Synopsis:
The war with the Egril has changed Tinnstra forever. A coward no more, she’ll go to any length to defeat every last one of her enemies.
Zorique has grown into her powers. It’s time for her to lead her army into Jia and spearhead the fight for her homeland.
But at what cost? The Egril emperor Raaku – the Son of Kage himself – is waiting for them. And he intends to destroy Zorique, Tinnstra and all their allies.
They will need to put everything on the line if Jia hopes to see the dawn.
Review:
So we’re finally here… Sekanowari, The Last War, is upon us but how did our heroes fare? This review will be spoiler free.
Firstly I have to say thank you to Mike for writing what is now a wrapped up fantasy trilogy. It can’t have been easy to do, especially this last book during Covid so a pat on the back for you my friend. I’d also like to shout out Will at Gollancz for sending me an arc of this book in return for an honest and unbiased review. Will is always super cool to interact with and a nice guy to boot.
The cover art for this book was released just yesterday and so far I’ve seen some feedback that it is giving some people the chills due to how creepy it looks. I get that completely. I think that if you haven’t read the first book in this series you will potentially look at that and think it might be a horror story. Having said that, if you have read the others you will understand that it’s awesome because it really captures the person it is meant to portray. Imagine a grimdark version of Voldemort and that is what you have here. The big bad, the darkness himself, Raaku.
The story in Until The Last continues ten days after the events in A Fool’s Hope. This is great for me, I read the books back to back so nothing was lost but I think what is becoming more common place now is a recap area at the start of some SFF books and maybe this could have done with that for those who have read A Fool’s Hope on it’s initial release and might not remember everything.
It’s tricky to know where to start with this story as there is a lot to unpack but I will start with the plot. The collective story arcs together form what is essentially a good vs evil story with the Jians and Megorians against Raaku and his Egril forces. From the first chapter in We Are the Dead you are immediately pulled into this story about an enemy force who are relentless and will stop at nothing to win. They’re scary, unstoppable, merciless, evil and very dangerous. It’s not a normal story whereby the heroes win at everything and squash the enemies easily, this is much the opposite and I think this is where this story comes into its own.
Make no mistake about it. This is not a fairytale. This is a grimdark fantasy story that is as much about the realistic effects of a war as it is about a fantasy setting. This is mature and visceral about how war is brutal, how people die, even heroes, and how the good guys can be pushed to near extinction because of years of complacency. Mike has been upfront with how war actually is in this world and how people are effected. It helps to drive the story and makes for exciting action scenes.
With the war being the canvas, the characters are the paints. His characters are brilliantly written and there are new POVs added to this story, just like with the previous installment. It’s always exciting finding out about new characters, especially when we get a deeper look into the thoughts and world of the Egril which has so far been quite mysterious. The characters themselves are full of life and have their own personalities which make them easily distinguishable in a fast setting like war and allow you to have favourites. My favourite arc is a character who started off very timid and didn’t want any trouble to being someone by the end who has one of the highest kill tallies in the story! I love when it when I get characters in a multi-pov story that when their chapter pops up I can’t stop and have to read their chapter and this honestly happened for most of the book since most chapters end in a cliffhanger of some kind.
I really liked the magic across this series. It feels very… appropriate for the story. It’s devastating when used right and helps to drive the characters along in their stories but it’s also rare enough that when it is used it you are drawn in by what might happen next. Clever uses of the magic and how it is countered got me thinking and I really liked this.
The world got bigger in this story as for the last 1,082 pages we’ve heard stories about the enemy and now we get to actually see their world and how they operate within it. I found this to be really interesting, fun and a bit of an eye opener as they are not how I had expected. A hero is only as good as their enemy so seeing the parts of Egril I didn’t know about helped fill in what was a missing piece of the puzzle.
There are a few things I didn’t like in this book though. One of those things is that one of the characters just disappears. As a reader I know where they were last spotted but I don’t actually find out what happens to them which is really annoying because I wanted to see how they ended their story. I can make an educated guess but it would have been really nice to get an emotional wrap up to their individual journey because it started out as being one thing and quickly changed to something different. I’m not sure why this was done this way, maybe where we last left them was sufficient and added to the bleakness of the story? I don’t know. There are a few little bits involving some magic usage that could have been explained slightly better that I discussed with another and finally there is a cliffhanger at the end but it would have been nice to have that closed off too so the whole thing is a wrap since that cliffhanger was a combination of lots of interactions and events across all three books between two characters that didn’t get on.
Finally, I want to tell you that this book has some comparisons to the Mistborn (era 1) series by Brandon Sanderson. For example, Raaku who is the evil overlord in this trilogy gives off a lot of Lord Ruler vibes from Mistborn. There is also the team of under-equipped characters trying to fight back and then the fact that evil has taken over from the start. I think that if you are a fan of Mistborn then you should really gives this series a try. It’s darker, has a similar level of romance (so really very little), is more grimdark than epic fantasy and has some really cool twists that readers will enjoy.
Mike has written a gritty and exciting story about what normal people do when evil beats them down. His words flow smoothly like a freshly made death bed and his characters leap off the page wielding an axe in both hands. It’s in my opinion that his writing quality is top level and he should be regarded with the likes of Gwynne and Abercrombie for writing compelling characters in a gritty world.
To roundup, I really enjoyed this book and I love this trilogy. Fantastic characters, a gritty plot and lightning fast pace make this a series you really need to absorb. Brilliant fantasy.
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