The conclusion to the trilogy finishes the story and it's still very entertaining to read, but it felt to me somewhat lacking. The way the military conflict was decided is somewhat of an old trope at this point. The first time something like this was done it felt fresh, but by now the trope feels tired and without anything new to offer. I'm detracting one star for that, and another one for Abercrombie's unfortunate tendency to have his heroes become murdering bastards. Yes, I get that grimdark-style writers break from traditional epic fantasy that way, but again, what in the beginning was fresh at a certain point becomes overdone and distasteful. Still a good read by a skilled writer, though. ( )

Decent conclusion to the trilogy. I think the additional viewpoints started to become unwieldy by the end, since we're now looking at a lot more people and the story can no longer be as tightly woven as in the first two. I felt the pacing also suffered a bit, having to climax multiple times as the succession of villains was taken down. Koll and Raith were highlights here for me, with some genuine internal turmoil that was painfully precise. ( )

conclusion of the Shattered Sea trilogy, which really should have been one book, as is clear when the stories and characters all converge and the central thrust of the narrative ideas becomes clear. as the conclusion approaches, the point of view emerges as very grimdark, and the whole Greater Good perspective comes under harsh scrutiny, till the situation becomes once more stable and a radical shift in the balance of power comes into play. (at least for awhile.) ( )

I can't help feel some disappointment at this ending. While it continues with the same raucous pace and engaging characters as the previous two, a few choices lead to exactly the kind of cynical, "grimdark" story that those books avoided - to their benefit. There is no triumph in this ending, indeed barely even any respite, merely a resolution of current ills.

I will avoid spoilers, but in particular one character's death seemed to serve no purpose other than to show that war is, indeed, hell. it didn't drive character or plot development, served no cathartic role, and served as only the barest of motivators for a barely seen side action.

But the resolution nearly tied up the three books, and the writing remains outstanding, and it was a generally fun read. ( )

I completed the trilogy and all I can say is that it was alright.
The characters were good, but none of them felt very fleshed out. There were some good twists, but I was just not that invested in the story since I didn't get attached to the characters. Skara, Yarvi and Thorn are probably the only ones that I really liked and they were all in this book, but that wasn't enough to make me care.
There is a bit of romance in the story and I feared the dreaded love "triangle" people kept mentioning, but I found it almost nonexistent (thankfully). Actually, the romance bits are what I remember the most about this book that I just finished.
These didn't feel like YA books to me either. There are younger characters, the chapters are really short, the writing is simple and the plot moves fast, but I still think the themes are adult ones and I have read adult books that looked more YA than this. It does feel younger than the First Law books though so maybe that is what YA grimdark means. To be honest, I never saw YA and grimdark put together before and it looked odd to me because I assume that all grimdark books are going to be adult books.
In the end, I think these books are mostly forgettable and that is a pity. They are alright quick reads though so it would be easy to give these books a try and maybe someone will like it way more than I did. ( )