Finally, the CUT war is ended…but it still "feels" like an afterthought inasmuch as it happened so quickly and I felt a minimal rise in tension at the approach of the end (but that might be my own weariness after 9 books of detailed man-on-man carnage). In any case, the story still isn’t over, since now we encounter envoys from Japan running from what turns out to be a troupe of Korean Cutters. One of these Asian Cutters kills Rudi, and Orlaith avers her role as his heir—and we can see where the next book must go (I've been wondering about the "dark forces" and surmised that they would probably have found better fodder in Asia). No rest for the weary. ( )

Better than the last one, which was doing too much catch-up work. This one does a bit of that, but mostly sets up (I assume) the subsequent new arc of the series while adding some nice new threads; I ended it ready to read more.

The 10 installment in the 'Emberverse' series, though I don't know why it is called that. The Change series is probably a better collective title. It all started when some a cataclysmic event occurred on Earth - all combustion and nuclear based technology ceased to work completely, immediately. In this the 10th book after this event, Rudi MacKenzie, aka Artos, High King of Montival, continues to bring the disparate groups of NW USA together in their war to exterminate the evil Cutters. In place of the technology that ruled the Earth before, there is now very limited magic. The Cutters are lead by leaders clearly possessed by evil entities, demons in all but the name.
I like these books for the characters and I always enjoy post-apocalyptic/society rebuild novels, but at this point, by book 10, this is starting to feel like it is dragging on. It doesn't help that from page 1 the meaning of the title is very clear, the eventual conclusion of the plot is no surprise at all. There are also a few very unexplained plot events that deserved some more space, without it they felt strangely jarring and incomplete. Even so, I enjoyed it, but if you haven't read at least some of the previous books, this won't make a lot of sense to you. ( )

I thought this book ended the Emberverse IV series in a good fashion, tieing up the story nicely. I didn't realize there was an Emberverse V series or that it had already began with The Golden Princess which was just released September 2nd. I really liked Stirling's method for advancing the years of the story in the end, setting the stage for the Emberverse V series. I like the 1st four series well enough that I'll probably read series V when they are out, but it is time to read something else for a while.
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I thought this book ended the Emberverse IV series in a good fashion, tieing up the story nicely. I didn't realize there was an Emberverse V series or that it had already began with The Golden Princess which was just released September 2nd. I really liked Stirling's method for advancing the years of the story in the end, setting the stage for the Emberverse V series. I like the 1st four series well enough that I'll probably read series V when they are out, but it is time to read something else for a while.
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