Wow. It's been awhile since I've felt a series built up to a great pay-off like this. He continues to build a world and characters that feel so real and organic, which of course creates a very believable unpredictability.And the antagonist; so terrifying and yet fragile all at the same time. The accomplices such perfect helpers in their own ways. Some of the previous books had their slow spots (I should actually say 'intentional') but it all led to such a dynamic tapestry for the final showdown. Excellence. Bravo. A fine ending for this complex and subtle series. As much as I enjoyed the first book, the rest show an even better grade of writing. The final plot resolution to the 4th book's complication made perfect sense. It fit everything we were built up to understand and expect.Somewhere in the third book it struck me that Mr. Abraham was cheating. But he does it well! Most of the use of "pose" etiquette in the cities of the Khaieim is a clever way of adding information. Some novice writers are clumsy by overusing using phases like "...he said angrily." This is adding information that may not have been obvious from the dialog alone. Poses accomplish that in much greater depth. There were many places he wrote something like (paraphrasing here), "...struck a pose that meant ending the conversation but leaving open the possibility of picking it up again later."At some point he may have been overdoing it but I gave him a pass on that, leaving my rating as 5 stars.He handles the twists of characters so well, such as how Maati starts out nearly worshipping Otah and then comes to resent him deeply. It is explained with a delicate masterful writer's hand. Or how about the way he presents deep dilemmas, such as the sterility of the men and women of to nations. Otah was right to plan mass movements of opposite sexes for the purposes of future survival while Eiah was also right to condemn it.Two thumbs up.
Exceptional end to one of the most original and well executed epic fantasies to come along in many a year. Despite the whole series being about the same length as the door-stoppers that have become quite common in the genre, and despite much of that space being spent focused on the detailed internal lives of the characters and the intracies of their interactions, Abraham manages to tell a sweeping story of a world facing dramatic change. There is no dark lord here, just the evil humans can create and the conflicts between disparate visions of the future. A detailed review would be more involved than I wished to delve into at the moment. This is a brilliant series and a brilliant book with the subtly that I often find absent in the field. Can not recommend this enough.
—sub
The price of spring is really well written and I really did like the last of the books in this quartet. What I do need to say about it though is that much of the detail put into it can become too much and certain points of the story felt rushed (the final moments of Vanjit and what happened shortly after).Outside of little things like that, I'd say it was a good story and one that leaves much to thinking, about people around you, about what makes a life good, what makes a person good or bad, about how you treat your fellow man.All in all though, I think it had a good ending, an ending worthy of Otah-Machi.
—kristutte
Okay, when they found all the letters, I started sobbing. Fantastic ending to a wonderful tale.
—Sunshine965
I don't know why I enjoyed this series so much, but I really did.
—Bawk
