Crowfall by Ed McDonald

My favourite of the trilogy.

There’s a long gap between the second and third books, six years. Galharrow has been spending most of his time in the Misery and has become irrevocably changed by it. He has become something more and less than human as his plan he came up starts to come to its conclusion. The Deep Kings are coming again and with the Nameless in disarray, it will be up to him and his companions to stop them.

I’ve really enjoyed these books, they’ve gotten better as they’ve progressed. The first felt raw and was trying too hard but the author’s style has really improved over the series. There’s no getting around that these are pretty bleak books but there is a fair bit of heroism and hope that goes through them, so in some ways I didn’t think they were as depressing as some ‘grimdark’ books can be.

Galharrow has come a long way since the first book. Though some of the things he has done have been questionable, overall he has become a much better and sympathetic character. His relationship to the people around him and to the Misery is great to read about and I love that we learned more about how the whole world works, though it’s still pretty mysterious in a lot of ways. A Sanderson system and world this is not.

The great mystery of this book was to see what the plan Galharrow, Maldon and Dantry had come up with. I was mostly right. I actually thought it was going to be what did happen rather than what they planned but it was great seeing it all come together. I have no idea if there is going to be more books set in this world but I think after seeing the progress of the author over the series I will definitely be interested in seeing what he does.

4.5 stars.