Mortal Consequences

I think reading books 2 and 3 so close to each other burned me out of any tolerance I have for a bad read. The plot wasn't bad per se, it's just really, really cliché. The book also suffers from a winding down from book 2 in terms of climax - book 3's plot is so very mundane compared to book 2.

The first half of the story starts off really slow, as it follows Sunbright and Knucklebones on their journey in trying to find his tribe. It meanders around and in between introduces us to how Sunbright made acquaintance with dwarves, and which sees Sunbright back on a floating enclave for a short stint.

The second half of the story shows how Sunbright rejoins his tribe and regains their acceptance, in a very roundabout and loopsy-do way. The portrayal of the barbarians were really poor - the Rengarth barbarians felt more like a bickering republic than a tribe of noble barbarians led by a shaman and elders.

Anyway, without nitpicking too much, the overall arc is about an old antagonist from back in book 1 making an appearance, and going about the vengeance plot is a rather ridiculous and unrealistic manner. And that's putting aside how the antagonist came back in the first place.

The three biggest flaws with the plot, that just destroys my enjoyment of this book was: 1. Netheril is not even the main focus on this story - in fact, the Netheril Empire here was extremely pathetic. 2. The really unnecessary “resolution” of what happened to Greenwillow and the ridiculous family reunion. 3. The stupid fight scenes that involve the antagonist - so overpowering and such overkill when against not-Sunbright, so pathetic against Sunbright.

The story is just full of holes and inconsistent power levels. It takes so much liberty with D&D rules that it's past the point of accepting it in humour. A very poor end to a mediocre series.