Anthony Ryan

Queen of Fire is the spectacular conclusion to the internationally bestselling Raven's Shadow series - a powerful tale of desperate battles, deadly politics and epic adventure. EMPIRES WILL FALL Queen Lyrna has survived the bloody siege of Alltor. Now she must rally her troops and take back the capital from the Volarian invaders. But driving her hated enemy out of the Realm will not satisfy her lust for vengeance - she wants to pursue them across the ocean and burn their empire to ashes. To do so, she must place her faith in the Seventh Order: men and women who wield terrible powers, born of the Dark itself. Vaelin Al Sorna would sacrifice his life for his queen - and may yet have to. Only by unmasking the Volarians' mysterious Ally can the tide of war be turned. To this end, Vaelin must travel deep into the icebound north, in search of a man who cannot die - and he must do it without the aid of his blood song, which has fallen ominously silent . . . Praise for Raven's Shadow: 'Engrossing' - Buzzfeed 'Powerful' - SFFWorld 'Compelling' - SFX Books by Anthony Ryan: Raven's Shadow Blood Song Tower Lord Queen of Fire Raven's Blade The Wolf's Call (coming July 2019) The Draconis Memoria The Waking Fire The Legion of Flame The Empire of Ashes

Book 3 of Raven's Shadow

Queen of Fire

"In the thrilling conclusion to the bestselling Raven's Shadow trilogy, Vaelin Al Sorna must help his queen reclaim her Realm. Only his enemy has a dangerous new collaborator, one with powers darker than Vaelin has ever encountered. The Ally is there, but only ever as a shadow, unexplained catastrophe or murder committed at the behest of a dark and vengeful spirit. Sorting truth from myth is often a fruitless task. After fighting back from the brink of death, Queen Lyrna is determined to repel the invading Volarian army and regain the independence of the Unified Realm. Except, to accomplish her goals, she must do more than rally her loyal supporters. She must align herself with forces she once found repugnant -- those who possess the strange and varied gifts of the Dark -- and take the war to her enemy's doorstep. Victory rests on the shoulders of Vaelin Al Sorna, now named Battle Lord of the Realm. However, his path is riddled with difficulties. For the Volarians have a new weapon on their side, one that Vaelin must destroy if the Realm is to prevail: a mysterious Ally with the ability to grant unnaturally long life to his servants. And defeating one who cannot be killed is a nearly impossible challenge, especially when Vaelin's blood-song, the mystical power that has made him the epic fighter he is, has gone ominously silent."

vairë randir

altlovesbooks

There isn't a lot for me to say about this one. The book was...long. I felt like there were pacing issues throughout the book. We spent an inordinate amount of time focusing on little details and plot threads in the beginning, and then breezed past major developments and events later on. Characterization seemed like a mess, with Vaelin becoming this immortal Gary Stu character and trekking through the arctic for a good 2/3rds of the book. Queen Lyrna's developments were also somewhat abrupt, and the whiplash between her motives and character decisions was real. The ending was also abrupt and unsatisfying, with several plot threads just left hanging. I don't know if the author was planning on there being another book in the series, or if he's planning on picking up these threads with another series entirely, but as it is most of the non-main plots aren't acknowledged. 

In short, this series ended a fair distance away from its 5-star beginning. I was very disappointed.

Jenna Kathleen

I went into Queen of Fire not expecting much after hearing a lot of bad reviews. Blood Song is one of my favourite books and I also loved Tower Lord, and Queen of Fire was definitely not on the same scale. It was alright, but there were too many long, dragged out scenes (mostly of travelling on ice) and if you switched characters' names to different POVs, you would barely be able to tell the difference. 
Vaelin (view spoiler)[ without his blood song is just not nearly as cool as before  (hide spoiler)] and there are not enough Vaelin fight scenes or POV chapters in general.

Annelies Van Rossen

Pro's: Vaelin Al Sorna, Frentis, Alucius, interessant aspect van de zang

Con's: teveel personages zonder betekenis, teveel perspectieven

DNF 50% Het eerste boek was zo geweldig. Het tweede boek was ook goed maar al minder. Het derde boek was gewoon een teleurstelling. Ik denk dat het verschil tussen boek 1 met twee vertelperspectieven en boek 3 met ongeveer zes vertelperspectieven voor mij te groot was. Als je dan maar drie ervan echt goed uitgewerkt vind als personage. De focus veranderde duidelijk tussen de boeken. Het verhaal verloor daardoor een beetje mijn interesse. Wat jammer was, wnt het verhaal was zo sterk in boek 1 en ook in boek 2 was er niks op aan te merken.

Heather Killeen

This took me waaayyy too long to finish. I love richly created worlds and a cast of interesting characters, but this series just got so bloated in minutiae of endless skirmishes, politics, religious ideologies, not to mention a multitude of clashing cultures and character arcs that the plot was weighed down and slowed to a crawl. It got harder and harder to remember who was who and where they all were and the timelines between their various stories as they began to all come together. The Blood Song is still one of my favorite books of all time, so I really wanted to like this book more, but I can't help but wish that the story spent more time on a smaller cast of characters, it would have made me care more about what happened to them by the end.

Queen of Fire Book 3 of Raven's Shadow

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