The Last Cleric

The Blackwood Saga #3

by Layton Green

"An extraordinary new series" - Book Reader's Heaven Trapped in a world where wizards rule, the Blackwood brothers from New Orleans have become entangled in events that threaten to upend the Realm. Oldest brother Val, sentenced to die in wizard prison, is forced to undertake a quest for the Congregation to try to win his freedom—but which might cost him his soul. Reunited with an old companion, Caleb must overcome his personal demons as he braves the dangers of the Barrier Coast to warn his ancestors of the coming invasion. And in a distant unexplored jungle, Will must find his warrior spirit as he and Mala lead a party of adventurers in search of the Coffer of Devla, a fabled artifact thought to reside in the lost pyramid of Yiknoom Ukab K’ahk, the most powerful sorcerer king who has ever lived. Used to annihilate the enemies of its possessor, the coffer might be the only hope for the struggling revolution. Yet even if Will’s expedition is a success, prophecy holds that the coffer can only be used by a cleric of Devla. And no true cleric has walked the Realm for centuries . . . "Top 7 books of 2017" - O.D. Book Reviews "So far in this year of books this is my absolute favorite. Not a moment of boredom." - Reading in Ecuador "I love this book!" - Book Room Reviews "One of the best fantasy quest books that I have read in a long time" - Blood Rose Books "A fantasy geek's dream come true . . . I love Green's writing and his ability to sweep me completely into a story."- Girl Who Reads Book Blog "I do believe Layton Green has moved into my top 5 author category - not an easy feat to attain!" - A Novel Source "Layton Green is an absolutely brilliant writer" - Everything to Do With Books

Genres: Fantasy, Audiobook

374 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 20, 2018

About the author

Layton Green is a bestselling author who loves to tell powerful, edge-of-your-seat stories across a range of genres, including mystery & thriller, suspense, horror, and fantasy (and often blending them together). He is the author of the Dominic Grey series, the Blackwood Saga, the Genesis Trilogy, and other works of fiction. Layton's work has been nominated for numerous awards (including a rare three-time finalist for an International Thriller Writers award), optioned for film, published in multiple languages, and has reached #1 on many genre lists.

In addition to writing, Layton attended law school in New Orleans and was a practicing attorney for ten very long years. He has also been an intern for the United Nations, an ESL teacher in Central America, a bartender in London, a seller of cheap knives on the streets of Brixton, a door to door phone book deliverer in Florida, and the list goes downhill from there.

Layton lives with his family in Southern California. You can visit him on Facebook, Goodreads, or on his website (www.laytongreen.com).

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this was the final book in a trilogy, but NOPE. It is #3 of 5? So, while I expected everything all wrapped up, what I got was a little father in the overall plot of the series with a lot left to be resolved. Fine.

All 3 of the brothers seem to go in their own directions in this book so let me separate them. Val was arrested at the end of book 2, but he is given a chance by the Queen to go on an impossible quest to return a magical crown. A bunch of his friends join him, and they almost die a bunch of times. Will and Mala are also sent on a quest by the Resistance leaders to try to retrieve a magical artifact that could be the key to victory in the upcoming war with the wizards. Their quest is also ridiculously dangerous, some of the party doesn't make it. Then there is the pacifist brother, Caleb. He spends most of the book drunk, but eventually goes on a little trip to warn some outlying villages of the wizard attacks. As if those three adventures weren't enough, the plot also includes a religious group in the realm looking for a "Last Cleric" that is supposed to be their savior in the war, and Lord Alistair trying to kill everyone that isn't him. Fun!

At the end of book 2, I was wondering how the author planned to tie in this new religious angle. I'm not sure I like where it might be heading now that the Last Cleric has appeared. The quest stuff has been fun so far and reminds me a little of Indiana Jones or Lara Croft type adventures, though I think I'm ready for the characters to get to work fixing the problems in the realm and not always be off looking for a magical relic. I'm willing to read the next book when it comes out. I just hope I can remember to look for it.

[Lady Mockingbird · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is interesting enough to keep going, but you have to really love the tried and true fantasy novel, where the inexperienced protagonist grows through impossible quests and trials. The difference with this series is that there's not just one protagonist but 3, siblings each takes a different path as suits their respective temperaments. And it is clear the author is setting them up for a serious clash before this storyline concludes.

[Donna Huber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is hardcore fantasy. Lots of creatures and battles. But I love the characters and want to know what happens to them. Read my full review at Girl Who Reads

[Hobart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---

Urfe sometimes felt like a waking dream, the realization of both his wildest fantasies and darkest nightmares.

