Book Review: Wrath by John Gwynne
Genre(s): Epic Fantasy
Book Synopsis:
It’s time to brave the final battle.
King Nathair has seized the fortress at Drassil, and now possesses three of the Seven Treasures. And with Calidus and Queen Rhin, Nathair will do anything to obtain the rest. They will allow him to open a portal to the Otherworld—so Asroth and his demon-horde can break into the Banished Lands and finally become flesh.
Meanwhile Corban has been captured by the Jotun, warrior giants who ride enormous bears into battle. His warband scattered, Corban must make new allies to survive. But can he bond with competing factions of warlike giants? Somehow he must, to counter the threat Nathair represents. His life hangs in the balance–and with it, the fate of the Banished Lands. Truth, courage, and loyalty will be tested as never before.
Review:
Wrath was the perfect conclusion to a truly epic series.
I could leave my review at that, because it sums up my feelings in one sentence, but I’ll elaborate a little more. There were so many story arcs woven through the series, and to finally get resolution to all of them was fantastic. There was plenty of grief to go around—on both sides of the battle—but there were some happy moments too. And a few more surprises.
Going into this last book, I knew there was going to be a lot of battle. That’s where everything was pointing, and even ¾ of the way through, it wasn’t clear which side was going to win. I was pleased to see justice served for a few characters, and heartbroken by others who fell. One loss hit me particularly hard, but I’ll leave it at that. One of my favorite things about this series is the character work, and it only got better over time.
I also really enjoyed how a few elements from the very first book came back into play in this one. There were things I’d forgotten about that made a huge difference in this book’s outcome, and when it happened, I had a few of those “ah ha!” moments, which are always fun as a reader.
With the stakes as high as they were, the battles were pretty intense. A certain level of creativity was required by both sides to make any headway, and I enjoyed some of the innovation that was presented. It wasn’t all hack-and-slash, which was a nice change of pace.
Overall, I thought The Faithful and the Fallen series was really well done, and Wrath was a great way to end it.
Side note: I still think my favorite book of the series was Ruin.
Author’s Amazon Page: John Gwynne
Amazon link: Wrath
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