Quick-take: Epic closer.

Dan's Review

After success in the Hells, Bex is now ready to Tear Down Heaven. She has Princes, Princesses, and the Eternal King still in the way. How will she succeed? It all comes down to this final book.

Book 5 does something that annoys me about most fantasy novels. Why does every single battle have to be the hardest battle of them all?  Just how hot can Bex burn? Every battle she burns "hotter than ever". She is "the bonfire of Wrath," as the book reminds us in every chapter. I would think a crater would melt Heaven down into the Hells with how hot she is running now.

I'm kinda glad this is the last book because I was starting to get tired. Adrian was once again perfect in his deductions and absurd plans. Whenever there is a plot puzzle, he just digs into his bottomless pockets of raw materials, and then cooks up an answer. He then drops a little bit of lore to explain it, and the puzzle is solved. Easy peasy. Witches are so clever.

I'm not saying that Rachel Aaron is breaking her own magic system, but she did leave a lot of room for interpretation and easy outs.

The book is basically one epic battle after another, with each one scaling the stakes higher. Just how high can this go? Very high. There is no time for character development in this book, and I am actually OK with that. The characters have already been established from the previous 4 books.  

For the little bit of lore that is revealed, I was disappointed. We found out the witches were scheming something over 200 years. I'm thinking... how convenient it all worked out for something nobody knew anything about.  Score 4/5: I enjoyed this series, but I think I will take a break from Rachel Aaron before picking one of her trilogies.