See my review of Trickster's Queen. ( )

Tamora Pierce is one of my all time favorite authors who could only improve upon her writing skills by turning out her books a bit faster. This book like most of her books has wonderful characterization and story line. The world she creates is intriguing and everyone in it seems real and fascinating. Alanna has always been my favorite character of Tamora Pierce's so I am thrilled that her daughter got her own books. ( )

As I said in the first book's review - it's been far too long since I read this, more than a decade. Love this story. I did remember what happened here, and who ended up being Queen - which meant that I was looking at the person in the background instead of the one I was supposed to be looking at. I have a hard time remembering exactly what happened in which book - the "seam" between them isn't all that solid. Aly is ridiculously competent here - the royal spymaster is no match for her (though she says it's because he's become complacent). The king's guardian is...and that poses the only real challenge in the story, which ends up being dealt with without either of them making a choice - more godly meddling. Nawat is far less visible here...but I suppose I can see why. More or less. In Aly's shadow he didn't have a chance to really develop; out on his own, even though he was working with crows, he did grow. Anyway. Good story, rich characters, and Aly does run into a few things she can't handle (though the only one that's really a problem is a goddess). The scene where she admits who she is is really amusing - the way everyone takes it in stride, much to her bewilderment. The scan of her, their, future in the last chapter or two is...well, it would be another book or two to cover that stuff in detail, but it really doesn't say much. There is another story, somewhere, with her and Nawat and their child(ren?) - I want to find that. ( )

Signed by Tamora Pierce. ( )

This was a fantastic conclusion to the series. I would have liked if the epilogue wasn't so rushed so we could know more about those characters, but the battle and spy work were well done. ( )