Banners in the Wind

The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution #3

by Juliet E. McKenna

The third, and final, book in a major new fantasy trilogy. A few stones falling in the right place can set a landslide in motion. That's what Lescari exiles told themselves in Vanam as they plotted to overthrow the warring dukes. But who can predict the chaos that follows such a cataclysm? Some will survive against all the odds; friends and foes alike. Hopes and alliances will be shattered beyond repair. Unforeseen consequences bring undeserved grief as well as unexpected rewards. Necessity forces uneasy compromise as well as perilous defiance. Wreaking havoc is swift and easy. Building a lasting peace may yet prove an insuperable challenge.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

592 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 25, 2010

About the author

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023 was the sixth title in this ongoing series and won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The seventh book, in 2024, is The Green Man’s War.

Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter fiction includes forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

Who’s to say what will come next?

Learn more about all of this at julietemckenna.com and on Twitter @JulietEMcKenna

Reviews

[Kathryn]

Won't be reading # 1 or # 2.

[Allison M]

Deducting 2 stars for the milquetoast politics at the end -_-

Overall this series was entertaining and had a lot of fun moments. Wasn't outstanding, but certainly good enough! Just the end felt like a let down..

[D.w.]

The conclusion of the Lescari Revolution series. It was not bad. With a little help it could have been much better. Could a war torn group of countries really overthrow and unite in one year? How many years did the 13 colonies take to wrangle their way to a unified country with laws to follow take?

Could a general have emerged in any time past and start a campaign so late in the season, that success was guaranteed? For at first the legendary general has said such would be the case, and then there is doubt at places where the author needed to have conflict. It was all coming to easy, and it still finished to easily.

Previously in this series we talked about magic and it working for our heroes when they need it, but not for their enemies. Well that is still the case. Also we have talked about scale. Finally we have a distance listed of 70 leagues, and though time is not given a relation to our world, a league is a measurement and we learn that it takes about 4 days to travel, on one of the maintained roads.

It comes late in the tale, and it invalidates much of what has gone before. Further we have problems with information, and some times those who do not have the magic get it as instantaneously as everyone else. There is also personal combat and Ms. Mckenna may not have witnessed combat or used a sword before. I had the feeling as I read the combat scenes that a blow here, then how about a blow there instead of thinking where an arm should be and what you could do when you were wounded. Our hero at one point has an arrow in him, has never fought well before and has not trained for a long period of time and pretty much holds off three mercenaries from killing him.

McKenna needed to do further background on her characters and her world. It would have been better. Some of the politics works well though, and with more thought it could have been a great study of such. One thing that certainly doesn't work and it needed to was how a group of people could be disunited for so long when they are completely surrounded by other countries that act as kingdoms, or are such. The Lescari just don't make sense in a world that have such bigger political units next to them.

Probably not a read ever again. It was okay, but not outstanding.

[KevinF]

Fun story I enjoy the writers books, but with this series I never could shake the feeling that mercenaries would not have been so eager to fight when their pay could have been so easily in doubt. Plus the moneyman of the venture just went away and did not get anything other than peace for all his hard work. Nice gesture, just not at all realistic.

[Dennis]

great book, really tied up the story *

[Ronald Marcil]

The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution #3