Reviews

Fall of Thanes by Brian Ruckley

gearyofbooks's review against another edition

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2.0

For something that offered such promise it was a truly flat ending to a complicated story. The family names, the locations, you were expecting something with purpose and instead left with meh. Shame.

nghia's review

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4.0

Each book in The Godless World impressed me more than the preceding one. The first was a work-a-day fantasy flight-from-evil story. By the third book Ruckley's vision for his world is finally complete and I like what I see here. This isn't the standard "good versus evil". Nor is it a happily-ever-after. (Even Abercrombie's First Law has a happier ending than this.)

The ending is what you expect in a real world: what would happen is massive war and social upheaval tore the land apart? Even if the proximate cause -- a deranged wizard -- is removed by heroic and costly effort won't there still be years of famine and chaos? Of course there will.

I liked the way things played out almost across the board. I've seen a few reviews complain about the lack of romance/sex but it's not a complaint I share. The whole world is falling apart and most of the characters are traveling the whole time anyway. Not much room for that kind of thing.

books17's review

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5.0

Fall of Thanes does away with half-measures. This entire novel is the entire world being brought to its knees as chaos envelops all, and it is fantastic.

jasonoffer's review

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2.0

Disappointing finale

I enjoyed this series overall, but I could guess the ending or more precisely how it comes about from the beginning of this book. Therefore I found that all the meat of the book to be pretty worthless and skipping pages became the norm for me.

The issue for me is that although there are multiple antagonists, their actions and the actions of the so called "good guys" have no bearing on the outcome. Essentially it is all about one overpowered individual and although everything does not lead to the final encounter with this individual, the rest of the book is purely a side issue.

Personally i prefer books which keep me the reader guessing, are not based around one overpowered individual whether good or evil and in which subplots actually feel that they have some bearing on the story.
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