RANTS AND RAMBLES
NOTE: Though I strive to adequately support the opinions expressed in my reviews, they are still just opinions. If you like a book I hate, I’m happy for you. Additionally, though I am normally overly negative in this section, I wanted to highlight the improvements this book makes to the series, so the majority of my rants are positive in nature. Lest this provide a skewed view of my perceptions of the novel, please refer to my overall star rating for my unified opinion on this book.

• This review is somewhat abbreviated as it is the third in a series and I did not feel like belaboring points already made previously. Please check out my reviews for The Sorcerer’s Inception, and A Manifold of Bindings if you want a more in-depth discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the series.
• The magic system of these books revolves around runes being placed in correct configurations at the correct time to enable specific effects. It is, therefore, advantageous to be able to store runes for faster future use. The common form of this is “scorching a palette,” when sorcerers place runes on a magical plate for activation as specific times, but this is not the only application. Torrez has tattoos of runes on his hands and rings with runes on his fingers, enabling him to rotate the rings to different positions, creating different arrangements of runes and, therefore, different magical effects. This is one of the coolest, albeit mundane, permutations of magic in the series, but I do wonder why this type of “on demand” magic is limited to relatively benign effects. Why not use it for combat purposes? This limitation doesn’t feel out of place, so there is probably a reason, but the magic system is a bit soft, so I wonder…
• MINOR SPOILERS: A new and unique type of character introduced in this book, Arca are spirits bound to mechanical bodies. Superficially, it seems like a successful version of the mechanization many members of Santilis’s society were attempting to perform on their bodies, but in Vanquil, the arrangement effectively creates a servant class of immortal, sentient, mechanical beings. And binding souls to objects is not restricted to the Arca but is, in fact, a staple of Vanquil magic. The traps, weapons, security devices, and more powered through this magic are not critical to the story, but this interesting detail sets Vanquil apart and gives the country much-needed depth.
• MINOR SPOILERS: This book is considerably longer than it needs to be. Meandering conversation and lots of repetition make the story drag, even amidst action. In high-stakes environments where every second counts, people say things in drawn-out fashion. There are recap sentences at the end of many paragraphs. Finally, there is an abundance of repetition, including reminders that Maluem cannot heal Cruentus, a very long sentence on page 650 which sums up the whole setting of the book, and things which are described every single time they show up (ex. black eyes with white centers of the Avalons, golden eyes of werewolves, Cruentus’s rune cigar, the connection between Maluem and Cruentus, Maluem’s dislike of crass language). Tighter writing could have eliminated one third of the book without sacrificing any content, and the resulting volume would read better.
• SPOILERS: Consistency of the magic system continues to be a problem in this book. Examples include 1) Volo’s translucency: why can he pass through things on a ship but does not fall through the ship’s deck? Is he flying or levitating? 2) At one point, the protagonists are looking for hidden compartments using clarity runes and detection spells. They see nothing until the carpet is removed at which point the compartments become clear. Why can’t the magic see through carpet? If the carpet is some kind of magic shield, why can’t the spells pick it up? 3) Volo can split into multiple versions of himself and recombine them later to assimilate all their experiences, but the experience is a bit traumatic. At one point, he has split 20 times so “the resulting coalescing session would likely claim his mind…” Why doesn’t he simply recombine two versions at a time until all splits are re-merged? In a previous situation, time was a constraint, but that isn’t the case here. Slow and steady seems possible, and safer, by the rules of the book. By contrast, a sequence in chapter 32 where Volo splits to do more research is good. It logically and creatively builds upon what he has learned and includes some exciting problem solving.
• MAJOR SPOILERS: As with the previous books, the plot meanders and lacks an overall unifying thread; however, the beginning of the book and the climax are great. The last eighty pages organically bring together Maluem’s goal to collect the final piece of Dorjakt’s scythe and a more pressing concrete goal of the second half of the book. The whole section is exciting, well-paced, and includes tense action. We meet Dorjakt, the antagonist of the series. It turns out he is Maluem and Cruentus’s father which should have been a jaw-dropping moment, but because we barely know him, the moment is considerably less personal than it should have been. On the other hand, Dorjakt is the first truly frightening enemy of the series, supporting what is by far the best ending of the series.