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– The grey morality, and the playing with the « good vs evil » trope. For many reasons, in the first book, you would think that Circlians are good and Pentadrians are evil (be it only because Circlians is the point of view faction, while there is no point of view character for Pentadrians). But in the second book, there is a Pentadrian point of view character and then, the more the story progress, the more it becomes obvious there isn’t a good side and a bad side. Or at least, not the sides we would have thought of. The real « good guys » end being the Wilds while gods are the true « bad guys ».
– The Wilds. They are the most interesting characters in the story, and they obviously are the characters that audience is supposed to side with. I liked all the mystery around the Gull in the second book, I really felt that he was a legend character.
– I also liked Imenja and Reivan, who showed a very different view of Pentadrian side than what we saw in the first book.
Things that I liked less :
– The pace is awkward. The story is switching between points of view too fast. Every time you really want to know what happens next, be sure the story is switching point of view. This is more frustrating than anything else.
– And problem is, some points of view are much more interesting than others. While I enjoyed the Mirar’s, Emerahl’s, Reivan’s and Auraya’s points of view, I got quite bored with Danjin’s, Tryss’ or Imi points of view.
– Speaking of which, some point of view characters in the first or second book just completely vanish in the next book(s). I mean, what happened to Tryss and Imi ? Tryss is non-existent in books 2 and 3 after being a point of view character in book 1. Imi is nowhere to be found in book 3, she is just mentioned but never actually appears. What’s the point of even making them point of view characters if they are to disappear from the story later on ? I can understand to some extent Imi’s story : it’s what made the alliance between Pentadrians and Elai possible. But Tryss ? What’s the point ? He invents hunting harness and… that’s it. In book 2 he is just mentioned for that, in book 3 I don’t think his name appears even once. Honestly, the Siyee could have been introduced entirely through Auraya’s point of view, and Tryss only mentioned as an inventor, that wouldn’t have been shocking, and I wouldn’t wonder why the author made a point of view character only to remove him from the story in subsequent books. I really think Tryss should either have been present in all 3 books, or he should have simply never been a point of view character. If the author wanted a Siyee point of view character, why not someone like Sreil instead, who does something in all three books ?
– There is also something that bothers me with one of the plot twists. It is revealed at the end that Circlian and Pentadrian gods are actually the same. My concern with it is that I already started to suspect this in book 1. And in book 2 it was just totally obvious to me. So, how come nobody understands it before Auraya at the very end (and even then, she only understands because she can sense gods and thus finds out only five gods are present at the war, instead of the expected 10, and that Pentadrian gods are nowhere to be seen) ? I mean come on. 5 gods for each faction, on top of that for similar domain (both factions have a king of the gods, a goddess of fertility, a god of war, a goddess whose main purpose is being feminine, and a fortune-related god (though the case of Saru/Sraal is less obvious than the others).
I can understand that the Whites and the Voices never understood, they have a very partial view on things, they were directly manipulated by the gods. But the Wilds ? They have been around for so long, have great knowledge, have a much more global point of view than anyone else. It is obvious they know quite a few about the gods due to their old age. They know the Circlian gods, since they can tell story about them. They also never heard about Pentadrian gods before the Age of Five. So, when they first heard about Pentadrians having 5 gods nobody ever heard about, how come none of them wondered where these gods came from ? Because as a reader, when I heard about the Pentadrian gods in book 1, for me the only possibilities where that they didn’t exist (which we quickly learn to be false, in the same book, since the Voices are shown to be as strong as the Whites and Auraya sees one of their gods), that they came out of nowhere and nobody knows how (which is quite weird), or that they were the Circlian gods under another name who controlled both factions for whatever reason. If I, as a reader, could think about that, how come none of the Wilds ever thought about it in a century ? Ok, I can excuse Mirar, he had memory and personality issues. To some extent, I can excuse the Gull, he is a lone wolf and probably didn’t care that much anyway. But Emerahl and the Twins ? The understood more complicated things, I can’t understand how the idea that both pantheons are the same never crossed their mind.
Auraya is slow to understand as well. When prisoner at the Pentadrians’ capital, right in their main temple, she keeps seeing Circlian gods, but never any trace of Pentadrian gods, but she never seems to find that particularly weird, and at no moment does she consider that a possible explanation would be that they are the same gods.
As a result, it really bothered me that the reveal occurred so late in the story, given how early I guessed it. There are just so many obvious clues. Clues that most readers will notice, but that immortal wizards with thousands years of experience won’t.
– Then, when the reveal comes, some reactions seem unnatural and really weird to me. Let’s remind : everyone learnt that both pantheons were the same. The gods were playing with humans as with pawns, making them fight each other for the gods’ amusement. They also lied about eternal life to make people worship them. I can understand Nekaun’s reaction, he was weird anyway at that point. I think the other Voices have the proper reaction : they are angry, but are aiming at the future, the Voices plan to continue to lead their nation as much as they can. But the Circlians’ reaction, honestly, is completely dumb. They become just even more fanatics now that the gods are dead. They are angry at Auraya and the Wilds, instead of the gods that played with them for 100 years. Yes, Auraya just revealed the truth about the gods, while the Wilds did what was necessary to get rid of the threat. The gods lied to their worshippers they viewed as pawns on the chessboard. But let’s blame the Wilds and consider Auraya a traitor, right ? They obviously are the bad guys in the story… I am particularly disappointed with Danjin, he ends considering Auraya was a traitor for joining the Wilds. Come on ! The Wilds are the good guys, how can Circlians be that dumb ? Honestly, at that point I wished the two armies would have battled anyway with a Pentadrians victory, Circlians are just too dumb to live.
– The ending feels really rushed to me. The reveal. Gods are dead. Everyone gets angry and goes back home. I would have liked to know how exactly things are going for Pentadrians and Circlians. But we can only guess. I would also have liked to know more about how the Wilds are doing. We only hear very quickly about their plans. I would have liked to know whether or not they were successful, whether or not they were treated better now that the gods were gone, … The only one I have a fair idea what he is doing is the Gull, since he changed nothing, it’s quite paradoxical that the one who all throughout the books seems the most mysterious ends up being the only one who leave me no unanswered question. The Wilds also planned to make a reunion every year. I think a nice epilogue would have been to make this reunion 50 years later. But instead…
– We get an epilogue that, to me, is not an epilogue. It’s more a prologue to a 4th book. Except there won’t be a 4th book. Come on, I wanted to know what happened to Circlians, Pentadrians and the Wild. I don’t care about Sennon. I wanted a proper conclusion to the story, not the introduction to a new story that will most likely never be written. It would have been more interesting to conclude the story properly and let us guess what could happen in the future.
So globally, I enjoyed the book, but I’m a bit frustrated by the ending. The ending happens too fast, it lacks a proper conclusion and instead, gives an introduction to another story that we will quite probably never get to read anyway since the author is not planning to write it anytime soon, if ever. (hide spoiler)]
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