Note: This review contains spoilers, so don’t read it unless you've read Coda (and the previous books) or don’t care about spoilers.Before I say anything else, I just want to make it clear – despite my many complaints, I do love this book. It is a very worthy ending to the series, enjoyable… but I just don’t think that it is one of those books you finish, leap up and down and wish there was a six star rating instead of five.From the start, Green makes it clear that this book is not about Owen Deathstalker, as such. This in itself, at least to me, was a disappointment. No, Green makes it completely crystalline that we, along with the universe, are supposed to have moved on; and once again it’s all about the current Deathstalker and his companions defeating the tyrant.So I guess I’ll start dealing with Owen, as he barely gets three chapters. A warning to all readers of this book – a lot of Owen’s travels through time will really screw your mind as to the cause and effect of a lot of things. And you’ll probably end up like me – trying to figure it out, then giving yourself a headache and deciding it doesn’t actually matter to the story, and moving on. Spoiler alert ahead. :)(view spoiler)[One of the first things that Owen did was go back to the days of the old Empire, when the world was just beginning… and he meets his ancestor, Giles Deathstalker, as a young boy. Wow, Green, you really hit me over the head with that one; even though I really should have expected it to happen. One of the most poignant moments in the entire series for me was when Giles described his happy childhood with his dogs, running through the forest on the trail of a scent, happy as the day was long. It was unbelievable being suddenly slapped with the happy little Giles, when you know how his story is going to turn out. But one person that I felt awful for, and I have a suspicion that a lot of people forget, is the Empress Hermione. I expected a strong, beautiful woman who would grow to willingly throw herself upon the Deathstalker as an escape from her power hungry husband, the Emperor. Instead we find a young girl, one of many previous wives and pregnant to a man far older and far fouler than she is. Again, you know how her story will end, and I felt unbearably sorry for her, suspecting that starved for affection it would have been easy for grown-up Giles to use Hermione for his own ends and then throw her to the wolves. Poor girl. (hide spoiler)]
