There comes a time in a long, epic fantasy series when the end is in sight and you start chomping at the bit to hurry up and get there because you need to know what happens. You’ve been with a series so long, put so many hours of your time into it, that the intervening stops on the way to the end become long, tense breaks that provide no relief. It’s like driving across the United States. The journey is incredible as you make your way through the various landscapes and sites, but the dust of the road has built up, and you can taste the salt in the air of the other ocean, and you just want to get there and dive in.
Destiny’s Conflict suffers the same fate as Dust of Dreams did in Malazan or those three books before A Memory of Light in Wheel of Time. It lands in the sphere of a stop along the way you have to make, but really just want to get onto the finale. Now, I’m not sure about The Wheel of Time as I have no plans to re-read that series any time soon, but on my re-read of Dust of Dreams, I discovered just how fantastic a book that was all on its own when I didn’t have the looming specter of needing to finish a series hanging over me. I have a feeling that Destiny’s Conflict will have similar resonance.
This 10th book in a series is also the 2nd book in a story arc– Sword of the Canon. Making it even more difficult to talk about without getting into spoilers. What I can say though, is that Wurts deftly frames the antagonists in a way that makes you dislike the apparatus, yet feel sympathy for the gears. The True Sect is what this latest iteration of the Alliance of Light is named. The leaders of this organization are despicable, yet those who make up its core– the soldiers, the cooks, the seamstresses, the armorers, and so on– are just regular folk trying to get by. They are there to survive and they believe they are doing what is right by them.
This dissonance of compassion is what lies at the core of Arithon’s continual dilemma. He has to strike a balance between doing the right thing which may or may not be in contrast to the fate of the world. Thus the very apt title of the book.
For long time readers of the series, this chapter in The Wars of Light and Shadow has some very satisfying conclusions and great reveals. What may have been assumed previously about the Fellowship, the Koriani, and other factions on this world may be turned sideways. I know my opinion of certain policies and agreements are looking a bit different now.
I certainly am looking forward to Song of the Mysteries, but I can assure you that Destiny’s Conflict is a great book on its own and can be enjoyed as such on this epic journey.
