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Traitors' Gate (Crossroads #3)
by
Kate Elliott (Goodreads Author)
In Spirit Gate and Shadow Gate, Kate Elliott took readers to the fascinating world of the Hundred, a land teeming with an array of cultures, gods, and conflicts blighted by the shadow of chaos and destruction. Now, with the same intensity and dramatic sweep that has brought this epic to life, Elliott returns to the exquisitely crafted cities and landscapes of the Hundred
Paperback, 877 pages
Published
March 2nd 2010
by Tor Books
(first published August 18th 2009)
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Fantasy Review Barn.
About half way through this book I felt that maybe I had lost a little of the magic. Then Elliott hit me with one of the best conclusions to a series I have read recently.
The ending is unlike any that I can think of, it is not a happy ending by any means, we see a world we love with some serious problems foreshadowed. But unlike the current GRIMDARK phase, not every character is miserable at the end, in fact most are actually in a good place.
This book took Mai, who was alwa...more
About half way through this book I felt that maybe I had lost a little of the magic. Then Elliott hit me with one of the best conclusions to a series I have read recently.
The ending is unlike any that I can think of, it is not a happy ending by any means, we see a world we love with some serious problems foreshadowed. But unlike the current GRIMDARK phase, not every character is miserable at the end, in fact most are actually in a good place.
This book took Mai, who was alwa...more
This is the first series I read by Kate Elliott, of whom I had previously heard A LOT of good things. But I just felt like the series was really slow moving and I didn't find myself caring for any of the characters very much. Honestly, I felt like a huge portion of each novel could have been cut out and the story would have worked much better, or at least had been a little faster in it's pacing. Although I should say I recognize how well thought out the world and the series was as a whole, which...more
(Includes very vague spoiler about conclusion)
You want series closers to up the ante, keep their focus, deliver what’s been promised and then some. Kate Elliott’s "Traitors' Gate" concludes a trilogy that apparently will be part of a larger series; nonetheless, for much of the book, the thud of disappointment is audible and heavy.
Elliott's concluding "volume" of her earlier, excellent Crown of Stars series was, in the end, divided into two books; the penultimate one was an often unnecessary slog...more
You want series closers to up the ante, keep their focus, deliver what’s been promised and then some. Kate Elliott’s "Traitors' Gate" concludes a trilogy that apparently will be part of a larger series; nonetheless, for much of the book, the thud of disappointment is audible and heavy.
Elliott's concluding "volume" of her earlier, excellent Crown of Stars series was, in the end, divided into two books; the penultimate one was an often unnecessary slog...more
(I actually give this 3.75 stars.) TRAITORS' GATE, by Kate Elliott, is the third installment of a fantasy trilogy called CROSSROADS. It was preceded by SHADOW GATE and SPIRIT GATE.
The world of The Hundred is inhabited by merchants and such, but also by people called Reeves who are chosen by enormous eagles to help patrol the roadways and keep peace in general. There are Guardians, who fly on winged horses and are initially dead, but have been risen by a cloak to act as what we would call a judge...more
The world of The Hundred is inhabited by merchants and such, but also by people called Reeves who are chosen by enormous eagles to help patrol the roadways and keep peace in general. There are Guardians, who fly on winged horses and are initially dead, but have been risen by a cloak to act as what we would call a judge...more
I've been busy and thus wary of starting this for fear I'd get sucked in and neglect all else. I was right! I started it yesterday and stayed up all night finishing it! Aui!
Another thing I was worried about was that I would have to refer to Books 1 & 2 to remember what was going on, but as soon as I read page one I was back in the flow. The characters do an initial info dump as they are reintroduced in a way that flows right with the story. Really well done.
In fact, I was a bit more than ha...more
Another thing I was worried about was that I would have to refer to Books 1 & 2 to remember what was going on, but as soon as I read page one I was back in the flow. The characters do an initial info dump as they are reintroduced in a way that flows right with the story. Really well done.
