The Core

Executive Summary: A satisfying conclusion to a really enjoyable series.

Audiobook: Another good job by Pete Bradbury. I thought he was a good fit for the series overall, and makes listening in audio a great choice.

Full Review
I was very late coming to this series, but I nearly listened to it all in one go. That should be a good indicator at how much I enjoyed it.

This series has one of the best magic systems I've encountered, and I'm always a sucker for that. The characters are fantastic too. There is a warrior monk, a bunch of badass women, and if that wasn't enough it also has a heroic bard or two. Fantasy books could always do with some more bards in my opinion.

It also has some of the best secondary ones I've ever read. Wanda Cutter deserves her own spin-off series. A few of the characters added in this book seemed to come out of nowhere however. Apparently one of them was introduced in some of the novellas. I didn't read those so it made their inclusion feel very strange to me. It was as if I had skipped a chapter or two in one of the previous books.

I did struggle a bit with the character development at times, but even a few I had a hard time sympathizing with for much of the series grew on me by the end.

Much like the last book this one focused a bit more on the human politics than the demon war than I'd have liked. However it was important to finish setting things up for the finale. I think it was handled pretty well, but it took me a bit to get completely sucked into the book as a result. It also made the ending feel a bit on the rushed side.

Still, I thought this was another solid entry in the series, and I was happy with where things leave off. I could happily read a sequel series (or that Wanda Cutter spin-off), but if we don't get any more from the universe Mr. Brett built, I'll be fine with that too.

I definitely recommend this series to anyone who enjoys darker fantasy and loves cool magic systems.