Karen’s Reviews > Half a War > Status Update

From the chapter The Killer:
“Why burn what you can use?” said Gorm. “A few strokes of the chisel will change these miserable statues into Mother War, and at once we have raised a mighty temple to her! A fitting gift for she that has given her favored son the whole Shattered Sea…”

King Gorm…soon to wed Queen Skara, or will he. Raith as just done something very “Game of Thrones”-like. ☠️

Almost at the end of the Shattered Sea epic.
Three books.
Countless battles.
Incredible journeys.
Almost over….one more oath to fulfill.

From the chapter Another Kind Of Steel:

“Her hand was on her dagger’s grip. She could have drawn it. Could have sent him through the Last Door with a flick of her wrist. She had dreamed of it often enough.”

Young Queen Skara finally allowed to face the dying warrior who burned her kingdom to ashes, but she is deep-cunning.

Father Yarvi’s oaths are set to burn vengeance.
One king is dead.
Another stands to win a Queen.
But a tower has fallen, and ten thousand wait to pour through….
Oh, the teeth clench while the swords and axes swing.

And so, the hero of the first Shattered Sea book becomes corrupted by the very oaths he made to bring those down who killed his father.
Corruption by power…uncontrollable power.
It’s a theme that never grows old.
Am I right❓❓❓

Storyline has split in two directions and still hold firm. Battle action on one side and mystery seeking on the other. The balance is sublime.

Wounds that send a Queen outside to be sick.
A Queen whose minister lends assurances.
A writer who gives the reader every tiny essence of his characters.

From the end of chapter Gudrun’s Example, Raith promises Queen Skara:

“Every good killer needs someone to kill for.”

He is a very good killer to be so young.

From the chapter titled Deals, because young Queen Skara is a deal maker if there ever was one:

“The world is full of monsters, after all. Perhaps the best one can hope for is to have the most terrible on your side.”

From the chapter Monsters:
(Young Queen Skara speaks; Owd is her borrowed minister)

“I used to think the world had heroes in it. But the world is full of monsters, Sister Owd.” She turned away from the dead, back toward Bail’s Point. “Perhaps the best we can hope for is to have the most terrible of them on our side.”

That’s a girl after my own heart.