The following is as much rant as review, and contains SPOILERS, so continue at your own risk!While the proceeding two novels were far from the greatest books I've ever read, they were pretty good. The plot moved along briskly (and interestingly) enough to keep me intrigued, and the rules of magic that were established and sense of oncoming danger were nice. Unfortunately, however, the third book really drops the ball. Lackluster characters, a tedious and over long journey, and an ending that was both abrupt and unpleasant left me feeling quite unsatisfied once it was done.1. The CharactersThe characters could have stood a good bit more developing than they got. Tiercel really didn't show much in the way of growth, and, in fact, seemed to wallow even more in self-loathing than he had in both novels prior. Harrier moved along quite a bit, but was still pretty tactless and gruff throughout, and his behavior at the end of the novel made me question if he'd really made that much progression at all (will talk about this more in the 'end' section). The demon, while clearly shown as being evil and nasty, lacked any sort of personal charisma. She was also rather irredeemably STUPID. She continues to fixate on gaining the three mages in the desert--and the Firecrown--when going north and hunting down a wildmage probably would've been more productive, hidden though they might be. Her chance to torture a bunch of people to death in front of Bisochim and friends' noses is presented to her time and time again, and she squanders it. First when she takes over the Isvaeni immediately after being summoned, only to flee into the desert. Secondly when she discovers where all the Isvaeni children are conveniently gathered and decides to ignore them until the end. Last but not least, at the very end at the volcano. She finally has everyone in her grasp (again!), yet chooses to stand there chortling instead of doing anything productive, even letting the heroes wander up to the top of the volcano (seriously, did she think they were going up there to do anything she'd LIKE?) and not bothering to interfere until she realizes Bisochim's about to sacrifice himself. Even with the weak explanations offered by the story for her actions, I fail to see how keeping the hostages she already had--or walking up and grabbing those she didn't from under the heroes' noses--and deliberately torturing them to death one by one in front of the mages wouldn't have gotten her what she wanted. Or, well, it probably still wouldn't have gotten her what she wanted--but it would have at least confirmed the heroes would never bow to her, and thus convinced her to kill them once and for all and go seek out more pliable wildmages in the north.The story also, by way of lack of use, makes characters from previous novels seem useless. The Telchi's training never does a whole lot for Harrier--about the most spectacular thing he does with his swords is kill a few Isvaeni (which doesn't do him a lot of good) and a few Black Dogs, neither of which seem to justify introducing that plot point, or making him a knight-mage in general. The Firecrown, despite being one of the more interesting characters, is so neutral and hard to puzzle out that it's hard to see what he contributed to the novel either (useless tests for Tyr? prophecies that he gave equally to both sides? inducing pointless deaths?). Both these characters (and others) bring things to the table, but I'm left feeling like they had only minor impacts rather than a cohesive effect on the story as a whole.Then there were the other characters within the book. First there was the 'romance' that was never properly introduced or developed. I'm not sure why it was added at all, except to perhaps make Harrier worry his love would die to pay his MagePrice. Then there was the lack of real development of anyone else. The gang spends over half a year travelling with all the desert folks, but with the focus always on the main characters, most of the desert dwellers only got brief bouts of characterization--which made it hard to care about most of the thousands of deaths that went down. About the only characters I did find myself attached to were Bisochim and Saravasse; giving a former villain such a long and prominent road to redemption and healing is something I haven't seen often, and I enjoyed watching both his quiet struggle with it and his reaffirmed relationship with Saravasse. Unfortunately, he's kept mute and sidelined for most of the story, which left a lot unsaid that I would like to have seen (some more of how he and Saravasse worked to heal the wounds between them would have been nice).2. The TravellingJourneys through the desert can work. Long journeys can work. Fights with monsters can work. Yet when all of these are done in repetitive fashion for countless hundreds of pages, it gets tiresome really fast. I was interested in the story up until about 200 pages in (my version of the book has about 500 pages), and then the rest dragged and dragged. I spent eight hours slogging through the rest and felt nothing of worth happened in that entire time. The fights never show any developed strategy or revelations--it's sandwind, swords, and repeat--the lack of a clear destination or plan on Harrier's part other than "distract the demon" made it hard to feel enthusiastic, and the magic felt quite underused. Bisochim did a little, but it felt like nothing given how much he'd done while he was still summoning Ahairan (creating servants, crafting whole castles, and so on and so forth)--some more destructive (and creative) efforts would have been nice, as would seeing more of Saravasse smashing and burning stuff. Harrier did even less, and Tiercel did almost nothing. He can cast fire without cost, but I don't recall him ever really using the ability during the fights. The discovery of the Armethelians only made an already long and tedious journey even more so; I have trouble believing anyone just saved from a three month long zombie march would have enough energy or ego left to be that rude and belligerent. 