The Not a Book Club Club discussion

Part 6:

Spoiler Away!!!

Great, great stuff. I completely and thoroughly enjoyed this book.

All throughout I was thinking to myself that it felt like Tamas wasn't going to make it through to the end, and I hate that he didn't. All that work and effort he put into uniting his people and he didn't get to see it.

Thought the end with Charlemonte and Cheris was a tad rushed, and could have been set up more, but it's not really a complaint because there were some awesome scenes there with them and Ka-poel/Taniel. Also glad that Adom came back and fought for his people.

Some pretty cool reveals regarding what Kresimir and co. really were, even though they referred to themselves as goods. Wonder if this will be explored more in the next series. The world is extremely rich and I'm sure Brian can fill many years writing stories in it.

Full 5 stars, would've given more if I could :D

Same thoughts here!

I think we debated during TCC if the gods were just super-old/long living/very powerful privileged... Looks like we were right!

I was pretty sure Tamas wasn't going to make it too, though it seems fitting I guess he died when he did. The transition to a peaceful democracy was complete, his dream lives on.

Bill called it as soon as he learned Claremont had not shadow, guess he will be presently surprised! :)

Was really glad Mihali/Adom came back. I think he's my favorite character from the whole series. The mad chef god justs cracks me up.

I knew Taniel being dead was a red herring...But I thought not finding the body was leaving it open for a future book, not wrapping it up a few sections later.

This is one of my favorite series in a while (maybe wit the exception of blood song, but that series is not complete yet)...Anyone know when the first book of the next trilogy comes out?

Haha, yeah just saw that Bill nailed it! Ad totally agree about Mihali/Adom, he was an awesome character. I also really liked Bo.

I'm not sure when the next trilogy is scheduled to come out but he doesn't seem to take much time between books so we might not have to wait long.

Scott wrote: "Thought the end with Charlemonte and Cheris was a tad rushed, and could have been set up more..."

On my re-read of The Crimson Campaign, I noticed a couple of clues that Vetas was god-touched, and there were a lot of references to Brude, so I had been working under the assumption that Claremonte was at least connected with Brude. The two-faces thing was a total surprise though.

Ah nice, goes to show how much I forgot from the last books haha

Great conclusion to the series. Sad about Tamas but Mcclellan did a good job of making Tamas seem ready for it. Besides Tamas the book ended well for everyone else.

A point for me on Brude. Peter gets two.

Considering how much the magic escalated in this series it will be interesting what can be done in the next series to match or top it.

Scott wrote: "Ah nice, goes to show how much I forgot from the last books haha"

It's pretty subtle, and maybe a stretch to conclude. Mostly due to the fact that Fell mentions that mala doesn't affect Taniel as much because he's god-touched. Then someone noticing that Mihali drinks wine all of the time and is never drunk, and then Nila noticing that Vetas drinks wine a lot but seems to never be affected. So then the thought is that Vetas must be a god or in contact with one, and then next logical thought is that Claremonte has to do with it, seeing as Vetas works for him.

Then there are a couple of times when Brude gets referenced out of nowhere, and he gets referenced a lot more than the other gods (besides Kresimir and Adom). Then, add in the fact that Claremonte runs the Brudania-Gurla Trading Company, and there you go. Still a stretch, but if you're bored and in the middle of a re-read, it works out.

Finished the book late last night, and really enjoyed it. I gave it 5 stars, but then i am a fan and a Patreon of Brian's.

I loved how Brian managed to subtly add references to some of his short stories in this book, without ruining it for readers who have not read them. One about Vlora and Taniel as kids. Another is the Kinnen Palace. Nothing major, just made be feel more involved with the storytelling.

Tamas not surviving was to be expected. I was a little surprised that some of the other major characters didn't 'buy' it either. Not that I wanted them to go, I ended up with a connection to all of them.
I was very pleased that the 'gods' were not actually gods. This was the only part of the whole series that I was a little annoyed about (even if I did like the characters - I just have a hard time accepting gods as being real - maybe due to too many badly written Dungeons and Dragons novels 20 years ago).

I hope we get some more short stories before the new trilogy is released.

Peter wrote: "Scott wrote: "Ah nice, goes to show how much I forgot from the last books haha"

It's pretty subtle, and maybe a stretch to conclude. Mostly due to the fact that Fell mentions that mala doesn't aff..."

Thats really impressive. I need to start paying more attention to the small details.

Peter - that is really impressive. Makes me want to start doing re-reads before all the new releases come out this year!

