Reviews

By the Silver Wind by Jess E. Owen

guccishoestrings's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

The last book of the summer king chronicles ends in a somewhat disappointing fashion. I can't help but feel that the world grew a little to big, which left little time to create a strong ending/climax to the series. I would say this is easily the weakest out of the tetralogy. Without further ado, let's take a look at the good and bad of this book.

The Good: 

• Some characters get back together at points of the story (more on this point in the bad section). 
• The conversations (dreams) between Ryhdda and Shard can be intriguing (again more about this in the bad section). 
• Shard and Kjorn finally are together again since the first book and its good to see them working together again (again more on this in the bad section).

The Bad: 

• The characters are never truly all together at one point in the story. The two plots between the silver isles and the Winderost never come together as
  by the time the Winderost plot is solved apparently the threat of the Wyrms is none existent and then the characters immediately go to the silver isles.
• The dreams between Ryhdda and Shard are intriguing at first but in the end they are basically a plot device that does not lead anywhere but to the happy ending.
• The climax is extremely disappointing as
  the first 250 pages of this book (and part of the third book) lead to the climax being in the Winderost, but then Shard dreams of Sverin and the Wyrms just up and leave for the silver isles. Also uses typical tropes like Sverin sacrificing himself and Shard then making peace with Ryhdda out of nowhere.
• Shard and Kjorn are back together but at times they start questioning each other for no other reason but to add tension.
• The first 250 pages of this book are pretty much filler as almost nothing in those pages lead to anything and probably could have been condensed into around 100 pages.
•  We learn almost nothing about the Wyrms except for the reason they hate Kajar's bloodline which is all explained in a page by Hikaru and the reasoning itself is terrible.
• The dragons (outside of Hikaru) are not in this book at all which is surprising as
  they are pretty much the reason for the entire wyrm conflict in the first placce.

Man I really enjoyed this series and with the books from 1-3 getting better as they go on, reading this last book was disappointing as a lot of the stuff that was built up was never used or was a total let down. This series is still a great series and if you read the first three books just finish the series. I look forward to seeing Jess E. Owens future projects as she proved she is a good author but just had a disappointing conclusion to a fantastic series.

blazeofredfiree's review

5.0

A fantastic conclusion! The final battle was exhilarating and I loved all of the resolution for the characters!

taxideadaisy's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I love these books, even with the typos, and am sad to be coming to the end of the stories.  Silver Wind wraps up Shard's main journey, bringing together many threads into what I found a satisfying conclusion.  I especially like how Owen crafts characters that grow, doubt, struggle, and redeem themselves.  There is uncertainty at times but never a real sense of impending doom.  The books feel safe for most readers except those who absolutely cannot have death or carnivores. 

I fervently hope that these books are picked up by a bigger publisher or otherwise re-issued with all the typos fixed.  They would be worthy additions in hard copy to any library (we read/are reading them as ebooks).    

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Animal death

distracting typos

lightwreather's review

5.0

Now I feel sad.

darcangel's review

5.0

Quite possibly the most poetic book on griffin politics you will ever read.

leopardseal's review

5.0

(I got this as a Kickstarter Backer)

He is borne aloft by the Silver Wind. He alone flies the highest peak. And when they hear his song at battle's end The Nameless shall know themselves And the Voiceless will once again speak.

I feel like crying, because this book is beautiful. By the Silver Wind has made my heart clench with fear, eyes blur with mournful tears, and forced me to smile, to laugh out loud with Shard, Asvander, Hikaru, and all the other lovely characters.

I love, love, love this book. To prove my point, when I received it on Wednesday, I only had about 2 hours to begin reading until bedtime. Then, the next day, school limited my reading for 7 whole hours, but by the time I went to bed, I was halfway through. Finally, today, this lovely summer Friday, I have read almost non-stop and finished it before 5 pm.

This book is amazing. Wonderful, fantastic. Spectacular and terrific. Outstanding, excellent. Many thanks to the super author Jess E. Owen for writing the Summer King Chronicles. I enjoyed every page read, every chapter loved, every hour spent yelling at my family to let me read it peace (in a loving way, of course).

Not only has the Summer King Chronicles been an excellent read, it has changed my life. And I mean it. I cannot imagine how I would be if I had not bought Song of the Summer King out of curiosity a year ago, but I know for certain that I would be a lot worse off. Shard has helped me fly through stormwinds, helped me battle wyrms, helped me make peace with myself and others around me.

Fly high, my fellow members of the pride and wolf pack friends, windfriends and earthfriends alike, and fair winds!

thomasray's review

5.0

Any review I can write will fail to convey the feelings I would want to convey. So I'll just say that this book was absolutely amazing.

crownandstallion's review

5.0

Read this years ago, finally catching up with writing a review. This was a fantastic culmination to an overall wonderful and creative series. I loved anthroprmophic fiction as a kid, and this is a delightfully grown-up version of some o the stuff i used to read. This was stunning, giving all the characters well thought out endings while still leaving room for many more stories returning to the winderost and the silver isles. I can't wait to see what comes next!