The Last Mortal Bond

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne #3

by Brian Staveley

The trilogy that began with The Emperor's Blades and continued in The Providence of Fire reaches its epic conclusion, as war engulfs the Annurian Empire in Brian Staveley's The Last Mortal Bond

The ancient csestriim are back to finish their purge of humanity; armies march against the capital; leaches, solitary beings who draw power from the natural world to fuel their extraordinary abilities, maneuver on all sides to affect the outcome of the war; and capricious gods walk the earth in human guise with agendas of their own.

But the three imperial siblings at the heart of it all--Valyn, Adare, and Kaden--come to understand that even if they survive the holocaust unleashed on their world, there may be no reconciling their conflicting visions of the future.

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Epic

897 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 15, 2016

About the author

I live on a long dirt road in rural Vermont where I divide my time between mountain biking with my son, trying to play piano music that is far too difficult for me, running trails, doing laundry, splitting wood, thinking I really ought to wash the kitchen floor and then not, cursing at the pie crust for sticking to the surface, drinking beers with friends out by the firepit, and sometimes trying to write books.

Reviews

[Petrik · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars

The Last Mortal Bond, the last book in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy by Brian Staveley provides a great and fitting conclusion to the series but admittedly as the last book of the trilogy, there were some disappointing sections. This is a really hard book for me to review, there are a lot of factors I liked and disliked at the same time. It’s in my opinion that out of the entire trilogy, this is the weakest installment. Don't get me wrong, it was really good especially during the amazing climax scenes but sadly, there were several parts that hindered the book from reaching its full potential. This is another of my series review, it will be really long and it’s where I’ll truly recommend you to start the series or not. This review will remain spoiler-free as always so you can read it and see for yourself if this trilogy is something that will work for you or not.

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy befits the genre Grimdark with elements of mystery and adult military fantasy. Throughout the entire trilogy, there is one thing that Brian done really well and that is the paranoia creation within the plot. It’s almost always unpredictable ever since book 1 and as the series progressed, the world and story only gets darker and bleaker. This is especially true in the last two book. Starting off almost one year after the events that occurred in The Providence of Fire, The Last Mortal Bond takes you deeper into a bleaker world with the entire humanity at stake. I have to say that while the last book managed to conclude everything with a fantastic climax sequences, it’s really a struggle at times to reach this point.

The Last Mortal Bond imo contained the most interesting story line out of the entire trilogy but executed quite poorly. It is intriguing but at the same time ‘Kent-kissing’ frustrating to read at times because Brian relies a lot on some of the main characters stupid decisions to drive the story forward since the 2nd book. What makes it even worse is that almost every single problem in this trilogy could’ve been solved if the three siblings did one very simple thing and that is communication with trust. However, they can’t do that because they were separated for 8 years and growing up in different environments changed their relationships and personality completely. When it comes down to it, I can’t help but think that the Emperor himself is the one to blame here for his children’s stupid decisions and for sending them to a different isolated location without any means of communication with each other in the first place. C’mon, what did he expect to happen? Valyn and Adare meet Kaden then goes “damn brother, what happened to you? Did you join Shaolin Soccer? Let me join your team!” and work together again?

“If the people are foolish, he said, it is because their leader has failed them.”

The characters development for the three MC and Gwenna is definitely different from what I imagined would happen from the first book. Other than Gwenna, the sibling doesn’t have any coming of age theme happening between them until the last 200 pages of the book. I mentioned this before, these characters development will probably be the biggest reason on whether you’ll love this trilogy or not.

Adare for instance is probably one of my most dislike heroines of all time next to Ruby from the Darkest Mind trilogy. It’s never a good thing when someone’s POV in a book comes out and you think “oh no… not again.” and this is what happened for me with her character. She’s downright self-righteous, idiotic and while I can understand her struggle, it still doesn’t justify her stupidities. A lot of problem in the entire trilogy would have been solved if she wasn’t so self-righteous and stupid. Let me say that one more time, she is so S.T.U.P.I.D. By the last part of the book, even though she tried to redeem her character, it’s simply too late for me. I don’t even care if she died, lived or suddenly teleported to Westeros or Hogwarts.

Luckily this doesn’t hold true for Kaden’s, Valyn’s and Gwenna’s storyline. I can’t talk too much about their POV since I really think it’s best for you to find out for yourself. Their development throughout their journey is unpredictable, Kaden’s and Valyn’s will face the repercussion of their decisions and there is no way in hell I could ever predict Valyn’s character development direction from reading the first book. Their POV may not work for some people but I personally find it suitable for the Grimdark story this series try to achieve at the end.

The US cover of the book featuring a scene from the book itself. Valyn & Gwenna (as a red-haired Rapunzel, just look at the length of her hair.) with a kettral is in the picture.



Gwenna’s POV and the entire Kettral & kettral (still not a fan of these naming..) scenes is one of the best aspects from the entire trilogy. It’s fantastic, her POV is fast paced, interesting, sometimes humorous and seeing the developments of each side character in her storyline is so captivating.

“If she survived, she'd be able to write her own text, a rival to Hendran's. She'd call it 'Error and Improvisation: How to Learn From a Total Goat Fuck'.”

This is also relevant for the entire Kettral group. It’s always great to see loyalty, love and friendship struggling to win in a bleak world full of danger and fucked up circumstances.

Now, the other great things about the book and the trilogy had always been in its world-building and writings. Brian Staveley prose deserves at least a 4 star on its own for its beauty, he definitely knows his way around weaving words. I’ve talked about how great the world-building aspect in my previous reviews and while this book on its own doesn’t have a lot of new elements in this aspect, it’s because the foundation is already laid out by the first two book and it only needed a little touch to increase its depth and Brian did it. However, there is another phenomenal bonus here and that’s the climax sequences.

It’s amazing what Brian Staveley did in the last 100 pages of the book, the entire story and build up comes in full circle with these pages. The whole climax sequences in it looked like something written by Brandon Sanderson. I’m not saying this lightly; it was extremely well-written, 80 pages long and a full throttle greatness. If there’s a negative point about it, it’s that I find one of the main villains who have been there since book 1 to be a really flat character. This is because the particular villain doesn’t have any dialogue in this book. It made me feel like they’re fighting a natural disaster rather than a person. This doesn’t take my enjoyment out of the climax sequences though. These last 100 pages made the struggle I have with some sections of the book worth it. For the ending itself, I find it really befits to the theme of the trilogy and it was satisfying.

Finally, on to the last problem I have with the book. Other than Adare, the other biggest problem of the last book is in its pacing. This is the last book of the trilogy and ¾ of it consists of the three main characters walking, running, traveling and excessive self-contemplation. For example, a character asked a question “What happened?” insert one to three paragraphs of contemplation and flashback, the other person then answered the question and insert again another one to three paragraph. This happened a LOT of times and it’s really repetitive and boring to read after a while. This is the last book, I want to see more of the plot progression instead of self contemplation which doesn’t provide anything to the story and the characters development itself. I’m reading the UK version which consists of 878 pages, out of those, there’s approximately around 600 pages consists of our main characters doing this; excluding Gwenna. I honestly think this book’s length could’ve been cut down by half and it would make the pacing and the general quality book itself better. It doesn’t have to be fast paced, I loved slow paced book most of the time but there were a lot of sections which I found to be unnecessary.

See how hard it is for me to review this book? There are a lot of things I love and vice versa. However, I do find despite everything, I still find the positives outweigh the negatives. It’s still a great trilogy and I would recommend this trilogy for anyone who’s looking for a grimdark series with a great and fitting conclusion to read. However, come into this knowing that you probably won’t love any of the main characters other than Gwenna and the Kettral team. I do suggest you to try reading the first book and see how you feel about it first. If you don’t like the first book already then might as well drop the series since there’s a really high chance you won’t enjoy this series. The Last Mortal Bond is not a bad book, it’s actually really good but it’s just a bit disappointing since it doesn’t live up to the potential that the first two book provided.

Overall Trilogy review

The Emperor’s Blades: 4/5 Stars
The Providence of Fire: 4.5/5 Stars
The Last Mortal Bond: 3.5/5 Stars

Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne Trilogy: 12/15 Stars

Booknest

[Melanie (meltotheany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

1.) The Emperor's Blades ★★★★★
2.) The Providence of Fire ★★★★★

Okay, let me pick my heart up from the floor and try to write a review for this conclusion masterpiece. This whole series was a roller-coaster, but this last and final book was just me experiencing love and heartbreak over and over. Seriously, the range of emotions this series made me feel is indescribable, but mostly I was an incoherent mess while reading. Not only does Brian Staveley write love so seamlessly and perfect, but he writes unconditional love, in an epic fantasy series, better than maybe anyone I've read.