Richard - Same here! Also a patreon backer of brian and I did notice all the little details from his short stories woven in. Some of the short stories were definitely better written/more interesting than others, but I do hope he pumps out some more powder mage novellas before the new trilogy. either in the past or a few years after the end of TAR, I'd be happy with anything :)

Are the short stories in an anthology or are they all separate?

As far as I know they are all separate.

Poop

Yeah, unfortunate because there are 7 of them and they are $2.99 each. I bought them as they came out but $21 to read them all post-release is a bit pricey.

I got them as they were released via Amazon. You can get a bundle of the eBooks from his website for $9.99 (3 novellas, 3 shorts). http://www.brianmcclellan.com/booksto...

The novellas are in Hardback as well, but the postage costs to the UK kill it for me. I will have to wait for his UK book signing tour (if he ever does one).

Nice! I didn't know that. In that case the only one you'd be missing is Return to Honor, the newest Novella

Sky wrote: "Peter - that is really impressive. Makes me want to start doing re-reads before all the new releases come out this year!"

I run the Powder Mage subreddit (/r/powdermage) and we did re-reads before the releases, so I got plenty of opportunity to dig into the books!

Really enjoyed it, great ending. Looking forward to read more from this world.

I'm a bit surprised to be giving this a 5. Don't get me wrong, I was never bored, but it did slow down a touch in the middle. But the last 100-150 pages or so made it very hard to put down and I was very satisfied with the conclusion.

In fact I stopped just before the election because I knew the end was going to be that way. Very happy with this book. Best one of the year so far.

I could be happy if he never returned to this world, though I'm already excited for the next trilogy.

And no one died but Tamas, who I was OK with. Especially going out on his own terms really. He did what he set out to do, and was ready for a rest.

I liked that Taniel faked his death, but did the courtesy of letting Bo and Vlora know the truth.

I know he Mr. McClellen said that the next trilogy will be like 10 years later with different characters, but I hope we at least get to check in with Bo, Ka-poel, Taniel, and Vlora to see how they fared.

I need to read some of the novellas now. I got a few of them for free/reduced prices, but I don't really like the regular pricing of $3, and probably won't buy the ones I'm missing unless I get them on sale or something. I'll have to check out what's in that $10 bundle and see which I already have.

Yeah. On Monday night I stopped when I wanted to keep reading because I knew if I didn't stop there I'd be up until I finished it.

Then I read maybe 1 chapter before work, 1 after work and the last 70 pages or so in one sitting last night after dinner.

LOL.

I finally finished it - enjoyed it a lot. I slowed down too at the end- it was so exciting but I just didn't want it to be over.

With the reveal of the "gods" nature, it made me wonder if future Kapoel and Nila could be something similar. They are both certainly powerful.

I have some of the novellas from when he did a birthday giveaway on his blog. I need to read them! Anyway - it was a good book!

Yay finished it now aswell. Great book to complete the trilogy.
I just have the feeling Brian is using the fake death element too much. Constantly people "die" in the end of a scene, to be later "surprisingly" still alive.
I actually would have liked Brian to pull the trigger on more characters besides Tamas. Maybe the Abercrombie I read the last few weeks shines through there :)

Nico - that is a good point - a lot of people "died".

A bit late to the party but better late than never! I just finished it a few days ago and even managed to write a slightly detailed review. It was a good conclusion to the trilogy and a bit different than the previous two books. I liked how McClellan managed so many characters and POVs. There were several things that nagged me or annoyed me a bit (which I mention in my review) but on the whole I found both the final book and the whole trilogy very enjoyable and worth recommending!

The nice thing about books is the party never ends :) Nice review. I agree, it was a fun trilogy!

Suzanne wrote: "The nice thing about books is the party never ends :) Nice review. I agree, it was a fun trilogy!"

Well said.

anyone else feel like Vlora's character was kinda wasted through the series. I really like strong female leads in my books and her character arc was just really confusing. I really wanted to like her character but was just very confused with her actions, I was actually all for her moving on with Olem then she does a 180* and wants to make up with Taniel?! also its only been 6 months since the start of the first book which makes her actions even more frustrating. God I'm now one of those people who hate Vlora ain't I.

I didn't ever hate Vlora but I agree her potential seems wasted. It's too bad she was relegated to a romantic complication for the most part.

I also felt that Vlora was rather under-used and a bit wasted... Could it be that Vlora is set to be used more in a future series?