Age of Empyre (The Legends of the First Empire #6)

The Riyria series was vibrant, fun, moving with poignant characters like Gwen and a story line that kept you riveted from page to page and book to book. The Ages are boring throughout, characters are so flat that I couldn’t care less what happened to them, the style oh so pompous it made me cringe every other page. If you loved Ryria, do not read that and whoever you are, get out of MJS body.

This book was okay, with some really great scenes, but in general it was a bit disappointing for me. Too many chapters set in the afterlife Rel, Nifrel, The Abyss, and Alysin. The author compares his underworld to Dantes inferno and REALLY made it a big part of these last two books.

To exit the Abyss, characters engage in soul-searching. To jettison emotional stones, they deal with regrets, guilt, hatred, lightening their personal load enough to climb out. The first one climbs out in chapter 9, but it isnt until chapter 23 that the next two climb out. First, they must deal with heavy baggage, like Roans tortured childhood, etc. as if we havent all read plenty about that in the past five books. After they climb out, they go visit another part of the underworld, the green fields of Alysin. A blessed place, but theyre still not out in the real world…..It took too long for this reader. I really didnt like Age of Death, because I found the underworld an uninteresting place. Same here.

Also, I felt there was too much backstory on the gods. Their history. Their emotional baggage. Malcolms murderous misdeeds. Their old war. Unforgiveness. Hatred. Again, it simply didnt interest me. They seemed like silly plastic people. Especially Elan and Eton. But thats just me.

Plus, it all started to feel too preachy, about forgiveness and redemption.

On the upside, I loved every scene with the mystic butterfly (Suri). Her handling of Jerydd at the river made me laugh. And it was good to see a certain character again.

I enjoyed the scene at the end, with Turin and Muriel.

Decent scene depicting the battle for the position of Fane, between Nyphron and Mawyndul. However, the scene entire was disrupted and somewhat overwhelmed by events between Brin and another character.

The author nailed the characterization of an immature, mean-spirited Mawyndul. He got what he deserved, given how he treated the only one who truly loved him, his mother. We learn the meaning of Venlyn and why that name is important to Mawyndul.

We see Makateta, too, but I found her character portrayal less consistent, less credible, given everything else she said and did in prior chapters and in prior books.

Then there is Trilos. Full of hatred. Unforgiveness. Bitterness. Lots of that going on in this book.

I had hoped for several upbeat conclusive chapters detailing the formation of the first empire, the Teshlor and Cenzlyor guilds, and the shining city of Percepliquis. Nope. Only one measly chapter, and most of that scene was Persephone sick, and Malcolm discussing events to come, nearly 3000 years in the future. Sigh.

I’ve been a huge fan of MJS since the Riyria series. This series was no Riyria, but good enough to continue reading. Definitely lacked in wit and humor. But THIS book? Ugh. I may have to quit halfway. It doesn’t really make sense, characters are referred to with zero explanation. Who is Beatrice??? Or “The Queen”??? And where do these levels of the afterlife suddenly come from? Zero explanation or description. Did MJS even write this book? He’s been pretty meticulous with his timeline until now. This book is just a hot mess, and a pretty dull one at that so far. I am seriously struggling to keep reading it.

Will the real MJS please stand up?

If you’re reading this review you’ve probably read the previous books. You might as well finish just to see how it ends. If I don’t sound too enthusiastic it’s because I’m not. It’s needlessly convoluted, wordy, and filled with some kind of sophomoric self aware philosophy. All the characters painfully discover some flaw in themselves which leads to ………not much.
There’s a whole bunch of Gods, some of which are semi dead, all of which are pretty inept, and frankly not very bright or Godlike.
There are seers that don’t know what they’re seeing and can’t tell anyone anything anyway.
There’s a magic horn that’s mostly irrelevant.
Then there’s the ending. All that for this?

I can’t remember the last time I sat down with an epic and read it straight through more or less in one sitting. Reading this finale to the series, I felt like Bastion reading The Never-Ending Story. Holed up by myself, transported to a magical world, finding out what happens to my friends and heroes.

This was such a great book and the best conclusion. I’d complained a bit about the cliffhangers in the previous two books, but everything was worth it (though I’m still glad I only had to wait a few days rather than months or years between books). This book had those moments that made me want to throw my hands up and cheer.

The mythology is so deep and well built. All the mysteries being revealed at just the right pace. I love the rag-tag group of characters that each become heroes at just the right time. I got choked up multiple times. There was a verbal call back that was perfect. And getting to revisit something we thought was lost was just the best!

And there are so many little things that I vaguely remember from the Riyria Revelations get little mentions and it’s made me want to go back and read that whole series again.

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