Rachel Aaron

Given that the other reviews of the books within this omnibus have been posted under the individual novels, I have done likewise.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3544760282

rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3544760560… (mer)

With this volume, the end of the saga of Eli and his friends arrives. The growing threat to the very existence of their world becomes clear as the story progresses, after a beginning which shows how Eli originally became the favourite of the Shepherdess, one of the three Powers who rule creation. At last, the truth is revealed about her and her two brothers, and the reason for their roles. Insight is thrown on more minor characters such as the Lord of Storms, Eli's parents and the mysterious character Sparrow. And the characters are forced to rely on unreliable allies in the fight against the ultimate threat. In the course of the story, the character arcs of the main players - Eli, Josef, Nico and Miranda - experience major developments and resolutions. The world in which they live also experiences a major transformation.

The main detraction I found were quite a few typos and other mistakes, such as 'bare' when 'bear' is meant and one place in particular where a couple of continuity errors stood out - a character removes his coat twice and someone folds their arms twice in succession - which occurred in the space of a few pages. I also wasn't sold on the ending - it was nice that it was happy, but in reverting back to their original partnership as a trio of thieves, it is almost as if Eli, Nico and Josef have thrown away their character growth. The story made it clear why Eli had fixated on being the greatest thief in the world with the biggest bounty on his head, so why, with the resolution of the Shepherdess' claim on him should he still be occupied with that? It had the effect of trivialising what went before. So for those reasons, my overall rating is 4 stars.… (mer)

This third volume in the series continues and deepens the dark turn that volume two began to take with the further development of Nico's battle with the demon who speaks in her mind, through the medium of the demonseed. Finally we learn how Nico was used as an incubator for the seed, a fate befalling other wizards, especially children. We also see how she is manipulated by the demon who seeks to drive a wedge between her and Eli in particular.

As the story opens, Eli Monpress has decided to lie low for a while, and he and Josef and Nico travel to the remote village in the plains where we finally learn what he has been doing with all the wealth he has been stealing. But the chance for a holiday (and not a seaside holiday as the blurb has it) is lost when Pele, daughter of the Shaper wizard, Slorn, arrives to beg their help. Her mother has been murdered for the demonseed inside her, a seed which Slorn had fought to help her contain for the past decade, and Slorn has gone after the murderer. Now she fears something awful has happened to him.

Meanwhile, Spirtualist (a type of wizard who forms contracts with the spirits in nature and inanimate objects - not the spirits of the dead as the name might lead readers to expect) Miranda has been offered a job in charge of a branch of government dealing with Eli's capture. However, she and her ghosthound Gin are soon co-opted for a joint team to go after him in person, at the instigation of Sara, the eccentric head of the Council's wizards and someone who has many agendas. They have a side mission of finding Slorn, and this will bring them to the same area in which Eli begins the search.

It soon becomes clear that the men whom Sara assigns to accompany Miranda have their own orders, kept secret from her. I do also wonder if one of them could connect with a late revelation in the book, so it will be interesting to see how that develops - certainly his abilities do seem rather more than the normal human ones.

The positive aspects of this book were the focus on Nico and the various revelations about aspects of the back story which are now coming into focus and becoming interesting, including the story of the previous battle against the Master demon and a greater insight into the League whose job it is to contain his seeds. There are a couple of good revelations at the very end, including surprising news about Eli.

The less good aspects are firstly that Eli is even less of a character than ever. His main role in the story is to be pushed around by various people who want to capture him, either to bring him to justice (Miranda) or to obtain the reward for him (Bandit Izo) or to satisfy Sara's secret agenda. He also acts like a stroppy teenager at one stage. Similarly, Josef doesn't do any more than we have seen him do before, although he does now have a better relationship with his Awakened sword, Heart of War, and the sword's true nature is finally revealed. But there have been rather too many occasions now where Josef has been seriously, even fatally, wounded and then brought back from the brink. And Miranda, who was the strength of the previous books, has a very minor role in this.

However, given the various interesting revelations and the focus on Nico and her struggle against the demon, this volume is an improvement on the first two, and I therefore rate it at 4 stars.… (mer)

Read this omnibus edition, but given that the other reviews of the books within it have been posted under the individual novels, I have done likewise.

[b:The Spirit Thief|25704512|The Spirit Thief (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #1)|Rachel Aaron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433975179l/25704512._SY75_.jpg|12861382] - reviewed - rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3544760074

[b:The Spirit Rebellion|8098146|The Spirit Rebellion (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #2)|Rachel Aaron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388474230l/8098146._SY75_.jpg|12863050] - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3544760342

[b:The Spirit Eater|8425213|The Spirit Eater (The Legend of Eli Monpress, #3)|Rachel Aaron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397681242l/8425213._SY75_.jpg|13288379] - reviewed - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3544760445.

Apart from The Spirit Eater, which I rated as four stars, I gave these books three stars each, hence my rating for the omnibus as a whole.… (mer)