Elizabeth Hinders Hinders থেকে Konarzewo-Sławki, Poland
Beautiful incest!
While we've always had diverging storylines in the Codex Alera books, this is the first time that the two storylines did not directly intersect (well, until the last paragraph of the last page!), which I found slightly disorienting. Hence the four stars. On the other hand, many threads from earlier books are starting to come together, and this was overall as enjoyable a read as I've come to expect from the Alera books. We finally get to understand a bit more of what happened to Septimus all those years ago, as well as understand why Acquitaine has been a thorn in Gaius Sextus' side. So many of the complex political relationships of the earlier books have their underlying motives laid bare in this, even as we see Alera in its darkest hour. This book lays out the true magnitude of the threat facing our protagonists (Aleran and otherwise), then wraps things up tidily in one neat little package, laying the foundation for what may well be the final climax (?) in the next book. Which I am, of course, looking forward to. (Though, damn Jim for leaving us with that final line... some bits of George R.R. Martin's school of cliffhanger-driven writing don't need to be emulated!)