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Bartram's Maw #3
She Heralds the End
The city of Craelle is besieged.
Hired swords Samantha Redwyne and Victoria Belltower have their hands full. They and their mercenary outfit Bartram's Maw must contend with a mad king's thirst for revenge as he throws everything he has at the doomed city. A menagerie of twisted sellswords, vicious creatures out of folktales, and killers with vendettas flood the streets of Craelle. And most dangerous of all is the dreaded Misfit of Kantor—a giant ghoul of a mercenary as deadly as a small army. She's enigmatic and disarming, yet her eyes betray her greatest desire: a duel to the death with Samantha.
But for Baroness Blixen Valentine, the stakes are higher than the fate of a single kingdom. Trapped within her city walls, she searches for secrets of the ancient past in a race against time. The Old World—the technologically advanced civilization that existed thousands of years ago and mysteriously died off during the Cataclysm—has reared its head in the form of a foreboding message heralding a second Cataclysm. While soldiers clash and blood is spilled, Blixen scrambles for a way to make contact with whoever sent the mysterious warning and find answers to the forgotten past so many have sought.
And through it all, a single man with the unnatural power of his dark goddess wanders the world, putting together pieces of an insidious plan that threatens to not only corrupt the pure heart of a young girl, but may very well destroy all known life itself.
She Heralds the End is the definitive conclusion to the Bartram's Maw series, spanning a total of five books, including the Bartram's Maw trilogy and standalone novels The Wolf and the She-Bear and The Spider and the Scribe.
Hired swords Samantha Redwyne and Victoria Belltower have their hands full. They and their mercenary outfit Bartram's Maw must contend with a mad king's thirst for revenge as he throws everything he has at the doomed city. A menagerie of twisted sellswords, vicious creatures out of folktales, and killers with vendettas flood the streets of Craelle. And most dangerous of all is the dreaded Misfit of Kantor—a giant ghoul of a mercenary as deadly as a small army. She's enigmatic and disarming, yet her eyes betray her greatest desire: a duel to the death with Samantha.
But for Baroness Blixen Valentine, the stakes are higher than the fate of a single kingdom. Trapped within her city walls, she searches for secrets of the ancient past in a race against time. The Old World—the technologically advanced civilization that existed thousands of years ago and mysteriously died off during the Cataclysm—has reared its head in the form of a foreboding message heralding a second Cataclysm. While soldiers clash and blood is spilled, Blixen scrambles for a way to make contact with whoever sent the mysterious warning and find answers to the forgotten past so many have sought.
And through it all, a single man with the unnatural power of his dark goddess wanders the world, putting together pieces of an insidious plan that threatens to not only corrupt the pure heart of a young girl, but may very well destroy all known life itself.
She Heralds the End is the definitive conclusion to the Bartram's Maw series, spanning a total of five books, including the Bartram's Maw trilogy and standalone novels The Wolf and the She-Bear and The Spider and the Scribe.
470 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 3, 2022
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41 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 18, 2022
I'm not very good with reviews, however I'm going to write one for this book/series. I really enjoyed these books. I think this last one was a great way to end everything and tie up all the loose ends. It made me laugh out loud a few times and it made me cry a few times. Sam and Moffett will forever be some of my favorite characters.
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July 3, 2023The city of Craelle is under siege. The mercenaries Samantha Redwyne and Victoria Belltower, along with their friends and companions, face tragedy and death and find themselves on a perilous journey. Meanwhile, ancient evil stirs and begins a journey of its own.
The final book of the “trilogy,” (there are two side books not in the prime chronology but that provide very important info), She Heralds the End was a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, Stang’s writing is crisp and moves well. The story contains a fair bit of swearing, graphic violence, and sex, so something to be aware of. The characters feel like they are still growing and developing, and have distinct, unique voices and personalities. The action and combat sequences are excellent and the tension is real; beloved characters may or may not make it and those scenes are compelling and were hard to tear away from. Antagonists operated from complex motives and were generally capable and aggressive.
I suffered a little bit of mood whiplash during the plot. It’s consistent with the over-arching plot of the whole trilogy but it tone, the first half is much different than the second. There are a lot—a LOT—of POVs here and I thought that diluted the focus a little … and I felt like the protagonists sometimes made foolish decisions for the sake of advancing the story. Finally, Heralds tackles several big concepts and musings on the nature of humanity, and overall, the finale of the book—the whole last book, really—feels a tad rushed.
Overall, Heralds wraps up the Bartram’s Maw trilogy and brings the 3 (5) book series to a satisfactory conclusion. I’d recommend this book, and the whole trilogy, to anyone who likes grimdark, science-fantasy, and multi-POV stories.
