Finally finished the Seven Realms YA fantasy series by Cinda Williams Chima. The final (and fourth) book, The Crimson Crown, is a wonderfully satisfying ending to the story. Everything is not tied up in a neat, nice package in terms of the political struggles that plague the realms, but hope is on the horizon. And Han and Raisa's respective journeys are played out in thoughtful and vivid detail. Can't say too much more without giving out spoilers, but both characters have to face what they truly want out of life and decide what they're prepared to sacrifice to get it.
My one minor disappointment is that Amon and Micah didn't really have much to do in this book in terms of character development and story. While they were such interesting characters in their own right in earlier books, in this book, they're more strategic pawns in Han and Raisa's stories than characters at the centers of their own narratives. I suppose this was necessary because there's so much going on in the series story-wise and the author had to tie it all together at the end and couldn't be focusing in too many different directions or the book would never have ended. But I LOVED Amon in earlier books and was intrigued by Micah, and was a little disappointed that each of them got less "page space" here and less going on in their own stories.
The adult characters - the previous generation(s) of wizards, clan members etc played a larger role in this book than in some of the earlier books because their secrets and stories had to be fleshed out to make way for all the big revelations in this book. And there were some wonderful surprises there. And of course, as with the other books, the author's use of fantasy world-building techniques and the creation of her dialects and court manners was superb. So many times I just paused and thought of how beautiful a particular passage sounded. And as usual Carol Monda's narration of the audiobook version was downright terrific. I'm going to look up what else she's narrated because she really nails a complex case of diverse characters. So all in all I loved the Seven Realms and am sorry to see it end. I know Cinda has talked about possibly writing another book and I hope she does (nudge, nudge). But for now, I'll have to dive into the Heir Chronicles for my fix of Cinda's magic and wizadry.
My one minor disappointment is that Amon and Micah didn't really have much to do in this book in terms of character development and story. While they were such interesting characters in their own right in earlier books, in this book, they're more strategic pawns in Han and Raisa's stories than characters at the centers of their own narratives. I suppose this was necessary because there's so much going on in the series story-wise and the author had to tie it all together at the end and couldn't be focusing in too many different directions or the book would never have ended. But I LOVED Amon in earlier books and was intrigued by Micah, and was a little disappointed that each of them got less "page space" here and less going on in their own stories.
The adult characters - the previous generation(s) of wizards, clan members etc played a larger role in this book than in some of the earlier books because their secrets and stories had to be fleshed out to make way for all the big revelations in this book. And there were some wonderful surprises there. And of course, as with the other books, the author's use of fantasy world-building techniques and the creation of her dialects and court manners was superb. So many times I just paused and thought of how beautiful a particular passage sounded. And as usual Carol Monda's narration of the audiobook version was downright terrific. I'm going to look up what else she's narrated because she really nails a complex case of diverse characters. So all in all I loved the Seven Realms and am sorry to see it end. I know Cinda has talked about possibly writing another book and I hope she does (nudge, nudge). But for now, I'll have to dive into the Heir Chronicles for my fix of Cinda's magic and wizadry.
RSS Feed