I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. Carnelian has just witness the most horrible scene of death, gore, and pain all at the hands of the one person he once loved. Osidian has gone mad as a result of the Marula ritual on the Isle of the Flies and now hears the voice of the dark god in his head. The surviors will follow Osidian into battle against The Standing Dead of Osrakum but first they will have to get past Aurum’s dragons guarding the pass and bringing about destruction to The Earthsky. Drastic steps need to be taken and the final battle is set to begin. This will be a spoiler free review but I will be touching upon events from the previous volumes.
Right from the first chapter Ricardo Pinto has to pick up the pieces to the devastating ending we had to endure. The Chosen Aurum knows about Osidian and Carnelians survival and he will let the land burn to find them. In the quiet moments of mourning the dead and putting together a strategy to enter The Guarded Lands, Carnelian is having vivid and bloody dreams that may come to pass. The people Carnelian has grown to love, he may have to leave behind and gain new allies to take down The Chosen. Standing in their way are giant dinosaur creatures known as dragons and the only way to defeat them is to capture them and to march on Osrakum.
As I have said in my previous reviews that this Second Edition is the reworking of the original Trilogy from three to seven volumes. This book is the beginning of the end to the final book of the original Trilogy. We immediatly turn from pain and death to war in the blink of an eye. The action and pacing will hit you like a frieght train many times throughout the course of this book. I was not able to put it down and it made me realize the real cost of war, power, and the sacrifices that need to be made for vengeance. What are you willing to lose to gain what you have always wanted?
Another amazing edition to thi novel are the dragons themselves and the firey inferno they can release on the world. What the creatures are and how they are maintained, the manpower needed to control them, and the huge pyramid structures they are forced to carry on their backs. Life in the high towers is like living as a god and all citizens on the ground level are just ants to The Chosen. Power changes everyone for better or worse.
This was an amazing book and only makes me what to jump into book six immediatly. Although I love this series, I am starting to realize the dire world our characters live in and how it compares to our own world in certain aspects. I will not be forgetting these scenes anytime soon and unfortunatley the worse is yet to come, or so I have been told. Bring it on!
Cheers!
Under The Radar SFF Books 