Quick-take: Good action. Bex is getting annoying.

Dan's Review

Drox: You must embrace your power! Bex: (Starts embracing power) Also Drox: You cannot handle this power!

Bex: I am a warrior queen! Also Bex: I am a sad lovelorn girl!

Bex was really starting to annoy me in this book. In one scene she is blasting warlocks with the fury of a thousand suns. In the next scene she is sobbing. In another scene she is being told to ignite and kill the baddie. Then just a few paragraphs down she is told to stop again. She says she is a useless failure and it is all pointless, and then she says she will never quit. Also, side note: Why aren't heroes allowed to just kill the bad guy?

The solace I find in her contradictory personalities is that Bex is maybe 23 years old and has been on the run for all of it. She only recently took the offensive, so of course she is mentally unstable. However, I'd expect one who calls herself "The Queen of Wrath" to be a bit more... hardened.

It was nice to see Adrian, the ever consistent goody two-shoes, finally did something a bit self-serving. However, a complaint I had from the previous book was carried over to the extreme: He is always taking his spells "too far". This happens all the time in fantasy stories. The hero "goes too far" and "cannot handle this" and "any more and will lose control". The hero then leaps over the theoretical edge and continues on for 3 more hurdles. The book screams how hazardous and irresponsible this is at every step, and the hero just continues on.

What is the end result for this blatant disregard of caution?: Nothing.

This isn't a Rachel Aaron problem. Every book does this. I wish a hero would actually get damaged from "going too far" with a spell/potion/leveling. It doesn't have to be permanent. Maybe be stuck in bed for a week? Bex "goes too far" without consequence in basically every fight. I think she had to take a 16 hour nap after one... so I guess that's something?

Score: 4/5: Outside of these problems, the action scenes were good. The story was well executed. It was nice to see Bex and crew stop running and hit the other side where it hurts. I enjoy Rachel Aaron's stories despite their flaws, and I will pick up the next book when it is out.