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Title:
The Heart of what was Lost
Series: The Last
King of Osten Ard #0.5
Author: Tad Williams
Rating:
2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages:
201
Words: 79K
Publish: 2017
I didn’t know what to
expect from this sequel series to Memory,
Sorrow and Thorn. This
particular tale is an immediate sequel and features one of the
characters from MST chasing down the Norns (evil elves bent on
humanity’s destruction) after their plans failed. We get three
viewpoints, one from Duke Isgrimnur
(the character from MST), one from one of the fleeing Norns and one
from a mercenary.
I can’t say I particularly cared for the tone of the story, especially after how well written MST was.
Isgrimnur is angry and upset the entire story. There are reasons but that kind of attitude wasn’t in the forefront in MST and I don’t care for what it may foretell for the rest of this series.
The Norn is dealing with the loss of a war he was sure they could win. He is also dealing with betrayal of his people from within, as now the Norn Queen is in a magical sleep, the factions start fighting each other, even as they face extinction at the hands of the humans. That was a disheartening story line.
Finally, the two mercenaries. One is older and experienced in war while the younger is fresh off the turnip farm. The younger boy dies and the older man rages against the injustices of war the entire time. It was depressing and sad.
None of this is what I expected from Tad Williams coming off of MST. It IS what I expect from the author of the Shadowmarch series (which I found horribly depressing by the end) or The War of the Flowers (the worst kind of urban fantasy in my opinion).
The only reason this isn’t getting 2stars is because of the goodwill built up by MST and I’ll fully acknowledge that is a pretty piss poor reason. Williams better do a fething sight better with the rest of the books in the Last King of Osten Ard series.
★★✬☆☆
From Fandom.com
At the end of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Ineluki the Storm King, an undead spirit of horrifying, demonic power, came within moments of stopping Time itself and obliterating humankind. He was defeated by a coalition of mortal men and women joined by his own deathless descendants, the Sithi.
In the wake of the Storm King’s fall, Ineluki’s loyal minions, the Norns, dark cousins to the Sithi, choose to flee the lands of men and retreat north to Nakkiga, their ancient citadel within the hollow heart of the mountain called Stormspike. But as the defeated Norns make their way to this last haven, the mortal Rimmersman Duke Isgrimnur leads an army in pursuit, determined to end the Norns’ attacks and defeat their ageless Queen Utuk’ku for all time.
Two southern soldiers, Porto and Endri, joined the mortal army to help achieve this ambitious goal—though as they venture farther and farther into the frozen north, braving the fierce resistance and deadly magics of the retreating Norns, they cannot help but wonder what they are doing so very far from home. Meanwhile, the Norns must now confront the prospect of extinction at the hands of Isgrimnur and his mortal army.
Viyeki, a leader of the Norns’ military engineers, the Order of Builders, desperately seeks a way to help his people reach their mountain—and then stave off the destruction of their race. For the two armies will finally clash in a battle to be remembered as the Siege of Nakkiga; a battle so strange and deadly, so wracked with dark enchantment, that it threatens to destroy not just one side but quite possibly all.
Trapped inside the mountain as the mortals batter at Nakkiga’s gates, Viyeki the Builder will discover disturbing secrets about his own people, mysteries both present and past, represented by the priceless gem known as The Heart of What Was Lost."
