Synopsis (from Goodreads): In the five Ramusian kingdoms, an entire generation has lived in peace. But when old enemies clash, the fate of Normannia will be sealed-once and for all.
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*** MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS IF YOU HAVE NOT READ BOOKS 1 -4***
“The Thrilling Conclusion!” Or so says the cover of the book. Was it thrilling? Maybe a little. Was it conclusive? No, not at all.
My initial impression of the book was that it was unnecessary. It starts off 15 years after the events of the first four books. The main plot of books 1 – 4, being the war with the Merduks, was concluded in The Second Empire. the whole time i was reading this book it felt more like the start of a new part of the series rather than a conclusion. the ending certainly wasn’t conclusive at all and left a lot of loose ends.
A lot of this book was spent introducing the next generation, the children of the characters from the previous books, and filling in what’s happened during the past 15 years. But, as is typical of most of the characters introduced in this series, the new people we are introduced to fall flat. They get so little of the spotlight that the reader never really gets to know them and what we do see of them is not essential to the overall plot of this book.
There is, however, a lot of action in this book. There’s a lot of slaughter and death, so if you like any of the characters, don’t get attached. they’re probably going to die.
What saved this book and made it worth reading, for me, was the character of Corfe. He is my favorite of all the characters and really get the spotlight. His journey in the book is probably the only reason I kept reading.
I give Ships from the West 2/5 stars.
The series overall, I give 3/5 stars. It had a good amount of action to the keep the reader interested, and the battle scenes were amazingly described. I enjoyed the character of Corfe Cear-Inaf and the sort of sub plot of the tragic love between him and his wife, Heria. They both suffer a great deal and never truly let go of the pain of losing one another.
As for what I didn’t like, I think this far outweighs the things I did like. There is a definite lack of strong female characters in this series. The female character I did like, gets very little page time, but at least what time she did get wasn’t disappointing.
The third person omniscient pov that this series is told in is, for me, very irritating. I don’t know which character is currently the focus from time to time and I find that confusing. I much prefer pov’s that focus on one person at a time.
There were a lot of loose ends that were left over at the end of book five, (the conclusion) and little things that took place that just seemed unnecessary.
I’m happy to be finished this series, and while I don’t regret reading it, this isn’t a series that I will keep to reread in the future.
Have you read this series? What did you think? Please leave any thoughts in the comments.
Thanks for reading!