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Age of Empyre
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Series: Legends of the First Empire, Book 6
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy
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With Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and the New York Times best-selling Age of War, fantasy master Michael J. Sullivan riveted fans with a tale of unlikely heroes locked in a desperate battle to save humankind. After years of warfare, humanity has gained the upper hand and has pushed the Fhrey to the edge of their homeland, but no farther. Now comes the pivotal moment. Persephone’s plan to use the stalemate to seek peace is destroyed by an unexpected betrayal that threatens to hand victory to her enemy and leaves a loved one in peril.
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Wow!! need the next one this instant !
- By HappyWifeLife on 2021-02-03
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The alliance of humans and renegade Fhrey is fragile - and about to be tested as never before. Persephone keeps the human clans from turning on one another through her iron will and a compassionate heart. The arrogant Fhrey are barely held in check by their leader, Nyphron, who seeks to advance his own nefarious agenda through a loveless marriage that will result in the betrayal of the person Persephone loves most: Raithe, the God Killer.
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I can't stop listening!
- By Tifannie on 2019-04-25
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Raithe, the God Killer, may have started the rebellion by killing a Fhrey, but longstanding enmities dividing the Rhune make it all but impossible to unite against the common foe. And even if the clans can join forces, how will they defeat an enemy whose magical prowess renders them indistinguishable from gods? The answer lies across the sea in a faraway land populated by a reclusive and dour race who feel nothing but disdain for both Fhrey and mankind.
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Completely falls apart in second book
- By Matthew on 2018-11-17
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Three times they tried to kill her. Then they hired a professional. She hired Riyria. When the last member of the oldest noble family in Avryn is targeted for assassination, Riyria is hired to foil the plot. Three years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and the cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start life as thieves for hire. Things have gone well enough until they receive the odd assignment to prevent a murder.
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amazing
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Excellent Short Story!
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Enjoyable adventure fair
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Wow!! need the next one this instant !
- By HappyWifeLife on 2021-02-03
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I can't stop listening!
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Completely falls apart in second book
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Three times they tried to kill her. Then they hired a professional. She hired Riyria. When the last member of the oldest noble family in Avryn is targeted for assassination, Riyria is hired to foil the plot. Three years have passed since the war-weary mercenary Hadrian and the cynical ex-assassin Royce joined forces to start life as thieves for hire. Things have gone well enough until they receive the odd assignment to prevent a murder.
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amazing
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Pile of Bones
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Excellent Short Story!
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Enjoyable adventure fair
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Sullivan nails it!
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For more than a year, Royce Melborn has tried to forget Gwen DeLancy, the woman who saved him and his partner, Hadrian Blackwater, from certain death. Unable to get her out of his mind, the two thieves return to Medford but receive a very different reception - Gwen refuses to see them. The victim of abuse by a powerful noble, she suspects that Royce will ignore any danger in his desire for revenge. By turning the thieves away, Gwen hopes to once more protect them. What she doesn't realize is what the two are capable of - but she's about to find out.
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Great story, narration and banter.
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Best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan’s mesmerizing Riyria Revelations series has found a welcome home with fans of magic, clashing swords, and daring heroes. This second volume finds Royce and Hadrian on a quest to enlist the southern Nationalists to aid the ever-weakening kingdom of Melengar. Royce suspects an ancient wizard is manipulating them all, but to find the truth he’ll have to decipher Hadrian’s past—a past Hadrian wants to keep secret.
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Not terrible.
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On the holiday of Wintertide, the New Empire plans to burn the Witch of Melengar and force the Empress into a marriage of their own design. But they didn’t account for Royce and Hadrian finally locating the Heir of Novron—or the pair’s desire to wreak havoc on the New Empire’s carefully crafted scheme.
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Beyond words
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When Gabriel Winter's daughter mysteriously disappears and is presumed dead, the wealthy whiskey baron seeks revenge. Having lived in Colnora during the infamous Year of Fear, he hires the one man he knows can deliver a bloody retribution - the notorious Duster.
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😊 Loved it !!!! 😊
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ends well
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Acclaimed author Michael J. Sullivan created instant best sellers with his spellbinding Riyria Revelations series. This first volume introduces Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater, two enterprising thieves who end up running for their lives when they’re framed for the death of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy bigger than they can imagine, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery - before it’s too late.
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Debut book issues but fun listen
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The Cycle of Arawn
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The White Tree (book one): In Mallon the dark magic of the nether has been banned for centuries. Its users have been driven out or killed. Its secrets lost. But the holy book of the nethermancers has just been found by a boy named Dante. As he works to unlock the book's power, he's attacked in the street. The nethermancers aren't gone—and they want their book back. Caught between death cultists and the law, Dante fights for his life, aided by his growing skills and a brash bodyguard named Blays.
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#Audible1
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Great second instalment....
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The Red Sea
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When Dante Galand was just a boy, his father, Larsin, sailed away to make his fortune. And never returned. Since then, Dante has become a great sorcerer. A ruler. A destroyer of kings. And he's just learned that his father is living on a forbidden island at the edge of the known world. Where he's dying of a mysterious plague. In the company of his friend, the swordsman Blays, Dante travels to the island. There, his magic can do nothing for his father.
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excellent fantasy novel
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The Sealed Citadel
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Young Cally is an apprentice within the most unusual order of sorcerers in the known world: the only one that forbids its members from using their powers to kill. Despite his lowly status, Cally's chosen by the Master of the Order to join a delegation to see their allies the Lannovians. The meeting will be historic: 60 years ago, the Order's enemies attacked them with a host of demons, forcing the Order to trap the monsters inside their own citadel and seal it shut with impenetrable wards. The trick worked so well the Order hasn't been able to get it back open since.
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Fantastic book with some sound editing problems.
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Rhythm of War
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After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar’s crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals.
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50 hours of wheel spinning.
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Publisher's Summary
A door opens. An army of dragons advance. And the fate of the living rests with the dead.
After obtaining the secret to creating dragons, the leader of the Fhrey has turned the tide of war once more - but gaining the advantage has come at a terrible price. While Imaly plots to overthrow the fane for transgressions against his people, a mystic and a keeper are the only hope for the Rhunes. Time is short, and the future of both races hangs in the balance. In this exciting conclusion to the Legends of the First Empire series, the Great War finally comes to a climactic end, and with it dawns a new era in the Age of Empyre.
From the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Michael J. Sullivan comes the concluding installment of his six-book epic fantasy. This series chronicles a pivotal point in Elan's history when humans and those they once saw as gods warred until a new world order was born. Set 3,000 years before the Riyria tales, Legends is a stand-alone fantasy series that is independent of the Riyria novels. But for those who do listen to both series, Legends will unmask lies and reveal the truth about Elan's history and the men and women who shaped what the world became.
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What listeners say about Age of Empyre
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-05-24
Meh
I loved book 1, 2, and 3 in the series but the last couple books have not been very good in my opinion. Storyline is very predictable and the books have a strong kiddish feel to them. Maybe I'm just not the right demographic for this series although I have thoroughly enjoyed other work by Mr. Sullivan.
2 people found this helpful
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- Ashley
- 2021-01-22
absolutely hooked!! LOVE IT.
the story the narrative and the way Tim performs all of Michaels books just have me completely hooked i am looking forward to hearing more.
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- janet
- 2021-01-10
satisfying
incredible, it answers a lot of questions and I really enjoyed the books, if you've been following this seriesis really opens a lot 😊 thank you for the wonderful imaginations you have.
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- Kevin
- 2020-12-29
Loved it!
Read all of these books! Loved every one of them! I haven't come across a series that I could listen to in a long time and this one got me hooked and held me all the way through
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- Eddy
- 2020-08-24
Mediocre ending to the series
I think the entire legends series seems much more young adult than Riyria. The whole series had some cringey parts, like Roan's discoveries of regular things, but this was the worst in the series. It seemed rushed, and for many of the characters I was initially invested in, I barely cared about how their story arcs finished by the end of the story.
I don't really think this series is worth investing in reading. I would stick with Riyria.
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- Aaron
- 2020-06-12
Awesome series!!
Right from the start this series contains all the elements to truly keep you riveted and coming back for more.
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- Mike Reiter
- 2020-06-03
A fitting end to the series
The war ends and Nyphron becomes emperor as predicted by Malcolm.
There are some unexpected twists to this book, such as what happens to Bryn, and some tie ins that you will recognize if you read/listened to the Riyria books. Overall Tim Gerard Reynolds does another stellar job performing as narrator and cast. The book does not stand alone, and you have to have read the series for it to make any sense or to even consider it a good book. Where the Riyria books did stand as individual books, but together made a more epic story, this series is really just one story broken into parts. As the last chapter of that story, this book is well done.
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- Leah
- 2020-05-17
Sad for the end but...
looking forward to the next adventure. I like how the story tied things together and set up the next series.