“It’s not always up to a man,” the Flea replied quietly, “what he is, and what he’s not. Some things you don’t get to choose.”

I see many people saying this was the weakest book in this series, but it was easily my favorite and, in my very humble opinion, the best. This elaborate plot became even more addicting, these characters made me even more heartbreakingly empathetic, and this world left me breathless over and over.

I was concerned, because I had to put this book down a few times because of upcoming ARCS, so I was apprehensive about how I'd feel to pick it back up. Once I started, I couldn't stop. I was falling asleep last night, struggling to stay awake just so I could finish. I woke up this morning, rolled over, and finished the last ~10% of this book before I even made my coffee! If that is not a testament to my love for this book, I'm not sure what is.

This book isn't just a fantasy novel surrounding the path of three could-be-emperors after their father has died, while they fight for his throne. This story is about humanity at its very core; the essence of it both ugly and beautiful and everything else in between. This is a tale of empathy and sacrifice and what it means to be truly selfless. This chronicle is about the different paths we each take every day in our world, and the priority we put on religion, family, friends, strangers, power, materialistic things, and everything else under the sun.

This being the third and final book in the series, it's sort of hard to do a review justice without spoilers. Instead, I'll just give my thoughts on some of the main characters, their developments, and how they made me feel.

Adare is a character I love and understand, even though I see many people hating on her. The growth she experiences throughout these three books is pretty insane. By the epilogue of this book, I was so moved by her and her sacrifices.

“It was a good lesson, if she somehow survived to remember it: silence had its own violence; some reigns ended in blades and fire; some with the barest nod of a head.”

Kaden got the short end of the stick, in my opinion. I'll be honest, I cared about him less than Adare and Valyn, but I made up for it with my unwavering love for Triste. Plus, his chapters spent in Rassambur, home of the Skullsworn, were some of the best chapters in this whole book.

“There are words,” Gerra mused, “and there are deeds.”

Valyn, oh my poor Valyn. I'm tearing up typing out his name. I'm fine, completely normal and not too heavily invested in fictional characters. Valyn broke me over and over, and, obviously, I'm still a little broken from his character. I fell in love with him in this book, and he will be one of my favorite characters of all time. Also, his opening chapter shook my very core. Brian Staveley's writing is seriously incontestably amazing.

“Sometimes you need to break a thing,” the Flea said finally, “in order to see what’s inside it.”

Gwenna's point of view ended up being my favorite. Again, I could write my own book about how amazing Brian Staveley writes women of all different strengths in this world, but Gwenna was something special from book one. My single complaint about this beautiful conclusion is that Gwenna deserved to at least tell her feelings to someone, because, on the real, she and that someone are literally OTP goals. Maybe eventually Brian Staveley will write that story, since he is already expanding this world in Skullsworn (which, holy moly, I need to get my hands on this now!), but until then I will be crying and praying.

Triste was my second favorite character, and she is pretty much everything that is good in this world. Triste is such a selfless character that never asked for the path she was forced to walk. I'm at a loss for words when it comes to her, because I'm not sure any will do her character or storyline justice. Seriously, perfection.

“I’m used to being given up by now. I expect it. But I’ll tell you what I won’t do—I won’t accept it. I won’t play along.”

Pyrre is also on a whole other level in terms of strong females in high fantasy today. This death worshiper somehow managed to fill my heart completely, and, again, I need Skullsworn immediately.

I encourage all my friends and followers to pick up The Emperor's Blades and give it a try, especially if you're a fantasy lover. This empire, and all the smaller places we get to experience, is something on a different level of fantasy. The characters will make you feel everything under the sun, whether it is love, hate, or pure empathy. The writing and prose are so beautiful, I found myself rereading passages over and over, even in very heated, life or death, battle scenes. This story is fast paced, thought provoking, and simply magnificent. I can't wait to reread this trilogy over and over. This is now one of my favorite series of all time.

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[Navessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boom. All time favorite shelf.

How do you teach someone who has never seen a fire how to build one? Do you detail the basic principle of air + fuel + heat? Start at its most basic structure? Explain all the kindling one must first lay if you want the flame to last? And from there, what next? The tinder and the spark? How to array the larger logs to keep them burning long into the night?

The same dilemma holds true for this series. Like fire, these books are something that have to be experienced from start to finish to be understood. They have to be felt like a flame upon the mind.

If The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne is a fire:

The Emperor’s Blades is the kindling. Piece by painstaking piece of plot, world building, and characterization laid out just so in perfect alignment.

The Providence of Fire is the already smoldering tinder Staveley stuffs between the cracks to begin destabilizing the most vulnerable pieces of kindling before the match is even lit.

The Last Mortal Bond is the spark that triggers the conflagration. Halfway through it, Staveley decides the flames aren’t high enough and tosses a handful of demolitions onto the pyre.

These books comprise one of the most brutal, gut-wrenching, raw, emotional, masterfully told, brilliantly plotted, beautifully written series I have ever had the pleasure of reading. They will go on my “will reread until I die” shelf. I will buy them as presents for friends and family. Hell, I might even stand on street corners and read whole chapters of it aloud to the people passing by.

And who could blame me with passages such as this crowding these pages:

“Night was a foreign nation. It had always felt that way to Adare hui’Malkeenian, as though the world changed after the setting of the sun. Shadow elided hard edges, hid form, rendered sunlight’s familiar chambers strange. Darkness leached color from the brightest silk. Moonlight silvered water and glass, made lambent and cold the day’s basic substances. Even lamps, like the two that sat on the desk before her now, caused the world to shift and twitch with the motion of the captured flame.”

#prosegasm

This entire series reads like that. I’d get halfway through a brutal, blood-drenched battle scene and look up from it confused, wondering why the rending of flesh from bone, the deconstruction of men into lifeless meat, suddenly seemed so beautiful in my mind.

It’s not all guts and glory, either. There are feminist themes here, hilarious moments, entire pages that will want to make you pull out your hair in frustration, and heart-stopping passages that will have tears welling in your eyes before you can remember that these are just characters in a book. That they are not real people. That no, you cannot leave work early because there’s a fantasy world waiting for you that holds far more allure than the real one you live in.

I have one, single complaint: that it’s over.

Because what the fuck do I do with my life now?

Pray for a continuation of the series, I guess.

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[Robin (Bridge Four) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Writing - 5 stars
Story – 2 stars (sorry I hated most of it)
Overall Rating – 3 Stars

I’ve tried to start this review five times now and I’m just not sure what to say or even how to rate this book. The trouble is the writing is beautiful. There are so many great prose in this that I can’t deny that it is beautifully written and that Stavely has a talent for a turn of phrase

It was strange the way that people venerated truth. Everyone seemed to strive for it, as though it were some unalloyed good, a perfect gem of glittering rectitude. Women and men might disagree about its definition, but priests and prostitutes, mothers and monks all mouthed the word with respect, even reverence. No one seemed to realize how stooped the truth could be, how twisted and how ugly.

I spent the majority of this book either annoyed with characters or trying to figure out what was really going on. As my friend Gavin said it was a weird mix of engaging and infuriating. I never would have predicted the way the story actually went and for the most part I didn’t like the original three characters we started with most of the time.

Gwenna, Annick and Talal were essentially the only characters I really cared for besides Triste for most of the book. They were the only ones that seemed to hold true to who they were and I enjoyed most of their story arc.

In my opinion they were the highlight of the book and that is probably bad since they don’t even make up a forth of it. Gwenna was the comic relief of the book with her sharp tongue and quick wit. But she is also a strong leader that doesn’t take shit from anyone and is going to get the job done.

That makes you Kettral, you crazy sons of bitches, and let me tell you something about being Kettral. We don’t get the easy jobs. We don’t pull wall duty or guarding the baggage chain. In return for getting to fly around on these enormous, manslaughtering hawks, we actually have to go do the dangerous shit, the shit that gets men and women killed, and so if this isn’t what you signed up for, you tell me now.” She paused, shifting her eyes from one soldier to the next. “Which one of you isn’t Kettral? Who wants to wash out all over again?”

Triste and Pyrre are the other two women who are strong in different ways. I really felt bad for Triste after the happenings of the last book she hasn’t had an easy time of it and it seems that she doesn’t have anyone in this world who is on her side anymore. Pyrre on the other hand is back with the Skullsworn and getting a look into that religion was amazing and different. To not be scared of death to such an extent was really interesting and I enjoyed her outlook on life.

“I suppose it would be too much to hope,” Pyrre said, “that one or both of you might have spent the past year studying something other than pottery or fellatio?” The assassin raised an eyebrow. “No?”
She let out a long sigh. “I guess we’ll stick with the same plan as last time, then.”
“What plan?” Triste demanded.
“You run as fast as you can,” Pyrre replied brightly, “while I kill people.”

But then there is the rest of the cast. Adare for instance, I totally hated after the end of Providence of Fire and she didn’t do much better in this book either. For a former minister of finance she does some really stupid things with money and overall I was mad at the way she treated Kaden and how she thought she was a better ruler than everyone else. Honestly without Nira around she was a rotten mess.

Kaden too I had some difficulty with. How he treated Triste ‘in her best interest’ and how he seemed to be played by so many others around him. I never knew who to trust and neither did Kaden it seems. While I did enjoy him more towards the end of the book I still was upset about his over plot arc.

Valyn is a little on the dark side after the happening of Providence of Fire. I really can’t blame him but this was the story arc that seemed to move away from any direction I thought it would go in. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I’m still sad about how Valyn sees himself and I shipped him with a firey redhead who liked to blow things up and they barely had any page time together so I was really sad about that as well. But at least his plot arc stayed pretty interesting the entire time through.

“The thing you don’t understand, my calm, quiet brother, is that sometimes goodness and nobility aren’t enough. Sometimes, when the monsters come, you need a dark, monstrous thing to pit against them.”

But this is the ending of a trilogy and I’m just going to say that I didn’t like how it ended. I’m pretty disappointed in almost everything at the end. It was far more dark than I was expecting and I’m not going to lie there are some parts that I’m really not sure I understand what happened. Also it seemed like BS left some things deliberately open so he can revisit this world again so it isn’t tied up in a neat little bow.

Overall

This ended darker than I expected and while the writing and prose is wonderful I really didn’t care for a lot of the actual story. I spent the majority of my time reading this yelling at characters and while it is good that I cared enough to yell at them it is bad that I struggled with a lot of the journey.

That said….if there is a book in the future with Gwenna and her team I’d read that.

[Mogsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum http://bibliosanctum.com/2016/03/15/b...

Wow! What a long way these characters have come since The Emperor’s Blades, and also what great strides Brian Staveley has made as a writer and storyteller. Epic does not even begin to describe this dramatic third and final installment in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy, which brings everyone back together for one explosive finale.

Things sure weren’t looking too good for the three imperial siblings, last we left them at the end of The Providence of Fire. (Warning! Possible spoilers ahead for the first two books if you haven’t read them yet!) Kaden, the heir who was set to inherit the throne after the assassination of his father Emperor Sanlitun, has decided instead to dissolve his rule, creating a republic instead. The problem? None of his counselors can set their ambitions and differences aside to work together. Meanwhile, the empire is crumbling at the edges and hordes of invaders are marching their way towards the capital. Adare has no choice but to rely on her former-lover-turned-nemesis General Ran il Tornja to hold off the Urghul, who are now being led by a powerful and cruel leach. And finally, there’s Valyn, who probably has it worst of all. Betrayed, blinded, and thrown from a tower, he was left for dead to fend for himself in the Urghul-infested wilderness.

I was also happy to see Gwenna return with her own POV chapters. She was one of the best surprises in the previous book, and she’s back now to show the Malkeenians how to get shit done. If you love what you see on this book’s insanely gorgeous cover, then you most definitely will not be disappointed. There is plenty of Kettral action in here, and with Valyn lost to the wing, things have gotten even more intense now that Gwenna has assumed the leadership. She more than proves her strength and capability in this novel, taking back the order and rebuilding its ranks with only a group of washouts and rejects at her command.

Indeed, without Gwenna, this book would have been darker and even more despairing. “Broken” is the theme for The Last Mortal Bond, with the three royal children floundering in their own respective ocean of problems. Talk about your dysfunctional family. Ever since the first book, I’ve been intrigued by the dynamics between Adare, Kaden and Valyn, and even though Emperor Sanlitun is dead and barely appears in this series except in memories and flashbacks, it’s still stunning to see how his choices for his children have had such profound effects on their lives and on their relationships with each other. With each of them heading in their own direction—and with barely a shred of trust between them—anything could happen at all. And while things did not go the way I expected, the siblings’ long awaited reunion in this final novel is surely not to be missed.

It’s also very interesting when I reflect upon how my feelings for these characters have changed over the course of the trilogy. Brian Staveley has pushed them all to their limits, forcing them into difficult situations where they have to make some tough decisions, and not all of them lead to positive results. Adare really stepped up in the last book, and I was glad to see her carry her role into the events of this one. However, a sheltered lifetime within the palace walls has certainly put her at a disadvantage, and it shows. At times, she frustrated me with her naiveté, but I also felt a deeper sympathy for her when it came to the matter of her infant son. Being a new mother is terrifying enough, but she also had to do it in the middle of a war with a target on her back.

At the very least though, I found Adare’s chapters to be a lot more compelling than her brothers’. As a character, Kaden has always felt distant to me because of his tendency to push aside all emotion, but this book saw him slipping even further away. Meanwhile, Valyn had retreated into the darkness to wallow in his self-pity, yet somehow still managed to emerge as a kind of tortured hero. Clearly, Sanlitun’s children have not benefited too much from the paths he has chosen for them. Hands down, the indisputable winner here was Gwenna, who ended up stealing the show with her brilliant side plot and incredible character growth. Please, Mr. Staveley, if you ever decide to revisit this world, a series or even a one-off tale about Gwenna and the Kettral would make my dream come true!

As for the story itself, we all know what a tricky thing it is to wrap up an epic fantasy series, but Staveley takes to it so naturally that it’s hard to believe this is his debut trilogy. He never once loses sight of his goals and is always in control, driving the plot forward so that the pacing never falters even through the frequent perspective changes. Amazingly, each character arc has its own rising action and climax, and yet all four POVs end up come together for a seamless, spectacular conclusion in the final pages.

For readers of epic fantasy and fans of complex worlds and characters, I highly recommend checking out this series. Reading these books and discovering Brian Staveley’s talent has been an immense pleasure and delight; I am only sad that the trilogy is over now.

[Em Lost In Books · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 52%.

tried very hard but with each chapter it is getting tough to go on. story is going nowhere, characters are getting more dumber. I just couldn't do it anymore. Reading became a chore than the joy i read books for. :/

[Choko · Rating 4 out of 5]

*** 4.44 ***

A buddy read with the Fantasy enthusiasts at BB&B!

I am not sure I should be writing this review right now... I just finished the book and my whole being is one giant ball of emotions!!! I want to jump from happiness that I was privileged to read this awesome series, I want to scream at the characters in warning when they were being stupid, and I just want to cry because it finished and the ending was heartbreaking to me... Not that it did not make perfect sense - it did. But my soul feels bruised nonetheless.

Like in every series worth reading, I fell in love with some of the characters, hated some others and hoped for specific outcomes for either... And just like any good author worth his readers' respect, Brian Staveley made it hard to guess where the story was going and how it would end... I think I am sadder with the series ending than with the way it ended. I trusted Mr. Staveley to lead us into an adventure, and boy did he deliver!!! I am not going to omit the fact that at certain points of the narrative I found myself trying to search for spoilers in order to KNOW what is going to happen, but the readers of these wonderful books were too smart to leave any crumbs for me to follow, so I had to suck it up and discover the ending just like all others... My heart was beating wildly the last 100 pages or so, I was seriously concerned for my health...

After all the disasters and mistakes the three royal siblings made in the last book, we are a year later back finding them mainly trying to survive, often faced with a choice to give up, but if them giving up could effect not only their persons, not only the people of their Empire, but humanity as a whole... The choices were harder than just accepting their personal demise... By the end I was angry with all three of them, although my boy Kaden was still the one that had my heart...

Valyn and the rest of the Kettral undergo major changes and we get to have Gwenna as a POV of several chapters, which to me made this book even better!!! We got to go back to the Islands and see what the flyer special forces had been doing in the last year...

