The third volume of the trilogy starts as Nevare escapes to the forest, with a recap of the events at the end of the preceding volume. He has decided to accept his fate and give himself to the magic. Unfortunately though, it still does not tell him what it wants him to do and his attempt to block the road results only in a temporary respite from the tree felling and the abrupt loss of his stored magic. With his skin hanging loose on him, his alter ego Soldier's Boy, created by the theft of part of his soul by Tree Woman/Lisana when he was fifteen, takes over his body and he finds himself literally a passenger for most of the 760 page book.

Soldier's Boy promptly takes up the role of a great one, at last satisfying the Speck woman, Olikea, and 'goes native' to the extent of marking himself, since it is now revealed that the Specks are not born marked but instead mark their children at a young age. He thinks he will finally be given the guidance he needs to use the magic correctly once he has built up his size and magic store again, but things are far from straightforward. He is drawn into a power struggle between Dasie, a young female Great One, and Kinrove, the Greatest of the Great Ones who, it transpires, has been drawing the Specks into a dance to generate the wave of despair and terror which has been afflicting the people of the Gettys settlement and fort. Dasie has mobilised opposition to the dance which has resulted in the premature and traumatic deaths of many of their people. Soldier's Boy thinks he has the answer that the rest of the Great Ones lack, but will discover that he is just as prone to disastrous mistakes as Nevare. Meanwhile, Nevare is an almost powerless onlooker to events, and his attempts to warn his relations and friends by spirit walking when Soldier's Boy is asleep and he can steal some of the magic are less than satisfactory.

Some parts of this story were interesting. We finally get to the see the Speck culture from the inside and a lot of the mysteries about the trees which have ancestor spirits in them such as Lisana/Tree Woman are revealed, including the process by which Great Ones have bonded with their trees. We also see the trading post which the Specks have established on the coast on the far side of the mountains: the coast which is the goal of the King's Road which is the cause of conflict between the Gernian people and the Specks. And there is a good action sequence when Soldier's Boy and Dasie lead a raid on Gettys.

However, a lot of the book consists of interminable descriptions of eating, food, Soldier's Boy being waited upon by his feeders and of their ministrations to him, all witnessed by Nevare. The passivity of Nevare's previous character is sort of explained as being the result of the ruthless and aggressive part of his nature being extracted as his other half, an explanation that reminded me of the 'The Enemy Within' episode of classic Star Trek, but it does become rather tedious to read endless ruminations of his powerless state or his fruitless arguments with his 'host' who wants to merge with and absorb him - something Nevare resists utterly as he believes it will lead to his extinction as a person and will sign the death warrants of everyone in Gettys. For his other self's control of the magic is not complete - Soldier's Boy cannot talk to Lisana/Tree Woman, that aspect remaining with Nevare, and misses her terribly.

In between all this, there are cameo appearances by the old god of death and balances, in the form of a croaker bird. This god began bothering him after he revived a sacrificed dove in book 2. I found this a bit too much - we have umpteen impossible things to suspend disbelief over and this was just one too many. But this god is instrumental in the rather improbable resolution of the book and series.

I found the book disappointing: a shame because there was a lot of potential in the 'Wild West' type setting of this series, so different from a lot of traditional fantasy. But the viewpoint character is paralysingly passive for so much of the story, especially so in this long concluding volume, and the minor and more interesting characters such as his cousin Epiny and her husband/his friend Spink are not able to leaven it sufficiently. His sister Yaril or old mentor Duril hardly appear and the Spink characters are mostly unengaging, with any that have potential such as Moma, given only cameo appearances. The ease with which hunter/gatherer people are able to produce slap up meals continually at the drop of a hat, including baked goods, rather stretched my suspension of disbelief to the breaking point. And the resolution of Nevare's conflict with his dual self and what the magic finally does is a little underwelming. So all in all, for me, this is a 2 star rating. ( )

I feel like Hobb absolutely ran out of steam with this series. While I enjoyed the rushed ending, the lead-up was brutal. Sad, as this series started out so promising! ( )

A great ending for this series. Took an unexpected turn in the middle, but really enjoyed how it all worked out. ( )

. . . I was not expecting this series to end up being a retelling of the Book of Job.

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I really liked the first book in this series. The second, not so much, but it was the bridge gook in the trilogy, and introduced the main character to a whole new kind of life. So, I decided to try the third.

It was shear stubbornness that got me through the book. The best part was the end, probably the last 50 pages or so.

I have read other books by this author and enjoyed them, but this series got bogged down by way too much introspection and lack of plot. Hundreds of pages could have been deleted without seriously affecting the series, other than improving it.
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