HarperVoyager Darkdawn

I have a few thoughts about Darkdawn, that I will jot down in no particular order.First of all, I liked it, just not as much as the previous books. Darkdawn draws together the threads that have been building throughout the series - the moon, the Everseeing, Cleo, Julius Scaeva, Mia's revenge and he slowly changing relationship with her memory of her dead parents, the gladiators, her two loves: Tric and Ashlinn - and Darkdawn weaves new threads too.This is a grand tale that becomes deeper and darker the longer it goes on. I don't mind dark books, but when you expect all the characters to die it didn't impact me as much as I might have liked when they bit the dust. I must say that I found the ending both disturbing and touching, however.Aspects that I found disappointing include the lack of footnotes! There's only a few scattered throughout. There's also not much of Mister Kindly, which I thought was a shame. Also featuring Jonnen who I didn't really care about. But these are minor quibbles!What made me give this book three stars, a rating that is in my head meaning "enjoyable, but entirely average", was the fact that it took me weeks to read. I'd been excited to read this for ages, even preordering my paperback copy. But when I had it in my hands I just wasn't that motivated to read it. The culminating factor was how cringe-ily pretentious the prose was. I didn't really mind this in the first two books, but Darkdawn really ratchets it up a few notches on the pretentious dial.First of all there's the constant reuse of phrase like "and Mia stood and looked down all the miles and all the years that had brought her here" or "she was a weapon of her own making. All the years and all the blood" or "O, gentlefriends, Mia was soaked in blood. Years of it. Years of killing and bloodshed and sacrifice" etc. etc. These are all off the top of my head but you get the point. WE ALL GET IT. Mia does lots of killing and she's verryyy dark. Then there's all of Mia's pretentious speeches. She's constantly saying stuff like "I am the darkest part of the night." or "I am the war you cannot win" or "I am the dark between the stars" blah blah blah. The sort of things that your character can get away with saying once, at the crux of a long building battle in a totally epic scene. But when she's saying this multiple times it just sounds ... daft. Unrealistic. Absurd. Eh.I enjoyed Darkdawn, but the first books were better.

Delivered right on time by Amazon and cover art was amazing, and after months of waiting I was very excited to read the final book of this trilogy.I enjoyed the first to books hugely- who couldn't enjoy Venice meets Ancient Rome with some magic and assassins thrown in?These first two books (I thought) were building up to the big reveal- why was Mia's mother having an affair? Why was the imperator hell bent on total power? Why had the red church lost its way? And of course why are darkins darkins….The answers either didn't come, fell very flat or were clearly thought through only when it came to the final book so for me this volume fell flat and I frankly lost interest in the story and fate of the characters by the end. All the intrigue that made the first books such good reads was missing.The Lady of Blades betrayed the principles of the red church to....buy her grandsons ponies?The most feared assassin in the world, I mean come on!The pieces of the God was a very good idea, but should have been fed to us slowly throughout the trilogy, it felt very 'Horcrux' like- plonked in at the end. I don't know if the author was trying to build suspense but it didn't work for me.Maybe lots of people will love it, lots of big dramatic moments, but they happen so fast you are fatigued reading them, they tend to merge at the end into one.By all means read, but it is very different in tone to the rest of the series and to me charmless.Well

Having read the first two books in this series, I found this to be a disappointment. The first walked us through the character development of an assassin. The second of a gladiatorial conquest rooted in revenge. This tried to do cosmic battle between enemies and just fell flat.Character development was tired. I even forgot many of the names of new ones just because I never had a reason to care. Familiar faces we’re tired and almost cliche.The plot was unclear from the beginning with two many unexplained plot holes.I wouldn’t recommend this unless you’re as (foolishly) committed to finishing a series once you’ve started.

Taken a long time to decide a star rating for this installment of the Nevernight Trilogy. I'm erring on a 3.5, but bumped it up rather than down. I love the writing, and the world that Kristoff has created, however I found the ending to be a massive let down. Too many conveniences, and what I felt to be a shift in tone. But up until then, I was enjoying the vast majority of this one.

You must buy and read this series. New, original twist on an assassin fantasy. Great plot, excellent story and character development across the three books. Well written and thought out. It's original, addictive, and quite frankly brilliant.