We get to see all of our colorful strong warrior women once again. All together, the strong female characters were the cherry on the cake!!! I loved everyone of those women, minus Adare maybe... she did not deserve to be the only one all set up for life... - Adare, I understand, but I do not forgive easily!!!

I could talk and talk about everyone and everything that happen in this book, but I am terrified that I will give away spoilers, and i just don't want to do this to anyone - YOU HAVE TO READ IT!!!! It is darker, more Grim-Dark Fantasy than just Epic, but is is very worth it!!! The writing is flawless, the description/action/character development ratio was just perfect!!! There is quite a bit of violence, so if you have kids, check it out before you give it to them to read and decide if they are mature enough to handle it! And yes, maybe I would have been happier with a different outcome, but this is not my story to tell, and I am glad it came from the powerfully creative mind of Brian Staveley - a new favorite author of mine!!! I will be looking foreword to everything new he comes up with.

In the meanwhile, I think all the fans of Fantasy should give this series a try - you might be surprised:):):)

I wish all happy reading - for me, I now need some emotional rest - this was very tense and emotionally exhausting, so some Historical Romance or other fluff would be good:):):)

[Samir · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed ''The Emperor's Blades'' because it was a great build up. I loved ''The Providence of Fire'' because it was an action packed thrilling ride. And this one...Even though this was the most interesting one in the trilogy because there was much going on, I expected it to be more epic, I expected it to amaze me, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. Close, but no cigar.

One of the most important things in a book, for me, is a main character I can connect with on some level, main character I can root for. That is maybe the biggest issue I had with this book; I didn't like the way Valyn, Kaden and Adare have developed and in the end, I simply didn't care for them.

The characters I did care about were Gwenna and her wing. I think Gwenna is the best written character in the trilogy and her chapters were the highlight of this book. I would love to read more adventures of her Kettral wing.

The ending of the story was satisfying because there were no loose threads but it left me with a feeling that it could have been so much better.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fucking brilliant.

“The ancient Csestriim are back to finish their purge of humanity; armies clash outside the capital city; leaches, solitary beings who draw power from the natural world to fuel their extraordinary abilities, maneuvre on all sides to affect the outcome of the war; on the islands of the Kettral, the survivor’s of Valyn’s wing return to their origins, only to find the nothing is as it was; and all the while, capricious gods walk the earth in human guise with agendas of their own.

At the heart of it all, the imperial siblings Adare and Kaden come to understand that even if they survive the holocaust unleashed on their world, there may be no reconciling their conflicting visions of the future.

Only one thing is certain: the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne will end as shockingly as it began.”

Make room on your “All Time Favourite’s” shelf. The culmination of Staveley’s incredible trilogy succeeds in every possible way, delivering fantasy readers a truly epic tale full of memorable characters, clever politics, an intelligent magical system, brutal battle scenes and witty dialogue.

This series has been an adventure from start to finish and when I picked up the hotly anticipated The Emperor’s Blades a few years ago I was surprised it was the author’s first book, as the attention to detail and success at world building was something I’d expect from a much more seasoned writer. After being enthralled by The Providence of Fire, it’s now no longer a surprise that with this final instalment, Staveley’s skill at manoeuvring his characters and subtly revealing their motivations and destinies in this enormous world has continued to grow. The universe that has been established and built on is at a beautiful and tragic tipping point and the author treads that fine line between exploring what we know and invigorating it with new and surprising revelations particularly well. There is a constant learning curve and at no time, throughout any of the books, can the reader feel safe and secure in the fates of their favourite protagonists or the directions their choices will take them.

“Scholars and philosophers were forever lauding truth, holding it up as a sort of divine perfection available to man. The truth in those old texts was always shining, glowing, golden. As though they didn’t know, not any of them, that some truths were jagged as a rusty blade, horrible, serrated, irremovable, lodged forever in the insubstantial substance of the soul”
In terms of the action, and a personal favourite Valyn was last seen tasting a a knife between his ribs from his beloved sister Adare, and falling to his apparent death after trying to assassinate her General, Csestriim lover and father to her child, Ran Il Torna who let the Kettrel rebel know who was the better swordsman by running a sword across his eyes. There are simply so many balls up in the air at every stage of the book that to give anything away about certain characters, even from the start, would be to spoil the enormous fun. It is safe to say, especially considering the blurb and the gorgeous US cover, the fate of the Kettral will soon come to play a huge part in determining many of the battles ahead with readers finally getting to experience some mutli bird v bird, kettral v kettral aerial warfare that is stunning in it’s execution. We also learn more of the history of the Special Forces group, the fates of some those that washed out in the past and the consequences of civil warfare and it’s impact on those that can be caught between protecting the innocent and following orders.

Balendin the Leech has turned from a schoolyard bully into one of the most feared magic users in the world. His propensity for public torture combines rather well with his source of power, which is the emotion of any person whose thoughts are directed to him. You tend to take note of the guy who can slay you alive in an instant when he walks in the door. With the existence of old and new Gods, I was simply not expecting a support character to achieve such heights and he is not the only one. Triste and Gwenna grow into their roles with more charisma, guts and elegance than I could have ever expected and, like Balendin, the parts they play in determining the end game is surprising and satisfying. With the stakes being so massive it was also a relief that some of the burden of saving everything they know is taken off the three siblings shoulders and spread to the equally crafted side characters.

One of Staveley’s greatest strengths is how he writes his dialogue, every sentence grounded in that exact time and moment and dripping with wit and authenticity. He does not pull his punches with his insults and, like some of my other favourite writers of dialogue, like Quentin Tarantino or Mark Lawrence, often produces singular moments of conversation that are laugh out loud hilarious and/or shockingly crude. Many of my favourites are far too coarse for the likes of you my dear readers, so I’ll let you find them yourself.

Despite having three books set in the Annuriann Empire I feel like we have just scratched the surface of things to be explored, it’s like being 30 hours into Fallout 4 and knowing there is so much more to find and discover and being more than willing to put the time in needed to do so. The outstanding finale to this exceptional series delivers everything a lover of fantasy could hope for and more. It is an absolute must have and I can’t wait to see what Brian comes up with next. A final shout out to “The Flea”, he is one of my favourite characters to have ever existed on a page.

This review was originally published at www.fantasy-faction.com

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A better writer than I could maybe do justice to the absolute magnificence that is this series - The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne. I sit here, having just finished the third (and final) book in the trilogy, and am at a loss.

The Emperor's Blades made Brian Staveley one of my favorite authors ever, The Providence of Fire affirmed that, but The Last Mortal Bond has ensured that this series will always remain a favorite, one that I'll read and re-read many times throughout my life, one that will always stick with me, always be in the back of my mind while reading other books, other journeys, and one that will forever haunt me. It's ensured that I'll always be first in line to buy anything by him. So rarely has a first book enamoured me so completely, the second book made that love even larger, and the third actually finished it out so beautifully that I turned the last page with a feeling of completeness and contentedness.

This series has given me equal parts joy and sorrow, pain and love - and that's pretty fitting considering Meshkent, God of Pain, and Ciena, Goddess of Pleasure, are the parents of all gods in this world that Staveley has weaved effortlessly onto these pages.

This is a story to be experienced, so you can ride the plains, stand in Intarra's Spear, smell the smoke, hear the cries, feel the determination, and feel the determination coursing through every action, word, and decision. My words, written here, can compare nothing to the simple act of picking up the book and joining the battle alongside Valyn, Kaden, Adare, and so many others that my heart hurts to hold them all.

It's not just an epic story with everyone fighting for the throne, or their lives, it's a million smaller stories tied together with bonds of family, friends, enemies, and millenia-old battles.

Something that I've really come to appreciate over the last several years is amazing female characters. All too often they are caricatures or prototypes, instead of fully fleshed out people. Not so here. Here, Brian Staveley, has created women who are just as real, fully complete and individual, as the male characters. They're not token characters, they're involved in the plot, the world, the story. They're good and bad, indifferent and involved, just as much as anyone else in the world. Don't let the fact that in the Malkeenian family there are two brothers and one sister fool you - women, here, are integral.

Brian Staveley weaves words and plots, stories and emotions, action and thought effortlessly, as I've come to expect. But he exceeded my expectations with a tale so involved and intricate that I couldn't see how we could possibly survive.  I fell in love with the prose in the first two books, but even here I was blown away. I have pages and pages and pages of notes on this book, not that it says much beyond a page number for me to reference with a quote that I love, a moment I want to relive, or a passage that deserves to be revisited every couple of hours.

