Antiphony

Sartorias-deles (Timeline Order) #34

by Sherwood Smith

The last book in the Sartorias-deles series is here!

The long series that began with Inda, continued through the Rise of the Alliance, Crown Duel, and The Norsunder War, comes at last to a resonant, deeply satisfying conclusion in Antiphony.

Liere has attained the home she always longed for, though there are compromises: her children are scattered through the world, and she scarcely has time to adjust to her new life before she must use her dyr to prevent war. While elsewhere in the world, Chwahirsland is, at long last, reshaping itself to take place on the world stage. Not everyone is happy to see that.

A hidden identity revealed, with repercussions resounding across three continents-a wanderer visits the most sophisticated court in the world, and everything stops-anomalies turn up. Meaning what?

Or more importantly, when?

The postwar saga reaches a milestone as individual lives as well as countries find new melodies and harmonies. While, unaware, the small grace notes hint at great change...

Genres: Fantasy

761 pages, ebook

First published August 11, 2023

About the author

I am a writer,( Patreon here) but I'm on Goodreads to talk about books, as I've been a passionate reader as long as I've been a writer--since early childhood.

I'm not going to rate books--there are too many variables. I'd rather talk about the reading experience. My 'reviews' of my books are confined to the writing process.

Reviews

[Sherwood Smith]

I realize it's pretty tedious to say "I knew the ending years and years ago," to which the response is pretty much, who cares? But really, more than half a century ago is a lot of time. I think that makes me a fully-realized nerd, like Nerdy McNerdison, Nerd-at-Large.

Anyway, some things changed*. Especially in the draft after draft over the past twenty-five years. But a happy ending for [name redacted] was always there, and hoo I knew it would be really earned which made writing it the sweeter.

Lots of other ends, too. This is a book of endings. It's a book of beginnings, too. Of course I can't predict how it reads to anyone else. But from inside, writing it, in its way, it was intense.

Now to finish the books around the corners, so to speak, if I get to live so long!

*how I approached the writing. The events themselves were tightly wired in, pretty much from the git-go.

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful, satisfying wrap-up to the tales of Sartorias-deles (though there may be a few more coming eventually). People grow up, resolve deep differences, heal wounds, pair off--it's a delight to read. I loved Carl's storyline especially, but also Jilo's and the adventures of Lyren in Colend. Highly recommended for people who are invested in Sartorias-deles in the era of Senrid, Liere, Clair, Jilo, etc. (though in fact the story focuses on the next generation down).

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains: some mild language, mentions of sex (nothing explicit)

So satisfying! What a great ending to the Sartorias-Deles books. The first half focuses mostly on the happenings of Everon and the second deals a lot with Colend. I did not think I would like Lyren but she has grown so much since her teenage years. I loved reading about her journey.

So many weddings too! I loved how touching each of them were. I might have cried a bit especially when Laban introduced Carl to his chosen family and all through Jilo’s wedding.

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's so bittersweet to see the main arc ending, and I cried a lot. But I really like a lot of the resolutions, especially for Lyren. (Okay, not all of them-- one reveal towards the end felt weird.) But overall I've loved these books and this feels like a good way to close the sequence.

[Connie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Antiphony, the last book in the Satorias-Deles arc.

I've been reading the Satorias-Deles series for over ten years - I can't find a date for when I first read Crown Duel because I didn't have a GoodReads account yet. Smith has been writing the series since the 1960s, through traditional publishing and two different forms of self-publishing. I can't believe that this is the end. The arc is over, we had two epilogues, and that's the end of a story I first glimpsed in A Stranger to Command.

Antiphony is full of sweet moments. I never knew I needed to see Lyren in Colend until it happened. There is conflict in Antiphony, but personal conflict of world leaders, not world-ending massacre conflict of the evil that was Norsunder. After years of war, I just appreciated seeing the characters grow in the face of the normal circumstances of rebuilding. I loved how each character struggled with the habits that they had learned to survive the war and how each of them worked so hard to appreciate the tenderness and softness they had the moment to take. I appreciated all of the weddings and cried through the last two chapters.

I can't wait to carve out some dedicated time and go back through the whole series again.

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start, I want to say that I’m one of those people who have been reading Sherwood Smith since I was in middle school. In my 30s now, and having finally completed the Norsunder War books, I understand that this book is a settling of everything. I have read all of these because I love Smith’s worldbuilding, and the characters she introduces (even if I’m not sure if we ever really need to meet quite as many characters as we do, but that is her style). I started a reread of almost all the Sartorials-Deles books a few months ago, and just finished my read of the Alliance and Norsunder War books. Many of these characters have kept my company for over two decades, and I’m so glad to finally see resolution. Returning to a Court Duel-style finale was chef’s kiss for me.

That said… I’m taking off a star because…This series is clearly so full of thoughtfulness, imagination, and love, that I honestly felt my jaw drop reading the coda of this book. It felt like a total dismissal of Detlev’s life experience, and overly giving attention to Erenlara, who up until that moment had felt like a side character. I hope there’s another book about them, or even a true Detlev book, but the point of Detlev (and to a lesser degree Siamis) to me was we always saw him and learned to understand him without knowing him truly. Maybe that’s really what the coda is about, and I need a reread because I truly feel like I’m missing something, but it felt like a slap dashed addition to give Detlev, and Eren, that ending. Okay, I think I have to go start my reread now.

[Dorothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. OHHHHH. 761 pages? No wonder the book took an eon to reread.

This is the book of major and minor salmon-jumping, a journey that describes the meeting of likely and unlikely minds - people who grapple with differences of rank and position and seemingly impossible relationship between them, and the race to come home and lay groundwork for a new generation by making a marriage. And for the good.

That’s my favorite part anyway.

Subtle, and worth it.

I long for more stories of Sartorias-deles, as its past becomes new again….

[Ay · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book follows on from the Norsunder war and Let the Torrent Dance Thee down. In these two books we see the countries, people who rule them, and other characters deal with and move on from the Norsunder war.