That's fairly early in the book, too -- I'm sure by the end of this, Will will be thinking less of his wildest fantasies, focusing on the nightmares instead. Which isn't that surprising, it's book three of a quintet -- things aren't supposed to be sunshine and rainbows (although things are going to get worse).

Will and some others are off on a quest to recover the Coffer of Devla -- an Ark of the Covenant-esque religious relic and object of prophecy. The Revolution would profit greatly from taking it into battle with them -- for psychological/propaganda's sake, if nothing else. This quest takes Will, Yasmina, Mala, and a few others to the jungles of Mexico to find a mythic pyramid that may house the Coffer. We're treated to an annoying amount of Will pining after Mala, Mala taking advantage of that a few times, and Will not learning anything. I do find his hangup over her annoying, but it's about the only thing about Will's character that is that flawed, so it's good to stress his imperfection and naiveté, I guess. This storyline frequently felt like it escaped from a Rick Riordan Book (one scene in particular) -- a series of tests, and narrow escapes leading to other tests. That said, when Percy or his friends fail and/or don't succeed fast enough, the consequences aren't as bad as they are for Will and his companions, which makes them far more entertaining to read than the most recent Riordans.

Caleb stays behind and fills his days with doing small acts around the city to help people, and his nights with getting as drunk as is humanly possible. He may not have had tremendous success on Earth, but he had his niche and he did okay with it. On Urfe, he didn't even have that, so he turned to drink. Until the only person in two worlds who could possibly get him to stop -- or at least consider moderation -- shows up and does just that. Caleb soon goes on a mission to warn those living in the Blackwood Forrest about the danger coming from Lord Alistair and try to recruit them to the Revolution. On the whole, this story goes exactly like you expect it to -- but it was probably the most effective of the three brothers' arcs in this book. There were parts of this story you couldn't see coming -- at all -- but once those events were introduced, it quickly became inevitable to see how those would flow into the overall storyline. Predictable isn't bad -- I've said it before, I'll keep saying it -- it really doesn't matter how surprising or unexpected your story is, what matters is how you tell it. And Green tells this one just right.

Which leaves us with Val -- things were looking pretty bad for him when we saw him last, and in the few days that have passed between then and this novel's kick-off, things have continued in that vein. He does some pretty clever and daring things to try help his situation, and then finds an opportunity he can't turn down. He essentially has to try to carry off a suicide mission for the Queen. If he succeeds, he'll be set free. If not . . . well, the Queen or Congregation still won't execute him, because he'll be dead. He assembles a team -- including faces you wouldn't expect -- and sets off. This storyline is the most inventive, least predictable and most harrowing of the three (which at times is saying something). Somehow, in the middle, it's also the most dull. But never for long, I want to stress. The people that Val is surrounded by, their perspectives and what Val goes through are all shaping him -- for the one who had the hardest time coming to terms with the world he found himself in, Val's really taken to it in a way his brothers haven't quite. Without noticing it, Val's become a different person than he was when he first came to Urfe -- and I'm not sure any Blackwood is going to be happy with the differences once they're seen in light of day. I'm not saying he's been seduced by the Dark Side or anything -- bu he definitely approaches things from a different angle.

Meanwhile, Lord Alistair continues his bloodthirsty and power-hungry machinations at the top of the Congregation.

We meet a lot of new characters in each of the storylines (especially Will's and Val's) -- there's not a one of them that I wouldn't want to spend more time with. Several of them we won't see again, alas, but...the others? I hope we get a lot of. While I enjoyed it, I know that I came across as ambivalent towards Will's quest -- but the people he travels with are welcome additions to this cast and I didn't get enough time with them for my taste. The other new characters were about as good, but I thought we got as much time and use from them as we needed.

The first book kept the brothers together -- on the whole, there were times the group was split. In The Spirit Mage, Green split them up so we had Will and Caleb running around Urfe trying to stay out of trouble (and failing miserably); while Val took awhile to return and then was in a completely different kind of story. This time, Will and Caleb are split up so we get each brother doing something on his own. I get the desire for that move, and the narrative need -- or usefulness, depending how you look at it -- for that move, I really do. But man, I didn't like it. I expected it was too much to ask to see the three Blackwoods reunited early in the novel, but (incredibly minor spoiler) now whenever they do reunite, I'm afraid what they've gone through will make it unlikely to be co-belligerents, much less allies. Again, I get why it was done, and will probably appreciate it by the end of the series -- but in the moment, I don't like it. it. The Brothers Three presented them as an interesting, if very flawed, team. Which was one of the things I appreciated most about the characters -- keeping them from interacting takes a little of that away.

