/lit/ - Literature

>>19001704
Priest of Gallows (War for the Rose Throne #3) - Peter McLean (2021)
After coming off from the personal disappointment that was the ending of the second book, I was concerned that would affect my enjoyment of third book. Thankfully, it didn't. While this book was significantly divergent in many ways, mainly my expectation of where it was going and what characters would be doing, I still derived great pleasure from the many happenings. Perhaps that's the wrong thing to say considering some of the brutal scenes, but it's true. There was one character in particular that I had great hopes for, but it doesn't seem that will be the case.
The greatest addition to my enjoyment from this trilogy has been the narrative voice of the protagonist, mostly literally, though also figuratively. As this is an entirely subjective matter, it may not have any bearing on its worthwhileness for most others, as I haven't the slightest idea how common this sort of reaction would be. It's so integral to my reading of this though that it bears mentioning. One of the reason I don't listen to audiobooks is that it's just odd to me to not to be hearing my own internal narration.
The greatest subtraction from my enjoyment for this book in particular was the decision to include several contemporary events and concerns, by which I mean almost verbatim sayings and occurrences from recent years. Maybe future readers won't connect it to what was happening at the time, but I'm a present day reader. The ending also disappointed again with how overdone it was and what it seems the fourth book will be about. I'll probably still rather enjoy it overall and give it a four star rating as well. If it weren't for the two aforementioned problems I may have rated this 4.5 rounded up. There are a lot of questionable choices and not the slightest hint of subtlety in any way whatsoever, but it's just too much fun for me to really care.
Rating: 4/5