It's all just started to annoy me, and I can't really be bothered to carry on.

I just don’t care enough to continue this book. The core of it seems fine, but something in the writing feels off – whether it’s the original text or the translation, I’m not sure. 

It reads pretty distantly, and the grammar is really off at points. 

One example being the chapter heading image of a sign reading “Book. Coffee.” – surely it should be “Books. Coffee.”?? 

Another is when a character says ‘a crotchet’ as a singular thing, which would never be said. 

The conversations are also starting to feel stilted and unnatural, which doesn’t help for a book all about meaningful relationships between characters. 

It’s not bringing me joy, so off it pops. 

Well, I really didn’t think I’d ever be DNF-ing the final book in a series, but I don’t have the strength to finish it. I don’t even care about what happens to the characters – it’s clear from how everything has progressed that the book is going to have a typical fantasy ending, so I can pretty much already predict the plot points. 

From the offset of the book, everything moved so fast, switching between POVs every three or four pages, that I struggled to connect with the story at all. Almost every chapter was just meaningless day to day life stuff, putting all the physical pieces in place before the battle without any good character work. Pretty much nothing of interest for 268 pages. 

There are also essentially no stakes in this. I know that in the end it’s all going to be ok, and Gwynne clearly didn’t want to kill off any major character before the big battle, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to use them as a gratuitous death in the finale. So when any of the characters were in danger in this first 44%, I couldn’t take it seriously because I knew no-one was going to die.  

Unfortunately (in my opinion), almost every fantasy series ends with the good guys winning. I read a lot of fantasy, but even so I don’t usually have this much apathy towards the end, so clearly there are things Gwynne could have put in place to keep the interest. However, so much of the tension he is trying to build is based off the 'we might not win' narrative, rather than on questions like the horrible things they might have to do to win, or what winning actually means. This leaves everything feeling pretty weak, as I can’t get behind the character’s fears or motivations at all. 

Everything is also extremely convenient. So far, nothing has gone wrong for a single character. Even if they think a bad thing has happened, it turns out to be of benefit. Everything they try and do, they achieve, no-one has died, and (once again) nothing interesting has happened. Its just groups meeting up, chatting shit, and mildly fucking around. 

This convenience is extremely prevalent in the hunt for the seven treasures. Even at the start of the series I found the concept verging on corny, but thankfully until this book the problem didn’t really rear its head. Now, however, all of the characters are just on side quests to find the treasures that haven’t already fallen into their laps in some of the most convoluted ways possible. It’s giving horcrux and child’s Easter egg hunt.  

Some of the other things that annoyed me were: 

-  The ‘romances’. Every character is getting paired off, clearly in an attempt to increase emotional tension when one person in a couple is in danger. But it doesn’t work at all, because all of the romances are so lifeless, underdeveloped, and empty (somehow even Maquin and Fidele’s, who were half of Ruin). They’re clearly just being adding to emotionally manipulate us (much like Storm’s injury cliff-hanger at the end of Ruin).

-  When the spear is removed from where it was embedded in the tree trunk, we’re told the skeleton it was holding up collapses. I’m sorry, WHAT the fuck? A skeleton isn’t joined together. A skeleton is just a collection of disjointed bones, there aren’t ligaments, muscles etc. holding it together. So how the FUCK was a spear holding up an entire skeleton by itself in such a way that when it was removed the skeleton came apart??? 

-  The explanation of Trigg’s weird 2-sided treachery still makes no sense to me, and has been pissing me off for months. 

-  Gwynne is being HORRENDOUSLY heavy handed in his hints at the whole Ethlinn thing, whatever that thing is. It makes me not even want to look it up just out of spite… 

-  Thannon IS Corban’s father????? What the fuck. This one is very probably just on me, but still pisses me off. 

It’s truly disappointing that my read of the series has come to this anti-climactic end. I really wanted it to be a new favourite. I thought the first two books in the series were really fresh, and all of the subterfuge and twisted morals intrigued me, but once all that was resolved and the lines were drawn, the core of the story just didn’t hold up. And after my disastrous read of The Burning GodI’m not going to be forcing myself to finish any book for any reason, even if it is the last in a series. 

For such a long book, it starting off with a gratuitous, male serving sex scene is not encouraging for a Sci-fi written in the '70s. 

Think I'll give it a miss.

I did enjoy the first part of this, though the surprising similarities to Anita Ahlborn’s ‘Brother’ (which was written after this) meant my enjoyment was diminished. 

However, at 30% I realised this book has a pretty big problem with pacing. Which is particularly notable because pacing isn’t something I usually notice while reading. 

The first third was highly strung and addicting, but now at the 35% it’s slowed right down to a crawl, almost like reading the start of another book with new characters and settings being introduced. Completely lacking action or even tension of any kind, even though Claire’s PoV is trying make us think there is. 

As a result, I’m not really interested in reading any further. 

At 46% everything is starting to feel veeery repetitive and pedestrian:

- Mahit, based on almost nothing, conveniently uncovers one of Yskandr's plots. 

- We hear fuck all from Yskander, and Mahit can’t manage a sentence without begging him to return. 

