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Liked It “Honestly, this is my favorite of the Westmark trilogy, hands down! Of course, the female protagonist makes me kind of biased.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Honestly, this is my favorite of the Westmark trilogy, hands down! Of course, the female protagonist makes me kind of biased.”
Collette A wrote this review Friday, June 19 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Theo's finding government work a little more stressful than he bargained for---and that's before mercenaries invade, subjugating the country under the orders of Cabbarus. Now a wanted man, Theo takes again to the battlefield he swore to abandon. This time he fights with intrigue and terrorism rather than overt warfare, because the battlefield is his city. But with only the townspeople as his army, can he take it back? Or will he have to revert to Kestrel once again?
Aelvana wrote this review Tuesday, December 30 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Once again Theo is forced to consider what his act of mercy has cost him and the country. But he isn't the same naive young man he was, and he's coming to realize choices aren't always as simple as they seem. The strength of this book, like the previous two, lays in its exploration of this complexity. The action comes fast and furious, and the stakes are nothing less than the future of Westmark.
Although the action is good, this book is missing much of the internal dilemma present in the first two books. Theo has a few struggles, but for the most part he's more worried about how to stay alive than the morality of sacrificing some of his supporters in order to prove his strength to Justin. Because of this, the story isn't as compelling as either of the first two.
Also, the book never got as deep into secondary characters. Constantine gets a brief scene near the beginning and doesn't show up the rest of the book. Cabbarus, likewise, doesn't get as much characterization as he did in earlier books; it would have been particularly interesting to see his reaction to the rebellion in person, rather than just as another edict. A number of characters show up for a few pages and then die, particularly near the end.
Politically this book makes a good finishing point for the series, but it is a bit of a downer from the excellent first and second books. This is worth reading to finish the series, but not as a standalone, because most of what makes it meaningful ties back to the previous two books. I rate this book Neutral.”
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