Review copy provided by the author, who is a personal friend and shares an agent with me.
This is the triumphant conclusion of the Chronicles of Ghadid. Previous protagonists make appearances for more than cameos–they have substantial roles, they have been allowed to grow in their lives, and it’s so much fun to see how. But this book belongs to Illi.
Illi is a braid-wearing, truculent cousin who has been serving as Heru’s research assistant as well as training as an assassin and guul-slayer. She has already lost so much in the first two books of this trilogy, but Illi puts her head down, sets her chin, and keeps going.
Until now. Now Illi is caught between powerful forces–including Heru–who are not treating her like a person, and there’s a sajaami at stake. Powerful, manipulative, ready to eat souls at a moment’s notice. Including, if necessary, Illi’s. The people she can trust are all people she wants to protect–the people with enough power to help her? She can’t trust. And between Ghadid, only now beginning to rebuild, and strange, sea-side Hathage, the answer has to be somewhere. Illi has the skills she learned from both magical research and assassin training, but she needs more. She needs her cousins. She needs Canthem, the intriguing caravan guard. She needs…missing pieces from centuries ago. And she needs it all last week.
Resplendent, definitive, and recommended.