What do you think?
Rate this book
The Islevale Cycle #3
Time's Assassin
Time-travelers and their Ancient allies must end a tangled misfuture or surrender all to chaos and blood.
Tobias Doljan and his love, Mara Lijar, fifteen-year-olds trapped in adult bodies, have Walked back in time to prevent a war. With the orphaned daughter of their murdered king as their ward, they are pursued over land and sea by armies, time-traveling assassins, and winged demons.
Now the time for flight is past. Tobias and Mara must turn and face their enemies. Powers close on them from all sides, wielding magicks and weapons the Walkers can barely comprehend. Meanwhile, the Tirribin demon, Droë, must choose between her passion and her desire for vengeance.
Disparate histories collide, bringing death and mayhem, in this thrilling conclusion to the Islevale Trilogy.
Tobias Doljan and his love, Mara Lijar, fifteen-year-olds trapped in adult bodies, have Walked back in time to prevent a war. With the orphaned daughter of their murdered king as their ward, they are pursued over land and sea by armies, time-traveling assassins, and winged demons.
Now the time for flight is past. Tobias and Mara must turn and face their enemies. Powers close on them from all sides, wielding magicks and weapons the Walkers can barely comprehend. Meanwhile, the Tirribin demon, Droë, must choose between her passion and her desire for vengeance.
Disparate histories collide, bringing death and mayhem, in this thrilling conclusion to the Islevale Trilogy.
- GenresFantasy
482 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2020
About the author
D.B. Jackson
26 books301 followers
D.B. Jackson has been writing fantasy and science fiction under a different pen name for over fifteen years. He has published novels, short stories, and media tie-ins in more than a dozen languages. He also has a Ph.D. in American History, and now, for the first time in his career, he is combining his love of fantasy with his passion for history. His first historical fantasy series, The Thieftaker Chronicles, includes Thieftaker, Thieves' Quarry, A Plunder of Souls (to be released in July 2014), and Dead Man's Reach (due out in 2015). The Thieftaker novels, which combine elements of fantasy, mystery, and historical fiction, are published by Tor Books. He is also at work on a new contemporary urban fantasy series, The Weremyste Cycle (written under the name David B. Coe), which will be published by Baen books. The first book, Spell Blind, will be out in January 2015.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 22, 2021
Enjoyable. Jackson definitely has a way with words and storytelling and such an interesting story to begin with. By far one of my most favorite authors.
April 15, 2021
It took me awhile to get through this one. It felt like a gear catching and clicking, holding my interest for a few chapters and then dropping it again. It's one of those series where I liked book one significantly better than books two and three. SERIES SPOILERS AHEAD.
I think what it comes down to, is that without the chronofer that he lost in book one, Tobias had very little offensive options available to him. Not enough agency (especially since he and Mara had to care for a small child). Thus most of the super cool magic and action fell to the villainous assassin team of Lenna and Orzili and we didn't even see Tobias and Mara for whole swaths of the story. When we did, they mostly reacted or fruitlessly sought out a chronofer. I wish instead of breaking his chronofer, Tobias's had merely gone wonky/unreliable so that he still could use it a little. Or even that the devices made precise a natural magic possessed by the Walkers, Spanners, etc. (It also bothered me that if no inherent magic, how and why did devices come to be built anyway?) Anyway, just my two cents.
I think what it comes down to, is that without the chronofer that he lost in book one, Tobias had very little offensive options available to him. Not enough agency (especially since he and Mara had to care for a small child). Thus most of the super cool magic and action fell to the villainous assassin team of Lenna and Orzili and we didn't even see Tobias and Mara for whole swaths of the story. When we did, they mostly reacted or fruitlessly sought out a chronofer. I wish instead of breaking his chronofer, Tobias's had merely gone wonky/unreliable so that he still could use it a little. Or even that the devices made precise a natural magic possessed by the Walkers, Spanners, etc. (It also bothered me that if no inherent magic, how and why did devices come to be built anyway?) Anyway, just my two cents.
March 23, 2021
What an ending to the Islevale Cycle. I was holding my breath for the last couple of chapters, my emotions were on a rollercoaster and I absolutely loved it.
As a fan of time travel and fantasy, I was so excited when I picked up this series. I'm happy to say not only did it not disappoint, but it blew my mind. The world was rich, complex and satisfying. The timelines snaked around each other, varying and affecting each other, but careful to never tangle. This series is a rare, brilliant, time travel gem.
As a fan of time travel and fantasy, I was so excited when I picked up this series. I'm happy to say not only did it not disappoint, but it blew my mind. The world was rich, complex and satisfying. The timelines snaked around each other, varying and affecting each other, but careful to never tangle. This series is a rare, brilliant, time travel gem.
August 22, 2024
3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
I've taken a long time getting back to the finale of this trilogy--when I finished book 2, this book's publication date hadn't even been announced yet, and by the time it was actually published, it had slipped down the priority list on my TBR and I just couldn't find the motivation to get to it. So I was very grateful for the recap of the first two books included in the beginning material of this one.
This is overall a very unique trilogy with some nice and carefully crafted worldbuilding. It's rare to find books that are entirely in a fantasy universe that also involve time travel because it quickly turns into too much for the reader to keep track of. The first two books handled this well; this one had some periods where things got a tad confusing in keeping track of the multiple different versions of characters and different timelines and time periods events were taking place in. Eventually the chaos was intentional as "misfutures" piled on top of one another but I'm not sure the mid-book confusion, particularly surrounding the character Lenna, was what the author had in mind.
I also felt like the book got repetitive at certain points, and not because the characters kept traveling back in time to change things. There wasn't much new ground tread until the end when everything came colliding together and the cycle finally ended with things getting mostly fixed to where they should be. Getting to that point got a little confusing and a little tedious. But it was still a unique challenge for the author to tackle and he largely succeeds.
I've taken a long time getting back to the finale of this trilogy--when I finished book 2, this book's publication date hadn't even been announced yet, and by the time it was actually published, it had slipped down the priority list on my TBR and I just couldn't find the motivation to get to it. So I was very grateful for the recap of the first two books included in the beginning material of this one.
This is overall a very unique trilogy with some nice and carefully crafted worldbuilding. It's rare to find books that are entirely in a fantasy universe that also involve time travel because it quickly turns into too much for the reader to keep track of. The first two books handled this well; this one had some periods where things got a tad confusing in keeping track of the multiple different versions of characters and different timelines and time periods events were taking place in. Eventually the chaos was intentional as "misfutures" piled on top of one another but I'm not sure the mid-book confusion, particularly surrounding the character Lenna, was what the author had in mind.
I also felt like the book got repetitive at certain points, and not because the characters kept traveling back in time to change things. There wasn't much new ground tread until the end when everything came colliding together and the cycle finally ended with things getting mostly fixed to where they should be. Getting to that point got a little confusing and a little tedious. But it was still a unique challenge for the author to tackle and he largely succeeds.
February 17, 2021
Stunning conclusion to an amazing series. This series is unlike any other time travel series out there. Jackson puts a whole new spin on time travel!
August 22, 2024
I was really disappointed with the finish... It felt rushed
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews