Herald of the Black Moon - Stephen Deas

 

'The Wraiths have raised an army of the dead. An army of the living is marching on the throne. Caught in the middle, Myla is supposed to be spying on a sorceress who can read minds. Things are not going well.

Far away, Seth and Fings are trying their hardest to have nothing to do with any of this. All Fings has to do is not steal anything. All Seth has to do is not meddle with Forbidden Magics. All they have to do is lie low. And for once, it’s all going swimmingly. Until, that is, Fings sees a face he thought they’d left behind in the ashes of Deephaven.

As Seth’s past catches up with him and Myla unravels the true nature of the Empire’s new Princess-Regent, the trio converge on the dead city of Valladrune. Armed with sinister secret behind an old war, they once more hold the fate of the Empire in their reluctant hands.

If only they knew what the heck to do with it.'

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So, here we are then, the end of the road for Seth, Myla and Fings. Their world seems a little bigger and a whole lot more broken. Myla is up to her neck in espionage, Seth is closer than ever to 'the dark side' and Fings is . . . well, Fings is just being Fings, wanting everything to be right and just as it used to be. It's fair to say there is a way to go before he gets even a sniff of his happy ending. 

I don't know how it happened but this series passed me by untill this third and final book. In a way that's disappointing because I would have been in this world with these characters a lot sooner but on the plus side (thanks to those lovely people at Angry Robot) I got to binge the series in one go. I think the things that stood out for me most with this series was the characters and their conversations, how Deas makes them feel real, not just words on a page. It's the difference between caring about a character and wanting to go give them a hug, tell them it'll all be fine. It's a thin line in character development but Deas absolutely nails it.

I can safely say this is one of the best series I've read in a while and one I will be going back to for a leisurely re-read before much longer.

Highly recommended, go treat yourself today.

Many thanks to Angry Robot for inviting me onto this tour and supplying me with the series copies (all opinions are my own). Also, check out the other posts on the tour (below)