Tyrant's Throne

Tyrant's Throne
Sebastien De Castell


CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-8
W-8
P-6
I-8
L-7
E-10
TOTAL-10/10
A 5 star book for ending this series and itself well

I cried like 4 times during this book. Wasn't supposed to be this emotional. CAWPILECharactersValiana—has the blood rage. Uses it to great effect. Dumps her stupid duke lover cause he's dumb. Filian Aline's Sister King's Son—Stands up to Trin at the end and exiles her. Wants to be better. I grew to like him a little more everytime he was on scene.Aline – How dare you do this to me. How DARE you kill Aline. Knew what she was doing and what would happen. Stupid Falcio for not acting sooner.Falcio- tons of character work for him. Grew an intense amount. Broke down and wrestled with following the Law or following Justice. Tried to not follow either and it crushed him more. AtmosphereWritingGreat Prose, beautifully written. Great use of foreshadowing in this bookPlotFalcio has to save the world but almost burns it down. Goes West finds Avereans prepping for war Led by Morn, and the missing greatcoats. Gets captured escapes with Trin, and Filian; loses Trin Falcio Breaks down; attempts to coup, but is betrayed, by fake coup. Aline dies protecting Filian, Jillard dies protecting Aline; Breaks down again. First Cantor decision to save the country. Trial for the country. Goes west again bringing final Army. Fight against Avereans. Chalmers Ride of Scorn. 7 vs 1000. Everything getting better but not 100% fixed. Death, Love and Valour. Kest joins the Honori, Brasti the Ragnereti, and Falcio retires with Ethalia.InvestmentGreat end to the series and a great book. The two are not always mutually exclusiveLogicDid Morn let them escape? The fights, the decisisons all felt real and earned.EnjoymentLove thisMiscDoes everyone have a background in betrayal (girl he rescues)Death kneels for him. Falcio's CorruptionEthalia is pregnantLoss of the Greatcoats. Morn's BetrayalChalmers new First CantorAline's Death How dare youAll the Saints and that Brasti isn't even close Honori-Kest, Rangeri-BrastiRetirement- FalcioJIlliard saying no. then Jillard dying to try and protect Aline
I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/

I keep wondering how Sebastien De Castell works so freaking fast. Just reading his books makes me tired. He just released this, Spellslinger AND the publication date is already out for the next, which is happening THIS YEAR. I swear to god, the man is a beast, at age 120 his great grandkids will have to remove the half done manuscript of his 21378th book from his hands by force. Not complaining, though, it's impressive.

Falcio and Co. will have to face issues of Tristia and even an outside force in this one, because this place simply can not have enough issues. At this point people don't even really seem to be willing or capable of fighting for it, as the conflicts managed to make everyone miserable. Twists happen, characters come and go. It's hard not to spoil, because so much of it all depends on those twists, they are not just for shock or anything cheap like that. Here everything matters.

I will go there and say it; I found this book the weakest in the series. Ridiculously entertaining, with the signature great humour. Seriously, this guy makes me laugh in a really unattractive, stupid way. Snorting happened. The action was fast and cool, while easy to follow. I love that. I'm the least violent person ever, I have no idea how a fight happens, but I can follow things just fine when this author does it. The protagonist and his buddies are awesome, you want to have a drink with them, because their awkwardness is just so human. They are not characters, they have life of their own. Even the different groups (the Greatcoats, the Bardatti, the Dashini, etc.) are fantastic, I really want to read some more stories about them in some way.

So what is the thing that makes me feel this is the weakest in the series? Trin. I absolutely loved how freaking deranged she was, how ridiculously horrible and evil she managed to be without trying to blunt it in any way. But then... this book happened.
Look, I totally understand characters who are morally grey, I even like that. At the same time you simply can not make a character giggle in joy as she tortures people, then back out and say "well, she is really just the victim of her circumstances". She didn't just do what she needed to do, as much as we were told, because we all remember that time in Knight's Shadow. That was not her doing bad things for the country. That was a profoundly EVIL person. I understand one of the motifs of this book was doubt in one's morality and the thin line between doing the thing that feels right and what is legally right, how you will wonder if you are doing the TRULY right thing, but don't freaking cross the line on me.

(Another minor thing. At one point they claim the dukes have an issue with Aline because she is a female potential ruler and how they can't deal with a strong queen. Paelis was not a woman and they executed him to shit. They don't want a royal of either gender who will take steps against them. Weird to claim it is her being a woman, instead of the fact they see the signs of her being like Paelis.
Then at one point some guy, I think a knight says it's horrible to let women fight, even though one character mentions his grandma's grandma was the village knight. Just like the Greatcoats have a bunch of women. Just like the Dashini. It's really not some new scandal, so... I have no idea why we are supposed to believe this character was surprised.)

All in all, I LOVED this whole series. It manged to make fantasy tropes feel fresh and full of life. It blended known, familiar things with masterful touches of originality and it was all spiced up with the extremely entertaining personality of the author. He made everything right, so far it seems like his instincts are working great when it comes to this. (Did anyone else read his amazingly hilarious bio?) We would lose out on something fantastic if he did not jump ship with the whole archaeology thing.
I definitely recommend this to people. Actually, I bought books for my best friend for his birthday, one of which was Traitor's Blade. He didn't get around reading it yet, but I do everything I can to spread the word and get more on board with this. It deserves it.

Now I am definitely reading Spellslinger, because I need to. This is out of my control. I'm hooked.

Good night and try keeping up with this brilliant, amazing madman. Sleep is for the weak.

It's been so long since I gave a five star rating I was beginning to think I had become too critical rating books. Tyrants throne has put that fear to rest. Sebastien moves you from lumps in your throat to a smile on your lips with effortless ease at least half a dozen times in this stellar finish to the series. Greatcoats easily creates a space in my shelf for those times when I am low. It's the place I would go to for inspiration when it all looks hopeless. I would live there look at Falcio, Kest and Brasti and find in me the power to be strong. Because they have taught me that a Greatcoat is not a Greatcoat till the right person has put it on!

A very good conclusion to the Greatcoats series as we see the final trials of Falcio, Kest and Brasti to secure the throne and bring their country back from the brink of self-destruction. There's new problems on the horizon for our trio of heroes that they set their heads against with their usual poor-odds, pantsing style.

By book 4 there's little more I can say that I haven't already about the writing, the characters and the storytelling - all very good and enjoyable. If you made it as far as Saint's Blood then it's entirely worth it to finish off the series in Tyrant's Throne.

For the series as a whole, I am glad I decided to join in a readalong and got introduced to this immensely fun world that is so compelling and easy-to-read while remaining thoroughly epic without much magic involved. It is definitely worth a read if you enjoy a lot of sword fights, a smidge of politics, a touch of foreboding and three central characters who are a tightly bonded unit who are loyal to each other.