Especially with the current fad of short quick media summarization styles and eastern influences like manga/light novels where stories are separated by arc's with starts and conclusions within each arc. 4.3 Stars! That being said, people dislike the ambiguous cliffhangers. The book was still very entertaining and I love the characters (not Frisha haha) and the world. I feel that the world is large and interesting enough with the main character also amazing enough to continue even after the originally series wraps up. I enjoyed it! I especially loved the new and different characters. The concern also stems with will the wait for the next entry be just as long for similar results? Again, the book was really good. The arc wasn't truly finished until the aftermath is settled, not during the after action report. When the author decides to end a book like this, it almost feels like the book ended mid-arc. In the early books, the group's future fate was unknown but their status to each other wasn't paused. That's why the first three books left a positive satisfactory note comparatively to the last two books. It's frustrating, but peoples, whether fiction or not, lives don't pause even though their situations might. These last two entries just pause in ambiguity for nothing more than fake suspense but good books don't need that. It was only the story's direction, as the group had similar and different tribulations but their statuses were known within the group to each other when the story concluded. The difference is that the main characters status was NOT ambiguous to each other. Where as comparatively the first three entries in the series also ended in minor cliffhangers. In fact, they are very similar in that regard the status of the MC is ambiguous to every other character in the main cast and one of the cast's fate is truly ambiguous. The reason I did not personally like this book's ending was the same reason I didn't like previous entries ending. Most multi-part series end in cliffhangers (save the final entry). Many people like to say it's cliffhangers in general that are unlikable, but that is not really true. This isn't always a problem but when you compound it with where the book ended, it leaves many characters status ambiguous to each other. One being, some events and in particular the ending, seemed to be rushed.

The issues that seem to pop up are similar to the last book's problem. Both the lore and character development is progressed across all fronts positively. And many threads are tied off, such as situations as the ending of the previous book, Tam and even Rezkin's abilities. This book is really good! Their are answers provided for many things.

Kings dark tidings by kel kade