Goodreads Book Review - The Herald

The Herald: The Sundering, Book VI by Ed Greenwood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've been fairly hard on the last few Greenwood books, as he always seems to over-stuff them with inconsequential characters and too many tangential subplots for my liking. This book is light-years better than the last because he doesn't do that here (with the exception of one subplot involving Mirt and Manshoon that pops up every few chapters and serves no purpose at all other than to remind us that Greenwood really likes those characters). The plot is straightforward: Elminster and co. have to save the world. From who changes a few times a few times a long the way, as does with who. The characters are vibrant, although the dialogue is clunky as always. The action scenes are well-written. Things are a bit too rushed, though, especially at the end, and a deus ex machina can always be tricky, especially when the deus part is literal. But still, it's a good read, and a decent ending to this "Realms-shaking series," even if the whole series ending up being a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. My major gripe with the series as a whole is that just about every book focused on Chosen being taken and whatnot, and while this story mentions that a few times, it doesn't play into it at all. I was hoping the conclusion of the series might see a lot of the Chosen from the series working together, but we just get Greenwood's regular crew. A mild disappointment, but the book itself was enjoyable, regardless.



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