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- Sasanka Lokugamage
- 2020-05-16
Misleading Title
I’ve not read Micheal Sullivan’s work before but since the title seemed to be about an empire of sorts I thought it might be a good adventure read and being, 16 hr long at that, figured it might be a great saga of empires like Frank Herbert’s Dune or be some kind of an adventure in an unexplored land like Doyle’s Lost World or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings but turned out to be quite disappointing. This was more of a soap-opera with gut wrenching romantic pieces and a rather disconnected story that became more and more confusing as it unfolded, which by the way takes way too long, because is was not revealing in any way. The plot appears to oscillate between past and present, much like movie cut scenes but too abruptly at that and a lack of the literary queues leaves the reader groping in the dark trying to figure out what’s happening and when and where.
The characters didn’t seem that well developed either- a lot of fancy names but lacking any depth; no unique or interesting characteristics; or some kind of an interesting history or at least some behavioural traits or marker to adequately differentiate them.
The author did say something about putting this together in a hurry, at the prologue, and this work is full of tell tale signs of that; with disconnections in plot, way too much crying and romance, poorly defined environment, empty characters and is overall dissatisfying to say the least.
Definitely not recommended for adventure seekers- this work appears to be targeted at those desperately looking for some heart wrenching romantic drama.
Tim Gerard’s audio performance was quite good though...
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- Aaron
- 2020-05-08
This entire series is a failure
Simply awful series. I was so excited after the first book too. Book 2 was tedious with characters discovering something basic like how to make shoes. Then someone says, what are those? I call them shh
ooos.. Shooos. Shoes! The author did that over and over. The third book was ok but book 4 & 5 were simply awful. The story progresses at a snail's pace and both books end on a cliff hanger. Michael makes the reader slog through 2 entire books and offers no reward. Atrocious story telling.
But I am invested and now here is the final book. It's terrible. I haven't finished it and I'm going to expand this review when I do (I finally finished it and amended my review at the end). Right now I'm listening to it at a sped up pace just to get it over with.
The writing is so simplistic. There is one part where it's basically: I love you person, other person: I love you too. How can you love me? I just do love you. I'm glad you love me, love is great. And everyone has a love interest. There's like 5 or 6 different pairs of people falling in love. It's half the dang book. Just shoot me instead!
I am a huge fan of the Riyria series but this one sucks. The entire series could be condensed into 2 books, maybe three. It's not a complicated story when you take out the nonsensical, needless.. I don't know what to call it. Just wasted words that make listening to this a chore.
Terrible. I'll have more when I finally finish this thing but I'm not that excited about the prospect.
Such a shame.
Some spoilers below
Well, I finally finished it. What an awful book. It was like an "After School Special" movie where everything had a moral at the end. "The secret is you have to believe in yourself" type of nonsense. I can't properly explain how terrible this book is.
There's a saying in writing "show, don't tell". This book does the opposite; it doesn't show anything, it just tells you. Like Brin is so pure all the sudden. Over and over they say how important she is, she's the only thing that matters. Ok, why? And the Book of Brin which was mentioned probably 200 times in the series doesn't matter at all? And Minna coming back from the dead just to have a feel good moment? Awful! The wolf dying was the defining characteristic of a main character and the author just reverses it for the feels? Garbage.
I could go on and on, there's so many things I dislike about this book. I won't though because it was exhausting enough just listening to it. There's no energy left for me to complain, only to walk away saddened and disappointed.
Michael J. Sullivan has lost credibility as an author to me. This surface deep drivel he has produced has left me with zero interest in discovering what else he has in store for his readers. What an absolute mess.
81 people found this helpful
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- Christopher
- 2020-05-13
Disappointing conclusion
This is the most disappointed I have been finishing a series since I read Stephen King's The Dark Tower.
the first three books of this series are fantastic, but book 4 details and goes into a deep and long stretch of absolute stupidity that ruins the entire series. The events of Age of Legends plague all the books moving forward. The ending is full of loose ends and pointless actions.
*****SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON****
Age of Legends is the begining of the end for this series, and Persephone is the downfall. At this point, the runes are safe. They have beaten the fhrey out of their lands, and have an invincible dragon safeguarding them. the have been in camp for years now,in a stalemate. The elves have no hope of defeating the dragon that Suri has created. They could build a civilization on that hill and be safeguarded forever. There is no reason to seek peace with the fhrey. they could have stayed there, separate from the fhrey and lived in peace. But....
All of a sudden, Persephone gets the bright idea to send their MOST VALUABLE ASSET FOR THEIR DEFENSE, ALONE, TO THE FHREY. THIS IS INCOMPREHENSIBLY, IRREDEEMABLY, ATROCIOUSLY STUPID. There is absolutely no need whatsoever to do this. The one person that can create dragons, the WMD of their age, should be guarded ferociously, as it is the key to winning and keeping peace. Nope, sent her alone, to the people waging a war of genocide against their entire race. This comparable to sending the only person with full knowledge of atomic secrets to the Germans in the early forties, alone, to negotiate a cease fire. It is such a ridiculously pointless, stupid, thoughtless act that I couldn't believe that Sullivan, or his editors, or anyone else that read the drafts didn't make him rewrite this. Then the stupidity continues.
