Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Book Review: The Winged Crescent by K.J. Backer (Nav'Aria #3)

 


Okay, so, full disclosure: I originally did not intend to finish this trilogy. I got book one and two for free on Amazon a while back and book two just really disappointed me, kind of killing my desire to continue the series. However, back then I didn't know how many books were left of Nav'Aria: one, apparently. And since I was looking for more books to review, honestly, what the heck, why not. Let's take a look at the last book in the trilogy. Spoilers ahead.

Darion and his friends and family once more unite against the forces of Morta, who takes over after Narco's death early on. It ends up being a battle of now or never between the Nav'Arians and the beasts of Morta. 

After book two didn't do it for me, I didn't have high hopes for book three, but, honestly, this one was pretty freaking good, I'd say pretty much on par with the first book. I still have my problems, but overall I think it was a step up from the last.

While I still don't care a lot for many of the characters, I did find myself taking a liking to Zola in this book. After all the trauma she went through she deserves to become a respectable fighter like she does. That said, Morta is pretty much as bland and boring a villain as Nacro was. They honestly could be replaced with any other stereotypical "evil because" villain you find in a lot of generic fantasies and not much would change. I really hoped we'd get a stronger big bad after Nacro's death, but Morta is just a bit of a letdown. Sure, he ends up transforming into a dragon-monster in the end, but he just had very little to him personality-wise, nor did I particularly care for his backstory.

I also really did like the subplot with the trolls, where the males have been brainwashed by magical rocks and the females and Aalil must remove them all so to restore them to good. Trolls are some of my favorite mythological creatures, especially when they're featured on the side of neutral or even good, so this was definitely a treat. 

That said, the love interests from the last book I absolutely didn't like came back. At the very end, so at least they're not prominent, but still, it felt really forced. I'm not a fan of shoving a love interest into any book when it's not necessary, and I'd say here is such a case.

Still, this is definitely one of the two stronger books in the trilogy. It still doesn't qualify as one of my favorites, but it's a good step up from book two!

Rating: 4/5

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