- Mahit can't trust anyone but really wants to be everyone's friend. 

- Weird chat about literature that’s getting too convoluted, and not in a good way. 

- Oh no, Lsel is under possible attack. Maybe from within (shock, horror). 

It's all so wishy washy, and basically all just Mahit's speculation. Nothing has actually happened apart from a war being declared, but even that wasn't exactly interesting. The levels of bland are outstanding, and from reading reviews it isn’t going to get any better.  

 

And so much of it doesn’t even make sense in the world Martine has created! For example, the flimsiness of the imago line tech, especially with how excruciatingly important they apparently are. Surely something a little more sophisticated could have been made to secure data (a cloud, data relay etc.)? Also, how Mahit has supposedly been training her whole lie to be ambassador, and is obsessed with Teixcalaanli culture, yet knows pretty much NOTHING about them?? How does that work then? 

I also really can't help but compare the book to Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit, which (published three years before this) includes many of the same themes/tech and is an absolute MASTERPIECE. After reading something so similar and so well done, Martine’s work unfortunately fails rather drastically in comparison.  

This book started off ok, but as the more ‘serious’ topics became the focus, my anger towards it grew and grew. 

One of the red flags from the beginning should have been Maddy. She is so INCREDIBLY toxic, yet it seems we’re meant to route for her friendship with Emma and take her fucked up behaviours as completely normal? Her stalking Justin was a stark reminder of why I keep everything private on social media and barely post anything. (Justin got over/accepted the stalking WAY too easily btw.) 

Another think that annoyed me was the lack of research into the medical field. Medical personal should NEVER leave a medical facility in used scrubs, especially if they’ve been worn during surgery??? But no, Emma just strolls home from work in them, and then proceeds to have a full date wearing them. Cross-contamination who? Also, you wear clothes under scrubs, so why couldn't she just take the fucking things them off?? 

I really didn’t like some (most) of Emma's 'advice' bordering on therapy she gives Justin about his mum. Striving to ‘choose empathy over anger’ is one thing, but downplaying Justin's shitty situation because his mum 'had is worse' is absolute bullshit. He was BARELY into his TWENTIES and now is having to be a PARENT because of her shitty actions, whatever their cause. That’s a horrible way for his life to turn around. It’s basically over. If Justin was instead his mum’s peer in any way (husband/brother etc.), then fair enough he should have been expected to support her more, but she’s his MUM. And once again, he was practically still a KID when his dad died. She shouldn't have expected him to support all of her emotions, or ‘man up’. 

 I’m also pretty sure that Emma's arc will end up with her being converted into liking kids, which pisses me right off. She’s the only child-reluctant woman I’ve read about so far, and it was really refreshing to see, but it’s completely giving convert vibes. 
 
And Jimenez’s idea of what male conversation is is incredibly juvenile. Not every conversation contains reference to sex or dicks... How fucking rude. 

This book is purely about a fuck tonne of characters who desperately need therapy. Not in any way something I can be bothered to waste any more time on. 

Once again, a ridiculously popular book that I despise. I think it’s time I learned my lesson and avoid (recently published) popular books completely. 

Until Mary came into the picture I was enjoying this read, apart from the few racist comments (which were especially weird coming from someone in another ostracised group seeking acceptance - a warning of use of the n word in Chapter 36 Part 2. Caught me completely unawares) and Stephen's occasionally overwhelming elitism and out of touch-ness. 

 

I also think it’s actually SO fucking rude that this is labelled as a 'lesbian classic'. Stephen goes through SO much gender questioning, and I’m half convinced she was actually a trans man. 

 

Martin's flip from friend to lover towards Stephen, and Stephen’s feelings about it, was the most seen I’ve ever felt reading a book. None of my trans experiences have ever been reflected so accurately. 

And I know it’s just a result of developing word usage over time, but I loved that strange-‘queer' was used to describe Stephen's LGBT-queer emotions. Gave me a few chuckles here and there. 

 

Then, unfortunately, Stephen’s relationship with Mary ruined the book for me. Right from the offset, she thought of Mary exclusively as a ‘child’ and a ‘young creature’, yet I just knew their relationship was going to turn ‘romantic’.  

When Stephen takes Mary home to Paris (and has so much fucking power over her and splashes her considerably larger wealth and intelligence/knowledge/experience about), she literally has an argument with Mary because she says Mary is tired, but Mary refuses saying she isn’t. Such a parent/child interaction - and Stephen says OUT LOUD to Mary 'Come on, there's a good child...'.  

Stephen even calls herself Mary's 'father, mother, friend and lover' and Mary 'the child, the friend, the beloved' in her head while they’re actively together. Pretty impossible to route for a love story when it’s so fucked up. 

I know the book is almost 100 years old, but was the concept of a relationship between two mature equals really so difficult to grasp??
 
I just can’t read any more of this. The relationship is gross, and looks like the rest of the book centres on it. What a disappointment. 

What is it about TJ Klune audiobooks?!? The narrators are ALWAYS insufferable. 

I picked this up and couldn’t even make it one minute in. Physical read it is, I guess. 

John is clearly an utter twat, and I don't want to waste any more of my time on him than I already have.