I thought the choice to start this book on the wreckage of a battlefield was an unusual one. Maybe it’s meant to emphasize the terribleness of what’s coming for them.

I found I had a lot fewer notes on this book than I had on the first two, probably because this one focused much less on the relationships between the characters and much more on the underlying world events. The slow inevitable march towards war.

From a 500 year-old battlefield we jump to the Spring Court where Feyre is plotting her revenge against Tamlin and Ianthe. Lucien is suspicious of Feyre the entire time, proving that he is smarter than Tamlin – or maybe just less committed to the IT WILL BE FINE strategy of dealing with problems. Hell, even servant Alis sees which way the wind is blowing and gets the hell out of Dodge. (If I ever write a book, the fact that servants see and know everything is going to be a major plot point. You heard it here first.) Actually in all honesty I think all Feyre did was just speed up the inevitable. Between his faith in the treacherous Ianthe and his deal with Hybern, Tamlin was well on his way to mucking up his own kingdom all on his own.

(IT WILL BE FINE!)

One interesting scene – one that I honestly missed the first time around and only caught it when I was looking something up to make this post – was where Jurian thanks Feyre for scaring the Children of the Blessed away from the wall. It’s a very brief glimpse into who he really is and I totally missed it. Well played, Maas.

So Feyre saves Lucien from sexual assault (again, good on Maas for treating male sexual trauma as a real thing), kills Hybern’s neice and nephew (who’s names I cannot for the life of me remember, they will always just be the incest twins in my head), and the two of them escape the Spring Court together. Conveniently! There are tunnels under the mountain that will take them to the Autumn Court. Tunnels that are not guarded today for some reason that is not explained. These tunnels will never be mentioned again.

It does however, serve to force Feyre and Lucien into a situation where they have to fight Eris and the rest of Lucien’s brothers. (Does Maas ever mention the names of the other brothers? I honestly don’t think I’ve heard any of them called out by name other than Eris.)

So I find Eris a really interesting character. He obviously has no love for his father but still needs to obey him. He doesn’t seem to have any feelings one way or another about his brothers, although he does make a point of telling Feyre he wasn’t present when his brothers murdered Lucien’s girlfriend. He tells Mor he wouldn’t have hurt her, and maybe that’s true and maybe it’s not. He does use what influence he has over his father to persuade him to join forces against Hybern. And I find myself wondering how much of his personality is shaped by focusing one what he needs to do to protect the things he does care about to the exclusion of everything else. Rhysand talks about having to make terrible choices to accomplish his goals Under the Mountain and is wracked with guilt over it. Eris makes terrible choices to achieve his goals and can live with it just fine. Maybe that’s the difference.

Back in Verlaris, Lucien’s mate-bond with Elain does not go well. I think Lucien has made a lot of mistakes in his years of working for Tamlin, but to his credit he never pushes Elain. Well, Fayre would murder him if he did, but still.

Once back in Velaris one of the things that comes up in conversation is the history between Jurian, Meryam and Drakon. This history is relevant to the current battle, but I was struck at how it was also an interesting narrative in it’s own right but we don’t get to watch it play out. The same thing happened when Feryre speaks to the Bone Carver, who says he chooses to be in the Prison because it keeps him safe from his siblings. His brother and sister were imprisoned by some ancient fae warrior, but how she did it, who she was, and why the Bone Carver hid from his siblings – we don’t get to experience those stories. And they sound like good stories! I wonder if Maas will ever go back and write prequels about those characters.

We also get to learn about Arwen’s history. She talks about coming into the world through a rift and how she was a creature of “burning grace” who had just destroyed twin cities. I would lay money that those cities are Sodom and Gomorrah. Arwen is an angel! No wonder she’s bloody terrifying. (I am firmly of the belief that there is a reason angels have to start shouting BE NOT AFRAID at mortals every time they show up places.) I also wonder if we’re going to see any more rift action with named characters, because that’s too sweet a plot device to just leave lying around.

Elain’s powers are revealed when Hybern’s ravens show up in the library. Which also reveals the existence of Bryaxis. It says something that the priestesses who live in the library cloister themselves there to avoid the monsters outside while literally living on top of an actual monster and being perfectly safe.

Then the first war conference happens.

What a shitshow.

Tamlin shows up and starts squawking about his ex and suddenly who had sex with who is all anybody can talk about. Honestly, the more power and privilege somebody has, the worse they are at impulse control. And then they have the nerve to make bets on how long it will take for a fight to break out and then it’s Azriel and Fayre who are the first to start throwing punches – including Feyre showing off her powers and YOU TALKED ABOUT THIS FEYRE, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING.

These are the people who are humanity’s last great defence? Hoo boy.

By the way, another big shout-out to Maas for having queer people in her stories – so far I have counted the lesbian couple in Drakon and Meryam’s court, High Lord Thesan with his partner, and bisexual Lord Hellion. And later Mor comes out to Feyre as a gay-romantic bisexual. I am always hungry for queer rep so this made me really happy.

The wall comes down while the War conference is still conferencing and the squad heads to the human lands to try and find a place for people to hide. They meet Elain’s ex-fiance and it does not go well. Nesta originally described Greyson by saying his father hated the fae but maybe that wear off when Greyson inherited, but no he’s worse than the old man. Then we get the big plot twist that Jurian is a good guy.

So my question about Jurian is, why is he not considered one of the Made? Arwen constantly refers to the four of them, Arwen, Feyre, Elain, and Nesta – as Made, but she never mentions Jurian. Is it because he was re-made back into a human body instead of being turned into a fae? Because his body was re-constructed by the Cauldron from an eye and a finger bone, and I really would have thought that would count.

During one of the battles Feyre goes off to find The Suriel – this time she doesn’t even bother to snare it to get it to answer her questions. The Suriel likes her, which I guess must be what it’s like to be that woman who removes fish-hooks from sharks. It occurred to me at this point that maybe Feyre’s superpower is that she has a way with monsters – Ianthe and Rhysand both say they couldn’t get The Suriel to answer their questions at all, but The Suriel and the water-wraiths, Bryaxis and The Bone Carver – they all come through for Feyre.

When the final battle comes everybody shows up, including Beron and Tamlin. AND Drakon and Meryam. (Who chose to get into it with Jurian in the middle of the battlefield, priorities people!) It also brings in Vassa, the Queen we’ve only ever heard of as the prisoner of some kind of evil entity on the continent. OK fine, I can live with that. But where I drew the line was when Feyre’s father showed up for battle. That was so unlikely it just completely threw me out of the story.

OK, rich and influential enough that he gets invited to a What If The Wall Comes Down Conference? Believable. Smart enough and rich enough to start to building armies and making plans in secret to defend the humans? Absolutely. Once that happens of course those in the know on the human side or going to tap him to bring his armies when they know this is when D Day is happening.

But to show up in person on a warship to fight? Wut? Not only is the man disabled, more importantly he has never been trained as a solider. He should be back on the continent paying squadrons of blacksmiths to make armour for every 20 year-old pig-farmer he can recruit. Instead he was specifically brought there so he could be immediately fridged, and I’m sorry but that was just taking a lazy writing shortcut.

In the end when Rhysand dies, all the High Lords give the gift of power one last time to bring him back. Even Tamlin. Tamlin saves Rhysand after also saving Feyre from Hybern. So maybe he will get his redemption arc after all.

For a book I read without making any notes about it – I sure did end having a lot of opinions to talk about.