Reviews

The Wrath Of The Great Guilds (Pillars of Reality #6) By Jack Campbell : An Audiobook Review

28179865The Great Guilds, fearing the loss of their control of the world of Dematr, have gathered their power and joined it with the relentless legions of the Empire. The full might of that host will fall upon the fortress city of Dorcastle. If Dorcastle falls, the revolt led by Master Mechanic Mari and Mage Alain will fail, and their world will soon descend into chaos.

Only Mari, believed to be the daughter of an ancient prophecy, can inspire the people and lead the defense of Dorcastle. The prophecy says she has a chance to win, but it doesn’t say she will survive. Alain will stand by her, both willing to die for the other, but neither one knows if their sacrifices will mean victory.

As they battle the Imperial legions and see friends fall, Mari and Alain face their greatest challenges. And if they somehow win in the face of impossible odds, neither one can be certain what sort of world that victory will produce.

The Wrath of the Great Guilds is the sixth and final installment in Jak Campbell’s amazing Pillars of Reality series. It’s always a little bittersweet starting a book with the knowledge that it will be the end of the series. It always makes it a bit difficult for me to even begin reading a book, it always takes me a few days to start. I still remember picking up the first book in the series almost two years ago and I still haven’t found any new series that really compare to it yet.

As the final book in the series my feelings on The Wrath of the Great Guilds are a little mixed, and while I mostly enjoyed it more than I did the rest of the series, there were a couple aspects of it I did find a little disappointing. Jack Campbell is an amazing author and I think he did a great job creating his characters and slowly building up to the battle that takes place in this book. The entire book is one massive siege in which we get to see just what atrocities the Empire is willing and capable of doing once the Great Guilds loosen their hold on them and let them wage war like never before. Master Mechanic Marie and Mage Alain have grown up quite a bit over the last few books and it really shows in The Wrath of the Great Guilds, they still compliment each other perfectly and I love it.

Once again the narrator did a great job, I appreciate the fact that each character has their own unique voice and that he has managed to keep the different voices and accents the same throughout the series. He also does a great job injecting emotion into his narrative, you really feel what Marie and Alain are feeling when he narrates it.

I have only two real complaints about The Wrath of the Great Guilds, and unfortunately for me, they really affected how much I enjoyed the book. The first issue I had is the title — The Wrath of the Great Guilds is a great title, but it’s a bit misleading. The guilds don’t feature much in the book at all. It probably should have been called something like The Wrath of the Empire. My only other complaint is the lack of secondary characters. I’ve grown to really love reading about the other Mechanics and Mages, as well as all of the commoners who have been assisting them, and most of them don’t even make an appearance in this book. The ones who do appear only get a brief scene or two, it was a little disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong, I still loved the book and thought it was a perfect ending to the series, even if I really hope that it’s not really the end. I would enjoy seeing what happens next, as enough happened in the series that it could easily be followed by another and I hope to see this happen.

I received a free copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

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