the 3 POVs where sooooo good and interesting!