Discover The Labyrinth Of Flame (Shattered Sigil, #3) Designed And Illustrated By Courtney Schafer Displayed As Paper Edition
conclusion of the epic adventure, Sometimes I felt that the calvary of Dev and Kiran could not be worse but I was surprised after every second page how it could in reality and was seriously puzzled how they could turn those odds by the time.
. . I don't know what took me so long to read this book, I backed the Kickstarter and have had both the digital and paperback copies for a long time now.
A really fantastic conclusion to the series and I'm glad I was able to help with my small contribution to get it published, A ratchet up in intensity, and a finish that lives up to the promise of the first volume, Hate saying goodbye to these characters, THE LABYRINTH OF FLAME is a fantasy adventure turduckenan ordeal inside a gauntlet inside a crucible, Consider yourself warned: This book practically leaves no room for a pause, Take off the Fitbit or it will keep beeping, cautioning that your heart is racing beyond safe parameters, Schafer is relentless, unyielding, and not the least bit merciful to the story's two leads: Dev and Kiran, Barely would they escape one peril before the next one rears its ugly head, Sometimes, they don't even have the luxury of an ephemeral respite, Dev and Kiran are driven beyond the limits of physical exhaustion and constantly find their very minds and souls in eternal jeopardy, It is no wonder for their mission is daunting, if not impossible, They must save the world, keep their loved ones safe, defeat their enemies, and keep their souls intact and unfettered, It reminds me of the song 'Brave Sir Robin' from Monty Python, Singalong with my Dev and Kiran reboot
not much food to eat
poisoned water to drink
traitors from near and far
rivers melting the skin
wacky tribesfolk to dodge
canyons going to flood
Ruslan fast at their heels
demons after their blood
Yet Schafer's love for her characters shines bright in the way she created Dev for Kiran, and Kiran for Dev, joining them together in a symbiotic bond of aid, friendship and love.
The bond is simultaneously a yoke willingly shouldered and a liberating devotion forged and continually reinforced by and through crises,
Dev and Kiran's foes also deserve a mention, They are formidablepowerful, cunning, resourceful, in many ways more than a match for the heroes, While they are the villains in the tale, they are not unreasonable, whimsical automatons, Schafer demonstrates that they, too, know something of loyalty, friendship and devotion though perhaps often misdirected and misused, You can understand their drive and motivation on some level, Further, Ruslan, Mikail and Lizaveta's lives are intricately woven with those of Dev and Kiran and their association is not always undesirable, There are interpersonal relationships coloring the tale beyond the life and death, worldly repercussions, Neither are Dev's and Kiran's other foes inconsequential or twodimensional, Rather, they have their own legitimate, even noble, reasons for pursuing an objective that is diametrically opposed to that of our heroes, I shall say no more about these other foes, I might have said too much already,
The other characters are noteworthy as well, The people that Dev and Kiran encounter are not decorative, incidental or insignificant, Cara, Melly, Marten, Lara and a long list of otherstheir words, choices, actions and even their very presence have very real impact on Dev and Kiran and their objective, As with the main foes, their lives intersect with Dev's and Kiran's on a substantial and often personal level, They are all integral to the narrative and without any of whom the tapestry would not be complete,
Other than exploring friendship and familyby blood and by choicethe LABYRINTH OF FLAME also delves into the concept of power and its many levels, One motivated by an unrestrained desire for power will always leave injury, death and destruction in his wake, Wielded alone, power can be fearsome wielded with others, it can be magnified or diminished, Power also includes influence, especially over others, to which much care must be given as good intention is insufficient to guarantee a favorable outcome,
Finally, THE LABYRINTH OF FLAME demonstrates that relationships are, and shall always remain, complex, Enemies can be chivalrous as well as villainous, Allies can present an intractable hindrance as much as comfort and aid, Friends can be found in unexpected or inconvenient places, Family canand willoften be difficult, Yet relationships are how a person grows and develops and how one demonstrates that growth and development, whatever direction it may take,
The end of a series can be a rather melancholy event, the realization that you have to put paid to your time with a world, a host of characters and a story that has entertained, intrigued and captivated you.
There is also satisfaction, however, to seeing a story through to its conclusion and the satisfaction is great indeed when a story ends as this one didleaving no stones unturned, leaving no character unfulfilled, leaving the reader sated yet with still enough to wonder about and hope for more.
