Review: The Autumn Republic
In most of my reviews I spend my time talking about the emotional impact of a book, or the craft of the author. It's something I have to double down on here because, well spoilers for one, and this is the conclusion of a trilogy for another. I just can't tell you about the story thus far and do it any justice. For now just go and read the first two books in the powder mage trilogy and then read the third one because you'll have already seen how awesome the series is.
This is one of those rare conclusions to a trilogy that surpasses the previous entries in the series. It's where, when done well, we see all the dangling threads and undisclosed design merge together and get us to where the story was always heading however many hundreds of thousands of words back in the first book. The Autumn Republic doesn't just complete the arcs and story of the series, it elevates the series as a whole.
It maintains everything we love while also working to complicate them. The magic system remains ingenious and complex and the author works to improve on that mythos by not just expanding the scope but also giving us new perspectives to experience them through, even through characters that we already thought we knew. The plots of the several divergent stories interweave themselves in excellent ways that let us know things had never gotten as far a field as we may have worried about in the second novel and does so without feeling like the author is squeezing in endings or dropping plot twists to adjust the story to fit what he now thinks the ending should look like. It feels natural.
At the same time it delivers on all the exquisite pain that we've come to know from the series as characters meet their ultimate fate it's done so with gravitas and epic grandeur that a conclusion needs. I can't say enough great things about the series. Four stars out of five. (As always my star selection is about recommendation. This series isn't for everyone, which is what I usually reserve that fifth star for. Though I love the series there are still people I would suggest it to.)