3. The EndingWhile something actually HAPPENED at the ending--a nice change from most of the several hundred pages that proceeded it--it was so swift and so downright unsettling that it was hard to appreciate it. At the end of a story, you want to feel something has really changed, that something has been accomplished, that everything the characters did was WORTH something, but the main impression I got was that the Wild Magic is a jerk who goes about using the ends to justify the means. Demons weren't defeated here; they were sealed away, exactly as they were before. The real 'triumph' was forming the triple Dragonbond, which could have been done much more simply by pairing Tiercel up with a Wildmage who actually would have appreciated it way back at the start. Instead, the Wild Magic decided allowing a war to happen and chaining Tiercel to someone who absolutely wants no part of it is the best solution to fixing all problems dragon. It's hard to find the conclusion satisfying when Harrier seems so annoyed with it, and when you realize from now on dragons are going to have to keep forming these awkward three way bonds as their 'fix.' Why couldn't mages just find another potential bonded for their dragon and pass the bond along shortly before they died, just as the ancient elves did? That seems a lot more satisfying and less uncomfortable, and the book also seems to establish it as possible--Ahairan was worried that killing Bisochim would allow him to unleash a last powerful spell, just as the elves do, so humans seem to have a great spell allowed to them as well--which is exactly what they need for passing on the bond. So, yes, it's hard to feel all too happy with the Wild Magic. Everything it did 'for a reason' was because it let something else bad happen that required that reason. For example, having Bisochim kill all the Isvaeni Wildmages to keep Ahairan from getting them, when Bisochim could simply have been steered away from releasing her to begin with. All of this makes the trilogy feel like it was just a compilation of pointless suffering, rather than suffering that really couldn't have been avoided either way. Thanks for nothin', Wild Magic!Then, on top of that, there was Bisochim's death.As mentioned, he and Saravasse were my favorite characters--so having him die only to find out his death /wasn't really required/ by the Firecrown was agonizing. Yes, it made Saravasse available for Harrier to try to bond with... but his MagePrice demanded he bond with a dragon even if she WEREN'T available. Which would have still left Tiercel to have him bond with Ancaladar. After which they could have healed Saravasse's wing and fought Ahairan as per the story. Again, it just felt like there had been suffering for no good purpose. While Bisochim did need redemption, there were better ways to do it. The novel was willing to let Zanattar off the hook, without ever having him show much remorse--Zanattar, who directly killed tens of thousands of people, children included, due to blindly following others, and never did much good after except for some minor monster fighting--while Bisochim, who only directly killed the Wildmages due to thinking the Balance required it, and then went on to deeply regret his actions and save countless lives (he saved the entire Isvaeni population from being thrown in the volcano!), got the short end of the stick. The Wild Magic had informed him that there was a great imbalance to be fixed (the flawed nature of dragonbonds), so I would dearly have loved to see him find redemption by fixing the problem the Wild Magic had so long ushered him towards rather than pointlessly roasting himself alive.And as if that wasn't bad enough? In the most bitter twist of irony, Saravasse lives when he dies--and wants none of it. Hissing, snarling, hating being healed, mourning her Bonded--it feels like death would have been a kinder fate for her than continuing (which is ironic, as the whole 'point' of the story was to save dragons from dying--forcing them to lose people they love over and over and over again with each new bond...). But does anyone care about this or try to comfort her? No. Tiercel says nothing to her. But worse, far worse, is that Harrier actively mocks her--joking about his girlfriend bonding with her, about her pushing him into the volcano. Seriously, the novel ends with him making fun at the expense of someone who just lost the person she loved most in the entire world (something Harrier should now understand, being BONDED), for a reason she just found out was pointless, and he ends by making. Fun. Of her. It made me feel sick.And then the novel just ENDS. So much for closure, regarding either Saravasse, Tiercel, stupid Harrier's awkward romance story, the Firecrown, whether more High Mages will be born and trained... everything, really. With that, I conclude my rant--err, review--regarding the book. The series as a whole held so much promise, but just failed to deliver, especially here. Kind of like the title; I guess the Phoenix was meant to be a metaphor, but even then I'm still not sure for who or what. So Harrier and Tiercel had to cross the unforgiving desert several times and battle Ahairan's 'pets' just to be able to withstand/control the power needed to put her down in the end. This book sucked. It was went nowhere--literally! The front flap talked of Shaiara love for one of the boys (not mentioned on cover)--so throughout the entire book I was trying to figure out which boy it was--because there were no love scenes or batting of eyelashes at anyone in particular. The last 100 pages or so were good, but so many characters were flat and Kateta never came back to make Harrier leave at a time not of his choosing...Overall this second trilogy in this world was not near as good as the first one...not sure I want to read their third trilogy, the Dragon Prophecy Trilogy.
What do You think about The Phoenix Transformed (2008)?
Great book & definitely something I want to read again!
—EmrysKnight
Complex characters in a fantasy novel. I liked that.
—hoosier65