One last thing, Do not try to eat the book, It's NOT an actual turducken,
Thank you, Courtney Schafer, I will forward my therapy and antianxiety medication bills forthwith,
If youve followed my reviews or see me around on Twitter or Facebook, youve probably heard me rave about the two previous books in the Shattered Sigil series, The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City.
I adored them. So very much. They inspired dozens of conversations with friends, speculation about how the series would end, and yes, plenty of discussions about shipping certain characters, too you know the ones Im talking about.
It got me excited in the way few other series have managed to do in recent years, and I had amazingly high hopes for The Labyrinth of Flame,
And despite how high my hopes were, Schafer still managed to surpass them,
The book starts shortly after where The Tainted City left off, with Dev and Kiran making their way to Prosul Akheba, trying to keep a low profile so that neither Ruslan nor demons find them.
Kiran is still missing the memories burned away by Ruslan, is reliant on a dwindling supply of a drug, and must face the fact that some part of him is undeniably connected to the demons that dog their footsteps.
As if dodging Ruslan and demons wasnt enough, theres a tribe of Shaikarworshippers chasing them, and the solution to all of their problems might be buried in memories Kiran didnt even suspect he held.
Its a layered plot of chaos and desperation, and pretty much as of about/of the way through, the pace doesnt let up for a second, “One more chapter” syndrome hits hard, There are new reveals and new dangers around every turn, the plot gets even more full of twists and complications, and yet it never once feels like things are over the top, or like the author is trying to oneup anything previously done.
The story all flows naturally, it all makes sense, and it isnt filled with big impressive events just for the sake of big impressive events, Its beautifully done, and I enjoyed just how much I was on the edge of my seat for most of the reading,
It is, however, really difficult to talk about the plot of the book because so much happens, so many things change, that its tough to give context without also giving spoilers.
I could talk about how Kiran develops his confidence and his power, or how Dev might finally have learned to stop living in a convoluted web of deceit caused by making too many promises to too many people, but to say more than that would risk spoiling some major plot twists, or else remaining pointlessly vague.
I often find that some of the best books are the hardest to review theyre better read than read about,
There are definitely things that I can talk about without introducing too many spoilers, I love, for instance, how Melly got a decentsized role in The Labyrinth of Flame, where in previous books she got a couple of scenes and largely existed as Devs motivation.
Here, she finds strength and plays an active part of the story, not content to be a tagalong or to be shunted to the side because of her age, I love the parallels between Kiran and Ruslan, and how they both take the “Im doing this for your own good” path even as they approach from opposite ends, I love seeing how Ruslan and Lizaveta are more than just generic villains they always were, even in previous books, but you get to see more of their past here and more of how they think and what influences them, and its a wonderful piece of insight into how twisted by grief and power a person can become.
I love the way the book challenges cultural norms all over the place, but particularly I like how it does this with romance and relationships, A presentation of people who dont typically follow a pattern of only choosing one partner at a time but instead are rather polyamourous and more fluid in their associated sexuality, at least sometimes, and depending on the person is wonderful to see in fiction, not because I believe thats the only proper way to have a healthy relationship, but because it breaks molds and shows that there are more ways to have a healthy relationship than just monogamy.
I love to see this stuff explored, and I love that Schafer explored it with respect and compassion,
The same thing can be said for sexuality, in that theres a surprisingly amount of positive bisexual representation in this book, Its not something you see that often, to be truthful usually characters that break sexual molds are almost always gay, and bisexuality doesnt get brought up that often, But here you not only have a main character whos perfectly okay with romance and sex with either gender, but multiple main characters who feel that way, And its presented as absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, No surprise, no comments of, “I didnt know you felt that way,” no revelation, nothing, Just acceptance of thats how some people are, and thats how some characters themselves are, and whats so weird about that
Which brings me to the books ending, and I have to say this: the ending of The Labyrinth of Flame is quite possibly the most satisfying ending to a series Ive ever read.
It ties up everything wonderfully, leaves room for the future, and left me with flailing around like an idiot over what happens to the people I ship, Seriously, I dont think theres any possible better way for this book and this series to have ended, It closed on a high note, filled with hope and optimism even for difficult tasks ahead, and Im going to be honest with you all I actually just went and reread the last chapter again while writing this, because I love the ending that much.
It left me with the first book hangover Ive ever experienced, and despite having just reread the first two books in the series in preparation for reading this one, all I wanted to do when it was over was pick up The Whitefire Crossing and start over, so that I didnt have to leave the world and characters behind.