Many times while reading this series, and this last book, I've stopped - arrested right in the middle of all the action, all the tension - and re-read a paragraph or scene so beautifully written that I had to read it again. I couldn't go on without appreciating the prose there in front of me.

Considering the level of tension that is the ENTIRETY of this final book, that's saying something. Every spare moment I had - and trust me, with three kids, three dogs, and a full-time job, it's not much - I was reading this book. Staying up way past a reasonable bedtime, getting up early to read before I had to go to work, lunch, breaks, waiting in line for coffee, I had The Last Mortal Bond out and was reading. I needed to know how and why and where and when. And just when I thought that I couldn't possibly take any more suspense, Brian Staveley ratcheted everything up, again, and I was left on the literal edge of my seat, biting my nails, devouring every word to the finish.

The only thing I want now? More.

This review also available at The Book Eaters

[Deborah Obida · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected more from this book but

Hope, as usual, proved to be a miserable bitch.

And yes that is an actual quote from the book, to say that I am disappointed in this series is an understatement, This series has so much potential, I expected so much from this book, but when I finished it, I was like is that all, the whole book is 800+ pages, the final battle took just like 100 pages, and 50 out of that 100 pages is filled with internal monologue. The villains were so lame, and don’t even get me started on how they were defeated, underwhelming can’t even begin to qualify it. At last I stopped caring about who lived or died, the only reason why I didn’t dnf this series is cause of my curiosity and I wanted to read for myself how badass Valyn became.

The only thing I like in this book, is the world building, the author outdid himself there, sadly the same cannot be said for the writing style adapted in the book, don’t get me wrong the writing is quite comprehensive and all, but that damn internal monologue ruined everything, like 500 pages out of the 800+ pages of the book is filled with internal monologue, very little dialogues, if only the monologues are important I won’t have complained this much, but it was so unimportant and repetitive I had to skim through most of them.

One example of the unnecessary internal monologue in the middle of a dialogue.

“There were reasons.”
Kaden didn’t move. “There are always reasons.”
Far out in the bay, a ship tacked against the wind, heeling over to cut across the waves, first one way, then the next, approaching its invisible goal so obliquely that even after watching it for a while, Adare couldn’t say for sure where it was going. After a long time she turned back to her brother.
She needed to tell him something—that much was clear. He already knew about il Tornja, knew that she knew her own general was a murderer. If she revealed nothing else, none of her reasons for everything she’d done, he would go on believing all the things he so obviously believed: that she had seized the throne out of some dumb lust for power, that she’d made common cause with il Tornja purely to consolidate that power, that she cared about her own station instead of the welfare of Annur.

It went on for like a page or so before she continued the conversation, this is but one out of multitudes in the book.

The characters were all kind of one dimensional, the only ones that grew into their roles are Gwenna and her wing then Valyn.

Gwenna made her way up, she really changed from the quick tempered girl in book one, she is still quick tempered but no longer brash. Same goes for Talal and Annick, Talal ever so calm and soft spoken and Annick the perfect soldier.

If she survived, she’d be able to write her own text, a rival to Hendran’s. She’d call it Error and Improvisation: How to Learn From a Total Goat Fuck.

Valyn’s character changed a lot, after what happened in Providence of Fire, I never expected him to turn out like this, but he did, to say he is now a badass is an understatement, He made the battle scenes better, if you think he is a great swordsman before, well think again. The only problem I have with him is his indifferent attitude, we all know he does not want the throne and is okay with Kaden ruling and all, but a little help would have sufficed. I don’t care what you all think but I don’t believe he betrayed anyone.

“Honor’s a fine thing, but it’s not much use in a fight.”

Kaden was Kaden, there was no much difference between the him now and the one in the first book, he made a lot of decisions I didn’t like, especially when it came to Triste, sadly I was past caring when he started using his brain again.

Adare is as annoying and self righteous as usual, she changed in like 75 to 80% of the book, I refuse to count that as good.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Shatter the parents and the children crumble.”

The Last Mortal Bond is an epic conclusion to The Unhewn Throne trilogy.
Considering that this is a final book in trilogy - that you have already decided if you’ll read it, formed your opinion of it if you have started it, but most of all that, sadly, everything I have said about previous two books still stands for this one - I’ll be brief.

Even though it’s an epic conclusion it’s only partially satisfying.
Characters that were throughout entire series selfish, fully idiotic and deserved nothing but death - got rewarded for their stupidity.
Those that were only semi-idiotic and maybe deserved a refreshing breath of mercy - got far from it.

But, of course, we’re not judging books by our personal grudges, preferences or unmet expectations.
At least I’m not.
Faltering in characterization of main characters by my desires doesn’t make this book bad.
So, don’t be confused by those stars up there, this book and entire series, deserve them.
All three siblings are entirely different from those we met in the first book. I can’t argue that. End result is there. Path they chose to follow and come to that end, however, infuriates me.
To see these kids bickering and objectify justice, molding it in some twisted form of self-righteousness, while shelling themselves more and more into bliss of ignorance, really bothered me.

“It is difficult to hear a thing when your ears are filled with your own words.”

So, why that many stars then?
For everything else. Stunning worlbuilding, magnificent side-characters, beautiful prose.
For everything else I had no words describing first, second, nor do I have this time.
You will have to take these books and see for yourself. I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I recommend you to do that.

“She was the Emperor.
She had taken that title, had demanded it, not so she could primp atop an uncomfortable throne to the flattery of courtiers, but because she’d believed she could do a good job, a better job, certainly, than the man who had murdered her father.
She’d taken the title because she thought she could make life better for the millions inside the empire, protect them, and bring peace and prosperity.
And so far, she’d failed.”

Until Skullsworn and all other standalones.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This ended up being a tough book for me to rate as I liked some things and hated others. Over the course of the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne series I think Brian Staveley has improved as a writer in some areas and badly weakened in others. On the whole I liked this final book in the series, but I was also left a bit frustrated as I felt it could have been so much better.

The Good.

I think Staveley has really improved when it comes to moving his story on at an exciting and fast pace. The plot and world building were also deep enough that I found the bulk of this engaging and interesting. Quite the achievement as the audio clocked in at nearly 30 hours!

The Bad.

The characters. I liked Valyn, Adare, and Kaden while I was reading the first book and for the bulk of the second. I thought Staveley made mistakes with their development towards the end of the second book. Sadly those mistakes only worsened in this third book. So much so that I did not really care for any of the three. A definite problem in a story where it feels like the reader is supposed to be rooting for our main POV characters. I probably liked Adare the best. She was a complete idiot, but at least her heart was in the right place most of the time. Valyn only got less likeable as the book progressed. His character arc and development must be one of the absolute worst I've ever read in fantasy. Kaden fared only slightly better than Valyn, but was still mostly so unlikeable that I was praying the Csestriim managed to kill him!

The ending. Lets be honest, it was pretty awful.

Those long boring moments of whiny introspection that peppered the writing. It is just depressing to constantly listen to this sort of internal "woe is me, woe is the world" nonsense.

I see the bad list has grown to be significantly larger than the good list! Despite my own moaning I did find this story to be a weird mix of engaging and infuriating. I enjoyed it, but was left with the sense it should have been so much better.

Rating: 4 stars. I'm being generous, but feel it deserves the bump from 3.5 to 4 given it was so engaging and the world building was so good.

Audio Note: I'll never be Simon Vance's biggest fan, but I think he gave a competent performance with this whole series.

[Mayim de Vries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Just wow. I don't think anything is going to come close to this trilogy in a little while. I already pity the next book I'll be reading.

[Lila · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was honestly baffled with the direction this series took, so I never bothered to write a proper review when I finished it, but I found my notes on it, so here it is.
If there is one thing that's crossing my mind when it comes to this series- and this book in particular- it's wasted potential.
Despite some problem beginning to emerge in book #2, The Providence of Fire, I actually really liked it. I thought it would all pay up because there was so many exciting ways the story can go.
Well, each of those I imagined was better than the one we actually got. So, let's discuss.

For me, one of the most defining moments of the series was when Gods entered the arena. It's that hidden card nobody counts on, nobody expects and it made the fight a bit more leveled and thus, the risk much higher. From the start, we are informed, times and times again, that during the Csestriim wars, gods took human form. And, in a culminating scenes from book #2 we saw Ciena, the Goddess of Pleasure manifesting in Triste. It was only natural because her opposite, Meshkent, the God of Pain, made an appearance as well. Pantheon Staveley created is consisting of opposite gods and I found that dynamic interesting because it make sense for maintaining the balance.
Anyway, with that exciting spinner in the state of things- gods taking human form- that option takes credence in story development... right? :/

-I'll start with Adare, because this bothered me particularly in regards to her. In a pivotal scene of book #2, depicted on the cover, Adare took the spear at the Everburning Well to defend her soldiers and from the sky, there came lightning and hit her spear, knocking everyone around her and burning her with a clear voice saying her to Win. Her burns are conveniently in the form of lightning and even Lehav mentions there was something about this lightning, that it seemed brighter, stronger, deliberate, unnatural. This event gains Adare the status of prophet, it gives her the power to claim what she always wanted, but was denied because of her gender. I personally loved it because I thought that Intarra came to play as well. I also thought it was an interesting way forward for her character because Staveley was criticized after first book for the fact she has a significantly less chapters than her brothers. It would say something that except her eyes, which was one of the prerequisite for the heir to the throne, she is also having a direct line to Intarra, something Kaden was training all his life for. It would make her claim more legitimate because you don't need to study for the position, you only need to be chosen by the Goddess herself. This would be fun, right? All her scheming and mistakes would lead to something, right? Well, no. The lightning incident, no matter how it was described and what implied, was just that- an incident. No act of god, it just a random occurrence and I can't shake the feeling that perhaps it was a decision changed at the last moment. Hence, Adare continued to be the worst developed character of this series who never learns from her mistakes culminating with a completely unbelievable scene of her besting Ran il Tornja, the all-knowing Cssestrim. Like, if it was anyone else I would have more chance believing than Adare who absolutely refuses to mature. Anyway, it's no wonder that the sequel series is called The Ashes of the Unhewn Throne, because I can't see the Annurian Empire under her rule going in any other direction but ashes. And let's be clear, I don't mind calculating, I don't mind unlikable, I don't even mind foolish - I do mind that her entire arc hinges on the fact she is a woman who was not given a chance when she is actually better when we kept seeing her making the worst possible decision. It's like I have to support her because ~discrimination is bad but in the story her actions directly play into opposite. That is not really the direction I hoped to see her go...
-Valyn. Oh, god. Where to start? I said that in book #2, Valyn had his hamartia moment. A fatal character flaw, knifed in the belly by his sister... But he miraculously survives, in the last moments of his consciousness as he waits Ananshael to come claim him, he hers the low hoot of the owl. Of course I was excited about it because, the God of Night, Intarra's opposite is Hull also known as the Owl King and I knew he will survive- it's another instance of Gods interfering in this mess. Hull came to play,as well, like his opposite did! So, what do we get? Of course, it had nothing to do with Hull. Just like with Adare, it just happened. Apparently, Valyn is blind, but fights like a demon kungfu superhero, but it has nothing to do with Hull. Oh, no, that was just because thrown in, that owl hoot, you know? You know what Stavely had in store for us regarding Valyn, an original favorite Malkeniaan? Well, Valyn discovers his sadomasochistic fetish and joins Urghul to practice bondage, pain and angry sex. That was literally the worst direction Staveley could have taken this character. I have nothing else to say about this. The only thing worth mentioning about his arc is Gwenna who was a total badass. Gwenna is Dizzy Flores from Starship Troopers to Valyn's Jon Rico. Side character who totally eclipses the main character and makes him look better. That's it. Kettral were always the best part of this series.
Which brings me to Kaden. Whatever Kaden decided to do in previous two books doesn't really matter because his arc is to lead to obviate. The thing that disappoints me the most was how in building this uninspiring Kaden's journey Staveley ruined one of his best characters- Rampuri Tan. He was always the rational, preaching patience, badass monk with the staff... only to do something completely out of the character by the end that turns his arc pointless. The only interesting part of Kaden's arc was his visit to Rassambur, home of the Skullsworn where Annashael is worshiped. But Pyrre was a long time favorite and I am yet to find a fantasy book where death cults are not interesting.
Anyway, this review was me venting about everything that bothered me. Staveley wrote an entire book about Pyrre and the main character of The Empire's Ruin is Gwenna. So, he bloody well knows which characters demanded more attention and the fact he's done a much better job with both of these books makes me think that he got bored with Malkeniaans all together and just wanted to be finished with them. It affected the overall story which I remember now only by how it went downhill. These characters literally gave us nothing.

______________

Prologue and Chapter One on Tor.com

I am not a huge fan of prologue usually, but Staveley writes his particularly well. This one is also effective.

ETA: 9/15/2015

According to Staveley, the finished length of The Last Mortal Bond is 290K words which makes it the longest book in series.
He also signed for four more stand alone novels, and some of them will be set in the same world. Judging by The Last Abbot of Ashk’lan, short story he wrote about Akiil, Kaden's friend- this is great news. I am curious to see more of this world, especially the infamous Perfumed Quarter. Or more Kettral.

ETA: 5/7/2015

According to this, that's Valyn and Gwenna on the cover!




Me thinks Hull will interfere in some way... :)


Kent-kissing 2016....

[Solseit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going to be a very quick review but I want to sit down later and think it a bit more!

In essence, an amazing conclusion to one of my favorite series of the year (and I read plenty of great series this year!), a series that has amazing characters, amazing story lines, depth in character development, complex intertwining stories, smooth writing and great use of the world!

If you have not started this series yet and you love fantasy, this is a series you should get familiar with. It is fairly long but it is just the right amount of everything (there is an argument that The Emperor's Blades is a bit too slow at the beginning but once it picks up pace, you cannot stop reading the series).

I also found Brian Staveley has an uncanny ability to portray amazing female leads, great depth, diversity and intensity. Among my favorite characters of the year I can easily list Pyrre, Nira and Gwenna. And it would be extremely difficult to choose only one of them as my favorite character!

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I reviewed the first book in this trilogy, The Emperor’s Blades, I compared it to Grandma’s chocolate chip cookies. Sure, neither the writing nor the characters nor the plot of this Epic Fantasy were surprising or genre-advancing, but the whole package was just plain tasty. It made me nostalgic for my childhood, in which I’d often skip school to read sci-fi & fantasy.

In continuing with this metaphor, this last book reminded me of cookies that, well… that just plain don’t taste right. Something went wrong in the making of them. Was there not enough salt? Was the mixture over-beaten? Were they baked for the wrong amount of time or at the wrong temperature? Did someone leave them out too long and they got stale?

Now I’m going to get into several specific issues, but I want to stress that, ultimately, I just didn’t mesh with the package as a whole. I didn’t find it enjoyable to read. I didn’t care for any of the PoV characters and because of that, I didn’t care for anything that happened. If you’re going to write epic fantasy, you need some epic heroes - Conan, Jon Snow & Arya Stark, Logan Nine Fingers, Kaladin, Aragorn, Moiraine Damodre, etc - worthy of such a story. None of the PoV characters were like that. They were whiny and constantly second-guessing themselves. All low self-esteem Debbie Downers, every one of em. I can handle one or two of those, but every single PoV character is like that, with maybe the exception of Gwenna. But I think she went too far into the other direction and lacked any sense of humanity. Still she’s definitely the best PoV character in the book, ironic given she’s not even one of the ‘Emperor’s Blades.’

But let me get into some specifics:

Adare. Her character arc from book was an omen for her arc in this one. In Blades, she follows the cliche path of a woman trying to prove herself in a man dominated field. So I was dismayed - but not surprised - when her motivation in this book was equally cliche. She has a child, and she wants to protect him. And boy o boy does this motivation do some serious lifting. We see Adare with her child for about one chapter. And then - for the entire rest of the book - that’s her motivation. Sigh. The author seems to be invoking a sort of Cersei Lannister vibe, but Adare is no Cersei. Cersei’s motivation works because it’s a subversion. George RR Martin took what is typically considered a positive impetus - a mother protecting her children - and shown how that motivation can be used to justify the most horrific of acts. Adare, though, is supposed to be a protagonist. I think. Oh and the whole subplot about her having a contact with a Goddess? Pointless.

Valyn. Yes, small spoiler here, he’s still alive. What the hell happened with him? He was the star of book one, and here he becomes, I don’t even know, some S&M junkie. There was this big plot about him becoming a leader but does he become one? Nope. The Flea shows up. Which makes sense because The Flea is way more heroic than Valyn. In fact, I kept wishing the PoV characters were different. I’d rather have followed Rampuri Tan, The Flea, Il Tornja, than Kaden, Valyn, or Adare.