Suri, having gone on this fools errand for some unbelievable reason, lets the people waging genocidal war on her people put a collar on her that negates her powers. Willingly. This is also COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLY STUPID. She knows she can't trust them, that they want what she knows, that they will kill her entire race. You may think 'well, Suri has always been a bit naive' and you would be correct in the first novels, but this 8 or so years that have passed between the first novel and this one. Suri is in her twenties at this point, speaks two languages, mastered the art, and lived in society for a decade now. She has spent the entirety of that period struggling and learning exactly how horrible people can act. She's not naive, this is just uncharacteristically stupid for her character.
Of course the fhrey spend the next year or so torturing her to learn how to make dragons. I kept thinking, "well Suri knows that giving them the secret to making dragons would be absolute horrific to her people. It would be better for her to die than to betray her entire race like that. I'm sure she'll keep it under wraps." NOPE. She gives the secrets up after, having been tortured for years, they change tactics and try to minipulate her into being sympathetic to their cause. It doesn't work until one of the fhrey is nice to her and has the faces of mice on her shoes. That's right. Suri decides to spill the beans, betray her entire race, because her new fhrey friend has hello kitty shoes. Again, this is so stupid I can't get over it.
Suri and Persephone are the biggest traitors in the history of their world. Not only does Suri realize how powerful and dangerous this is, she actually coaches them on how to make them until they get it right. I just..... can't. It's soooooooooooooo STUPID.
These acts just plague the series from then on. the last two books should have been one book, but I guess Sullivan decided to do a cash grab by splitting them up into two books figuring the readers are invested now so they may complain but they'll still buy it.
The ending is so disappointing. The two civilizations end up being split and separated anyways. the events of the last two books have no dicernable effect on either of their civilizations that wasn't accomplished in Age of War. The last book is slow and boring and filled with people sitting in a pit complaining for the first half. Two main characters remain in the pit to wallow in self pity, and that's how their story ends. I'm serious. That's their end.
The actions of the other characters are made pointless at the end, especially Brin's ending. Spend so long making that book important just to have it taken away at the end. And then there's Nefron...
I don't understand why all of these people are working so hard to put a crown on Nefron. Why? He's a murderous, genocidal, treacherous, conniving, immoral, petty man using the runes as a means to an end. They for some reason still line up to lick his boots. But why? At first it was because they needed his advice and protection from the rest of the fhrey. After Age of War though, this is no longer an issue. At all. They have a DRAGON now. They could have told Nefron to take himself and his murderous little band to get to the other side of the midwalden river, and stay there. What need did they have of him after that? Runes are figuring out how to use the art, they reproduce far quicker than the elves, are winning the war absolutely at this point, they have a WMD, they have a whole continent to themselves. Why are they still pursuing anything at all with the fhrey? Yes the dragon has a range, but the fhrey don't know that. They are all working so incredibly hard to put themselves into shackles.
I'm not sure if I will read another book in this series. After reading every single novel and short story of the Rhyiria Revelations &Chronicles, I don't think I can handle more insanely stupid plot devices that plague both series. It's a real shame, because the world building, characters, mythology are really good. I wouldn't be this upset about the ending if I didn't like the first three books so much. Once the banter between Wraith and Malcomb is gone, Persephone becomes subservient, Suri's horrible life of misery and horrible treatment continues, Tesch's story just flat out ends (seriously, nothing happens with him that is at all relevant to the plot after Age of Legends), the really dumb plot devices being used, there just wasn't anything to look forward to. This book was 20hrs of Timothy Gerard Reynolds (as wonderful and talented of a narrator as always) letting you down by telling you a disappointing story.
42 people found this helpful
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- Soggy Waffles
- 2020-05-07
Terrible ending...
Sooo many loose ends with this ending.
Robin said a certain someone didn’t come back because it would have caused issues for Nefron. That just tells me they couldn’t come up with a good way to fix the mess Michael creates by writing that character as he did.
So many other terrible loose ends. Both of the deaths at the end were to.... casual. Awful. I will be returning this book and sadly, I will not complete my hardcover collection.
33 people found this helpful
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- miro val
- 2020-05-11
Total let down
Tim is always the Best. I found the story to be just a total let down.