That said, Green did a great job balancing the various stories -- watching each brother get a little closer to their goal, and then slipping in a reminder of what Alistair's up to. Almost as if he's saying, it really doesn't matter how the Blackwoods do against these tasks, the Big Bad is out there waiting, and they're not reading for him. There's good character development, some good plot progression -- and you can feel things going worse for the brothers, and that it'll continue in that fashion for a while -- until sometime in book 5, is my guess. Now it's just a matter of hoping that the three of them -- and as many of their friends as possible - make it through to the finale.

I had a blast reading this -- there's really little about this series that I don't enjoy (and those aspects are all just matters of taste, really). Volume 4 is on the top of my "Waiting impatiently for" list -- just under Jim Butcher and Patrick Rothfuss. It's a great series and The Last Cleric just served as another piece of evidence for that. I really recommend all of them.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this novel by the author -- which I greatly appreciate, even if it took me a few months to get to it. This gift did not influence my opinion beyond giving me something to have an opinion on.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that I like this series, I really do.  The world building, the character development, the story arcs have all combined to make this an entertaining read thus far.

This volume is again told from multiple points of view (4 in total I think), but I felt this was starting to become unwieldy.  Not because of the switching in POV, but because each brother is involved in a multi-character, fully fleshed out quest that could probably have been books in their own right.  And for me at least, it became a bit of a challenge to keep it all straight in my mind. 

The pacing of the narrative was, for the most part, ok, though it felt like a longer story than the page count suggested.  Not because the book was badly written, but because of the sheer amount of detail packed into it.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book.

[Gordon Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished my review of the second book in this series with “There has to be a Book Three.” This is it, and I’m a touch disappointed. This book has all the trappings of a “potboiler,” a book in the middle of a series where the author is running on automatic, including all the things that worked in the early books, with nothing new to pique our failing interest.

Which is not to say it’s a bad book. The action is fast paced. Settings are still incredibly detailed and imaginative. But the emotional tension is flatter. The supporting characters become throw-aways, to be killed off to up the emotional stakes.

The plotline divides; the three brothers separate and each goes on a quest. Unfortunately, the quests of two of the brothers are too similar, with interchangeable dangers and settings, all very creative, but we sometimes lose track of where in the video game universe we are at the moment. Likewise, each brother is having trouble with his love life, and those conflicts parallel each other too closely.

The story is enlivened by the continuing inner conflicts of the three heroes as each is forced by circumstances to move in directions he would rather not and take actions he may be forever sorry for. Or not; that’s cause for some good suspense.

In all, I wished that this book was a bit shorter and contained more variety in plot and settings.

Recommended for fans of the rest of the series; I can already tell by how this book progressed that the conflicts are going to be more interesting in the next one.

[William Bentrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Last Cleric by Layton Green

Repeating myself once againh, I enjoyed Layton Green’s previous books. Three brothers and their friend are thrust into a thoroughly unbelievable situation and forced to cope with the supernatural. This book seems more of a three way tie for protagonists with little or no interaction between the brother.


Val, Will and Caleb are the three brothers. The author does a great job in creating likeable and yet flawed characters. Each one is a realistic example of how different and yet similar siblings are.

Each of the brothers is on a quest of their own. The author doesn’t hesitate to kill off characters so beware of investing!

Lots of twists, turns and politics with a major leavening of perfidy.

The author allows each character to mature and grow throughout all of the books.

I highly recommend the book.

[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one part of this book that I find a bit bothersome is each chapter being about a different main character. When I put the book down and come back to it later I often don’t remember what happened to the person that the chapters I’m reading about previously because it was several chapters back. If I’m reading for a long stretch and can get several chapters in one sitting it’s not a problem. I’m enjoying the story so far and this book I am able to see how I think the path of the three brothers will merge. I do feel like there gets to be lots of repetition and that there’s battles and deaths and then there he rest and then there’s more battles and more death and then they rest, etc. At this point I’m wrapped up in the characters though so I will finish all of the books. I really am hoping that book number five is the last one though.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great entry into the story. This is where we see all the brothers being cemented strongly in Urfe. Val's relationships deepen, as does his intrigue and I feel it is being set up for an epic confrontation in the final books.

Caleb, the rogue, is finally confronted with the consequences of over indulging, and not having a care in the world.

Will's story is great to see. He continues to improve his confidence, and skills, and people are starting to notice.