My issues don't stop with the characterization. Some of the writing bugged me - sometimes quite a lot. To put it simply, it was too descriptive. But it’s a little more technical than that. In sci-fi & fantasy, you have to be really careful with metaphors. Suppose I wrote, “Politicians are all snakes.” In a regular novel, it’s clear I’m being metaphorical. But in science fiction & fantasy? Maybe they really ARE snakes.

The very first chapter suffers from this problem. It describes a giant man / soldier cutting his way through a sea. I thought it was some dream or prophecy or reference to a God. But nope (and it takes a full page and a half to make this clear), it was just a soldier walking through a giant map. In another instance, there’s a character named Valyn as a young boy in a forest. I thought this was like a flashback or some metaphor for the regression of Valyn into a child-like mental state. NOPE. The author literally introduced some other character named Valyn, for a pay-off that was not at all worth the confusion. *facepalm*

And so on.

Now, I’m very clearly in the minority with this review, and my two star reflects that I consider my criticism at least partially subjective. But, for me, I simply didn’t enjoy the reading experience. I needed better characters. An epic story needs epic heroes.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, there is no way I can do this book, or more specifically this trilogy, the justice it would deserve with a review. What I can say is that I absolutely loved reading this. I noted in the review of the first book that I had been saving that book for a time when I needed a comfort read, and how well that worked. I can say now that this entire trilogy fits that bill for me. It was exactly what I needed to read right now. It was such a good story, with such richness of character and plot. It's been a very challenging year and finding such a wonderful story to lose myself in for the past few months has just been awesome. This whole trilogy is moving to my favorites shelf, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for the best of what fantasy reading has to offer. I will absolutely be reading all of the other books by this author, and very soon!
5 out of 5 stars for this final volume, and 5 out of 5 stars for the whole trilogy.

[Mili · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a trilogy :) I am so glad I loved it, and all three covers are also gorgeous...I really needed a good fantasy series to sweep me away and its exactly what The Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne did.

In this book it really shows how the characters have grown more serious and to their full potential by learning through hardships. Gwenna is my all time favourite...damn what a cool character...I love her goatfucking swearing, I love to swear. And along with Nira who really knows her words, this book had some epic passages filled with crazy women swearing the shit out of people <3
Valyn became such a different person, I loved to see him evolve. Although the kinky stuff wasnt really necessary...or was it?
And sweet Kaden and Triste, what a journey.
I still havent warmed up to Adare...

The last book did not come as strong as book 1 and 2. The surprise is gone and it had some boring/ longwinded parts. It took me more time and I had less time to read. So not the best combination I guess. And I kinda expected more from the Csestriim, book one started so ominous and in the end it kinda lacked or something. Not sure what I expected though haha! Its just a feeling.

Really looking forward to read more by Brian Staveley. He is very eloquent. Cant wait to start Skullsworn some time soon :)

[Michael Sliter · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 The conclusion of the Unhewn Throne trilogy, The Last Mortal Bond did not disappoint. Brian Staveley is just such an excellent writer, able to weave words together in a way that flows so easily, so naturally, that you almost forget you are reading. By far one of the best writers out there from a pure mechanics standpoint.

The story itself does have some ups and downs. Gwenna and Valyn, our warrior-types, have the best POVs. Valyn, especially, becomes a very dark tale. It has been interesting to watch his descent throughout the stories and I love to hate what he had become. Gwenna, too, evolved from awkward girl that everyone avoids to a leader. Her plans aren't always foolproof, but that adds an aspect of realism.

Kaden has his own struggles and, though he continues to make bad decisions, you find yourself rooting for him. His interactions with his former teacher, Tan, were the most interesting. Honestly, I had thought it would be a great twist if Tan were right... I kind of wish that he were, all things said and done.

Adare... I always tended to head to bed when an Adare chapter popped up. I don't know what it is about her. She showed some growth throughout the books, but maybe my first impression lingered and I never found her character to have any redeeming qualities.

Ultimately, I tore through this book, night after night. The lead up to the ending was grand, though I thought it fizzled out for the conclusion. A more epic showdown (and showing more of what happened between the ancient, powerful wizards!) would have strengthened an already good series.

Staveley is among my favorite new authors (though, mostly new for me since I only picked up the series this year).

[Franzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

This took me quite long to read but I don't have anything to complain about. The ending wasn't the happier ending I was hoping for, actually it was pretty depressing, but it just fit the story.
I would love to see more of the world - or maybe even the characters? - in future books.

[Nassy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not pleased with that ending 😒

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant... simply brilliant. That's how you write epic fantasy. Full review to come.

[Tammy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much praise and respect to Brian Staveley for what he has achieved with this series. The last Mortal bond is a worthy conclusion and is my best book in this trilogy.

Honestly I lack words to describe how awesome this book is and how much I enjoyed it. When I reflect on the series as a whole all I can think is I’m happy I undertook this amazing journey, I’m happy I witnessed the power and expressive beauty of imagination.

A lot was promised. A lot was delivered.

[Suzanne Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, and it is a stunning and satisfying conclusion to Brian Staveley's trilogy. Darker, and perhaps more violent than the first two books, it inexorably brings all of the plot lines from the earlier books together in a fast paced narrative that I found impossible to put down. Even more than in the first two books, the reader comes to deeply know each of the major characters. The reader is pulled into the journeys of each of the three children of the murdered emperor Sanlitun as they confront their enemies, their friends, and one another, and through the eyes of these characters, the reader is exposed to extreme but credible varieties of human culture and beliefs in Staveley's meticulously constructed fantasy world. It leaves no doubt as to this writer's prodigious gifts and leaves the reader wondering when he will be releasing his next book!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review from The Speculative Herald: http://www.speculativeherald.com/2016...


4.5/5 stars

The Last Mortal Bond is a truly epic conclusion to the The Unhewn Throne trilogy. I just can’t stress enough how much I feel Staveley has grown as a writer since Emperor’s Blades. I felt the first book, The Emperor’s Blades, was unfairly over hyped, setting a level of expectation that I just didn’t feel like the book could live up to. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed it or I would not have read on, but it was not without its issues. Providence of Fire set a new level of standard for the series, it was a fantastic second installment and the real test was going to be if that level of story telling could be maintained in the third and final book. I’m happy to say it succeeded. Easily. This series as a whole undoubtedly lives up to the expectations that were set for Staveley’s debut novel. This is a thrilling book that really ties up so many things, and was still able to deliver unexpected twists.

All three of the Malkeenian siblings have changed tremendously since that first book, it is amazing to think back to the young naive characters they were when this series started. Sadly, with this book, Valyn is so incredibly broken and dark. Honestly to just say “he is in a very dark place” is a gross understatement. His storyline takes some turns and includes some experiences I can honestly say I never saw coming. His sections are also not for the faint of heart or squeamish. I had no issues, but I can see aspects that some readers may find disturbing. This is not a disclaimer I make very often and I really don’t want to deter readers from this book, just pose a bit of a forewarning Valyn is not always a comfortable read. That said, just because it is dark and at times uncomfortable I was still fascinated by his sections and impressed with the choices Staveley made for where to take him.

Gwenna was a the surprise star of this book for me. I have to admit, I did not care for her character much in the first book and I think the last book I was probably ambivalent about her. This book, I loved her. Like, really, seriously loved her and her sections were actually my favorite. As opposed to some of the Malkeenians, she was not 10 types of broken, but rather she has gained major strength and purpose. She has learned to focus her energy in ways that actually improve her character tremendously. And she gets shit done. Gwenna has evolved into one of my favorite types of female characters. She is strong, she is fierce and she is beyond determined.

Adare’s storyline was very good but I can’t say I found her role quite as compelling as I did in Providence of Fire. But maybe it is just hard to top her rise to become a Prophet of a Goddess. That is very hard to top. I was also a bit surprised that Nira did not play a bigger role in this final book. She was still there by Adare’s side, but for some reason I felt she would become closer to a major character, which was not the case. Nira was still great for breaking tension and pretty much keeping things real, she tells it how she sees it without sugar coating or beating around the bush. Adare faces major struggles in this book and benefits from Nira. She has not just the safety and well being of the entire Annurian Empire to worry about during this time of war, but she also has added complexities worrying about the safety and well being of her child.

