The final book in this trilogy that has certainly kept me turning the pages and wanting more.

My only complaint with this book is that it’s collected together all the main protagonists from the previous two books and hops, back and forth, between each of their stories.   Not normally a problem but because there are so many protagonists, each with their own little story to tell you, there are quite a few chapters between the chapter you leave off one protagonist’s story and the chapter you pick it back up again: each chapter in between belonging to a different protagonist’s story.   This all leaves you starting each new chapter having to make an effort as to what the protagonist of that chapter was doing when you last heard from them.   It’s not unwieldly or chaotic, but just loses the flow a little bit each time you get to a new chapter and you have to stop and think about where you are in the overall story each time.

And it’s not that i’m not used to dealing with lots of protagonists with contrasting story lines, i’ve read plenty of books like that; it’s just that in this book it just seemed to not quite flow as well and i’m not quite sure why.

And then all the protagonists stories coalesce into one single main event and *** BOOM *** it’s all over, finished, thank you very much for reading.

Maybe it’s just me being rather curmudgeonly, but i kinda wanted a lot more from the ending considering how much went on to get to it.   I really enjoy a good ending — don’t we all — and this ending really didn’t balance with the story that lead to it.

Or maybe it’s just that i didn’t want the trilogy to end so soon: maybe it could have done with another 100 pages just to keep this curmudgeon happy.

Yeah, so that all said, i did enjoy this trilogy as a whole and i’ll certainly be reading the “Moonfire Trilogy” sometime in the future to see what happens once everything has settled down from the icefire chaos.

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Just when you thought it couldn’t get grimmer, Patty managed to pull it off.

So the City of Glass has shattered and icefire is spilling across the land chasing lots of surviving refugees as it burns and destroys everything in its path.

Then we throw our bunch of rather troubled protagonists from the 1st book into the refugees; have another bunch of them chasing some of them and causing lots of nasty along the way; throw a whole bunch more troubled protagonists into the country they’re heading to; stir up all the political nonsense that a time of crisis deserves and then hit the capital city with a huge bunch of the afore mentioned refugees coming via train and road — oh, and, nearly forgot, the refugees are contaminated with high levels of icefire, mostly injured, very hungry and needing shelter.

The one thing i like about this book is the pacing.   Patty keeps everything concerning the refugees really moving along at a good pace until we get to the parts with the politicians.   Suddenly, the pace slows and it feels like the story is trudging along.   This is so like real life; whenever there’s a crisis you can guarantee the only people dragging their heels — forming committees to discuss things while people are actually dying — will be the politicians who are always more concerned with what they can get out of it for their political careers.   Point well made, Patty.

It follows straight on from book one, Fire & Ice, without a pause for breath, and i’m very much diving straight into and devouring book 3, Blood & Tears, with only a little respite to write this review along the way.

So now, if you’ll excuse me, i’m off to read Blood & Tears.

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My first comment about this book is that it should be made clear at the point of sale that this book contains male on male rape scenes.   I’m pretty sure not everyone wishes to buy books with such content in them for very obvious reasons.

That said, let’s get on with the review.

As a first book in a trilogy i was very impressed.   I feel it’s certainly set the stage for some good grimdark fantasy to come.   It isn’t pleasant, the characters are flawed and too busy struggling with their own shit to worry about you, the reader — get over it!

No really, looking at some reviews i don’t think some people get this genre of story telling: you ain’t getting it laid out all spotlessly cleaned and ironed with your clean socks in the morning, it’s crumpled, still got stains and a bit of a stale wiff to it.   But they’re the only clothes you’ve got for the day so just throw ’em on and get out and enjoy the adventure they take you on.

To sum up, this was a great beginning to a trilogy that also has another trilogy following straight after.   As the stage builder for this grimdark, disturbing world that the story is set in, it’s certainly got my interest and i’m diving straight into Dust & Rain to see if what follows can meet my expectations.

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