The Battle of Evernight: The Bitterbynde, Book 3, Part II (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

The third book, alas, is an anti-climax of an epic scale painfully counterbalancing the epic success of the first two books. The start is a drag that is devoid of the wonder and gripping tenacity that held readers on in the first two books. The story then follows a predictable plot, which in itself is no bad thing, but the long winded way that the author pursues the revelation of key facts already guessed at by the reader stagnates the progression towards the culmination of the event described in the title.
It is debateable whether the writing style is inferior, my opinion is that it is not so much the Author sloppily finished her work, but rather that she is a victim of her own success in the previous two books, which leaves such high expectation in the reader that when the third book finally comes along it is dissapointing to find it severely weakened in plot, perhaps the author just ran out of ideas? The volume itself is no shorter than the previous two, but there appears to be alot more description and far less plot development. The author seems to be torn between rushing us all to the end and yet decorating the passageway to the end with countless sidetrips of description, that add very little to the atmosphere already ruined by a dragging storyline.

Although opinions differ, it is my belief that the ending is a disaster that condemns the book that otherwise would have attained a mediocre rating, despite all its faults. Following the painful yet enthralling journey of discovery, emancipation, and adventure that the readers are led, through the eyes of the main protagonist, the worst ending could be one of unpromissing ambiguity, but that is exactly what occurs in Battle of Evernight. The frustration and senselessness of the ending diminishes the good work of all the plot development and character building so painstakingly constructed in the earlier volumes. While some readers may revel in this pain, the mainstream reader is not craven nor sadistic; he/she will be thoroughly dissapointed by the ending.

It is still worth reading this if you desire a conclusion to a fantastic series, even though the third book ruins the potential built up by the previous two.