Book three of the trilogy starts with the return of Bayaz's band of travellers to Adua, the capital city of the Union, unsuccessful in their epic journey to find the Seed, a dangerous weapon from the long ago past. Logen leaves the group to head back North, to rejoin his people in their fight against the self-styled King of the Northerners, leaving his relationship with Ferro unresolved. She hangs around to wait for the return of the Mage who had brought her from the South, meaning to return to her endless quest for revenge against the Gurkish overlords who enslaved her. And Jezal briefly enjoys a manufactured triumph which takes him by surprise, someone having spread stories of his military prowess on the journey - a pack of lies which he eventually learns has been spread by the First of the Magi, Bayaz, for the latter's own reasons.

West, and his commander Burr, meanwhile, arranges with the Northerners who befriended West in book 2, and who now have a growing body of other Northeners who have defected, for them to decoy the Northern King's army to a fortress where the Union army can entrap and defeat said army. But tragedy strikes, trapping the Named Men we have followed since Book 1, and Logen also, into a desperate holdout against overwhelming odds. Meanwhile, back in Adua, Glotka comes under increasing pressure from the displeasure of his superior, Sult, and the city itself eventually is subjected to the onslaught of the Gurkish army and their zombie Eater enforcers.

As before, the book is a tour de force of writing, with the action scenes some of the best I've read, and the twists and turns of plot and characterisation keeping me guessing. I loved the scene where West finally brings the two ghastly generals to heel. But this volume finally earns the label grimdark which I thought the other two books did not fall into. After the partial redemption in the characters of Logen and Jezal, among others, in book 2, in this everything falls into a nihilistic quagmire. With the single exemption of some compassion shown by the least likely of all, Glokta, most of the characters turn fully to the Dark Side. Logen finally gives in to the beserker side of his character, shown previously in the other two books, with devastating results for friends and innocents; Bayaz is revealed as just as bad as his counterpart on the Gurkish side and in some aspects worse, even entertaining a former apprentice who is a part-time Eater, and literally viewing the Union people he is meant to be helping as cattle. Jezal, who had seemed for a while to be developing some maturity and concern for others, is rather too forcefully branded a "coward" against overwhelming odds. And for one of my favourites, West, who was undergoing his own dark night of the soul over his treatment of his sister in book 1, there is no happy ending either. I don't really "get" what happened to him, since the effects of the magical weapon can't be identical to those of nuclear radiation, despite their resemblance to radiation sickness, or a large part of Adua would be uninhabitable, and Jezal, for example, who helped to dig people out of the ruins, shows no sign of succumbing to the sickness. Besides, other people West was with at the time the weapon was used, such as Pike, are healthy at the end of the story.

In this volume another female character is introduced (or reintroduced as she played a bit part in book 1) but is thoroughly unpleasant, as is the way she eventually is "brought round" to her expected role. It is a bit "dodgy" that it is implied that her nasty character is due to her sexual preferences, rather than simple arrogance and snobbery - similar attitudes had been shown towards West and his sister throughout the trilogy by male characters without that being in anyway linked to their sexuality.

Given my reservations and in particular the fate of a favourite which seemed unnecessary and gratuitous, I can only award this 3 stars. ( )

Am i missing something or the book ends with Logen hurtling himself through a windows in Carleon's great hall, Glokta with Rews torturing Sult, no mention of Ferro and her whereabouts after ghosting Bayaz.
There are just so many loose ends! ( )

Good end to the series. Surprisingly drawn out conclusions for every character. Too dark to fully enjoy. ( )

What a good series.

This is a strange book, because while the contents are dark and gritty, the writing style makes me feel like I am reading Harry Potter, so it's a strange dissonance when reading this book.

The ending was merely satisfactory though. He definitely subverted the merlin legend and I am grateful for that. Good Series! ( )

Simultaneously satisfying and unsatisfying ( )