28 people found this helpful
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- My name here
- 2020-05-15
What happened?
A struggle to finish. It is essentially an insult to the original Ryira series.
24 people found this helpful
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- Navneet Sidhu
- 2020-05-26
Very disappointing
I am compelled to write my first review here because of what a let down the last two books were. After the previous book where the characters meandered around in the underworld, I was excited for great deeds from the characters I loved. Instead, one by one, all of them faded off the pages. Suri had far more potential, hadn’t she? Mondulay ( probably incorrect spelling) who was showing some character growth before this, devolved very quickly. Nefron deserved to be held accountable for his cruelty and deviousness, and Persephone deserved some happiness. The ending was too little, too late for me. So many loose ends. This book underscores how even good authors lose sight of their storylines.
21 people found this helpful
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- Alex solis
- 2020-05-10
Sigh..
I was so invested with the characters in book 1,2 and 3! Then all of of sudden the story takes a sudden sharp turn into despair!
Don’t get me wrong the narration is amazing like always! There are cool scenes here and there but by the time everything gets wrapped up your just shocked by the loss of the potential in the characters!!
Books 1 through 3 your like .. yes! I know these characters are going to do great things! But when it’s all said and done they only end up playing a small part and then that’s it... sad.
So unfortunately I was disappointed with the the last three books in the series, left a empty hole in me.
15 people found this helpful
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- Curly
- 2020-05-09
Awesome Conclusion to a great series
I loved every minute. Defiantly would recommend this story and all of Michaels other books.
10 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 2020-05-07
Deep thought
Michael did a great job with some of the lessons he shared through his stories. That being said measured against his original work this was far below expectations as a series. I just started reading the originals again and this book sounds nothing like Michael. Bring back the old Michael for the next series! This story was just all over the place. I really wanted to like it, and in part I did but overall I realized I really don't.
10 people found this helpful
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- DeeDoo
- 2020-05-11
Nearly ruined the series, last minute redemption
Minor spoilers, no exact details below
I have one star for the story for me liking most of the beginning. Another star for it not entirely demolishing the story and characters I’ve loved.
I’m pretty upset with how the series ended, he could have done better, but there were no major loose ends.
I. Have. Loved. This. Series. One of my favorites. This book came *this close* to ruining it, though.
My favorite character was Mawyndulë—I’m a sucker for the “misguided character is villain” type. But the author didn’t do enough with him! After the death of some people close to him, I was really looking forward to Insane Mawyndulë... ( does that make me insane?) I’m pretty sure he snapped some, but nothing interesting! The thing I hate most about this book is he kinda just.. was left there. Not hanging, but not done either.
Also, a Frey (probably spelling it wrong sorry) who had murdered died, and you see them in the entrance to Pyre, unable to head in. But it mentions that there were wars—why were they alone? Shouldn’t there be thousands? I think maybe that rule was made after the war, but NOT ONE FREY MURDERED? What??
I feel like Neffron did not get the punishment me deserved. I know it doesn’t fit with the plot, but I’m still upset. He was a cruel, manipulative, DISGUSTING character, and in my opinion the true villain—way too much was his fault because of his want for power.
My second favorite character (1st after Mawyndulë was dumped in the gutter) also seemed... incomplete. I feel like they had a good reason to go back to Elan but never did. (Talking about the grumpy character, not giving names because no spoilers)
Ugh, I hated Tesh. No reason, just boring.
I love Malcolm! He was wonderful, I also love “Villain tries really hard to be good” types. In my opinion, seems a tad more realistic. I like the way he tied in to rieria a lot, and how the in world story got mangled over 2000 years!
Persephone was... anticlimactic. Favorite character in the first book, then slow decline until I didn’t even care. Her ending was boring.
BRIN. Oh, how annoying she is. Seemed like a bit of a Mary Sue. Never liked her and strongly dislike how she was the “secret main character.” I feel like the books (besides this one) wouldn’t be too much different if it was Roan who made reading.
Suri’s chapters were mildly uninteresting in this book, I liked them, but not the best. I liked her.
Michael is TERRIBLE at writing deaths. One of my least favorite parts. A character I like dies— I want to be sad! Not bored! He does a good job with gore, though. Descriptive enough to give a good mental image but not making it too violent. I, being a very picky book reader, appreciate the gore aspect.
This book made me angry on numerous occasions, but I liked it. A lot, actually! At 3/4 done I wanted to give it one star but it got better. I will be reading other books by him. This isn’t one of my favorite series anymore, but I can greatly appreciate it. Thanks for reading my ramble, and despite how much “bored bored bored” I wrote about, the action scenes were good.
9 people found this helpful