Fantasy just doesnt get much better than this!
"You are my anchor stone abandoning you would mean ripping out the best part of myself, ".I really enjoyed this book and series, but I felt this one was very, . . frantic. This author kept up a consistent pace throughout, but it was pretty unrelenting, Also so much happening and a lot of pain and torture, I just pledged to the kickstarter and you should too! After problems with Night Shade Books, the whole kerfluffle with the buyout and all that, Courtney Schafer decided to selfpublish the final book in the trilogy.
This is a great series, I highly recommended and we have the chance to help make it happen, Please consider pledging! Do it for me if not for Courtney, I need an ending!
sitelinkLink to Kickstarter Labyrinth of Flame is almost double the size of the two previous books, but none of that is extra fluff.
The tension keeps ramping up and the stakes on both personal and world levels fitting have as well,
Of the three settings, the mountains and forests of Whitefire Crossing and Ninavel in Tainted City, I loved the desert in this book book the most, All are exceptionally well described and feel very real, as you might expect from an author who spends so much time outdoors, but the lure of the desert is strong for me, and there's something about having the additional "character vs.
environment" conflict along with the more standard in fantasy "character vs antagonist" conflict that I deeply appreciate,
All of the new characters we meet in this book are excellent, and they contributed to the story in sometimes very surprising ways, which I definitely liked,
This also has one of my favorite endings ever, The entire series is a joy, Actual This is a great trilogy, I am so insanely happy I got this book via Kickstarter, It was, as the books before, an fantastic and exciting read,
One thing I'm pretty sad about is, that I'm not much of a climber, not even really much of a hiker, so I couldn't really hold a picture in my mind of all descriptions of the Varkevian canyons and other mountainy locations.
One fun fact, while I was reading the series, I was studying for my organic chemistry exam, And I really tried, but nathahlen, the word for none magical people is pretty much the same as naphthalen, an aromatic compound, Never ever forgetting that one now, I backed the kickstarter for the author Courtney Schafer to finish the trilogy after the publisher of the first two books imploded,
I've been reading this simultaneously with Anthony Ryan's The Waking Fire this The Labyrinth of Flame's been finished in much shorter time as it's a shorter though far from short book, and I have a physical copy.
When I'm forced to read on my laptop I'm very easily distracted,
Much like the
first two excellent books this one is in essence a huge, complex, multipart puzzle, Though even more so!
Schafer has developed an intriguing series of magic systems, spells, and enchanted items, all of which put various constraints on what the characters can and can't do.
Much of the book involves the picking apart and putting together of this great puzzle to achieve the desired end goal, That sounds as if it could be a rather dry and technical exercise, but it really isn't, You have to remember that the puzzle parts include blood mages, demons, bone mages, secret temples, other planes of existence etc, . .
The books are also marked out by a lack of combat nobody swings a sword, there are no macho heroes, This isn't a bad thing at all, It's quite refreshing and there's plenty of nailbiting action,
A third trademark of the series is the focus on mountaineering and climbing, In this book we're in a more desertlike area with lots of windcarved stone spires, twisting canyons etc, all beautifully described and making me recall many of the photos Schafer posts on twitter of her own adventures around Colorado's mountains.
One thing I did note that I didn't think had been prevalent in the previous books but I could have missed is that in this book practically everyone in the story is painted as bisexual and polyamorous.
I've no problem with that and it makes the romance threads quite complex it just seemed to have passed me by in the previous books,
Although the trilogy could in no way be described as grim or dark it's despite the content rather than because of it, The main villain is as scary and cruel as you'll find, his methods very disturbing, And the whole tale seems to involve our heroes at the very limits of their strength, exhausted, crippled, poisoned, miserable, desperate, with one thing going wrong after the next,
Even so, there's plenty of underlying hope, With the exception of the main villains pretty much everyone is goodhearted, kind, selfless, and selfsacrificing to an extraordinary degree, Even the ones who get in Dev and Kiran's way seem just to have chosen to sacrifice themselves for a different not worse cause, Once in a while the bastard in me did start to cry out for a selfish, cynical git to turn up,
Anyway, Schafer is an excellent writer and I really enjoyed the book, The story was compelling, clever, and satisfying, Hooray!
You should go and buy the first one, It's an underappreciated trilogy that deserves a look,
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