Ratings5
Average rating3.8
The final book in the brand new trilogy from the author of the Tawny Man and Farseer trilogies, following on from the bestselling Shaman's Crossing and Forest Mage.The people of Getty's town remember the death of their cemetery soldier vividly. They remember believing him guilty of unspeakable crimes, condemning him, and then watching as other men of his unit beat him until he no longer drew breath. But Nevare Burvelle didn't die that day, though everyone believes they saw it happen. He was cornered by a power far more intractable than any angry mob. When he was a boy, the magic of the Specks – the dapple-skinned tribes of the frontier forests – claimed Nevare as a saviour; severing his soul in two, naming his stolen half Soldier's Boy and shaping him into a weapon to halt the Gernian expansion into their lands and save their beloved ancestor trees. Until now Nevare has defied the magic, unable to accept his traitorous fate. But the magic has won: it has extinguished his once golden future, devastated his family and has now turned his own people against him. Faced with endangering the only loved-ones he has left, Nevare has no choice but to surrender to its will and enter the forest. But surrendering to his Speck destiny is only the beginning of his trials. Before he submits completely, Nevare makes one desperate last attempt to deter the Gernians from the Barrier Mountains without causing them harm. But the magic accepts no compromise. Exhausted, Nevare can no longer suppress his traitorous Speck self, Soldiers Boy. Losing control, he becomes a prisoner in his own body; able only to watch helplessly as his other half takesSoldier's Boy is determined to stop the Gernian expansion at all cost, and unlike Nevare, he has no love, nor sympathy for his spirit-twin's world.
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This trilogy has been very hard to rate, and this final entry may be the hardest of all. The first half lacked most of the characters I had grown to like and love, was painfully slow, made the main character even more passive than before, and spent most of the time with characters I didn't care for.
But at some point in the second half things picked up and there managed to be a pretty good resolution. The story itself goes places and has ideas that I never quite come across in other books, and the writing is still as great as ever. It just doesn't really come together as a whole. It doesn't leave me feeling empty or fullfilled or anything, I'm mostly just indifferent. I'm relieved of the fate of certain characters and how certain issues were resolved, but I can't quite say I really liked the book (or trilogy) as a whole.
Series
3 primary booksThe Soldier Son is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2005 with contributions by Robin Hobb.