So glad I already bought the series so I didn't have to wait to buy the next two. Thank you Layton Green, I fell in love with your writing in the Dominic Grey series and The Blackwood Saga is even better!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I played Dungeons and Dragons for about a year in high school.

I had high hopes for this series. The world building in the start was well done. Character development started well, but by the third book it was just more of the same tropes, and the characters hadn't changed much.

The ending of the book was painful. What had been a coherent plot devolved into a "there I was" D&D tale-telling. Characters went through test after test after test of some random new unbeatable monster that added nothing to the plot. It seemed that author was just pulling creatures out of the D&D Monster Manual to get the word count up. Didn't work well at all.

[Nonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really am enjoying this series. The characters are each developing in their own way making 3 different stories in 1. I am enjoying the way that obvious plot twists and turns sometime run the way you think they will but others just floor you. Very clever writing making the the obvious, obvious then pulling the rug out at the last minute it is provoking all the emotions. Now on to the Return of The Paladin.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hated for it to end

The Blackwood brothers sagas are such a fantastical time. Fast paced and exciting. Can't wait for the next one. This is not my normal genre but I am glad I discovered this series and Layton Green

[Jennifer Arsenault · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

I am loving reading this series. It is griping. Keeps you reading. The shifts the turns the excitement is amazing. Can’t wait to read the next book. What will happen when the brothers are reunited????

[Danny Moody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice addition to the series. For some reason, I felt like they should have made more headway with the plot but the progress that was made was interesting. I kind of hate the drunk brother and did not like that he got more attention in this book. The other plot lines are really good though.

[Vaidotas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess it's an example of Dungeon Master become Writer. Other DM would be proud of him!
For the rest of the crowd... I don't know.
It did get better then the first 2 (slightly). So now, if stretched, it is kinda good for 3 ☆.

[Travis Rumple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

Great action and suspense! A truly riveting story so far. Excited for the next book. Keep up the great writing!

[Mab Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am truly enjoying this saga! I look forward to more.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently my favorite book in the series. Can't wait for the rest!

[Pyro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining. Could not put down.

[Jonathon Cole]

Another Great book by Layton I can't wait for the next one!

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow

I really really love this series. It is a great eoic fantasy , but with modern twists, and all sorts of twists and turns. I highly recomend.

[Bruce Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars...

[bryon.puttbtinternet.com · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Read

I don’t normally read these types of fantasy books, I have really enjoyed this series. Great story, exceptionally well written.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original review posted on my blog From Ink to Paper

I received this book as an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book in The Blackwood Saga series. I was excited for the chance to continue reading this story, It has kept me entertained now for 3 books and I can't wait to read the rest to see what happens!

The story takes off right where the second one left off and you are immersed right away in finding out what is going to happen with the 3 Blackwood brothers. In this installment we see them each take off on their own quests and how it is all leading up to trying to get them all back together. I thought that the story did a good job of not making it confusing with the different quests going on at once, you knew what was happening to who and when and how it went in time with the other brothers.

The characters were still well written and they continue to grow and the supporting characters are continuing to grow as well. They all play off each other well. There is humor, suspense, some romance, and some great twists in this story. Especially one at the end that is totally a cliffhanger in my opinion because you won't know how this is going to effect the rest of the series. I can't wait to find out!

The writing is well done and the story flows nicely. I like that is progresses quickly and you don't have to wait a long time with fluff that doesn't need to be in the story. It keeps you entertained throughout it and it made me not want to put it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen to them.

I definitely recommend this and can't wait to read the next.

[Salla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review:
https://bookstoldmeso.blogspot.com/20...

The third instalment doesn't 't leave anyone cold. Keeping the readers on the edge of their seats the entire length of the book requires talent and maybe a little bit of magic, and Layton Green has them both.

[Paula Dyches · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series just keeps improving. The complexity, the devious twists and turns... it’s incredibly entertaining and engulfing.

As with the previous books in this saga, as a movie this would likely have a rating between PG13 and R depending on what is abridged (think Lord of the Rings) in terms of violence and “shower scenes.” While scenes of intimacy are more present in this particular book, they are not super descriptive or erotic.

Parents: like I said, most things of an intimate nature are left to the imagination of the reader. There is basically no fowl language in this series thus far (Bastard is used once in this book). The movie rating would be mostly due to violence, gore, and the vivid descriptions of mortal wounds.

Highly recommend reading this saga, I cannot get enough of the Blackwood Brothers and the insanity that is their reality. Well written, fast paced, and packed full of action and power.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, I love this series! I can't wait for the next book! Please hurry!!
A quick re-read and now a launch into the final book!! I've really enjoyed this series!