Book Review: Ruin by John Gwynne

Genre(s): Epic Fantasy

Book Synopsis:

The Banished Lands are consumed by war.

Calculating Queen Rhin has conquered the west and high king Nathair holds the cauldron, most powerful of the Seven Treasures. At his back stand the scheming Calidus and a warband of Kadoshim, dread demons of the Otherworld. They plan to bring Asroth and his host of Fallen into the world of flesh, but to do so they need all Seven Treasures. Nathair also finally knows the truth: that he’s been deceived about his grand destiny. Now his choices will determine the fate of all.

Elsewhere, resistance is growing. Queen Edana finds allies in the Ardan swamps and Maquin is on the run, though hunted by his enemies. He will witness a dawning rebellion—in Nathair’s realm itself.

Review:

I think this is my favorite book of the series so far…in spite of how it ended.

The stakes were higher than ever before, the battles more costly and brutal, but there were also more moments of happiness for some of the characters than were seen in previous books. I guess what I’m trying to say is that Ruin was a bigger emotional rollercoaster, and maybe that’s why I enjoyed it so much more. Even with that gut-wrenching ending.

And some of the twists this story took were completely unexpected. In retrospect, I’m not surprised it went that way, but it left me thinking, “Now what???” All I can say is I’m glad the fourth book is already available, because if I had to wait to learn how all this ends, I’d go crazy.

Needless to say, I’ll be reading Wrath next. And hoping that it ends on a happier note.

Author’s Amazon Page: John Gwynne

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