The Bookwyrm's Review of The Great Hearts 5: Imperator

 

Buy on Amazon

Rating: 10/10 Stars

Synopsis

Progression comes at a price.

The end of the Academy is in sight, but at what cost?

The eighth and final year of the Academy awaits; a brutal and harrowing place designed to remove emotion and create the perfect Imperator. A place of legend amongst the Imps and barely repressed horror amongst the Imperators. A place where the final tempering in the forging of an Imperator is completed.

A place where monsters are made.

Wolf’s Hollow.

Can Calidan do what is necessary to become the tool of vengeance he seeks to be? Better still... should he?

Review

I am amazed that we are five books in and this series just keeps getting better. David Oliver has just kept upping the stakes and steering us towards some massive revelations, and in this book, did we ever get the payoff! We find out in both past and present scenes how the Empire's enemies have gotten so far into it's frontiers. We find out where Ella and Scythe have gone. We see first hand how Cassius has been changed into what he is, and we finally find out where Seya is, and how she got there. Not one info dump, but actions and reactions that have been set up over the course of 5 books finally pay off in these reveals that are organic to the story. 

The world building is some of the best in fantasy, and that's saying something with the sheer volume of books I go through and all the different fantasy worlds I've seen written, We get to see the world expanded upon yet again, seeing the Dusk Court of the Power called Rizain, The Last Redoubt, the final line of infiltration the Empire has in Hrudan lands, and Wolf's Hollow, the final testing center for eighth year imps to finally make finished Imperators. The silver door in the bowels of the Emperor's palace is finally opened as well, and it's mysteries are finally exposed.

Wolf's Hollow, and the events over the year there, are just harrowing. What happens at Wolf's Hollow, with it's massive psychological and physical stress, takes such a toll on the students there, and Calidan's group is no different. The training and testing are so strenuous that it makes the Hunger Games look like a nice Sunday walk in the park in comparison. It is meant to create the kind of ruthless, pragmatic to the extreme, Imperators who think nothing of collateral damage if it means accomplishing the mission, it pushes everyone to the breaking point, and then past it. It's a place where human monsters are made, where conscience goes to die. 

The characters are yet again some of the best in fantasy. The story centers yet again on Calidan, but there are a few chapters that have Cassius and Ella as POV characters, so that's new. Calidan is more determined than ever to become an Imperator, but his sense of right and wrong, and usual disrespect for authority, gets him into trouble at Wolf's Hollow pretty much from the start, but they have draconian measures to punish resistance. Slowly but surely, he finds out that what he has dreamed about all these years might not be what he thought, and it's a crushing disillusionment. He also finds out exactly what the Emperor has been doing, and some of his secrets shatter Calidan's world, showing how current Calidan has become such a jaded, driven version of himself. He is easily my favorite character's in this story, and no description of him by me can do him justice. He is vengeance, and you disregard him at your own peril.

The secondary characters are so well written. There is not a cardboard cutout of a character in the bunch. Cassius is the main one, since he has been with Calidan the longest, having grown up together. He is a fantastic fighter and seraph user, but his sense of right and wrong is so deeply ingrained that Wolf's Hollow is the ultimate horror for him, since they are required to do things that would make the strongest person weep. It is easily the most challenging part of his life, and to be honest, it's amazing he made it through at all, because his moral qualms were such a barrier. It's only after Wolf's Hollow that we see what the Emperor has planned for him, and see what lengths the Emperor will go to make Cassius into the tool he needs, regardless of the cost to Cassius, and it ends up costing him that which he treasures most in the end.

The rest of the group is excellent. Ella is still the same efficient, get the mission done person she has always been. Growing up a street thief, she has a very different set of values that Cassius, being much more pragmatic, but she loves Cassius with all her being, I think seeing him as the better half of her life. When something happens to Cassius, she will literally stop at nothing to find out where he is, with tragic results for everyone in the end. Scythe and Sophia are both great warriors, focused on their training and later their missions, and they make a great pair, both as Imperators and lovers. They play off of each other in many ways, and compliment each others skill sets so well. They seem to struggle least with Wolf's Hollow and being Imperators, and we will find out what happened to both of them by the time the story ends. The last of the group is Rikol, a street rat like Ella, who is one of the most talented Seraph users to come out of the academy in a while. He is driven to be the best, and you have a feeling he will accomplish great things, if only he is given the time. Seya, Calidan's Great Heart bonded companion, is her usual amazing self, pushing Calidan hike a mother hen, but always willing to throw herself into danger to protect him. It's a lot easier to do that when your'e a panther the size of a horse. She goes through a lot in this story, being captured by the enemy, experimented on, and her story is more fully revealed, especially her past after the great Cataclysm. We find out why she refuses to talk about her past, and finally, where she is in the current timeline, and why we haven't seen her by Calidan's side. 

The villain is still Charles, the Emperor's enemy since the distant past, one of the bringers of the great cataclysm. He is such a great villain, being so unassuming looking, but having so much incomprehensible power. He is truly evil, but of course, is the hero of his own story. Unfortunately, he is also a genius in many fields, including seraph use and genetic engineering, and he makes some truly incredible monsters and minions. Even his failures have impressive results, and you just know this is a man that plays the long game, and leaves nothing to chance. The final battle is approaching, where this long game is finally coming to fruition, and it's hard to see how it will turn out, but it will be a wild ride for everyone, and you know there will be much tragedy brought to a world that has been tragically wrecked multiple times. 

With all that said, I'm not sure I can do justice to this book. It has such a great payoff of all the teasers that have been layered throughout the previous books, and the reveals never feel cheap. It was solid storytelling that got us to that point, and makes the reveals that much more satisfying. This is a story that will appeal to just about any fan of fantasy, and it's twists and turns are well thought out and deliver in the end. I give this story my highest recommendation, and it will be hard to top as my book of the year in 2024.