Sourcethief (Twinborn Trilogy #3) by J.S. Morin
The war spills into Tellurak. and Twinborn plots spanning the two worlds threaten the course of the war from all sides, including within the empire itself.
Desperate to find a way to counter the unstoppable power of an army led by a demon warlock, Jinzan Fehr seeks an ancient source of power.
Thus begins the Fourth Necromancer War ...
Review: The originality of the concept for this series, having characters live lives in two very different worlds, was what first struck me that this was going to be something very special. The author continues to impress me, not only did he go on with this idea but has developed it as well. The importance of passing information between worlds, having alliances that work on both sides and many other important ideas are all developed in this book.
The descriptions are again of the perfect length, there is enough detail to fully visualize the world, but they are not so lengthy that they take to you away from the story for too long.
The reminders of what has happened in the previous two books was almost always the right length, enough there to remind the reader of an event but not so long that you feel you are rereading the story again. The nature of Iridan’s death was about the only thing that I felt wasn’t detailed enough early on, although later in the story I was given enough to remember how it happened.
The characters are again enjoyable and their personalities continue to develop. I really liked how Brannis and Kyrus have blended together, both becoming stronger as a result. It was interesting to read about Kyrus’s doubts about whether he is doing the right thing and fear he will turn into another Rashan. The thoughts and feelings of all the characters are believable, interesting to read about, and come across clearly.
While it is now clear exactly who is good and who is evil, there is always enough good in evil characters, and evil in good characters to keep them realistic and more interesting. The evil characters often also see themselves as doing the right thing.
The relationships between the characters across both worlds are done well, along with the many plot points that are both in their own world and across both. For the most I was able to follow who was who, and what was going on, only a couple of times did I feel a little lost. Considering just how much is going on and how complex it all is, this was quite a feat.
We get to see even more of the world in this book, and like the characters it is varied and has real depth to it. It is really well done especially considering there are two worlds in this book.
The story is excellent, there are many plot points all being developed through the book, almost all of them are interesting and continue the overall story in some way.
The action sequences for the first three quarters of the book were rare. There was interesting things going on with the story, but I did think it could do with some more excitement at times. Also most of the early action scenes are very one sided and it was pretty obvious who was going to win (Rashan battling against unknown soldiers, Brannis and his friends fighting off some street thugs, and Jinzan with his staff attacking civilians and local militia). Since all of these main characters were so much more powerful than those they were fighting against, it took away from the tension and you never felt they were in any real danger. The battle scenes for the remainder of the book are fantastic, Avalanche really gets to live up to its name, and when the main characters finally get to face each other, the scenes are exciting, varied and you are never sure who is going to win.
Just like the previous two books this is a big one. It has a fairly small print and large page sizes so it is even longer than the 381 pages would suggest. It’s not a problem since so much happens and it is almost all interesting.
The author did an excellent job of tying up the loose ends, but left a few just loose enough that there could be more books in the series, but if there aren’t then you aren’t left feeling something has been missed out.
I have really enjoyed this series and it is easily my favorite read of 2013. It is one of those books where I found myself really hoping that the book and author will be successful in a big way. The story is so fantastic that the author truly deserves to have it be successful, the originality, story, characters, and quality of writing is so much superior to major fantasy novels out there I really want to see this series do well.
If I had to decide I would probably pick book two Aethersmith as my favorite in the series. Almost everything about this book was great, the story, the characters, the worlds, the descriptions, and the many plot points, it was just lacking a little action and fast pacing compared to the Aethersmith.
I am excited about the authors next project “The Mad Tinker Chronicles” which will pair up Tellurak with a completely new world, which seems to be more steampunky, in a new Twinborn series. I had been thinking for some time how cool it would be to have other worlds for the Twinborns to live in and I am glad to see this will be happening. And if it anywhere near as good as this series it is likely to be my favorite read in 2014.
A big thank you to the author for sending me a copy of this book.
In full disclosure I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: ***** + ♥
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