And now lets not forget about the sibling rivalry and trust issues going on in this series. For three siblings who spent most of their formative years apart, they sure have managed to create some seriously messed up relationships. Adare must live with the choices she made in the past, and it is not always easy. Especially seeing as how she View Spoiler ». No matter how noble she believes her intentions to be, she is probably not going to win any best sister awards even if she is the only Malkeenian eligible for the honor. This brings us to Kaden. He is trying his best to understand his sister and to get their land in order and protect their people from external threats and war. Threats like Balendin the Leach, who as an emotion leach, gains power from generating fear. He is twisted and is as nasty and depraved as they come, making torture and murder a spectacle for maximized impact to his strength. The worse he is, the more powerful he becomes.

There is so much to love in this book and series. Backstabbing, horrible bad guys, mysteries, legends of gods and non-humans who may or may not still walk the land. It is epic in every single way and it is masterfully told. I just really can’t stress how great this final book is. Seriously, reading a final book this strong is so incredibly satisfying. The Last Mortal Bond is darker and fiercer than the other two books, and the way Staveley crafts the ending, bringing everything together is just masterful. Highly recommend the entire series.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve never had a book that was simultaneously so gripping and so infuriating as this one.

I’ll start with the good. The pacing was great. The prose, while nothing special, faded into the background and swept me along nicely. There are some really cool characters. (Well, there’s Gwenna.) And Staveley has some really cool ideas.

Which leads me to my first complaint: way too many ideas. Elite commandos who operate from the back of a giant bird of prey. Immortal beings of nefarious purpose living among us. Fantasy Daredevil. Gods walking among us in mortal avatars, and if they’re killed, that part of humanity dies as well (i.e., killing Aphrodite = no more love). The Princess, who is capable but regrettably female, seizes the imperial throne intended for her brother, who is trying to transform the empire into a republic.

A pet peeve of mine in reading fantasy and science-fiction is what I call “Worldbuilders Syndrome,” where a writer has put so much effort into developing their world, and they are so proud of and attached to their work, that they can’t keep themselves from putting in all these details they’ve worked so hard to come up with, whether or not they are relevant to the story.

The Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne suffer from a similar malady. As I said, Brian Staveley had lots and lots of cool ideas (and many of them are indeed cool) and just shoved them all, every one, into the same story. There’s plenty more things than I listed above that could have been the heart of a story by themselves, but they’re relegated to side plots. The whole thing is just WAY too crowded, and it just became a confusing mess.

There’s also a bunch of relatively minor things that just plain irritated me. Those elite commandos I mentioned earlier, who need to work seamlessly as a team and have absolute faith and trust in each other? As far as I can tell, their training consists of ten years of being taught to hate and fear their fellow cadets and do their very best to murder each other when the instructors aren’t looking. Or there’s variations on this exchange: “I see a pattern.” “Oh? What’s the pattern?” “It’s beyond your human ability to comprehend, but trust me, it’s there and REALLY IMPORTANT.” You can get away with that sort of thing once – maybe – but I think it happened at least three times. It strays into cliché territory a bunch, like when the Grizzled But Wise Veteran tells the Young Angry Soldier that his problem is that he isn’t fighting for anything, he’s just fighting. Or the time the Big Bad says during one of his monologues (there’s lots of monologuing) that really, anything sounds bad when you start attaching labels like “murder” and “genocide,” but they’re just words, really.

And the balance of characters was really uneven. The three protagonists are supposed to be equal in weight in the story, it’s clear, but they never are. One or the other is always being heavily neglected, which leaves the entire story feeling uneven.

And the above mentioned princess, who is by a large margin the most interesting of the three, is also the worst developed, with way too many cliché female aspects to her. I give credit to Staveley for one moment in the first book, when a woman is attacked and almost the first words out of the one protagonist’s mouth were “did they rape you?” and she gives him a much-deserved tongue lashing for that being his primary concern. But that’s about it, when it comes to a good treatment of women. That and Gwenna. Gwenna's awesome.

And much of the action and threat in the series is driven by deus ex machina. (villainous ex machina?) The Big Bad has the ability to anticipate Our Heroes’ plans to an amazing degree. (several of the explanation-dodging-exchanges I mentioned earlier have to do with this) Our Heroes enact their recently-concocted plan, only to learn he’d taken steps to counter it months ago. They deliberately chose a crazy suicidal plan that no one could ever think to try, but he anticipated that too because he just knows human nature that well. They reach a secret refuge that they only learned existed ten minutes before, and they find him waiting there, with his feet up, enjoying a catered lunch he’d booked twenty years before any of them were born. Until the plot needs him to make mistakes, of course. Then he’s caught completely off guard by things I saw coming well in advance.

In the end, I think that Staveley has potential as a writer, if he hooks up with a good editor who is willing to take a sharp knife to early drafts. But I probably won’t pick up any more books of his unless I hear they are a good step up from this trilogy.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Executive Summary: Not as good as the first book, but probably better than the second. I found this to be a pretty good conclusion to a good series that didn't quite live up to it's potential.

Audiobook: Simon Vance is awesome. I just find him a bit quiet at times. I wish the audio people would adjust his volume up a little bit. He does a variety of voices and speaks with great inflections making this series a big plus in audio.

Full Review
In many ways my review for this book could be a repeat of my review for The Providence of Fire. I found the emperor's kids to be annoying, and often incompetent. Just less so. I think Gwenna's chapters/story was far more interesting and enjoyable. In particular both Kayden and Adele had parts I found slowed the overall story, and left me eager to get back to other subplots.

Gwenna's story meanwhile, showed excellent development as the series went on, especially in this book. Her path from interesting secondary character to favorite POV character was definitely the highlight for me. I think I might have liked this series more if focused more (or entirely) on Gwenna's journey, and the Kettral. There are just a lot of other subplots in this book that felt slow or seemed to bog down the overall story.

It was as though Mr. Staveley was trying a bit too hard to cram an epic fantasy's world building into a trilogy. I did find some of the politics and theology compelling, just not as much as the idea of an elite fighting force who rode on the backs of monstrous birds.

There was a point in time when I couldn't seem to get enough dark fantasy. All of my favorite books a few years ago fell into that category. Eventually I reached a tipping point though, and started to look for lighter fare. This series is definitely a lot darker than most of the things I've read the last few years. Things get so bleak that I reached a point where I was wondering what exactly I was rooting for at the end. That's a bit too much for me.

Yet despite that, I found it hard to stop listening. I always did want to know what came next. I think that this book does a good job of bringing the conflicts setup in the previous books to a good conclusion.

Overall, this was an enjoyable series despite my complaints. I'll be eager to see what Mr. Staveley has in store for us next.

[Angela]

Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, Please

[Kathleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

An okay trilogy. The series began really well, but I didn't enjoy book 3 very much, even though some scenes are wonderful, especially those involving the kettrals (the birds and the humans). I didn't care for the exceedingly OTT grim-dark, grisly, gruesome, and depressing tone that consumed this book, with slaughter, mutilation, and masochistic sex.

The author includes too much internal rumination and reflection for my taste. Thoughts can slow the pace, especially when listening to audiobook.

The plot could be more complex. I liked the premise of the beleaguered emperor saving his best three blades for last, siblings trained — each one differently — to outwit the deadly foe. Also I was greatly intrigued by the ancient Csestriim. I thought of Battlestar Galactica, with the cold brilliant Cylons and the emotional humans. However, I don't like plots that rely too much on the superhuman powers of leaches and gods, who act sometimes without logic (and we never learned how Ciena got into Triste).

Characters were hit and miss for me. I followed Kaden with interest. His character allowed for some clever ideas. I enjoyed the scenes in Rassambur and around the gates, but again we are running through the mountains, tearing up our feet, chased like rabbits. I didn't much care for Adare, although she grew on me. I did like Nira. As for Valyn...hmmm. He's the one who truly caught my heart strings. I wanted the best for him but... The villain Csestriim is clever and interesting. Belendin is flat-out evil with no texture. Similar to Long Fist and Meshkent (although some interesting ideas from the god of pain).

The book ends well. The last chapters are vivid, heartbreaking, and suspenseful, followed by an interesting epilogue set about a year in the future. I would have also liked to read more about the future of the Kettrals, especially Gwenna, Tallal, Anneck, Quick Jak, The Dawn King, Flea, etc. I hated losing so many Kettral. Hated that. Did the 4th wing survive? We never found out.