In fact, I was a bit more than ha...more
I enjoyed the first two books, but this one blew me away; a solid 4.5 stars. At this point, everything has been set up, the tension is high, and the increasingly ominous foreshadowing had me finishing this book more quickly than either of the others, even though it is longer. Obviously more action here, and there’s a new POV character on the “evil” side who does a good bit to dispel the notion that this is traditional good-vs-evil fantasy. The ending, although well-foreshadowed, was unexpectedly...more
I can't say I entirely enjoyed the journey, with Elliott's extremely slow pacing (why at page 650 on the final book of a trilogy are we still dealing with a budding romance?). But the payoff was well worth it. I have to say I loved the ending, cried my eyes out.
I started the series a bit ambivalent to Anji and Mai. At the start of the 3rd book, Mai was really growing on me while I slowly started to despise Anji. The events at the end of the book seem utterly appropriate and really makes me appr...more
I started the series a bit ambivalent to Anji and Mai. At the start of the 3rd book, Mai was really growing on me while I slowly started to despise Anji. The events at the end of the book seem utterly appropriate and really makes me appr...more
I thought the ending to this series was one of the best I have ever read. The way she dealt with cultural differences, and questions of power, was simply stunning. I saw the ending with Anji coming from within the second book, but the way the author tied it together was marvelous. I also greatly admire her female characters, that she has strong female characters who are not warriors. She has some warriors, like Zubaidit, but then there's Mai, who is an amazing character. Her characterisation in...more
All the elements are here for this to be a great series, but in the end, Kate Elliott doesn't quite meet her mark. This book was the least enjoyable of the three to read. I don't know if there were too many main characters, or if it got too caught up in the minutiae of the war, or just how downbeat the book is. I kept picking this book up and putting it down. There were definitely some surprises in the last act that made the final chapters of the book a little more exciting, but I didn't find th...more
Often even the best fantasy has a telegraphed ending, usually according to the ancient prophecy. Perhaps I missed two books worth of hints, but this caught me off guard to the extent that I wondered if the author changed her mind how she wanted things to end after the first two books of the trilogy were released. It works, however, and the series, I think, is about something else after all. It's a lot of action packed into a trilogy that I ultimately enjoyed if not as much as I might have though...more
This is a book about betrayal. Hundreds of years ago the gods gave Guardians to the Hundred. These Guardians are resurrected people who died for a just cause and they were given the power to see into the hearts of men and judge them. Life, however, is seductive and the Guardians have become corrupt, pursuing their own continued existence instead of justice. They’ve betrayed the people of the Hundred and set themselves up as dictators that cleanse the land of corruption while their army destroys...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
This book is set immediately after the events in Shadow Gate as the people of the Hundred along with the help of the Reeves [Policemen of the land who fly with the help of eagles:] & the foreign Qin soldiers try to recuperate from their previous misfortunes & prepare themselves for a battle with the rebel army threatening their existence. The novel is narrated from a third person POV and features many characters from the previous books as well as a few new ones.
I'll be listing the main o...more
I'll be listing the main o...more
Ug...
I raced through the series and at the end was just a huge let down. I felt like I could have read the beginning and then the end. The characters that the author brought to life was intriguing and a great read... but the overall plot was just so lacking...
She wrote about a war, but didn't really write about the war. I know she tried, but ... not enough substance.
Furthermore, the main characters "changed" from the first book, where there was a lot of hope to... ??? scratching my head at the e...more
I raced through the series and at the end was just a huge let down. I felt like I could have read the beginning and then the end. The characters that the author brought to life was intriguing and a great read... but the overall plot was just so lacking...
She wrote about a war, but didn't really write about the war. I know she tried, but ... not enough substance.
