It is such an honor to be taking part in this reread tour for Michelle Sagara’s CHRONICLES OF ELANTRA SERIES. Thank you to Harlequin for including me on the tour! There is one stop on this tour for each of the 15 books in the series, all in advance of the exciting release of a new book in this world, called THE EMPEROR’S WOLVES, which I will be reviewing tomorrow. But for today, I read this beauty, CAST IN WISDOM, which is the 15th and final book in the original series. Read on for a synopsis of this book, and my review, which is, as always, spoiler-free! (If you want to check out this blog tour in the order of the books, then first go to Tessa Talks Books’ post from Sept 28.)
Synopsis:
The fiefs that exist at the heart of the city of Elantra are home to sentient Towers that guard the world against the incursion of Shadow. But between the fiefs exists the gray world of the border zone. In it, geography changes between one passage across a border and the next. The rules of magic are different there—and yet somehow familiar to Kaylin Neya.
When a Shadow escapes, Kaylin must find out how…and why. If Shadows can breach the barrier erected by the Towers, the whole of Elantra will be devoured. It’s happened on other worlds. Bellusdeo, Kaylin’s Dragon companion, absolutely believes it can happen on theirs.
The border zone holds secrets and ancient histories, and people are gathering there in search of its power. Without even understanding what that power is, or why it exists, Kaylin is in a desperate race against time to find those secrets first. She doesn’t know who her enemies are. She doesn’t know how many she’ll face. But she won’t face them alone.
My Review
I ought to preface this by saying that i probably should have read the other 14 books that came first in the series before diving into this one. But I was so excited to participate in the blog tour and I ambitiously thought I’d have the chance to read them all before my post date. Hahahaha. It’s 2020, what was I thinking? I definitely didn’t have time for that, so I just dived right into this one without having read the previous books. And actually, it worked out okay. Was I a bit confused and missing some background knowledge? Okay, yes, I was. But Sagara did a pretty good job of filling in the biggest gaps, and the characters were well-written, with lots of action driving the plot forward.
So what would I say to you if you were thinking about reading this? Start at the beginning, for sure, but definitely give this series a chance if you like world-building, interesting characters, and lots of action in your fantasies. There are many characters, and my impression is that their relative importance and focus changes over the course of the series. In this book, we get to know the Arkon a bit better, and that was fun. We learn about his early life as an academic scholar, and get to explore his relationship with his true Hoard.
All in all, I felt like the main character, Kaylin, didn’t have a lot of tremendous growth over the arc of this book, and that was a little disappointing. But the action and the overall plot were exciting and surprising, so it was still a solid 3 star (out of 5) read for me. I definitely finished this one eager to read the new book THE EMPEROR’S WOLVES, which I will review for you tomorrow!
That’s a wrap for the series reread of Michelle Sagara’s CHRONICLES OF ELANTRA SERIES! Don’t forget to come back to visit my blog and the rest of the reread crew to see our reviews of Sagara’s new series opener, THE EMPEROR’S WOLVES, tomorrow, Oct. 13th!
About the Author
Michelle Sagara is an author, bookseller, and lover of literature based in Toronto. She writes fantasy novels and lives with her husband and her two children, and to her regret has no dogs. Reading is one of her life-long passions, and she is sometimes paid for her opinions about what she’s read by the venerable Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. No matter how many bookshelves she buys, there is Never Enough Shelf space. Ever.
Ohana Cascadia 