fantastic conclusion, very satisfying

I notice some people complained about the lack of romance but there WAS romance, it just wasn't the blatant. the amount of romance and how it was displayed was a balance i wish that more books would follow.
( )

With this volume, the end of the saga of Eli and his friends arrives. The growing threat to the very existence of their world becomes clear as the story progresses, after a beginning which shows how Eli originally became the favourite of the Shepherdess, one of the three Powers who rule creation. At last, the truth is revealed about her and her two brothers, and the reason for their roles. Insight is thrown on more minor characters such as the Lord of Storms, Eli's parents and the mysterious character Sparrow. And the characters are forced to rely on unreliable allies in the fight against the ultimate threat. In the course of the story, the character arcs of the main players - Eli, Josef, Nico and Miranda - experience major developments and resolutions. The world in which they live also experiences a major transformation.

The main detraction I found were quite a few typos and other mistakes, such as 'bare' when 'bear' is meant and one place in particular where a couple of continuity errors stood out - a character removes his coat twice and someone folds their arms twice in succession - which occurred in the space of a few pages. I also wasn't sold on the ending - it was nice that it was happy, but in reverting back to their original partnership as a trio of thieves, it is almost as if Eli, Nico and Josef have thrown away their character growth. The story made it clear why Eli had fixated on being the greatest thief in the world with the biggest bounty on his head, so why, with the resolution of the Shepherdess' claim on him should he still be occupied with that? It had the effect of trivialising what went before. So for those reasons, my overall rating is 4 stars. ( )

There was so much things racing through my mind when reading this. But now I'm sitting down, ready to type and I find myself not wanting to. So some bulletpoints:
* I enjoyed this series.
* The ending was unexpected to me. Totally satisfying and logical.
* NO (traditional) ROMANCE! I like romance. I really like romance in fantasy books. BUT to me half the time the romance feels... like a main plot. Meanwhile the world is ending sooooo maybe everybody should keep all their body parts and feelings to themselves? NONE OF THAT HERE! Very low key and nothing that... felt forced.

That being said...

* I'M SHIPPING NICO AND JOZEF SO FRIKKING HARD! With babies. Normally I think that babies makes things harder when battling stuff. Also not very stable for a baby. But in this case I think they both are up to the challenge.
* Nico looked like this in my mind at the end:
and the demon felt like Koh the face stealer


* I 'saw' this series as a weird sort of anime/animation hybrid in my mind. It does that sometimes. But that's why all the anime references. ( ( )

Oh Lord I am glad I finished that series. It was a fitting end. But it could have come sooner. She builds a good dollhouse. And played with her world's cosmology audaciously. ( )

(My video reviewing the whole series can be found here: https://youtu.be/5pTfKp2QW-o )

While I greatly enjoyed the first four installments, this was by far the best book of the series. During the first few volumes, I hadn't even suspected that such a deep story would emerge; they seemed like simple tales of magic and thievery. However, as the themes for this book started to emerge in Book 4, my interests grew, and I was so happy to see all the mysteries of this world unravel. I honestly think I love the way each story was wrapped up; it was inevitable in the good way, and even though a fair amount of it was also predictable, there were still things that took me by surprise. I'm not sure I even have any complaints for this last book, and I'll definitely be keeping my eyes open for Rachel Aaron's work in the future. ( )