The final book of the “trilogy,” (there are two side books not in the prime chronology but that provide very important info), She Heralds the End was a mixed bag for me. On the plus side, Stang’s writing is crisp and moves well. The story contains a fair bit of swearing, graphic violence, and sex, so something to be aware of. The characters feel like they are still growing and developing, and have distinct, unique voices and personalities. The action and combat sequences are excellent and the tension is real; beloved characters may or may not make it and those scenes are compelling and were hard to tear away from. Antagonists operated from complex motives and were generally capable and aggressive.
I suffered a little bit of mood whiplash during the plot. It’s consistent with the over-arching plot of the whole trilogy but it tone, the first half is much different than the second. There are a lot—a LOT—of POVs here and I thought that diluted the focus a little … and I felt like the protagonists sometimes made foolish decisions for the sake of advancing the story. Finally, Heralds tackles several big concepts and musings on the nature of humanity, and overall, the finale of the book—the whole last book, really—feels a tad rushed.
Overall, Heralds wraps up the Bartram’s Maw trilogy and brings the 3 (5) book series to a satisfactory conclusion. I’d recommend this book, and the whole trilogy, to anyone who likes grimdark, science-fantasy, and multi-POV stories.
July 4, 2023
End of interesting 5 book trilogy
Morgan Stang’s final book in the Bartram’s Maw series completes not only the story arc but also the character arcs for the primary (surviving) characters. Stang’s characters are for the most part fully fleshed with complex back stories. This final book also includes the answers to some of the “sci-fi” hints that she offered up in the earlier books when she wrote about pre-Cataclysm artifacts.
It begins in disaster— Craelle, the city now benevolently ruled by a Council appointed by Baroness Blixen, is under siege by not just the armies of the Northern Kingdom but by the four twisted mercenaries (one of whom controls trolls), sent by the Kingdom’s sadistic, and mad, ruler.
Samantha Redwyne and Victoria Belltower, with their now-expanded Bartram’s Maw mercenary force, are in the city and working beside Craelle’s relatively small militia. Miss Moffet (who becomes an important character in this book) is in has become an good friend of the Baroness, and has become the popular author of a series of bodice-rippers. [And Ms. Stang, please, the does not need million word epic detailing Lady Anastasia's exploits as told through Moffett's writings!]
The book is enjoyable, for readers who don’t mind some graphic violence and less-graphic sex, largely sapphic.
The author does have trouble with homonyms throughout the series, confusing words such as aide and aid, hallow and hollow, exuberant and exorbitant, etc., all things a copy editor (unavailable to self/published indie writers) or good beta readers might have fixed. Still, the series is certainly worth reading — just don’t read this book first!
Morgan Stang’s final book in the Bartram’s Maw series completes not only the story arc but also the character arcs for the primary (surviving) characters. Stang’s characters are for the most part fully fleshed with complex back stories. This final book also includes the answers to some of the “sci-fi” hints that she offered up in the earlier books when she wrote about pre-Cataclysm artifacts.
It begins in disaster— Craelle, the city now benevolently ruled by a Council appointed by Baroness Blixen, is under siege by not just the armies of the Northern Kingdom but by the four twisted mercenaries (one of whom controls trolls), sent by the Kingdom’s sadistic, and mad, ruler.
Samantha Redwyne and Victoria Belltower, with their now-expanded Bartram’s Maw mercenary force, are in the city and working beside Craelle’s relatively small militia. Miss Moffet (who becomes an important character in this book) is in has become an good friend of the Baroness, and has become the popular author of a series of bodice-rippers. [And Ms. Stang, please, the does not need million word epic detailing Lady Anastasia's exploits as told through Moffett's writings!]
The book is enjoyable, for readers who don’t mind some graphic violence and less-graphic sex, largely sapphic.
The author does have trouble with homonyms throughout the series, confusing words such as aide and aid, hallow and hollow, exuberant and exorbitant, etc., all things a copy editor (unavailable to self/published indie writers) or good beta readers might have fixed. Still, the series is certainly worth reading — just don’t read this book first!
May 16, 2023
Best Series Ever
Tragedy. Miracles. Religion. Science. Fantasy. Romance. Humor. Adventure. Diversity. Inclusivity. Well-written female-driven storylines. Deep character development. This series literally has all this and even more going for it. Highly recommend.
Tragedy. Miracles. Religion. Science. Fantasy. Romance. Humor. Adventure. Diversity. Inclusivity. Well-written female-driven storylines. Deep character development. This series literally has all this and even more going for it. Highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews