Not captivating enough for the end of a series.

This is the fifth and final book of the Orokon pentalogy (after The Harlequin’s Dance, The King and Queen of Swords and Sultan of the Moon and Stars, and Sisterhood of the Blue Storm).

In this volume, Jem & Co. have to travel back to Agondon as fast as possible, if they want a chance to save Myla from the curse that makes her age unnaturally. But their skyship crashes on a barn in the snow covered hills. They take refuge there for a while, until Jem decides to weather the storm and walk to the city. There he finds Nirry’s tavern, the Cat & Crown, but just misses Cata.

In Agondon, civil war is brewing: the Redjacket rebels are trying to overthrow the Bluejacket regime, and have a plan to kidnap Queen Jeli. A bomb explodes at Eay Feval’s inaugural, mutilating the Great Lector. Umbecca, who had spotted Nirry among the crowd, immediately accuses her former maid of the attack. The innkeeper is arrested, she will be hanged.

All the while, Polty goes on helping Toth, in the hope that the anti-god will restore his precious Penge. And of course his lovestruck sidekick Bean is always assisting.

Later, Jem learns that he has to go to the Lamasery of the Winds to find the fifth crystal and save Raj’s sister. And so these three friends, along with the other crystal bearers Littler and Cata, and Tishy Cham-Charing, begin a perilous trek into the mountains, with Toth in various forms always on their heels.

I found the end of this series just not captivating enough, with a complicated battle between gods and anti-gods. I was also more curious about the fate of secondary characters such as Littler or Bean, than about the heroes’, and the final chapters, after the big “climax”, were more interesting than the denouement. Especially since in the end, it seems this all was for almost nothing, as the world goes on as before, only with a new King, who is just as narrow-minded as the previous one.

6/10