Furthermore, the main characters "changed" from the first book, where there was a lot of hope to... ??? scratching my head at the e...more
Halfway through this book I thought it would be getting only 1 star because it began with the same ho-hum feeling that the other books had. To be honest, the only reason I bothered to read this or the second book is because I had purchased them already. If it had been a library book, I likely couldn't of been arsed to finish reading this series.
This book earned its second star at the tail end when it started to finally feel like the writing that had drawn me to Kate Elliott's work in the Crown o...more
This book earned its second star at the tail end when it started to finally feel like the writing that had drawn me to Kate Elliott's work in the Crown o...more
Jun 16, 2010
Virginia
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
speculative-fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Wow. What an amazing third book. Traitor's Gate takes a good series, and makes it a great one. Elliot deals with a lot of heady themes, including the reasons behind corruption (fear being a big one), and how a culture can be subverted, using strong, 3-dimensional characters that you definitely feel for, even if the world they live in is very different from our own.
The big thing was there is a huge plot twist in this book from the previous two. It's not an all of a sudden twist, but one that sta...more
The big thing was there is a huge plot twist in this book from the previous two. It's not an all of a sudden twist, but one that sta...more
I have decided to not read anymore Kate Elliott. She is a good writer and has wonderfully complex characters, but I don't trust what she does with them. I don't trust her moral sense or world sense enough to give more of my life to thinking like she does. She seems to multiply complexities rather than sorting through them.
c2009. AKA Katrina Elliott. Great story but it seemed to get a bit heavy going two thirds of the way through. Still some loose ends though I think. "Bridges exploded into flame in sparkling yellows, whites, and blues like fireworks shot off at festival time." I did enjoy the trilogy but if truth be told, I really wish that the relationship between the reeves and their eagles had been expanded upon.
Probably the best of the series. Continues the huge cast of characters and cultures, all well-fleshed out, and ends in a relatively unexpected manner, if logically built throughout the book and certainly more real-world than most authors would dare. A long (in pages), fine series.
This is my favourite Kate Elliott series. The world is beautifully rich and complex just like the wonderful characters she has created. The story is heroic and hopeful. These are books I will read several times. <3
The Crossroads trilogy is odd. The last book, Traitors' Gate, is equally strange and I actually didn't finish this book. Kate Elliott's writing is, not to repeat words, but very odd. Good concept but she puts some, once again, odd things in her books that I'm not a fan of.
Aaaand then it ended with... very anticlimactic moments! Seriously, I wanted Mai to become a Guardian. The fakeout was not my favorite.
Really, it'd be something like 2.5 stars, but you know, you do what you can.
Really, it'd be something like 2.5 stars, but you know, you do what you can.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I was saddened as this sorry took me down an unexpected road that ended with a flourish. The cover art says it all. Great read. Kate you have made me a loyal fan.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Free book day! Getting this one for free will probably give me more impetus to go and read the copy of the first book that's been sitting on my shelf.
Like a lot of other readers, I was not expecting the ending of this book, although there were enough hints that I probably should've seen it coming. The only reason this book got 4 stars instead of 5 was because of several very slow spots where my attention wavered.
I totally want to read more in this series, although the conclusions was satisfying. I hope there will be more to come. Fascinating, intricate world, engaging, complex characters. I also loved the giant eagles and the guardians.
Sadly an unsatisfying ending to a good series. Found it very hard word to stay interested; constantly hopping from one character set to another. Very anti-climatic final confrontations with the villains of the series.
Merely felt like the set-up for a continuation of the series.
Merely felt like the set-up for a continuation of the series.
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As a child in rural Oregon, Kate Elliott made up stories because she longed to escape to a world of lurid adventure fiction. She now writes fantasy, steampunk, and science fiction, often with a romantic edge. It should therefore come as no surprise that she met her future husband in a sword fight.
When he gave up police work to study archaeology, they and their three children fell into an entirely...more
More about Kate Elliott...
When he gave up police work to study archaeology, they and their three children fell into an entirely...more
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Jan 22, 2013 04:35am