Rating: 10/10 Stars
Gods will fall.
Calidan Darkheart is an Imperator. A hunter of monsters and men. He has been broken and reforged time and time again, becoming the sharp blade of the Emperor’s will.
But no more.
Now he will become vengeance. He will become a hunter not just of monsters, but of the very gods themselves.
Because only one thing in this world matters:
Getting his cat back.
And if gods need to die to allow that to happen?
So be it.
This is not a redemption. It's a reckoning.
Calidan Darkheart is going to war.
The epic conclusion to David Oliver’s The Great Hearts Saga — brutal, heartfelt, and unforgettable. For fans who have walked with Calidan since the beginning, this is the final descent into darkness.
The world building has always stood out to me for this series. It is a huge world of multiple empires run by godlike beings known as Powers, who have lived for millennia playing games of politics and war with the lives of the puny mortals they rule. They are the last survivors of an ancient cataclysm, the last six of hundreds, and society has gone from ultra-high tech with certain people having reality bending abilities, to medieval levels, with much reduced abilities, nothing on the level of the powers. Unfortunately, some of the old-world tech has been discovered and is now in play in the wrong hands, with the lives of everyone in the world at stake.
The characters in this book, and series in general, are in my top 3 overall in the fantasy genre, heck, in any genre. They are the epitome of what you would want characters to be. Well rounded, complex, flawed and all too human. You grow to really appreciate the struggles and triumphs the characters go through, especially the main character, Calidan Darkheart, a man driven to save his best friend and his other half, while taking revenge on the godlike Emperor who has caused them all so much grief, pain and torment. HIs need for revenge is so visceral, but it is all in service of a greater need, the need to see his friends safe from the monsters that have ruled the world for far too long. He will literally die to see them safe, and actually has died for that purpose, several times. He would be the perfect Imperator, if only he didn't hate the Emperor so much.
The secondary characters are anything but. They are not just plot accessories to keep Calidan's story going, they are fully formed characters, with arcs of their own, all just as complex as Calidan. Cassius is Calidan's best friend, turned into a giant brute by the Emperor for his own purposes, and mentally damaged in the process. Even so, he still manages to recognize Calidan as his friend, and he is death on two legs to anyone or anything standing in their way. Sophia, Scythe, Rinoa and Ricol are fellow classmates and imperators of the Emperor, bringing their own unique skills and abilities to the fight, and may play an important part of the future of the empire. They and others like them are the last line of defense against a tide of genetically enhanced monsters that seeks to wipe humanity off the planet. And alongside them is the Wanderer, the only one of the powers that sees their reign as an abomination that must end. She reveals so much throughout, and you can just feel how weary she is of what amounts to immortality. The cost that godlike power has taken on her mind and soul. She is as tragic as she is powerful. She reminds me of Galadriel in LOTR.
The villains are quite complex. Charles is the original enemy, a man of power and cunning unlike anyone else, who has planned for centuries for his final moment of triumph, with contingencies on top of contingencies, with no compunction about destroying everything to accomplish his goals. He's not some mustache twirling villain destroyed by his own arrogance; he is one of the best planners imaginable. The rest of the villains are the other four powers, who have seemingly unlimited powers and have their own distinct personalities and abilities, who could destroy the world if truly motivated. The scary part? These are the survivors, and were not the strongest of their type, just the craftiest and most determined.
By the time I was finished with the story, I was emotionally worn out. All the storylines were paid off, there were loses of characters and even cities, and the world is facing a lot of challenges, but it is left in the hands of the mortals the Powers disregarded as mere bugs. It had some satisfying payoffs as well, and I still walked away with a smile when I was done, thinking that this is better than anything a couple of authors named Martin and Rothfuss will ever manage, even if they do ever try and finish up their books. This is how you end a series, on the highest note, and I give it my highest recommendation, and I suspect this will be a lock for my top book of the year.
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