The cover of the book claims that Wooding brings originality and exotisism to the world of fantasy through "The Braided Path" series. I both agree and disagree with this statement. There is all of the old stuff that deals with psychic abilities that reveal themselves in different manners in different people. What's new here is that many of the "Aberrants" are unlike other people physically. Some of them have gills and others have claws. "Normal" people deal with the physically deviant aberrants as they always have - through burnings, ostracism and other forms of cruelty. The irony of it all is that these aberrants have been created by the "Weavers", normal people who through bearing special masks have the power of entering the "Weave". The weavers are the worst persecutors.
In this book all loose ends are tied. Kaiku, Tsata, Asara, Mishani, Cailin and Lucia all find their paths in life.
Tsata returns to Saramyr, only to discover that the war is going on in full. He has brought with him 1000 Tkiurathi to aid in the rebellion against the Weavers. Kaiku is still with the Red Sisters, where she has increased her abilities greatly. But she is becoming disaffected with the Red Sisters, suspecting them of having less than noble goals if they win the war. Lucia is still in the grip of Cailin (the head of the Red Sisters). She is manipulated into bringing the spirits (whatever they are) into the battle. But this cannot be achieved without great cost.
Mishani and Asara are with Reki (the brother of the previous empress) - Asara as his wife and Mishani as an ambassador. Both feel the need of going back to Kaiku and the Order so they might know how to deal with their paths onward.
While the book was good, it did not bring many surprises. Perhaps I have read too many fantasy books for any of them to bring anything really new into the genre. The Ascendancy Veil was not able to keep my undivided attention. I had no difficulty putting it down and it did not keep me up reading. I did finish it though and that is something that I do less and less as time passes. So it does deserve its 3, but a 4 would be going too high.
