The Books of Pellinor are a high fantasy series that is a more accessible version of Tolkein's Lord of the Rings with the same richness of imagery and world building but with straightforward names and a less complicated history. That said it could also be that The Books of Pellinor are less intimidating because they're not as famous or as widely read as Tolkein.

The Books of Pellinor are set in the land of Edil-Amarandh - a land which has been on the precipe of danger for years - ever since Sharma, the Nameless One stole the Treesong from the Elementals (Elidhu) and broke the song. Cadvan of Lirigon is working against the dark but there's only so much he can do - until while on a mission he runs into Maerad - a slave girl who can see through his invisibility. Soon they're travelling together and finding that all is not right in the land. Then Maerad leads Cadvan to a boy named Hem and nothing is the same. Maerad and Hem have an instant connection and it's not long before Cadvan realises nothing happens without a reason and that only by working together can the light prevail.

Like the second book in the series, the third book picks up after the group flees Norloch but this time focusing on Hem and Saliman and their journey to Turbansk in the south. This novel runs concurrently to The Riddle. I had great expectations for this book because the first two of the series were absolutely brilliant. And it delivered.

This book may actually be my favourite of the series. I like Maerad but Hem is my favourite character and an entire book about him is perfection. I liked how he came to find his passion for healing and his talent for spying. And I adored the relationship between him and Saliman - I loved that he found he could love and trust and rely on Saliman to look after him and protect him and just be there for him. And IRC!!! I loved Irc the Crow and his thieving ways.

Only Irc seemed untouched by the rising despair that pervaded Turbansk. He told Hem, with a hoarse chuckle, that it was a good time for him: he was building an impressive collection of shiny spoons, buttons, and other treasures filched from the palace, which he had hidden somewhere under the eaves of the roof.

Croggon, Alison. The Crow: The Third Book of Pellinor (Pellinor Series 3) (p. 147). Candlewick Press. Kindle Edition. And I adored how Hem outwitted him.

Irc could count, but only up to five (a useful disability for Hem, who regularly emptied Irc’s treasure troves — as long as he left five objects, the crow didn’t notice anything was missing).

Croggon, Alison. The Crow: The Third Book of Pellinor (Pellinor Series 3) (p. 177). Candlewick Press. Kindle Edition.

Zelinka was fiery and I loved the friendship between her and Hem. And my heart broke for Hem when he found out she died. Poor Hem. It was a brutal blow. And it sucked - he loved her - he was going to marry her. Especially since he went all that way and she was dead before he even entered the compound. I was heartbroken by it. I really liked Zelika and I would've liked to see them make a go of it afterwards. I'm glad Saliman was there for Hem when he found out. Hared was a total badass and I would've loved to see the meeting between him and Hem after he'd disobeyed all his orders but returned with all the intel. I've got the feeling it would've been impressive.

531 pages and it felt way too short. It was fantastic and I adored every minute. 5 stars. ( )

I really wish I didn't have to read so many thick books of this to find out what happens to the characters.
I really like the characters, but other than that, I really couldn't care less.

The writing style is tedious, and I don't even know what's going on half the time. Honestly that's probably because every now and then I zone out and don't pay attention, but I do that because it's written super tediously. Also, sometimes its just confusing... there's a couple scenes that I read over and over again, and still couldn't figure out what happened.

The plot is... unoriginal.
Uh oh, the Dark is rising again! Now the Light must vanquish the Dark! And take a lot of long, thick books getting around to it! When half the book is pointless to the plot anyways! And there must be lots of traveling! And I'm BORED!
I've read this plot waayyyyyyyy too many times already. The Lord of the Rings, The Sword of Shannara, Eragon. Probably a gazillion other things as well. I am SO bored of it.

The world is confusing. I can't keep straight all the names of places. There is so many, and they all sound the same. And half of them I swear the author just put a bunch of letters in a bag, and pulled them out randomly, then arranged them in a way that was almost pronounceable, and used that.

The characters are pretty good. None of them are amazing, but I like them, and I need to know what happens to them. This book was about Hem, a minor character from the first book though, so that was... interesting.

I like him, but he doesn't make a very good protagonist. In the first two, the MC was 16, but in The Crow, the character is only twelve. And, well, he reads like a twelve year old boy. And he just seemed too young for me to truly enjoy it, and didn't match up with the first two very well.
Then there's Saliman. He's Hem's mentor figure, and I like him very much. He seems very similar to, Cadvan, who was the mentor figure for the first two books, and I wish he'd had a slightly more different personality, but I still like him a lot.
One of my favourites was Zelika, she was feisty, and rude, and I love her.
I think my favourite character though, was the crow, Irc. He's so funny, and he's always stealing shiny objects, and he cracks me up. Also he can talk. Or, Hem can talk to him, I guess. I love him very much.

Over all, this book wasn't for me. I think the series is good, and well written, I just personally don't like the writing style, and am bored by the plot. If you like this sort of thing though, it's definitely worth a read. ( )

This book, the third in the series, is particularly dark, with the feeling of threat and unease woven throughout the second half of the book. Some of the imagery is particularly unsettling, especially that regarding children, with sections that reminded me of Nazi concentration camps. I say this because this book is listed in the Junior section of my local library, which I'm not entirely sure is suitable, I would suggest Young Adult would be more appropriate.

With all of that said, I still enjoyed the journey, the friendships and the magery. ( )

Book three of Croggon's Pellinor series, this installment follows the adventures of Hem and his new companions, Irc (a white crow he rescues) and Zelika, a refugee fleeing the front lines after the destruction of her city. Hem has to grow up considerably in this story and he discovers something about the part he must play in the final confrontation with the Nameless One.

Since it had been over a year between Book Two and Book Three, it took a couple of chapters to get back into the story. However, without being too heavy-handed about it, Croggon included enough back story in the first chapters to pull me back into the world she has conjured into being. While this is YA (Hem is 12) it's at the more mature end of YA.

I have just finished to read the complete series and as I am a great epic fan I only can say that I loved these books and was finaly very sad when it came to an end. I thought all the books were very discriptive, the character development was great and the narrative of the books was wonderful. Alison Croggon is a great story teller as you could live the story with the characters. I have read the Lord of the Rings as well, but I've found no more parallels in this books than in any other fantasy novels. The books take you to very well described places and you can imagine them all as you go along, I found the books not boring at all and found it much more difficult to actually put them down. ( )