----SPOILERS----''You can almost hear the beating of His Wings''I think that in order to review this book, you need to review the entire trilogy, because this last installment in the franchise brings back a lot of facts from the previous books. I liked 1st book, disliked the 2nd one, and loved this 3rd one. The author is really witty and if you don't decide to ''jump'' in his way of narrating the events, you'll end up hating the book. Cale being weak and sick the whole book was at the same time bad and good. This wasn't the Cale we were used to, the warrior, the angel of death, but instead he was the strategist. The sick and pale one that needed to sleep even during battles in order to maintain an already poor level of health. His ambiguous personality reaches its peak in this book, but I think that we know that he's not an angel of death or that he's bad. Cale grew up in a house of horrors and Arbell broke his trust. That left him bitter, but a decision by the end of the book shows that Cale's soul or at least energy is being reborn.Kleist unfortunatelly don't show up in this book like he did in the second. In fact, he almost don't say anything the whole book, which as a huge turn down for me, since he was what saved the second book from being utterly terrible. Henri Vague has got to be the most enjoyable character of the trilogy. He does it again in this book and I hated his closure. Speaking of closure, the final battle against the Redeemers is sure to make a lot of people angry, And I dare to say that they are right in being angry, but I think that the twist was unpredictable and genius. Pope Bosco got what he deserved and I felt like I was in Cale's place, making him suffer in ways that were past cruel.In the end, the author left a clue about what Cale's been doing now that the war is over and the idea of Cale living in small cities, working and living well, even without any contemplations or recognition for winning the war is a good one. Cale can now live his days away from the horrors of war. Even if he is alone..and I bet he's not. Reviewing this book is a challenge. I originally had not planned on completing the series after panning the first book, however then I had to go and receive this book for christmas last year, (of course that means I had to endure read the second, yes I have a reading problem.) In light of this however I felt that maybe I should at least consider Beating of his Wings in the context of someone perhaps enjoying the first two novels.So 3 stars was my charitable verdict, in all honesty this entire series seems to me like a a half-hearted attempt at epic fantasy, fleshed out and excused by trite historical humour.Whoa - OK I said I was going to be understanding, that was a lump of angst that just need to be expressed. Now onto the 'fair' part of the review. The third book of this series following Mr Thomas Cale, does begin well: Cale is imprisoned in some form of asylum, much diminished from his original prowess, the torment and violence of the place is skilfully and tensely presented. The threat of the Redeemers and the newly appointed Pope Bosco, literally looms over the horizon combing to setup not a bad show of tension and curiosity about what is going to happen.The humour of this book is for the most part, much better than previous installments, less jarring with the visceral plotline, more actual wit, some of the long-liners genuinely made me snigger.The book still falls short however - the awkward fore and afterwords do nothing to redeem this book as anything more than a cliche fantasy held together with historic puns. The story meanders by the midpoint, the battle scenes beginning as exciting then dragging into boredom. Somehow the pacing of this piece slows at the book continues, the last two parts becoming excruciating to read and the ending completely abrupt and non-satisfying. The conclusion to Cale's status as a form of harbinger is confusing and unclear and not in a skilful ambiguous open-ended way, more in a 'what the hell just happened? This book makes no sense' way.My feeling of this trilogy ender, is that too many elements were attempted with this book, humour in particular is difficult to fit into this genre without becoming cheesy and/or campy. Using 'real' history can backfire too if its overplayed. Ultimately the strongest part of this series which was Thomas Cale and his doomy prophecy was undernourished when it should have been the forepoint of the book.Sigh
What do You think about O Anjo Negro (2014)?
Veľmi zvláštny koniec. Zaujímavý, ale zvláštny...
—CaptinBubba
