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Title: An Ill Fate Marshalling
Series: Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire #2
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 381
Format: Digital Edition
Title: An Ill Fate Marshalling
Series: Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire #2
Author: Glen Cook
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 381
Format: Digital Edition
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Synopsis:
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Shadowing the
events that take place in Reaping the East Wind, at least for
the first half of the book, we see the events that Ethrian set in
motion from the side of the likes of Bragi, Varthlokkur, etc. We
also see the fallout from Bragi's decision to force Varthlokkur to
deal with Ethrian. Varthlokkur and Nepanthe return to their fortress
along with Mist's children and Varthlokkur swears to Bragi that he
won't help him anymore.
Thus, Bragi must
begin ruling Kavelin with brains and soldiers alone. Unfortunately,
for him, his wife Inger is plotting against him and he can't face
that. He heads out with an army to take down a rogue Dread Empire
general, the one hold out who won't accept that Mist is now defacto
Empress of the Dread Empire. Mist has her uses for this rogue general
though and lets him run amok. Mist eventually takes out the general
but that is not known to Bragi. He attacks the Imperial troops
thinking they belong to the rogue general when in fact they belong to
Mist. She was planning on this all along though and wipes out Bragi
and his army. All so that the nation of Kavelin, and its neighbors
will be fighting amongst themselves.
The book ends with
various factions beginning to fight over Kavelin and it turns out
that Bragi didn't die. Now he's a secret captive of the Dread Empire,
a captive who can live in peace and luxury.
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My
Thoughts:
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It was interesting to see the events that take place in Reap the
East Wind from another viewpoint. That only took up the first
half of the book though, so whenI came to the end of the events and
the book kept on going, I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course, that is, until I realized that this was a story about the
disintegration of the order that Bragi Ragnarson was slowly
establishing in Kavelin. I kept hoping, right up until the end, that
things would turn out ok. I should have known better.
Varthlokkur, in abandoning Bragi, showed that he was just as
miserable a scumbag as that other magician, on the flying horse and
the magic cornucopia thing that we read about in previous books. He
watches through his magic mirror as Bragi is apparently overwhelmed
and killed but because of his pride, does nothing active. It just
goes to show that Cook has an excellent grasp on human nature and how
someone who has been hurt by someone else will do, nor not do, all
sorts of things because of that hurt.
The other storylines, about the succession, the various heirs (Bragi
having had multiple children through his now dead wife and his
current wife), the Dread Empire dealing with the Matrangan attack, it
all was interesting. Then to find out that Bragi is alive, that made
me wonder if Cook was saving him up for something or if it was so
that at least one character can live out his days as sop to the
readers?
This book was published in 1988. Apparently, the sequel, and the
final Dread Empire novel, wasn't published until 2012. Ouch. Glad I
already have it on hand. There is also another book, a collection of
short stories, that was released in '08. I'm on the fence if I'll be
reading that or not. Probably depends on how much I like, or dislike
the final Dread Empire book.
★★★☆½
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