Customer Reviews

Realm of Light (The Ruby Throne Trilogy, Book 3)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I enjoyed the first two books in the series. I was fascinated by the background of the empire and the characters that made it up. There were several plot developments revolving around characters that I found very intriguing: Hecati, Bixia, Agel, the jinji, the Magria and so on. For instance, we left her half-sister Bixia screaming that she would do everything in her power to bring the empress down. So, here we are in the conclusion and we never even see Bixia again, let alone have her try anything to ruin her life. The author focuses a great deal on minute details, then forgets the big picture. The emperor is mentioned almost as an aside that he is dead. What happened? We get about one sentence that the magria is dead and has been replaced by a former deputy that she had removed from office due to flaws. What happened? We never find out. We spend pages and pages focusing on the empress reaching Albania and her father, and all her attentions are concentrated on saving his life so that he could lead his armies to put her on the throne. Everything is about to come together, and then she's basically arrested and carted off to the capital with her family who have no real part in the rest of the story. No armies. Nothing. She earns the respect of a dragonrider who pretty much seems set to bring her an army of dragonriders, and we never see him or another dragon again. She wanted a jinji from the very first book, and she finally gets one. She even gets one that is unusually colored and matches her topaz colors, then all we get from the jinji is it piping up a couple of times that danger approaches. Well, duh. He never uses his peculiar skills that I wanted to learn more about to sense and draw off magic. We didn't need the jinji to tell us that. Too much detail was focused on petty humiliations and not enough on the real meat of the story. I was very disappointed at the lack of conclusion for this series. I feel as though I wasted my time reading the first two, which were much better than the last. I wish that the author would have extended the series to at least a fourth book to fully develop all the characters, then I would have been one happy reader.

The exciting conclusion of the Ruby Throne trilogy begins right where it left off in book two. Faced with certain death behind, the Emperor and his band of refugees has no choice but to flee into the Shadow Realm. Caelan, not willing to let the Empress tread the dark realm alone, enters with her. They soon become separated, and are lost in the darkness. There is a way out, but the cost is high. And even if they do get out of the Shadow Realm, there is still the matter of those pesky prophecies.

An extremely well crafted novel, full of surprises and character growth. The relationship between the Empress Elandra and her guardian Caelan is full of emotionial tension, and the shadows and prophecies that follow them both add depth and character. Surprises are plentiful, and the action non-stop. All of these add up to one thing: loss of sleep when you can't put it down. An excellent fantasy setting by a terrific writer. Hopefully there is more to come.

This was a very dissapointing ending for the ruby throne trilogy. I just loved and enjoyed the cat-fights, hair-pulling, and action in the first book (REIGN OF SHADOWS) but REALM OF LIGHT WAS SOO BORING, there was no conclusion at all. The death and rise of people were bluntly developed, it seemed as though Deborah Chester just sped throught this just to finish the third planned book, so she could work on her next trilogy. Oh, well...just hope another better book comes out in the meantime.

Caelan and Elandra are together at last and fleeing through the shadowlands
as the thousand year reign of Kostimon ends. It is enjoyable to spend some
more time with these characters as they go through some key experiences that
allow them to defeat the dark god's plans.

While this novel is replete with many fantasy clichés it is still and
enjoyable read, and at least those clichés are integrated in the story in
such a way as to make them important turning points in the story as both
Calean and Elandra find out secrets in their own pasts that prove to be of
vital importance.

This books rounds off this series nicely. It will never be in the top 10 per
cent of original fantasy novels but the series is a good outing in light
fantasy. The only real complaint I have is the lack of such vital scenes as
Kostimon's death which we only hear about second hand and well after the
event. For such a world shaking change Kostimon's passing was only
incidental to this story as this among many other potential story threads
from the previous books were failed to be exploited in this novel.

This book was an excellent read. The characters were excellently protrayed. And man there were so many twists and turns in the story it made me pleasently dizzy! Elandra and Caelan's relationship is very vivid and lifelike. I could feel the love they had!

My only problem is that the ending of the climax of the book had Caelan so different from the rest of the book and the series that it seemed a little too far fetched. All in all this was one of the best conclusions to a trilogy I have read in a long while.

It's a good book, a little to slow at points. I think a little more action it would had made this book great