The Last Mortal Bond

Executive Summary: Not as good as the first book, but probably better than the second. I found this to be a pretty good conclusion to a good series that didn't quite live up to it's potential.Audiobook: Simon Vance is awesome. I just find him a bit quiet at times. I wish the audio people would adjust his volume up a little bit. He does a variety of voices and speaks with great inflections making this series a big plus in audio.Full ReviewIn many ways my review for this book could be a repeat of my review for [b:The Providence of Fire 22055280 The Providence of Fire (Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne, #2) Brian Staveley https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1405301050s/22055280.jpg 39923827]. I found the emperor's kids to be annoying, and often incompetent. Just less so. I think Gwenna's chapters/story was far more interesting and enjoyable. In particular both Kayden and Adele had parts I found slowed the overall story, and left me eager to get back to other subplots.Gwenna's story meanwhile, showed excellent development as the series went on, especially in this book. Her path from interesting secondary character to favorite POV character was definitely the highlight for me. I think I might have liked this series more if focused more (or entirely) on Gwenna's journey, and the Kettral. There are just a lot of other subplots in this book that felt slow or seemed to bog down the overall story. It was as though Mr. Staveley was trying a bit too hard to cram an epic fantasy's world building into a trilogy. I did find some of the politics and theology compelling, just not as much as the idea of an elite fighting force who rode on the backs of monstrous birds.There was a point in time when I couldn't seem to get enough dark fantasy. All of my favorite books a few years ago fell into that category. Eventually I reached a tipping point though, and started to look for lighter fare. This series is definitely a lot darker than most of the things I've read the last few years. Things get so bleak that I reached a point where I was wondering what exactly I was rooting for at the end. That's a bit too much for me.Yet despite that, I found it hard to stop listening. I always did want to know what came next. I think that this book does a good job of bringing the conflicts setup in the previous books to a good conclusion.Overall, this was an enjoyable series despite my complaints. I'll be eager to see what Mr. Staveley has in store for us next.