Return of the Dragon Slayers

Finally. It's as if the author had read my past reviews.

This book is long. It ties up a lot of what I expected to be loose ends. And it has a climax that feels more hopeless than the one in the previous series. I chalk that up to the fact that much of this series has focused on developing the world, rules, and expectations of what magic can and cannot do. We've now gotten to the actual roots of the world, and now we can build up from there.

And yet... it feels as if this book, for all its good aspects, isn't focused.

Why does Kendra focus so much on getting the Dragon Slayers? Not sure, since 1 functionally dies, 1 I forget what she did, and the other 2 do some minor combat before also functionally dying.

Bracken escapes Ronodin because the plot needs him to, but without explanation. He just... shows up.

Ronodin makes Kendra swear to return to him, and if she doesn't, she looses her fairykind status. Does he use this at a critical moment in combat, potentially leading to her giving up her powers to save those she loves? Or does she give in to this, which results in something with actual stakes happening? No. It never gets brought up or used ever again.

Knox gets a giant crown. The giant crown corrupts him. After 2 chapters, Knox gives up the crown and the corruption is gone. The stakes here are as monotonous as they sound. Why did this happen? Couldn't some giants, or maybe darker forces, have realized this, and made Knox into a puppet ruler, who would then be an actual force at the end of the story that cannot be dealt with by using a magical sword? No, he can't. Instead, this serves as... what? An illustration of power? It really just serves to put stakes on Seth retrieving the piece of the magical light rock.

Why does the Sphinx have the translocater? Someone must've realized it's missing. They said he was causing trouble in Book 1, but someone should've kept a better eye on him. This is the guy that nearly ended the world, and I'm supposed to accept that a few sentences about him disappearing in Book 1 justifies him showing up with the most useful device to hurry the plot along? Come on.

This book just has too much travel in it. Series 1 stayed rather grounded until Book 5, which made 5 feel like an event that had actual weight and rush. This book is just hard to keep track of. It also frustrates me the number of magical transportation methods that it uses as “clever threads” to justify traveling.

Kendra is informed that she has access to the literal source of light at this point in the story. In book 10 of 10, she is told she can use more powers. She then agrees to get some scant training that “is too rushed to be ideal,” but this never causes an issue. And Ronodin intentionally puts her in a place to receive this training because he wants her to use it against the dragons... why? We still don't have this man's motivation. Plus, if he's so wily and smart, why can't he realize that he can't control the crown well?

Plus, Kendra's powers are just super powerful light. For all the stuff that Seth gets to do, and the associated character development, Kendra is really boring. She's still a well-written character, who has to make hard choices. But Seth spends this book with two of the most powerful swords known to mankind, hunting eldritch beings in order to cleave the not-infinity-stones out of their crowns. To do this, he pays with his memories, then gets them back by cutting the best dragon weapon they had, then helps fight the main archvillian of the series, before making a deal with an actual demon, and then fighting a wound that might make him undead. Kendra, on the other hand, deals with her boyfriend being captured, looking for some dragon slayers that are good 1v1 but don't do much else, and then using a flashlight beam from her hand to blind some dragons in the end fight. The end fight where Seth uses a burning sword that radiates justice, because he already discarded the sword that deals permanent wounds. Kendra just doesn't get the cool plot here.

Also, Eve. Remember her? She did a couple cool things in Book 2? She gets name-dropped during the aftermath of the end fight, and nothing else.

Knox and Tess do nothing aside from playing into their archetypes. Tess has her innocence-immunity, and Knox does dumb stuff with magic. They don't do anything else.

This book does a really good job of fan service, if you can call it that. It has a satisfying conclusion, and does a really good job of making things relevant. But, honestly, it's not the same as the first series. Ronodin serves as a nuisance most of this series, probably because Celebrant becomes more of a force of nature than a character after Book 2. But Ronodin is just a Sphinx minus the nuance, and he sits on the sidelines most of this book. His plot really needed to be fleshed out into its own series, or deleted entirely. He basically serves to capture Bracken, and then Bracken escapes in Book 3, and then he's captured again in Book 4, and then he escapes halfway through this one. The escape in 3 was justified. Kendra did stuff for that. The escape here is completely random.

All in all, this book is good, but it's nothing close to the original series. Plus, it's far too long.

Edit: Also, why does Muriel Taggart get involved? And then why does she choose to stay in the demon realm? To “learn”? Learn what? She won't be able to leave! This is silly. In addition, we already know the Sphinx had the Translocator. I don't remember where it went, but you just gave the man who tried to open the prison before the item that teleports you to places you've been, and the gift of now having been to the realm of said demons he tried to release. This is dumb. -1 star for this.

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up because I had such an amazing time with this final book

Truly an epic conclusion to the Fableheaven series and universe. This series has been very dear to me since first reading it in high school, and I cannot recommend it enough.

This final book explored in depth the origins of magic in the Fableheaven universe, as well as an epic showdown between the dragons and the people standing for the humans. Mull's last books in series are generally this epic if Fableheaven book 5 was any indication, and this stays true for this one. My best takeaway was Seth's arc. He grows and learns so much in the span of this second series, but it's especially true in this book. He goes through hell and back for his family, even when he thinks that they would be right to turn their back on him because of his betrayals in the past. He has been through darkness, and in the end, rather than holding onto his power and the pain it brought him, he chose redemption and forgiveness. While I liked how Fableheaven showed, through Seth and Kendra being so different, that powers of light and dark can both be used for good, I ultimately also liked this resolution for Seth. My only complaint is that Kendra had less of a growth in this one, as for her it was moreso over the previous books. But the return of Bracken, of which we see too little in the entirety of the series, was well worth the wait. His choice to become mortal also felt sound to me, as an emphasis on the benefits of living a life to it's full potential.

There is a discussion to be had about the representation of death, as being once again too close to religious heaven and hell for my taste. However, thankfully, it was articulated enough that it didn't feel disconnected to the series and its establishment of magic's importance in the lives of the characters. This book emphasizes on forgiveness and the importance to right some wrongs, which made for very satisfying character arcs. In itself, this is also a topic of strong worth.

Thanks again Fableheaven for this incredible journey ✨

By this point in the series, I had hoped the author would take things in a different direction. The creativity and inventiveness of expanding the world and the new reserves and magical items isn't enough for me. I almost couldn't finish the series because it just got so boring.

Age range: 10-16
Younger readers may find it a little scary. Older readers may find the tone too juvenile.